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A3 is a problem solving technique. Used to display the project journey on a A3 size paper.( which helps you to present Define problem;gap between current state & Goal;analysis of these gap ; what solutions implemented;How they will be controlled to sustain & the learnings through the protect.) Kaizen- change for Better.

Dear Abhishek,   As a Change Analyst, the tools mentioned above by VK may be helpful in your role, too.     As a System Administrator, you may be responsible for the installation, support and upkeep of servers or systems. You may work on projects that involve fixing reasons for frequent breakdowns in a certain area. You may work on projects which involve reducing security policy breaches, time taken to resolve any issues/problems, reduction in escalation for resolution etc.  

Dear Krishna,   I see that you completed your BB post you asked this question. The BB training would have answered this question for you. However, for everyone's benefit, in order to determine sample size, the following are the pre-requisites:   1) What is the hypothesis being tested (what do you want to ascertain with this sampled data) 2) Level of Significance and Power of the Test   In the example that you have provided,  what are you trying to test using this data is not clear. If you could provide more clarity, I would be able to guide further.  

Dear Forum Member,   At the risk of over simplification, companies prefer candidates with Six Sigma knowledge because it tells the companies that these candidates will be able to put a structure to solving any business problem they are faced with. Anyone who has learnt the methodology will look at opportunities to address areas which could lead to business benefits for any organization they work for.   Good luck!

Dear Rajiv,   I am sure by this time you would have completed this project and many more.   Gurshit's direction was good. In this kind of problem, you could start your analysis with time taken to make a call, time taken to make a good call (successful interview) by observation  (or time in motion as it is called) and then working out the number of FTE required. If you find that you have too many surveyors, you will need to do an analysis around where the time in the day is being spent.   Other data, I believe, such as these lines being used for other purposes could be easily available. This data can be analyzed and reasons eliminated or addressed.  

Dear Pankaj,   What you need to do in this case is "logical validation" which means that you need to ensure that the data you are capturing from the system has the same start and end points as defined on your Operational definition.   MSA needs to be done only when there is manual assessment involved. You are using the start and end time from when the ticket is logged to when it is closed in the system. You will still need to ensure that the person who works on it closes the status real time and not as per their convenience.   In TAT projects, it is typically seen that there can be a few outlier cases. If you remove the outlier cases, you could do a normality check again and use methods and tools that you would use for normal continuous data. But you should go this way only if your metric is TAT in number of days or hours.   If your metric definition is in pass/fail, you should calculate the sigma level as per the defectives method.

Dear Rahul,   Some things to keep in mind while writing a problem statement are -   1) Mention specific issue 2) Where is the issue occurring (company, deptt etc) 3) What is the trend in performance against expected target 4) For how long has the problem existed 5) How do you know the problem exists   If you use these as guidance, you will arrive at your problem statement. E.g. what makes you think that telephony cost is an issue? Is It higher as compared to other similar businesses or departments? Is it the top spending area in your company etc. So you may have something like, The ISD call cost for the last 6 months were___ (which were higher than the previous year/which are higher than comparable businesses). The targeted cost is___ hence a gap of ___ and so on.  

Dear Bharani,   Going by the review effectiveness definition, you would use the P chart (where the defects not found are defectives, with variable subgroup size). Please note that the chart will calculate the UCL and LCL based on the data that you use unless you specify the limits, which can be done by clicking on P-chart options -> Limits.    If you choose to test for all Special Causes (P chart options - > tests), it will show if the variable is out of control even for reasons other than >1 std dev from mean.    

Dear Bharani,   Here is an example. Let us say in Back Office data entry work, you are trying to test time taken to upload a transaction using Software A and Software B. If you collect data from different operators for multiple transactions, you will say that the external conditions are different, as the skills may vary by the operator, the comfort levels with two softwares etc may be different. However, if you collected data for the transaction for the same operator using both Software A and Software B, you would say that the external conditions are the same, since in the latter case you can truly test if the Software is causing any difference in time taken to upload and you have removed the "noise" that could have been introduced by different skills from different operators.   In your case, you would have to elaborate on what is it that you are trying to test. If your intent is to test if the time varies by the tester, and you are keeping the code and the machine same (and nothing else is changing either e.g.length of the code etc) you could say that the external conditions are the same. This is what I can say with the level of information available.  

8 wastes Transport Inventory Motion Waiting Over production Over processing Defects Skills These are called waste as customer doesnt pay for it. It doesnot add value to convert Raw material into finished good.

Dear Vikram,   You have already mentioned two approaches that you use. You are correct in saying that an "estimate" of the goal is made at the initial stages. Other approaches that are used are:   1) reduce defects by 50% 2) estimate what can be reached by eliminating top reasons, set stretch goals 3) use DOE to optimize the solution and settle for the goal that is viable for your budgets    

5 why is an approach to find out the root cause of the problem by simply asking why for particular problem. It start pealing the layer by layer to get to the core of the problem. In most cases 5 why's are enough but sometimes you may ask less than 5 why even it can be more than 5 times..

Dear Ajith,   Project Charter is a living document.It can be updated even after the Define phase. In fact, DMAIC cycle is such that you may have to go to any of the previous stages during the course of the project and it is ok to do so.      

Dear Shalini,   You may have moved on to the latest version of Minitab since you asked this question. Here is the answer for the benefit of those who are new to this world.   You may create a C&E diagram to the 3rd level, however, beyond that Minitab directs one to create a new fishbone. 1) The main bone labels can be listed as column headers and the second level as items in the column 2) If you want to add a 3rd level, right click on the second level labels and click on "Graph Options" 3) Click on "Sub" for the branch where you want to add the 3rd level. Write the 3rd level bones separated by commas     CE - Minitab.pdf

Every thing in its place and place for everything...5S helps in making workplace search free and count free for material/Tools/Gauges. It helps in to avoid unnecessary waste of time in searching and makes things visible. 5S stands for SEIRI  SEITON  SEISO SEIKETSU SHITSUKE

5S is workplace organisation by removing waste and is foundation towards Lean and journey to Organisation Continual improvement journey and Standardisation. The 5S are 1. Sort 2. Set 3. Shine 4. Standardize 5. Sustain

The 5 Whys is a technique used root cause By repeatedly asking the question "Why" , can peel away the layers of symptoms which can lead to the root cause of a problem. The benefits of 5 Why’s is that it is a simple tool that can be completed without statistical analysis.   Although this technique is called "5 Whys," but sometime we may find that we need to ask the question fewer or more times than five before we find find the issue related to a problem.

8 Wastes and reasons of why are they called wastes :   1. W- Waiting : It is non productive time. Waste of waiting is the cost of an idle resource 2. O- Over production : Producing more than customer buys. It may be the worst form of waste. 3. R- Rework : Waste of correction includes waste of handling and fixing mistakes. 4. M- Motion : Unnecessary movements. So this also form of waste 5. P- Over Processing : Waste of over processing means over processing of anything which is not value adding in the eyes of customer. 6. I- Inventory : Waste of Inventory is similar to over production except that it refers to the waste of raw materials. 7. T- Transportation : Unnecessary movement of material and information. This is also a form of waste.   Under utilization of Talent and Skills is called 8th Waste.    

7QC tools are: Cause and effect diagram Check Sheet Control Chart Histogram Pareto Chart Scatter Diagram Stratification or Flow chart or Run chart The special about these tools are user do not require deep understanding of statistics and very simple and basic tools and can be used against advance statistical methods and useful for planning and controlling for quality related issues.

5 whys certainly is a quick fix to identify the root cause. The tool is effective during brainstorming sessions.