Formulae Lean Six Sigma

Formulae concepts of Lean Six Sigma

Posted on By Ashwini Kamath

White Belt:

  1. The “Find-What’s-Wrong” Formula (DMAIC)
  • Define: What’s the mystery? (What are we trying to fix?)
  • Measure: How big is the mystery? (How often does the problem happen?)
  • Analyze: Why did the mystery happen? (What causes the problem?)
  • Improve: How can we solve the mystery? (What can we do to fix the problem?)
  • Control: How do we make sure the mystery doesn’t happen again? (How do we keep the problem from coming back?)

 

  1. The “Make-Things-Better” Potion (Y=F(x))

This formula tells us that to make something better (Y, like your trip being successful on a holiday), we need to understand and improve the things that affect it (x, like booking flights, theme park tickets or accomodation).

 

  1. The “Super-Speedy” Formula (1/Piece Time)

This formula helps us find out how many tasks we can make in one hour. If it takes 5 minutes to make a item, how many can we make in one hour?

Formula Simplification: 1 task/ 5 minutes = How many in 60 minutes?

 

  1. The “Not-Wasting-Anything” Rule (Waste Types)

Waste slows us down! There are 7 types of waste we watch out for:

  • Transport: Moving things more than needed.
  • Inventory: Keeping more stuff than we need.
  • Motion: Moving more than we need to.
  • Waiting: Sitting around waiting for the next step.
  • Overproduction: Making more of something than needed.
  • Overprocessing: Making something more complicated than it needs to be.
  • Defects: Making mistakes that need fixing.

 

Yellow Belt:

  1. The Microscope (Pareto Chart)

Imagine you have microscope that helps you see which body cells are the biggest troublemakers. In a group of such bad cells (problems), some are causing more chaos than others. The Pareto Chart is your microscope. It shows you the few big bad cells causing most of the problems, so you know which ones to tackle first!

 

  1. The Stopwatch (Cycle Time)

The Stopwatch helps you measure how long it takes to complete a process from start to finish. Cycle Time is measured with your Stopwatch. It tells you how long it takes to do one task, so you can find ways to do it faster without rushing and making mistakes. A stopwatch with different tasks around it, each with a time showing how long they take. While using the Lean Six Sigma principles one is trying to improve the times.

 

  1. The Zoom In (Root Cause Analysis)

Sometimes, problems are hidden and not easy to see. The Zoom In helps you look closely and find the real reasons things go wrong. Root Cause Analysis is when you use your Zoom In to ask “Why?” five times. Each “Why?” helps you dig deeper until you find the real villain behind the problem.

 

  1. The Six Thinking Hats (Brainstorming & Mind Maps)

One needs tools for generating brilliant ideas to solve problems. The Six Thinking Hats helps you think of many solutions quickly. Brainstorming helps in sharing aloud while a Mind Map is like a branched tree. You start with one problem and draw branches with all the different ideas to solve it.

 

Green Belt:

  1. The Secret Passages Map (ANOVA)

Imagine you have a magical map that helps you decode secret problems which are hidden by pretending to be similar, but they’re actually different. ANOVA (Analysis of Variance) will help check if different groups of problems (disguised as data) are truly causing trouble in different ways.

 

  1. The Invisibility Cloak (Regression Analysis)

It’s difficult to know if connections between events or parameters exist. Regression Analysis can be tricky but if correct parameters are chosen, it shows an accurate dependency.

 

  1. The Lock and Key (Design of Experiments)

One can open a locked door by trying various keys from the available bunch. Design of Experiments (DoE) is lets you test different ideas at the same time to find the best solution to a problem.

 

  1. The Crystal Ball (Statistical Process Control)

Tool to help one predict the future. Statistical Process Control (SPC) can design charts to highlight the risks and deviations.

 

Black Belt:

  1. The Multiverse (Multiple Regression Analysis)

Tool which shows all connected tasks and their dependency. Multiple Regression Analysis helps one understand how several factors (like scope, time, and budget) together influence an outcome (like your app’s go live).

 

  1. The Tenet (Time Series Analysis)

Used to see trends over time. It helps you look at data collected over time (like daily website traffic) to predict future trends (like an offer sale).

 

  1. The Any-Where door (Factorial Experiments)

One can test all what-if questions at once. Factorial Experiments tests multiple changes at the same time to see which combination gives the best output.

 

  1. The Orb (Control Charts for Attributes)

This tool helps to know if something is amiss. Control Charts for Attributes help measure quality and alert if something goes wrong.

Lean Six Sigma