Suresh Jayaram

FOLLOWING TOPIC PASTED FROM YAHOO GROUPS ORIGINATOR: Biswajit Das DATE: Mon Nov 3, 2008 Hi, I want some help form you to recognise some improvement projects and how to go about it for the type of industry i am working on. The type of work done here are as follows :- 1) Software Development (in Airlines industry) 2) Software Maintenance (in Airlines industry) 3) Software as a Service (in FMCG industries) We have already implemented all practices of CMM Level 5, ISO 9001:2000 and ISO 27001:2005. Thanks and regards, Biswajit Das QAG

FOLLOWING TOPIC PASTED FROM YAHOO GROUPS ORIGINATOR: Sreejit Nair DATE: Tue Nov 4, 2008 HI, I'm doing a GB project on SLA improvement in our process. currently the service levels are at 65% and the project goal is at 85%. The process involves advisors answering or replying to customers mails within 36hrs. the Control charts needs both LSL & USL. here we dont have USL...so what tool should I use to monitor the progress. regards Sreejit Nair ______________ FOLLOWING RESPONSES WERE RECEIVED Hi Sreejit, You can still use the control charts to verify if your process is in control and also to demonstrate improvement. I would recommend that you not plot specification limits LSL & USL on the control charts. You should be able to determine the control limits UCL and LCL as these are obtained from process performance and not from customer specifications. Hence, it does not matter if you only have one specification limit LSL. SJ. ____________ Hi, Sreejit Nair, If you are in the initial stages of your project, I would recommend you as follows. Service Level agreements is a bigger Y component break down to smaller y . As every x has a relation to y and every y to Y you should keep the Project goal focussed. I assume Y = F ( x ) funda is clear with you. As you mentioned the process involves responses to customers mails with in 36 hrs, your sub componets would be 1. Critical quiries 2. Major quiries 3. Minor Quiries 4. Auto responses ( You have to define the operational definations for the above components ) The customers quiries are variable therefore you could classify them as Technical Issues / Service Issues / Reliability Issues / Support Issues. Having done so, evaluate the current performance level and the desired targets giving weightage to Risks involved. You could use control chart to monitor the processes performace after ensuring the process is stable to deliver results. Else you need to fix the issues. Sathyanarayan Venkatesh TSDO : HP India Quality Program Manager Bangalore MBB / E1- LSS / LA - ISMS

FOLLOWING TOPIC PASTED FROM YAHOO GROUPS ORIGINATOR: Ambika Sahoo DATE: Fri Sep 19, 2008 Dear Viswadeep sir, we have DOE regression equation.From DOE analysis, we found no interaction effect.In DOE we've 2 levels & 3 factors. I'm stuck how to get optimum point(Lowewst response value). I think..we've 3 surface plots & 3 contour plots. Can we get minimum points from 3 surface plots? We can get minimum points by heat & trial from each surface plot.Then we put it in DOE regression equation & to find out minimum point....Is it right method? Can we statistically prove this point as minimum point? Project: Reduction of High current in Starter Motor Factor:Concentricity(0.1-1.0 mm),Ovality(0.1-1.0 mm),Flatness(0.1-0.5 mm)...from main plot we find ..lower the value, better the response fo all the factors) Please help me. Best Regards. A.P.Sahoo ______________ FOLLOWING RESPONSE WAS POSTED TO YAHOO GROUPS Dear Sahoo, If you have no interaction effects in your model and only the main effects are significant, then you can interpret each main effect independently. If you are looking for a low value of output (Y), then if the effect value is positive, then the low value of X will provide a low value of Y, if the effect value is negative, then a high value of X will provide a low value of Y. Hence, your optimal points will lie on the extreme points of your design space. You will not need to use the contour or surface plots to figure out the optimal point. The main effect plots will help you identify your optimal values. Hope this helps, SJ. _____________

