Srinivasa Vasu

But if we go a bit deeper, it will be surely yes. like Many of our group members mentioned, this formal training helps us in dealing things more structured and systematic. This gives a psychological confidence in leading things. I feel yes

Yes and no, both ! I take my own example where I was different before the lean six sigma training and I feel more confident and better. at the same time, one of my friend who hasn’t done any formal training or certification but whenever I discuss things on this, he always explains and talks not less than a certified person.

Venugopal, your quotes are really interesting to think about. Still I have some comments, please correct me if I’m wrong. Zero defects directly means all right, there must not be any further questions on situations and conditions such as duration, tolerance, in process and SL agreement etc.. but actually at the same time, say duration, it is surely required to be considered because then achieving zero defects forever will be much more difficult rather mostly impossible. Like some of our friends mentioned it is practically not possible. Plan crash: happened quite few times, surgical set up: failed quite many times. Still according to probability theory if the probability of achieving defects is there, then the probability of achieving zero defects also exists. As per this theory of probability and hence mathematically zero defects is possible.

Zero defects, it should not limit an organisation to work further, I agree with this too. It is similar to our wish to be or stay fully healthy. It is possible to be perfectly healthy even though it is difficult, but it is possible. If we’re healthy now doesn’t mean or should not mean that we achieved everything, we need to sustain it. Sustaining is also not easy, it requires equal efforts as we put to achieve that level. For the point put by R Rajesh, on SLA, I would like to say that the SL are again agreed thinking that 100 percentage is not possible, there will be nothing wrong to also expect full service without any defects, it is how much we believe.

Zero Defect: I believe it is true that nothing is impossible. Hence for the the choice that I made as TRUE. It will be highly difficult to achieve zero defects, but surely not impossible. In this context, everything is a combination of probability and efforts. Meaning we do not put efforts for or we do not limit our efforts for only a certain level of achievement. For example, we do not limit saying we are ok if we incur only 10 defects per million, rather we say we will be also ok to produce all million parts right - Zero defects Here there is a point to catch, that is, we all want no defects or we will be happy to have no defects, but we feel that it is practically impossible and hence we end up compromising that it cannot be achieved. By right efforts in combination with full probability, zero defects can be achievable. This is just like seeing God. 99.99997 (just some guess) of the people have no faith (full faith) that they can witness or can see God. Hence they may say, God does not exists or maybe blindly believing the existence of God. Also even by chance Zero defects can be achieved. Full probability. If part 1 can be produced as right, part 2 can also be produced right, similarly part 3, 4, 5......... millionth or even more can also be produced right. Why not and why can’t. It is achievable

ARMI & RACI ARMI IS A PROJECT MANAGEMENT TOOL, can be used to analyze the level of support of project Team or stakeholders. · Approver – Individual whose sign-off is required to move forward with the project · Resource – Expert whose skills are required for the project · Member – Those individuals making up the project team · Interested party –People who need to be kept up-to-date on the project RACI is more of a responsibility matrix, the matrix which breaks the team or team scope in to · Responsible – The person who is responsible to take care of the task ( there could be more than one responsible) · Accountable – The person who is accountable for its success or failure (only one accountable or one group can be made accountable). · Consulted – the one who acts as a guide or SME. ( there could be more than one guide) · Informed – the one who is informed about the status of the task I would prefer to use the RACI matrix. Because.. The RACI matrix seems more sensible compared to ARMI where for a task or a project to be taken care in a good manner the parameters of RACI matrix are very good enough to deal with the task or a project. For any project or a task, the accountability is a must but in ARMI, the scope for this aspect is not there. Similarly, responsibility. The responsibility is also a must to make sure that the task is made responsible by a person or persons. This is also a kind of missing in ARMI. My vote for RACI.

