Atul Dev

Correction is the immediate action taken to eliminate the nonconformity or to minimise the effect of nonconformity. Its like fixing the current issue. For example if fire has broken out at some place, put the fire out. Corrective action is the action taken to remove the 'cause of nonconformity'. It targets the root cause of the nonconformance to avoid its reccurence. These actions are taken after the nonconformance has taken place. For example identifying the cause of fire and action taken to prevent its recurrence. Preventive action are those steps which are taken to remove the causes of 'potential nonconformance'. These actions are taken before the occurrence of nonconformance. Its a risk management activity and involves the use of tools like FMEA. For example it will involve all those steps which will stop fire from happening at all potential locations. Truly speaking, i am not able to think of a situation where corrective and preventive actions both are undesirable and correction is the only preferred action.

There is no doubt that with the introduction of BPM softwares, checksheets are becoming obsolete but i personally feel that they still hold importance because of their simplicity and power to provide extremely useful information about the process. Understanding about the use of Checksheet is must and can not be ruled out, however at the same time, while teaching about 7 basic QC tools additional information shall be provided about the use of softwares and data input automation, which make their application even simpler and help us in handling large amount of data easily and effectively.

Autonomation is automation with human touch. Autonomation is not full scale automation, it automates the tasks that operators would find boring, repetitive or unsafe but retains human beings to look after the process. Sakichi Toyoda invented a loom in 1896 that not only operated automatically bit also stopped when any of the threads broke, this simple idea revolutionised the industry as instead of there being a requirement for an operator having to sit beside each and every machine, waiting and searching for a problem, one operator could now watch several machines and just take action when a problem occured thus increasing productivity and quality. Autonomation applies following principles: Detect the abnormality Stop Fix or correct the immediate condition Investigate the root cause and install countermeasures

Pacemaker process is any process along a value stream that sets the pace of the entire stream. It is usually near the customer end of the value stream, often the final assembly point. Pacemaker process is an essential component of Lean Manufacturing as it avoids inventory building along the value stream. Even with Takt Time in place, there can still be some fluctuations in the actual performance of the process and these fluctuations get even more complicated when scheduling is done at multiple places in a value stream. For this reason, a pacemaker is often established. A pacemaker is single point where a production process is scheduled. Pacemaker acts as a Kanban system where a signal is generated for the downstream processes to make a new component / product. The activity of final assembly, outcome of which is delivered to the customer as a finished product, shall be selected as pacemaker process in the value stream.

Hypothesis test evaluates two mutually exclusive statements about a population to determine which statement is best supported by the sample data. Research without hypothesis testing is like a sailor in the sea without compass. Hypothesis testing is used in Analyze phase in an improvement project.

I would prefer a false alarm over missed alert as false alarm means my 'good' thing is being shown as 'bad', this is something internal to the business and a corrective action can be taken, whereas a missed alert means that something 'bad' has been passed on to the next stage as 'good' and it may be passed on to the customer too, which will lead to customer complaint and may be to loss of goodwill. However this answer is valid as long as the frequency of these false alarm or missed alert is less or within a reasonable limit, otherwise too many false alarm will also result in loss of business.

Lean production has greatly influenced the way manufacturing systems should be designed. One important aspect of lean production is takt time. Takt time relates customer demand to available production time and is used to pace the production. Takt Time can be calculated as T = (Ta / D) Here Ta is the available time to work and D is customer demand Takt time answers the question 'what is the speed at which the product must be created to meet the customer order?' Takt time approach has following benefits: 1) Keeps track of production rates. 2) Reduces overproduction 3) Manages overtime 4) Facilitates easier planning 5) Generates fewer errors 6) Improves price management Takt time approach helps us in taking long term strategic decisions as well aa short term tactical decisions. Entire production line is designed as per Takt time. Companies spend a great deal of money and time planning out a production process before work for a client begins. When production is underway, short term decisions of any change are also taken as per Takt time.