FOLLOWING REPLIES WERE POSTED TO YAHOO GROUPS Hi Suresh, I suggest you share the project charter for any one to give you satisfying reply. First of all you cannot have more than 1 project goal for a project. Secondly Increase something and Decrease something always contradicts. You should have run 2 separate projects and evaluated the benefits. Thanks and Regards, Sathyanarayan Venkatesh TSDO : QPM HP MBB ; E1-LSS ; Cert. LA ISMS ___________________ Hi, Productivity is always having two items 1. Inout and an output: Understand what is their output from the inputs(hours), this is your productivity incease. Use the same unit to calculate the defect rate ex: if the job is to test Reports: No: of reports tested per hour is productivity,whereas error rate is no:of reports that were tested 'Pass' from you but 'failed' at the customer'. Rgds Arathi __________________ Hi Suresh. This is a process improvement project, and process improvement projects often increase the bottom line by reducing the costs rather than increasing the revenue in short run. You can calculate the financial benefits as per the followings 1. Increase in productivity will reduce the resources required and you can have some potential savings (the free resources you can utilize in some other projects). This will also improve your competency in market as you will charge less to your customers. 2. Reducing the error rate will increase the customer satisfaction and hence you will gain in the intangible asset "Customer Goodwill" which in long run will bring more projects to your company. Best Regards Umesh ___________________ Hi VShurays, A few things that I can think of that you may highllight to sell the project.... 1. VOC - As you've mentioned in your mail, your customer wants prompt and error free service/product 2. Do you have any financial penaltiea attached to quality/error rate that you can use to sell the idea? 3. What is the scope of increase in business from this customer in short and long term (in $) 4. Can you cut down on resources used with increased productivity levels to keep billed hours at the same level and use these free resources on other projects or think of how best you can use them Hope this helps. Regards, Shiva Kumar. ____________________

FOLLOWING TOPIC PASTED FROM YAHOO GROUPS ORIGINATOR: VSHURAYS DATE: Sun Nov 16, 2008 Hi friends, i have a doubt in financial calculation for six sigma project. Project is to 1. Increase productivity. 2. Reduce Error Rate. the pricing is hourly rate. total hrs worked for the project is billed. Problem No. 1 If we increase productivity it actually have an impact on the Total hrs utilized for the project. so total revenue generated for the project is decreased. we lose revenue in implementing the project. Problem No. 2 Rework is also billed as total hrs utilized in the project. so reducing error rate is not having any impact in increasing the revenue. But there is a need for increasing productivity and Reduce error rate. the customer wants prompt delivery and error free product. Please suggest how to calculate financial benefits for the projects. Whether i can use only non financial benefits in the projects. Regards, Suresh

FOLLOWING REPLIES PASTED FROM YAHOO GROUPS Hi, If the data categroization doesn't show "pareto" behavior, suggest to -- re-look at the way the classification is done, whether it can be changed through combining or splitting the existing one normalize if possible reclassify with a different set of classification apply weightages Practical importance point of view, consider 80/20 as you rightly said vital few from trivial many ( now called as "useful many") rather than exactly trying to match 80 to 20. I don't think neither the wealth nor the number of rich people were exactly measured / counted to exactly macth 80 to 20! Best Regards, Kulkarni ________________ Hi, Suresh subramani, My two cents of suggestions. It is very true that 80 : 20 rule of the Pareto is honestly valid and a powerful tool for the SIX SIGMA projects for the continual improvement programs on a lean way. I would advise you to have not more than 8 error categories for the Main Pareto which covers your entire error findings. ( The categories should be such that it has a comprehensive coverage of critical, major, severe & minor issues ) The individual categories could have sub categories if desired. Once you have the Pareto listed, you could either do a Bubble analysis or the FMEA analysis to evaluate RISK, for the team to review and arrive at a logical conclusion. Use CAPA for eradication of issues governed by Audit validation to support the project or the workflow. Regards, Sathyanarayan Venkatesh TSDO : Quality Program Manager HP MBB / E1 - LSS & Certified LA - BS ISO/IEC 27001 : 2005 ISMS __________________ Hi, My veiw points on are Pareto chart helps to find out the ‘VITAL FEWâ€TM from the ‘USEFUL MANYâ€TM for problem selection Following steps should be followed for Pareto chart. 1. Identify few contributors from the diagram which account for about 80 % of the total defect. 2. If more than 50% categories account for 60% of total defect than do further stratification. If stratification is not possible than team can decide vital factors. 3 Represent these as 'Vital Few' and proceed towards solving these problems through RCA or FMEA. 4. Once they are solved or satisfactorily attended, collect data on present situation on the defect status and draw pareto chart. 5. The present position maybe, that those defects which were not in priority earlier are now occupying prime position and hence to be taken up for solving. Regards Sunil R.Wankhade MBB _____________________ Dear Suresh, The 80/20 rule is not a law of nature but is based on observation that most things in life are NOT linear. Hence, it is not necessary that it should be exactly 80/20 for all situations. It could be 90/10 or 90/30 (not that these numbers don't have to add up to 100) or any other combination. The jist of the 80/20 rule is that we should focus on the trival few rather than all the things that could go wrong. The trivial few could be 20% of the causes or maybe they are 40% as you indicate. Your math seems to be okay. SJ. __________________