Specification Limits: Specification limits are usually the limits set from customer expectations (Based on VOC). How can specification limits be decided for characteristics of an innovative new product with which customer has neither has an expectation nor an experience? First of all if there are no limits set by customers or expected by the customers, then calling it as specification limit is not a great idea. The specification starts from customers. In this case where there is neither an experience nor an expectation from customers, then we can call it as control limits rather than specification limits. In case of an innovative new product, there could be several things be considered while setting the limits ( be it control or specification) 1. If there is already a similar kind of a product already available in the market, then the expectations from that product could be considered as specification limits ( with slight alteration based on specific details of the new product) 2. Visualization: The designer or the innovator could visualize what he/she would have expected from such a product. The specification limits could then be considered & further worked upon fine tuning them based on trial & error methods from the actual production. 3. Must & should factors: There are some factors which are a must & should to be considered in the product & these kind of inputs will help to set the limits. In this case it will be more of a control limits, but then these CL can later be converted into SL. 4. Just with the mere production: Since we don’t have any idea of what could customer expects, or as it is the new product, the limits can be analyzed based on actual production. The feasibility of achieving the limits based on the actual production as well the possible improvements from the actual production could be combined to set the limits. In such case these limits could be set as control limits and later with some fine tuning these could be converted as Specification limits 5. Importantly, if we want not to expose the product to market before launch. It is easier. In this case as the customer will be facing an entirely new product, meaning an entire new experience. Hence there is no requirement of setting any specification limits at this stage. But the expectations can later be build up by customers, in such cases reconsidering the limits based on customer expectations will give us direct limits of specification.

Rolled Throughput yield (RTY): Rolled throughput yield is the probability that a process with more than one step will produce defect free output. It is the product of the yield of each of the process steps involved in the entire process. In other words, a single unit passes through each of the steps of the entire process defect free. RTY is a better method compared to FTY because in RTY the consideration of rejections/reworks/defectives is done to calculate the output percentage of each individual step. Say for example:- Process flow below; A à B à C à D · 100 units input at A; 10 scrap, 5 rework (total 15 defectives) = the yield is then 85/100 = .85 (85%) · 90 units input to B (after A), 10 scrap, 3 rework (total 13 defectives) = the yield is then 77/90 = .855 (85.5%) · 80 is the input to C, 2 scrap, 0 rework (total 2 defectives) = the yield is then 78/80 = 0.975 (97.5%) · 78 is the input to D, 0 scrap, 0 rework (total 0 defectives) = the yield is then 100% The RTY for the above process is the product of all the yields of the entire process RTY = 0.85 X 0.855 X 0.975 X 100 == 70.85 %. For the specific question on can the Process with 100% RTY be considered inefficient? Answer:- If the process is really is having 100% RTY, then it cannot be inefficient. It is rather a very efficient process. But couple of things to be considered if the below conditions considered in RTY. 1. We are talking about RTY where reworks/rejections/scraps are considered as out of the count while calculating the actual output at each of the process steps. Even though the rework has done & made the product fit for passing through the next step, it should still be considered as no output while calculating the yield. 2. This is not First Time Yield where the inputs at each of the processes are somehow made 100% to achieve the full output as desired in terms of numbers.

Hawthorn Effect: The Hawthorn is a term used to refer the tendencies of the people who are under observation. The Hawthorn effect is the effect of such tendencies (good or bad or neutral). There could be some effect due to somebody or some system is observing or there may not be. Let us go a bit detail, Since we are talking about the tendencies of humans, it is obvious that there will be. But it all depends on the way of observation. Say for example:- An office cabin or a work area is under CC TV where phone calls are being attended by representatives. Certainly there is some psychological impact on the person/s working in that cabin or the work area. The impact could be that the people perform better or try to behave in a manner that shows the work is critical. It can be called as quite natural, even though it is not natural on the part of the behavior. With respect to the specific questions on this topic. Baseline performance is a performance done in natural conditions. In the above case or scenario it could be said as not natural. Now considering the performance on such parameters could be called baseline or not. My answer would be NOT ! Why ?. Because it is not natural. Now the question is how to set the baseline performance level? Answer: It all depends on 2 factors 1. Are we going to perform this task under observation always? 2. Are we only observing the task sometimes and not always ? If the option is 1, then the performance in such case under observation can be considered as natural & hence can be called baseline performance. If the option is 2, then the performance cannot be considered as baseline performance. In such cases, either we need to set a constant value for difference quotient & use it in the calculation or we need to exclude this be considered as baseline performance. Another important thing to be considered, The behavior of the person compared to the time when initially observed ( under observation) changes naturally to neutral as the observation persists for longer time. The human psychology plays a role here that it doesn’t have it considered as under observation. A solution :- In order to avoid the situations where to observe or not, an organization or system needs to be uplifted to a level where the system or person works with the same motivation & trust in either cases. A difficult one. But the Philosophy of Yoga emphasizes on this very much. In simple terms, if we are aware of the present moment, all others doesn’t matter.

COV: The coefficient of variation (COV) is a measure of relative variability. It is the ratio of the standard deviation to the mean. COV = STD Dev/ average ( %) like the formula says, if the STD Dev is higher, then the COV will also be higher. Hence in usual terms, less the variance, less is the coefficient.

