The Complete Idiot's Guide to Lean Six Sigma: Get the Tools You Need to Build a Lean, Mean Business Machine

549 Pages·2007·8.229 MB·English

by  Breakthrough Management Group, Neil DeCarlo

Table of Contents

Title Page
Dedication
Copyright Page
Introduction

Part 1 - Understanding Lean Six Sigma
Chapter 1 - What Is Lean?
Chapter 2 - The Basics of Lean
Chapter 3 - What Is Six Sigma?
Chapter 4 - The Basics of Six Sigma
Chapter 5 - What Is Lean Six Sigma?

Part 2 - Defining and Measuring Performance
Chapter 6 - Develop Project Opportunities
Chapter 7 - Clarify the Problem
Chapter 8 - Set the Goal
Chapter 9 - Finalize the Plan
Chapter 10 - Measure the Process
Chapter 11 - Validate Measurement Systems
Chapter 12 - Characterize the Process

Part 3 - Part Analyzing, Improving,and Controlling
Processes
Chapter 13 - Identify Potential Causes
Chapter 14 - Conduct Efficiency Analysis
Chapter 15 - Find Significant xs
Chapter 16 - Solve the Problem
Chapter 17 - Create the Future State
Chapter 18 - Generate and Evaluate Solutions
Chapter 19 - Implement the Solution
Chapter 20 - Develop the Control Plan Chapter 20
Chapter 21 - Use Control Charts
Chapter 22 - Lock In the Gains

Part 4. - Leading Lean Six Sigma Initiatives
Chapter 23 - Lean Six Sigma Deployment
Chapter 24 - Prepare the Path
Chapter 25 - Design Your Destiny
Chapter 26 - Enable Everyone Involved
Chapter 27 - Make It Happen
Appendix A - Glossary
Appendix B - Road Maps and Blueprint
Appendix C - Sigma Conversion Chart
Appendix D - Resources
Index

To Jeannie, who was there with me every step of the way while
writing, editing, and assembling this book.
Neil DeCarlo
Dedicated to my grandmother, Helen Albert, who recently passed
away, just four months after her 100th
birthday. She is one of my heroes, and her memory always will
bring a smile to my face. Tom Jones
Thanks to my wife, Anita, for supporting my career decisions
landing me in Six Sigma, and to my
daughter Holly and son Adam, who confirmed that 10-year-olds can
apply these techniques better than
some engineers. A special mention goes to Doug Rausch for
proving that breakthroughs can happen in a
week using these tools. Don Wilson
Written only with the loving support and patience of my wife Chihiro,
daughter Reina, and son Rio.
Chris Hodges
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Copyright © 2007 by Breakthrough Management Group
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Introduction
You may have picked up this book because your company is adopting
Lean Six Sigma and you want to get a leg up. Great! You’re
ambitious and on the ball. Or you might be considering a career path
as a Lean Six Sigma leader or practitioner. All the better. Maybe
you’ve already been trained as a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt or
Champion and want to keep a simple reference on hand.
You’ve come to the right place. Yes, you, too, the small business
owner with 12 employees. Use this book to get them all proficient in
Lean Six Sigma thinking. Apply some of the principles and tools in
your own way to benefit your customers and your business.
Lean Six Sigma is a systematic approach to making your organization
better—right where it counts, in your day-to-day work and processes.
If you don’t buy into this, and instead prefer the chaos of shooting
from the hip, read no further. But if you want to discover the
difference between average and world-class organizations, this book
will go a long way to help.
First, we give you the concepts and principles of Lean Six Sigma. We
believe those who plan and execute change initiatives need to be
intelligent about what they’re doing. It’s not enough to just do things.
You’re best off when you know why you’re doing what you’re doing,
and what purposes are driving you.
Second, we give you road maps, because road maps provide
grounding and structure. If you are executing a Lean Six Sigma
project, or deploying a Lean Six Sigma initiative throughout your
organization, this book shows you the process to follow. (Of course,
you can adjust and make detours if necessary.)
Third, we give you tools. The directions won’t mean anything if you
don’t have the skills and tools you need to get there. So within the
structure of a road map for doing Lean Six Sigma, we give you the
most common tools (and only the most common) you’ll need.
View the principles of Lean Six Sigma as your best friend. Look at the
road maps as guides, not gospel. Know that the tools are only the
most commonly used ones. With this in mind, we hope you’ll
experience the value of this book as a clear, concise primer and
reference. Nothing more and nothing less.
How This Book Is Organized
This book is presented in four sections:
Part 1, “Understanding Lean Six Sigma,” is a general overview of
the methodology. While not a suspense novel, it’s pretty interesting to
know the history of Lean and Six Sigma and how they found each
other in matrimony. Aside from that, we take the complexities of Lean
Six Sigma and spell them out for you. What specifically is waste and
inefficiency? Where does it hide in organizations? How can you root it
out? Why do you have to perform at a Six Sigma level of no more
than 3.4 defects, or errors, per million opportunities? That sounds
crazy. Can’t you just be good 99 percent of the time instead of
99.9997? No matter who you are or what your role is in an
organization, read this part to get your brain set in the right place.
Part 2, “Defining and Measuring Performance,” is the first of two
parts covering the Define-Measure-Analyze-Improve-Control (DMAIC)
project execution road map. What is your process and what’s wrong
with it? What exactly needs to improve and by how much? How can
you translate that need into a project charter? You get all the details
here, and tools you can use. Primarily for the Lean Six Sigma
practitioner, and secondarily for the Lean Six Sigma leader, this part
gives you the skinny on defining projects and measuring performance
(first two phases of DMAIC). If you have a good background in
statistics and industrial engineering, or are one heck of a smarty, you
can use this part as a guide to completing the Define and Measure
phases. But don’t be surprised if you need more resources or
training, especially if your process is more technical or complex.
Part 3, “Analyzing, Improving, and Controlling Processes,”
covers the latter three phases of the Lean Six Sigma project
execution road map (DMAIC). What process factors (methods,
people, machines, etc.) are responsible for your poor performance or
excess process variation? How do you know what’s wrong and what,
exactly, you need to change? These seem like simple questions, but