FOLLOWING TOPIC PASTED FROM YAHOO GROUPS ORIGINATOR: Suresh Subramani DATE: Mon Oct 27, 2008 Dear All, Objective: To identify Vital X (Critical Area). I have a far most clarification on driving the result through Pareto rule. We all knew that 80% of the problem were due to 20% of the real cause (Vital X) in the process i.e identifying vital few from Trivial many. As per our ISO Task force implementation/QMS representative we have introduced Pareto Analysis in our process. He taught us to plot a chart through excel but I am not convinced with the result we have driven because 80% critical areas are not occurred due to just 20% , it lies in the range of 40% or 50% of the total error category. I have planned out to eliminate the ripple factors by conducting the defect Analysis. Kindly find the attached file. This is the internal audit error count taken out from Health Care (Medical Billing) project. Our SLA is defined as 98% but we have achieved only 95% for last month. I am in a position to take hard course of action against the people who were in Critical areas. Query: Through Pareto I got 14 vital Xs (80%) out of total 34 error category which are not really 20% of the error category. It would be great if someone can review the file and confirm whether we are approaching the right path. If not kindly address the area we were moved out and find a solution. Best Regards, Suresh Subramani

FOLLOWING TOPIC PASTED FROM YAHOO GROUPS ORIGINATOR: Vicky R DATE: Sat Nov 22, 2008 Hi All Can anyone explain me the following : 1) What are parametric & nonparametric tests used in hypothesis testing. Brief about parametric & nonparametric tests ? 2) Please explain hypothesis test for proportion - 1 & proportion - 2. What is proportion - 1 & proportion - 2 ? 3) Please explain contingency Table. An example how the table is used for testing the assumptions ? Can anyone explain this to me ? Regards Vijay ___________ FOLLOWING RESPONSE WAS PASTED TO YAHOO GROUPS Vicky, Let me take a stab at your first question: a) In hypothesis testing, let's say we are comparing the means of two samples A and B with Ho : Mean (A) = Mean (B.) Ha: Mean (A) > Mean (B.) If we know that data A and B are normally distributed, we would usually use the 2-Sample t Test. This is called a parametric test because we are relying on the assumption that A and B are normal and hence they have some parameters (mean & standard deviation) that are used to describe the underlying distribution. For non-parametric tests, we DO NOT assume any specific shape for the underlying distribution for A and B. If we know that A and/or B is not normal, we can use other tests to compare the samples. An example of a test that does not use any specific distribution is the Mann-Whitney test. We may use other methods to compare these samples such as the sum of the ranks of the ordered pairs. Of course, even though we can use non-parametric tests for all applications, we would prefer to use the parametric cousins if we can because they are more powerful, in the sense that they can detect differences with fewer samples. However, the parametric tests are also restrictive in the sense that we need to make sure the underlying distribution assumptions are met otherwise we will be drawing the wrong conclusions. Hope this helps. SJ. FYI: We were not covering non-parametric tests in the past Black Belt programs due to lack of time but this is now included in the new 6-day program version.