FMEA: Failure Mode and Effect Analysis is a technique being extensively used in quality management. It is also used in six sigma extensively. FMEA is a step-by-step approach for identifying all possible failures in a design, production, service and delivery and so on. The risks of FMEA: the parameters considered and ranked are based on probability. Hence the actual results may be different from what is ranked. even though, FMEA rankings are made also based on facts and figures or historic data, it is also sometimes made based on the feeling or experience. The results of the analysis in such case may not be true.

Tribal knowledge: Any information or knowledge that is not in the written form and is in the minds and memories of the person is known as tribal knowledge. According to me this is also a very precious form of knowledge or information. It is based on ones experience, ones emotional quotient and subconscious intelligence. It is also connected to ones imagination power. Ones power of assumptions. TK is very important for delivering a successful product or service. It is very crucial to understand that most of the powerful knowledge is not documented fully. Naturally all that a human being thinks of cannot be documented as the thinking process can happen anywhere anytime. Idea generation could be most successful if the tribal knowledge being extracted. This one must be attributed to the best possible level. Quite often the people with introvert nature may not be expressing neither in document nor in discussions. TK in this case is most important to think of. TK cannot also be extracted if a person having this is not motivated or involved.

Business Excellence Sponsor: The most important qualities that are desired from a sponsor are. Must be visionary Must be daring to take risks must be a financial responsible person must be a person who stands backing the project in tough times Must be a good motivator a good listener Must have the nature of trust on the agenda of the project. Must be willing to also participate in the project and project steps Must have the quality of having patience Must have the quality of having good rapport with the people

Baseline: this means a line from where the measurements are considered. This is the basic line of measurement from which the measurements are based upon. the utility of the baseline itself can be questionable. Because the baseline itself could be difficult to achieve as this could be the line based on ideal situation or scenarios. In cars, the mileage claimed could never be achieved. Hence the baseline parameters could not be set up to that level where it is only possible to achieve in ideal situations. Practically the ideal situations cannot be see.

Business Analytics: It is an area of the system of analysis or business analysis that contains the usage of various skills, techniques, technology, tools, assumptions, experiences, practices and importantly statistics to analyse the situation of a business in order to either know where we are with respect to where we should be or what could be done in order to reach where we should be or what steps could have been taken to reach where we should be. meaning, it helps us to know the current situation, gaps, and help deciding appropriate actions towards the set goals. three parts of analytics: Descriptive: what has happened ; most extensively used. Analysis using historic data facts or experience. It is reactive yet suitable to prepare or to predict the future. Predictive: understanding the future. According to me, it is mostly depends on descriptive analysis. But it can also without descriptive analysis. This is very important part of the business analytics. Prescriptive: prescribes for future. Deciding the actions for future. It can be done alone, but it would be more effective if followed by the initial two parts. according to my understanding, LSS captured very well the descriptive and prescriptive parts of analytics. LSS has not largely explored the predictive part of the analytics.

Kano Model:- The Kano model is a theory of product development and customer satisfaction There are three types of customer needs are emphasised in this model. Basic Needs: These are the customer requirements that are a must to be incorporated in the product or a service. Failing which the entry to the market itself is not possible or difficult. Failing which the customer will be completely dissatisfied. By fulfilling them Customer is neutral as it is minimum expected parameter from a product or a service. For example:- if a pen is not properly writing or not writing at all, then it is not meeting the basic needs of the customer. A receptionist at the front desk responding with a “hello” to the customer walking in is a basic need. Performance Needs: These are the needs of the customer that by fulfilling them a customer is satisfied but not exited or delighted. For example:- If the same pen writes very soft, customer is satisfied. A receptionist along with greeting the customer, if she/he also serves a cup of welcome drink, the customer is satisfied. Excitement needs: These are not exactly the so called needs; rather these could still be the expectations or anticipations from customers. For Example:- A receptionist along with greeting the customer with a c up of welcome drink also surprises the customer offering free dinner, the customer is exited. Studying of these needs in detail helps to know our customer better. It is not necessary that all the aspects of customer needs can be obtained by customer just by talking or by survey. It is that most of the times the customer himself doesn’t know what he wants or he only knows it subconsciously. Once we understood the needs, our approach will then be optimising the fulfilment of the needs as a package to customer. It is very important to make the customer delighted, but is it feasible to go to that extent which will actually prove not so suitable for the business model is what we need to analyse. I would say the fist 2 needs are the must as they are known to customer as well as are a must for the product or service being offered to customer. But fulfilling the third need needs to be decided based on several factors depends on the type of the service or a product. Depends on how much it costs. Depends on its effects on the future business. Overall, the approach must be to see the 1. Financial benefits ( direct & indirect) (Short & Long terms) 2. Societal benefits ( how does it impacts the society directly or indirectly) 3. Personal benefits (Customer perspective) ( long term, emotional, health, etc..) 4. Others based on the situation & circumstances.

