“Magic arises from the illimitable mysteries of cause and effect; to witness the effect is to surmise the cause.” – Teller (Penn & Teller) There are many approaches to finding root causes. Perhaps none are as effective, and satisfying, as “finding the smoking gun.” This means finding the effect of…
GoLeanSixSigma.com Green Belt James Fuhrman’s Project Storyboard involved increasing first run parts from 60% to 90% within two months. This project achieved 87% within the aggressive schedule while dramatically reducing manufacturing lead time. Improvement in first run parts yield increased throughput, while process simplification reduced manufacturing lead time, which allowed…
How can you run a hypothesis test when you don’t have much data? Are you dead in the water? Luckily, no! There’s Tukey! No, not “turkey,” a gentleman by the name of John Tukey came up with a test that can help. This is a little-publicized, incredibly useful hypothesis test…
Charitable organizations often have improvement opportunities, but typically don't have the resources of businesses. The BW Food Pantry was fortunate to have GoLeanSixSigma.com Green Belt Darleen Grandison, who helped them improve their Food Box Process. Charities often rely heavily on volunteers, and it is crucial to use this help wisely…
Lean manufacturing first became known in the late 1970’s as “Kanban” or “Just-in-Time,” and was often considered a distinctly Japanese approach for dealing with suppliers. Its application beyond Japan was doubtful, but over the years we learned that there was much more to what became known as the Toyota Production…
A process map is an important part of any Lean Six Sigma project – it helps communicate the process at the center of your project and guides you to specific areas of focus. There are a number of choices available, and choosing the right map helps to clarify your efforts.…
Politicians refer to hard dollars vs. soft dollars often and I don’t pretend to understand what they mean. For one, it has nothing to do with the hard and soft money we deal with in our improvement work. The distinction between hard and soft money can be confusing, but we’ll…