Ambika Sahoo started the following discussion on Yahoo Groups on Thu Dec 4, 2008 Dear all, I would like to know how to define this project is a GB or BB project... 1. How Can u predict before doing project that this project would be a BB project ? 2. How can u decide improvement target before initiating project...Is there any statistical calculation in it? Regards. Ambika P. Sahoo ________________ FOLLOWING ARE SOME RESPONSES POSTED TO YAHOO GROUPS Greetings; it is only by experience you will be able to find out the project is BB or GB; From my experience i say that projects involving simple tools and simple datas cold be taken as GB and savings could be say rs 10 lacs Anything beyond this with more detailed data and Statistical analysis can be considered a BB project and savings could be much higher per annum Let me tell you one thing it is not necessary to investigte whether it is GB or BB project and what is important focus shall be the project savings!!!!! with regards T. M. Venkatesan __________________ Hi Ambika, I have attempted to answer you questions as below: How Can u predict before doing project that this project would be a BB project ? Response: A GB project typically runs for a period upto 3 months. A BB project runs over a period of 6 - 9 months. The time difference primarily exists due to the nature of the projects undertaken. A GB project focuses on within- process improvements, a BB project focuses on cross-department projects. A GB project focuses on qualititative improvements in the process which may or may not be monetarily quantified. A BB project quantifies monetary gains for the company which is upto a minimum of 10 lakhs or 1 million. A GB project should be primarily identified on the basis on less effort - low risk model (low lying fruits), A BB project could be the one with medium - high efforts with equal magnitude of risk involved 2. How can u decide improvement target before initiating project...Is there any statistical calculation in it? Response: The improvement target can be defined on the nature of the assignment/ project undertaken, historical trends, dependencies, VOB, VOC, SLAs, Company's future vision, etc.. for eg: If I undertake a project to reduce the cycle time of the resolutions to be provided to the customers by focusing on eliminating dependencies / handoffs from 10% to 5%, I would analyze the historical data for the last, say, 3 months to see the kind the work that can be handled by my team and then I would arrive at this figure of 5% which I know is an achievable signal. Statistics according to me plays a literal role only and simple athematics mostly helps in breaking bigger barriers. Moreover, let the softwares like Q1 macros, Minitab, SPSS do the statistics for you as long as you have the data you want to analyze. Please feel free to connect if you have any questions. Regards, Tina ____________________ While it is nice to see large scale interaction, we must remember that Six Sigma permits the thinking process and the more we think the more oppurtunities we discover to put six sigma methodology to a customized and better use However, basic common sense questions, when we post here, are we not sending across the signal that we are looking for everything readymade and thereby our dependency on answers from others would one day defeat the very purpose of being six sigma trained and certified, since the moment you say you are with a six sigma background, it is understood that your analyzing part of the brain is active and the very basic thing required for analysis is TO THINK. Think about it. Regards Nataraj Venkataraman PMP,ITIL, Six Sigma, CompTIA A+ and CompTIA Network+ Professional Service Delivery Manager I T Services Industry

FOLLOWING TOPIC PASTED FROM YAHOO GROUPS ORIGINATOR: Ritu Gaur DATE: Tue Dec 9, 2008 Hi, Can some one help me with, how to decide the forecast figures?If I have an existing data, the pre project figures then based on these numbers how can I project the improved firgures because effectiveness of the project will be based on meeting/exceeding the projected figures. Is there any calculation avaliable or any statistical tool? Rgds Ritu

FOLLOWING TOPIC PASTED FROM YAHOO GROUPS ORIGINATOR: Rohit Bharadwaj DATE: Mon Dec 8, 2008 Hello , Just 1 quick question ..! (Related to BPO Industry) I get data from the client advisor wise in % with no base data .... Is that data continuous or discreet Regards Rohit

FOLLOWING TOPIC PASTED FROM YAHOO GROUPS Dear Shameem, You may want to talk to some of your customers, managers within your company, and map out the process to identify the "pain" areas. Once you identify several opportunities for improvement, you will need to compare them and select the best project using some sort of a project prioritization process. Some thoughts on projects in your field (in addition to the reduction in time to make pre-approval decisions) are: Improve accuracy of pre-approval decisions (quality metric) Reduce cost of making pre-approval decisions (number of people involved, time, paperwork). Improve customer satisfaction scores from clients Reduce cost of capital (inventory, accounts payable/receivable) Grow business accounts (get pre-approvals from others to generate economies of scale) SJ.