Statistical Significance: being of importance statistically. meaning, the importance is emerged from the statistics or of a data. statistically significant difference,: The difference of the findings from different set of samples from the same population. ?? it is not necessary that the whole population is represented exactly by the sample. Even though the interpretation of a sample is considered as for the whole population, it could also sometimes leads to wrong or misleading results. If such a difference is statistically significant , or could show different statistically. It is always possible that there will always be difference in the results of the sample from the results of its population or from other similar population. but why we say statistically significant difference is maybe because the difference is also measured statistically.

Process Capability and Process Stability: Process Capability is the ability of the process to perform or to produce the output with in the control limits. This is known as VOP Process Stability is the consistency of the process with respect to its set parameters. This is referred with respect to its average value. Difference between a Stable Process & a Capable Process: Stable process refers to consistency in the output. If the variation within the process outputs is less, this is more stable process. Whereas a capable process is more towards the process being able to maintain its output values with in the specification limits. A stable process can give us better performance level. A capable process can give us the process to remain within the limits. Is the stability in the process is a prerequisite for a capable process? It is prerequisite yes. If we see closely, they both are very much connected. For example:- if a machine produces a shaft with inconsistent diameter, obviously there are high chances that the output variable or values go out of control leads to incapable process.

Correlation: This is a statistical technic used to see whether or not the variables are mutually related & to what extent or degree the variables are related. The variables are related with respect to their causes & effects perspective. For example:- Productivity leads to profitability. Now with respect to the point that correlation does not prove the cause & effect relationship between two variables, why do we still use in root cause analysis. My answer would be;- It is still may be necessary to use correlation technic because we don’t know at the point of time we do root cause that whether or not the correlation exists. & hence it is only by assuming correlation, we could go further to find the real root cause. It is like diagnosing a health issue using correlation technic. Doctors have to go with lots of assumptions on why a particular issue with the health as arises. For example:- A child visited Eye specialist with an eye sight problem. The doctor says there is a correlation between brushing teeth at a particular time & the eye sight problem. It seems it cannot be proved as a cause. But it that the real root causes is brushing his teeth at a particular time. This reason seems nowhere connected to eye sight problem but only by root cause analysis this correlation between brushing teeth at a particular time & having eye sight problem is identified. In this case, The child is brushing his teeth in front of the mirror at 7:30 AM where the sharp sun light is directly reflecting on his eyes causing strain to & leads to eye sight issue In the beginning, this assumption of the cause does not seems that it could be proved as a correlation to the problem, but it is actually is. In the first example of Productivity leads to profitability. There could be many other reasons why profitability increases which seem not correlated at all, but actually it is. Productivity is not the end of cause; the actual cause might be most of the factory workers got married & are very happy.

VOC: Is in simple terms the expectations of the customer or expectations from customer. But conditions apply ** VOC can be or has to be the starting point for business excellence. But over emphasising VOC can be detrimental. I feel It is important to note that VOC has two angles to it. One VOC individual, VOC entity/corporate/business. if it is the VOICE from customer individual, then it is subjective to the mood, emotions, situation etc.. hence fully dependent on VOC in this case may not be effective. If it the VOICE from the entity as Customer, then also it could be detrimental. why and How : VOC is not necessarily always be expressed completely or expressed exactly as it is required. for example:- The VOC from a mat manufacturer is to reduce the number of defectives so that profitability increases by certain percentage. Now with this how it can be detrimental, In this case, to reduce the number of defectives and to increase profitability, the business excellence team can look into relevant areas few of them could be such as raw materials, workers involvement, quality control and etc... now by focusing on that, it could use several solutions like using a different chemical formula or generator sets for avoiding stoppage of production during power cuts, but by doing this it could be harmful to the environment or people living around. This is my view. VOC can be input, but VOC must be considering all affecting factors directly or indirectly to external factors as well. Advertising is another example where advertising using celebrities for a soft drink is the solution found from a business excellence team to increase sales, but by doing this we are fooling common people making them drink the harmful drink. which is what is happening in real life.

