Six Sigma Archives | Page 9 of 11

Descriptive Statistics – Part 1

By Ron Pereira - August 20th, 2007

Tonight we are starting a two part series on descriptive statistics. Yeah, I know, many of you are likely having nasty flash backs of some professor with bad breath but by the end of this series I hope to make all those bad thoughts

Six Sigma Control Phase is Not Anti-Lean

By Ron Pereira - August 16th, 2007

Last night I posted a question and now realize I was a bit too vague. This question was brought on due to a recent conversation I had with someone who asked me if I thought the “control” phase in the six sigma DMAIC road

Is the Six Sigma Control Phase Anti-Lean?

By Ron Pereira - August 15th, 2007

Here is a question for you. Do you feel the Six Sigma “control” phase, the last in the DMAIC roadmap, is anti-lean in any manner? I will share my thoughts soon but am interested in hearing what others think first.

Explaining the Central Limit Theorem

By Ron Pereira - July 16th, 2007

If you hate statistics this post is for you. Why? Because it’s my intention to have you understand AND be in position to teach others one of the more complicated and misunderstood statistical concepts of our time – the central

Cummins Chief Snags Award

By Ron Pereira - July 15th, 2007

Tim Solso, CEO of Cummins, has won the WCBF Six Sigma CEO of the Year award. “Six Sigma is one of the best things we have ever done. Last year we saved $340 million and completed 2,200 projects. Since the inception of the program in

"Learn From Failure" Visualized with Scrabble pieces

10 Steps to Creating a FMEA

By Ron Pereira - June 28th, 2007

A Failure Modes Effect Analysis (FMEA) is an extremely powerful tool that benefits anyone, no matter your occupation or status in life. In this article, we’ll discuss the history of the FMEA, the different types of FMEA, and fina

3rd Annual Lean, Six Sigma, & Process Improvement Summit

By Ron Pereira - June 28th, 2007

I am happy to announce the latest sponsor of LSS Academy, IQPC. Become a world-class organisation with integrated Lean, Six Sigma & Process Improvement strategies. Embed a process excellence culture in all your business functions a

How to preach the gospel

By Ron Pereira - June 24th, 2007

One of my passions in life is studying and learning more about my Catholic faith. I especially enjoy reading the early church fathers. And of these earliest Christians, St. Francis of Assisi may be my favorite. St. Francis, when in

How to apply the one sample t-test

By Ron Pereira - June 21st, 2007

Last night we discussed the history and background of the one sample t-test. As promised, tonight we will discuss how it is you actually use the slick little hypothesis test. At the end of this post is a free case study available f

How beer influenced statistics

By Ron Pereira - June 20th, 2007

Back in the early 1900s a certain W.S. Gosset, an Englishmen, was tasked with brewing better beer. Really, I’m being serious. Gosset was a bright man, with two degrees from Oxford, and was hired by Guinness to help them brew

Stop “Deploying” and Make Something Better

By Ron Pereira - June 20th, 2007

A reader of the Lean Blog left this comment to the excellent post Psychology and Lean. Unsolicited advice…. but maybe instead of pushing lean (and maybe you aren’t)… figure out what the main problems and pain points

The Pugh Matrix

By Ron Pereira - June 19th, 2007

By Rob Thompson The Pugh matrix was invented by Stuart Pugh at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, Scotland. It was designed as an approach for evaluating multiple options against each other, relative to a baseline option. It goe

Dealing with Non Normal Data

By Ron Pereira - June 15th, 2007

Robin, over on the iSixSigma blog, had an interesting post regarding hypothesis testing. Specifically, the question posed was how to deal with non normal data. Typically, most Six Sigma practitioners are taught to use “non parame

7 Tips to Better Brainstorming

By Ron Pereira - June 14th, 2007

Brainstorming is an extremely powerful tool. Most of us have likely been part of a brainstorming session before. Sadly, it’s been my experience that about 9 out of 10 people have no clue how to brainstorm the right way. So

Help Decision Making with a Cause & Effect (C&E) Matrix

By Ron Pereira - June 12th, 2007

Last night we discussed how we can use a Cause and Effect (C&E) Matrix to narrow down a long list of inputs into a more manageable one. I also provided a free MS Excel C&E Matrix Template for those interested. Tonight I wan

About The Cause & Effect (C&E) Matrix

By Ron Pereira - June 11th, 2007

One of my favorite continuous improvement tools is the cause and effect matrix (C&E Matrix). Sometimes you will hear this tool referred to as a XY Matrix. However, I am not referring to the Ishikawa Diagram (fishbone) even thou

6 Ways to Use Lean & Six Sigma at Home

By Ron Pereira - June 1st, 2007

Here are some ways to use Lean and Six Sigma methods away from the office. Sort clothes according to color and place them into different bins eliminating the need to sort. When the bin is full wash those clothes. Don’t wait

All the Surveys are Beginning to Whip Me

By Ron Pereira - June 1st, 2007

OK, I need to pick on some Lean friends of mine. Well actually they may not even know I exist… but I digress. Anyhow, I was reading an article over at Industry Week (IW), Just-In-Time Remains Justifiable. It’s a good article an

5 Steps to Data Collection

By Ron Pereira - May 31st, 2007

In most Six Sigma training programs and text books you will hear about a 5 step data collection process. However, what they don’t tell you is that collecting data is tricky. Many people think they can simply run off and gra

DOE use in the health care industry

By Ron Pereira - May 25th, 2007

We hear a lot about Lean in the health care world but not so much about Six Sigma. This fact made this story about how Design of Experiments is being used to make things better all the more intriguing to me. We read in a May 2007 S

I Plead Guilty

By Ron Pereira - May 25th, 2007

My friend Mark Graban of Lean Blog fame nailed me today… and I deserved it. Mark commented on my recent post about Lowes missing their numbers. I was actually as guilty as the folks at Qualpro in how I was trying to assign caus

Lowes Misses the Mark

By Ron Pereira - May 23rd, 2007

A few months ago I blogged about how a company called Qualpro was (and is) claiming its MVT methodology was far superior to Six Sigma. One of their success stories was Lowes. Their angle was that since Home Depot is a “Six

Does Toyota need Six Sigma?

By Ron Pereira - May 23rd, 2007

I bet the title of this post caught some of my Lean friends off guard. Fear not I am not going to talk about how Lean is about eliminating waste and Six Sigma is about reducing variation. I have said this before and regret it. T

Fire at Will!

By Ron Pereira - May 18th, 2007

(I came across this link over at Evolving Excellence and just had to comment) Move over Dilbert. KT Cat, eat your heart out. Check out this piece of work from a Six Sigma basher extraordinaire! I always say to be nice to KT Cat a

Riding a Bike

By Ron Pereira - May 14th, 2007

This weekend my 4 year old daughter learned to ride her bike without training wheels. She has been after me for quite awhile to let her have a shot but I have been hesitant. I just didn’t think she was ready. But after she saw her 5

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