Common LSS Tools & Techniquess

 

Overview

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Six Sigma is a business methodology focused on improving the quality of goods or services an organization produces by reducing variance in the production process.

• Six Sigma leaders know that when a production process lacks the stability to create high-quality output consistently, it will continue producing defective products until someone intervenes and improves the process.

• Reducing variation requires constant monitoring and measurement as systems tend to erode if not kept in check.

 

Lean Six Sigma is a method that relies on a collaborative team effort to improve performance by systematically removing waste and reducing variation.

• It combines lean manufacturing/lean enterprise and Six Sigma to eliminate the eight kinds of waste (muda): Defects, Over-Production, Waiting, Non-Utilized Talent, Transportation, Inventory, Motion, and Extra-Processing.

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Over the years, Six Sigma practitioners have developed a set of tools and methods that address control, problem-solving, and improvement to eliminate defects and waste.

 

The most common, and essential, LSS tools and techniques are listed and briefly described in this web page.

 

List of Common LSS Tools & Techniques

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Standard Work

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Standard work is the documentation of the best practices for any process or task at that given moment.

 

It is created and updated by the people who do the work. It forms the baseline for improvement and ensures process consistency.

 

5S for Workplace Organization

 

An organized and well-stocked workplace is essential in the quest to eliminate variation. The technique involves 5 steps, each starting with S in both English and Japanese.

 

They consist of seiri (sort), seiton (set), seiso (shine), seiketsu (standardize), and shitsuke (sustain).

 

Control Charts

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A process control chart is a graph used to track how a process behaves over time.

 

Data points are plotted in time order in a chart with a central line for the average (sometimes a median), an upper line for the upper control limit, and a lower line for the lower control limit.

 

Process control charts help leaders avoid panicking over every up and downswing. They circumvent problems caused by only looking at average results, instead of the variations of results.

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Gemba Walk

 

The Japanese word “Gemba” means the real place.

 

During a Gemba walk, the manager goes to the place where work is done to show respect for the employees, ask questions, and potentially identify opportunities for improvement.

 

Hoshin Kanri

 

Hoshin Kanri, otherwise called Policy Deployment, is a strategic planning approach designed to align the organization and ensure that everyone is working toward the same goals.

 

The approach balances the need to achieve daily incremental improvement while moving toward the organization’s three to five-year breakthrough objectives at the same time.

Kanban

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Kanban is a visualizing principle based on maximizing the flow of goods and work without unnecessary inventory or transportation.

 

While initially used with physical cards at Toyota, Kanban has now moved to the cloud, and many organizations use digital Kanban boards to track the flow of work.

 

Problem Solving and Improvement

 

Despite excellent control, sometimes problems will happen, or opportunities for improvement will be identified. In that case, one or more of the following Six Sigma tools can be deployed.

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A3 Problem Solving

 

A3 it is a structured problem-solving approach that gets its name from the size of paper that was used before digital tools became available.

 

An A3 report is the result of an improvement cycle like DAMIC or PDSA.

Catchball

 

The Six Sigma technique of Catchball involves passing ideas from one person to another for feedback and action.

 

The idea (ball) is set in motion when someone defines a challenge or opportunity. It then moves back and forth, up, and down, or both until a plan is developed and agreed upon.

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PDSA (Plan, Do, Study, Act)

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PDSA is an alternative improvement cycle that stands for Plan, Do, Study, Act.

 

It is a simplified version of DMAIC that works best for improvement projects that are not heavy on statistics.

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The 5 Whys

 

The 5 Whys is a simple method of getting to the root cause of a problem.

 

By asking and answering the question “why?”, the basis of a problem can usually be found in five iterations.

 

Business Process Mapping
 

Business process mapping refers to activities involved in defining what a business entity does, who is responsible, to what standard a business process should be completed, and how the success of a business process can be determined.

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The main purpose behind business process mapping is to assist organizations in becoming more effective. A clear and detailed business process map or diagram allows outside firms to come in and look at whether or not improvements can be made to the current process.

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Business process mapping takes a specific objective and helps to measure and compare that objective alongside the entire organization's objectives to make sure that all processes are aligned with the company's values and capabilities.

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Value Stream Mapping (VSM)

 

Value Stream Mapping is a tool for defining and assessing the movement of raw materials and work from the beginning of the process to delivery to the customer.

 

It is the way the current state of a process is documented, and the basis for determining where waste can be eliminated, or value added.

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This list does not cover every Six Sigma tool, but these are the necessities of the toolbox. You may find that you use all of them or only a few, but some combination will likely help you achieve less variation as a rule and know how to respond when challenges arise.

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Total Productive Maintenance (TPM)

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Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) started as a method of physical asset management focused on maintaining and improving manufacturing machinery, in order to reduce the operating cost to an organization.

 

After the PM award was created and awarded to Nippon Denso in 1971, the JIPM (Japanese Institute of Plant Maintenance), expanded it to include 8 pillars of TPM that required involvement from all areas of manufacturing in the concepts of lean Manufacturing.

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TPM is designed to disseminate the responsibility for maintenance and machine performance, improving employee engagement and teamwork within management, engineering, maintenance, and operations.

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Voice of the Customer (VOC)

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Voice of the customer (VOC) is a term used in business and Information Technology (through ITIL, for example) to describe the in-depth process of capturing customer's expectations, preferences and aversions.

 

Specifically, the Voice of the Customer is a market research technique that produces a detailed set of customer wants and needs, organized into a hierarchical structure, and then prioritized in terms of relative importance and satisfaction with current alternatives.

 

Voice of the Customer studies typically consist of both qualitative and quantitative research steps. They are generally conducted at the start of any new product, process, or service design initiative in order to better understand the customer's wants and needs, and as the key input for new product definition, Quality Function Deployment (QFD), and the setting of detailed design specifications.

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Statistical Process Control (SPC)

 

Statistical process control (SPC) is a method of quality control which employs statistical methods to monitor and control a process. This helps to ensure that the process operates efficiently, producing more specification-conforming products with less waste (rework or scrap).

 

SPC can be applied to any process where the "conforming product" (product meeting specifications) output can be measured.

 

Key tools used in SPC include run charts, control charts, a focus on continuous improvement, and the design of experiments.

 

An example of a process where SPC is applied is manufacturing lines.

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Data Collection, Analysis, and Presentation

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Data collection is:

• The process of gathering and measuring information on targeted variables in an established system, which then enables one to answer relevant questions and evaluate outcomes.

• The procedure of collecting, measuring and analyzing accurate insights for research using standard validated techniques.

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Data collection is a research component in all study fields, including physical and social sciences, humanities, and business. While methods vary by discipline, the emphasis on ensuring accurate and honest collection remains the same.

 

The goal for all data collection is to capture quality evidence that allows analysis to lead to the formulation of convincing and credible answers to the questions that have been posed. The approach of data collection is different for different fields of study, depending on the required information.

 

The most critical objective of data collection is ensuring that information-rich and reliable data is collected for statistical analysis so that data-driven decisions can be made for research.  

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the top six data collection methods are:

• Interviews

• Questionnaires and surveys

• Observations

• Documents and records

• Focus groups

• Oral histories.

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