Process Mapping: Process mapping is a process of identifying the steps of a process almost in detail to see and understand the sequence, relationship and criticality of the process steps. The purpose of a process map is to document and represent in a graphical manner the steps, flow or a sequence and to identify the relationship of the steps within process. Process mapping can be done using many tools such as SIPOC, COPIES, Value chain mapping, swim lane methods, flow charts and others. It is depending on the type of the process and the importance in terms of criticality, the suitable methods for mapping can be suggested. Quite often, the processes in any organisation are usually complex in terms that there is always an interrelationships with processes. Nevertheless there are also simple process where a simple flow chart is good enough to map the process. But with the need of increasing level of detailing, I would recommend detailed flow charts, the value chain mapping or swim lane method as these gives more scope for detailed study of each steps as well as in case of swim lane method it provides the scope for inter relating the steps with other processes in the swim lane. SIPOC is another effective mapping method to go in detail of each step. In case of a sequential series of process mapping with increasing level of detailing I would suggest detailed flow chart or value chain mapping or swim lane method.

Continuous data and Attribute data: Continous data is measurable where as attribute data is countable. continous data example:- percentage of, temperature, etc.. atribute data example:- either or, number of defectives, etc.. A proper analysis is a must to conclude the data type. Number of defectives is an attribute data type, if the same defectives needs a measurement on percentage of defectives, it becomes continuous data type.

Correction - Corrective action - Preventive action There is certainly some relationship between Correction, Corrective Action & Preventive Action. Let us start with Corrective & Preventive action. Corrective actions are those actions which are taken when there is already something which has gone incorrect & identified the causes. The identification can be done by using tools such as Root cause analysis, etc. This action generally is reactive in nature. Once the incorrectness or mistakes are identified or seen, the actions will be taken to rectify the mistakes or to correct the mistakes. For example – A Machine operator not using ear plugs while operating the machine who is working at the machine that actually makes a lot of noise/sound. As per the compliance it is not acceptable that the machine operators standing/working near such machines are not using ear plugs as that causes problems with hearing. Here is the mistake. This kind of mistakes will be corrected by making corrective actions or corrective action plan. Corrective actions can be stricter in nature, can also end up with penalties or punishments. Preventive actions are those actions which will be ensured even before an event occurs. This is Proactive in nature. This is done to avoid the possible mistakes/errors. This is done based on a detailed analysis of a potential mistake that could occur. For example – In the above example, the preventive action could be that the ear plug is issued to every operator in the beginning of each shift & ensure that the operators are using it by frequent checks. The Preventive action plan generally contains heading such as Action steps, Responsible person/persons/, Start date, deadline date, review, remarks. This pattern can also change based on individual requirement & situation. The above action plan format can also be used for Corrective Action Plan. What is correction? Is correction the only preferred action? Correction is an action of correcting something. Example- The price of an item printed wrong on the wrapper. This needs a correction. In this situation, correction is the only preferred action that we could take. But of-course, it leads to corrective & preventive action plan to avoid such mistakes in the future.

Check Sheet: Is typical the sheet or a document that contains the headings or factors that are being checked. It is different from a “tick sheet” or “check list”. Even though it is a very old method, it cannot be completely removed from being used. There are many areas where there is no other effective tool than the check sheet. Some examples such as to see how many elderly persons at any particular location are using the public transport Bus for commuting. We could use the check sheet to record the date on a real time at the real location. It is an effective way to collect certain type of data that other methods may not be suitably helpful. For the above scenario, there may not be a better way than using a check sheet. In regards to using its original form is necessary or not, I feel the basic idea will remain same but the way that checking is recorded could be changed.

Kanban – Pull System: Kanban Pull System is one of the systems used to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the Process. This system can be used to bring LEAN into the processes. “The literal meaning of the word Kanban refers to visual cards” These visual cards are actually the cards that indicates in it what is required in what qty & when is it required from the process step that is just the previous one. There are visual cards from all the process steps, except from the very first step. The previous process step is then refers to this card to deliver what is required & in what qty & delivers only on the requirement. The advantages of this system are many. Few of them are it could help avoid piling up inventories of all types such as Raw material, WIP & Finished. It connects each process steps in a very effective manner, it generates high level communication effectiveness, it also helps indicate the potential issues in the process steps proactively & it helps in minimizing lead times. This is an effective system which brings a lot of cost effectiveness to the organization as well as to even individual. Kanban system reduces complexities in the process flow & thus helps the system be clean & more transparent. In other way it also helps reducing noises & nuisances factors in the system. Kanban system also helps higher interaction with in each steps very importantly including final step of interaction with customer/consumer.