FOLLOWING TOPIC PASTED FROM YAHOO GROUPS ORIGINATOR: Dr.Shameem Rizwana DATE: Wed Dec 10, 2008 Dear All, Ours is Insurance based company my (dept) company is dealing with Govt.Aarogya Sri Scheme for BPL families.We have GMS,SGMS,DGMS,AGMS,HEAD OF THE DEPT,COODINATORS,DISTRIC COORDINATORS,AREAMANAGERS,NET WORK HOSPITAL EXECUTIVES,DISTRIC MEDICAL OFFICERS AND MEDICAL OFFICERS around 3000 employees.From various network hospitals we get preauthorizations(patient related documents) we have to give approvals. We got contract from Govt.to run the scheme.Daily we get 600 preauthorizations. I can apply Six Sigma on how much time taking in clearing the preauthorizations ,also I would like to analyzing on financial aspects how I go about it.Plz can any body clarify where I can concentrate(Six Sigma Application) and how I start project. Regards -- Dr.Shameem Rizwana

FOLLOWING RESPONSES PASTED FROM YAHOO GROUP Dear Srinivas, This is a pretty big topic to be addressed in a short note. Here are some general guidelines: a) Project savings are calculated on a one-year basis after the completion of the project. b.) All costs incurred are subtracted from the benefits to calculate the net benefits. c) There should not be any double-counting of benefits especially if there are more than one project responsible for the results. d) Hard savings are those benefits that result as a result of your project that you can trace to the company's Income statement or changes to the Balance Sheet. Example: Reduction in personnel, overtime etc. e) Soft savings cannot be directly traced to the company's financial statements but are still beneficial. Example: Elimination of non-value added activities that result in reduction of say 2 hours of workload for a person per week. This reduction does not reduce company costs because the company still has to pay the employee his/her salary. SJ ________________ I would like to add a couple of more points - About calculating the savings, one can not wait till the end of the year or end of the project. Therefore the terms Estimate At Completion (EAC), Estimate To Complete (ETC), Cost Variance (CV), Schedule Variance (SV), Earned Value (EV) etc. These are some of the financial tools that provide you status - Financial or Schedule - in real time. But these are not propagated by Six Sigma, these are propagated by Project Management Institute. And if these tools are going to help us in our Six Sigma project, why not embrace them to take advantage of it? With warm regards, Arvind Sinha IBM India

FOLLOWING TOPIC PASTED FROM YAHOO GROUPS ORIGINATOR: munnaluri_srinivas DATE: Fri Dec 5, 2008 Hi I would like to know the approach/methodology adopted in calculating Hard & Soft saves thru Six Sigma Initiatives. It will be a great help If any body can help me with formulae as well. Thanks & Regards Srinivas

FOLLOWING TOPIC PASTED FROM YAHOO GROUPS ORIGINATOR: Vivek Agarwal DATE: Tue Jan 13, 2009 Hi Arun, To start with I would suggest you can make the team go through ASSET Training, which basically comprises of the following: 1. What is six sigma all about? 2. How did this originated and by whom? 3. How to calculate DPO and DPU and what is the difference b/w them. 4. Various methodologies for six sigma, for ex - DMAIC, DMADV, Lean etc. 5. You can also train them on 8-D problem. I think the best way would be to prepare a PPT on the above topics which will give basic idea about the six sigma, then you can identify people who are required to be trained for projects they could be further trained. I hope this will help you, I don't have a PPT prepared on it else I would have forwarded the same to you. Regards, Vivek