ReaCentral Limit Theorem (CLT) gives us three conditions: 1) Mean of sample means tends to population mean as the number of samples tend to infinity. 2) Sample means always follow normal distribution irrespective of distribution of individual data in population. 3) Variance of sample means is 'n' times less than the variance of population, where 'n' is size of sample. Law of Large Numbers (LLN) states that as the sample size grows, its mean gets closer to the average of the whole population. Here it can be noted that CLT talks about 'Mean of Sample Means approaching Population Mean' whereas LLN talks about 'Mean of Large Sample approaching Population Mean'. So there is a difference in both the approaches. Practically, in Statistical Quality Control (SQC), it is sometimes convenient to deal with grouped samples, and for this purpose, CLT provides us a powerful tool to draw inferences about the population. CLT makes 'non-normal' data 'normal' only if we are dealing with sample averages. In case we have to deal with the population data directly, which is not normally distributed, then CLT will not help us. Read why this answer was selected as the best - https://www.benchmarksixsigma.com/forum/topic/34877-central-limit-theorem-law-of-large-numbers/?do=findComment&comment=43909

Most of the VA or NVA activities can be verified against following 3 criteria A value adding activity is one that customer is willing to pay for. A value adding activity is transformational by nature. A value adding activity is done first time right. But, apart from these verification criteria, still there are many activities which are VA activities but doesn't fit into above criteria. One example of such activities is Business Value Added (BVA) activities. BVA are those activities which add value to the business but from customer point of view they are not VA activities. One of such example is Inspection activity, it may be required for business but customer would prefer your process so perfect that the requirement of Inspection can be done away with, which will save some cost. Some other examples of BVA are preparing financial reports, maintaining human resources records etc., all these activities are such that the customer is not willing to pay for them and these activities are not transformational also. However i do feel that the third question i.e. a VA activity has to be first time right is always true.

It is a misconception that 5S is just a housekeeping tool, whereas 5S is much more than that. The basic principle of 5S is 'a place for everything and everything in place'. This principle is very much applicable to non-manufacturing sector too and that too without any additional cost. Application of 5S in service industry helps in streamlining procedures, rules, inventory management, policies formation etc. Moreover it also helps in easy retrieval of information and getting rid of unnecessary information. In fact 5S can be applied in paperless office too and it definitely saves money since the cost incurred is very minimal.

Six Sigma and Innovation can co-exist. Six Sigma and Innovation both aim for improvement, Six Sigma aims for improvement through decreasing variability whereas Innovation aims for achieving improvement by increasing value. Six Sigma is generally thought as exploitation activity whereas Innovation is considered as exploration activity. Here exploitation means optimising the existing processes whereas exploration means efforts to find new processes or products /services. Six Sigma is knowledge based approach and Innovation is skill based process. Six Sigma represents an executive mindset e.g. trains should run on time, whereas Innovation represents an entrepreneurial mindset e.g. why trains as the only means to commute! Its not Innovation or Six Sigma, its Innovation and Six Sigma. Six Sigma is at the heart of Innovation. Many tools used in Six Sigma like QFD, FMEA, TRIZ, Cause and Effect Diagram, Poka Yoke etc. help in innovating new processes and finding new solutions. Continuous improvement is an integral part of successful innovation. So there is no conflict between Six Sigma and Innovation but as a thumb rule 'अति सर्वत्र वर्जयेत', means too much emphasis on existing processes should not strangulate the free thinking required for Innovation, so be open to new ideas and be adaptive to changing environment. Even for the successful implementation of an innovative idea we need Six Sigma approach, so we need both.

Kaizen Continuous improvement using small incremental changes. Low risk activity. Kaikaku Radical changes in the existing system. Big improvement. Medium risk. Kakushin Innovation, it changes the complete system. High risk and high gain activity. All the three tools are required for the long term survival of an organisation, because after a certain period of time just incremental improvements are not sufficient, we need to have radical changes and innovation to ensure the survival of an organisation in the long run.

Peter Drucker and Deming both are correct in their own context. Analysis of data is essential to get a snap shot picture of the current situation. This is a basic step to assess the current level of performance of a CTQ parameter and helps in its improvement. But, what Deming means is that the business is much more than 'data'. Data or metric represent just a small subset of the whole picture, actual business depends on many other things which are much more important than data. For example many a times most powerful decisions don't emerge from meticulous 'data analysis', they come from smart understanding of the business environment or sometime even from 'gut feelings'. Now a days lot of emphasis is given to the management of human emotions, which, no doubt, is utmost important but at the same time can't be measured, but still to be managed!

Personal Excellence: It refers to achieving highest potential on personal as well as on career front by an individual. Process Excellence: It is related to doing the Right Thing (effectiveness) Rightly (efficiency). Business Excellence: It refers to a framework of processes that lead to successful delivery of products / services consistently to delighted customers through empowered employees.