THIS TOPIC IS PASTED FROM YAHOO GROUPS ORIGINATOR: Rohit DATE: Mon Dec 29, 2008 Hello All, Is there any software or e-book available that helps in analyzing /interprets the results/outcomes of a tool/test ? Regards Rohit _______________ SUMMARY OF THE REPLIES POSTED HERE I keep seeing posts asking for books or more materials and so on. I am blackbelt and there is one book that i use as my bible for Six sigma. i would reccomend buying a copy even through it is expensive as it is a very thorough guide to Six Sigma. The name of the book is The Six Sigma Handbook By Thomas Pyzdek. Thanks and Regards, Murali Nair ________________ One good book to help with analyzing and interpreting results from Minitab software is: Six Sigma and MINITAB: A Toolbox Guide for Managers, Black Belts, and Green Belts by Quentin Brook, QSB Consulting Best Regards, SJ ____________ Vinoth, The book is available as a e-book in the below link. Hope it might be useful. Thanks http://books.google....=result#PPR3,M1 Regards, Manikandan.J _______________ Hi Vinoth If you prefer, you can download the entire book in .pdf format. No need to purchase it. Please refer to the link below: - http://www.scribd.co...Sigma&x=35&y=17 You'll find lot many books regarding six sigma, lean sigma etc. on this site. In case you have any problem in searching, do let me know. Regards Nilesh Bhanushali __________________ Good stuff on the site http://www.gate2qual...om/Articles.htm Here you can have a look at six sigma section. Regards, Tariq Kamal

FOLLOWING POST PASTED FROM YAHOO GROUPS ORIGINATOR: Ravi Sankar DATE: Wed Jan 21, 2009 Greetings, I have a question regarding sigma level calculation. 3.4 DPMO is associated with 4.5 sigma long term and why in this case the probability of good products is considered from -infinity to +Zlt and not from -Zlt to +Zlt. Regards _______________ FOLLOWING REPLY WAS RECEIVED Dear All, Ravi has raised an important point. If you refer to the figure below, you can see that it shows a shift of 1.5 s. You can also notice that the yellow area corresponds to 3.4 defects per million in a six sigma process. Important thing to note here is that we consider defects only on one side and not on the other side (correctly pointed out by Ravi.) The reason for this is that at any given point in time shift can happen only to the right of the target or to the left of the target. This means the number of defects are either zero (negligible) on the left and 3.4 dpm on the right or 3.4 dpm on the left side and zero (negligible) on the right side. When we consider shift, defects are not equally distributed on both sides. So for a Six Sigma shifted situation, the defects are not 3.4 defects per million on each side, but 3.4 dpm on one side (this could be left or right side of target) . I hope this clarifies. VK

FOLLOWING POST PASTED FROM YAHOO GROUP ORIGINATOR: Arun Singh DATE: Sat Jan 10, 2009 Hi Vishwadeep/All, I am Arun form Chennai, i have done GB under your guidance. Actually management has decided to move me from production to cross training program. Technically i have not any issue, but i want to start this program through six sigma process. Frankly speaking due to my GB certificate they have given me this chance. Could you please provide me few formats and suggestion to start inter and inta department training program in my organization. Regards, Arun

THIS TOPIC WAS PASTED FROM THE YAHOO GROUPS ORIGINATOR: G. VISHWANATH DATE: Thu, Jan 8, 2009 Hi all, i have started a six sigma green belt project for reducing turnaround time outliers for serology tests in microbiology lab. Can u tell me how much percentage of sample do i need to take from the population for my study. Regards G.Vishwanath ______ Hello friends, I am doing a Six Sigma project and can u tel me how do i take the specification limits. The project which i am doing says the laboratory follow a turnaround time of giving the reports with in 4 hours. But the time is exceeding to 6 hours in giving the reports. Here should I take the USL as 4 hours or 6 hours. If i take 6 hours as USL then should 4 hours be my target time for calculating the process capability. Ragards G.Vishwanath ___________ Here are some responses that were received to this post: Your USL must be 4 hours or less. There is no LSL, there can not be any. Hope this helps. With warm regards, Arvind Sinha IBM India ___________ Hi, G. Vishwanath, Your OUTPUT : Lab report to be within 4 hrs , currently > 4 hrs ( up to 6 hrs ) The first thing you will have to do is... 1. Analyze your data past 3 months to find out what is current reality. 2. Reason out if there is pattern of delays for particular reporting. 3. Identify Lab reporting categories and further analyze what categories are in time and out of time. 4. Check if there are special causes for specific delays. After doing so, now you are comfortable to realize actions. Pls understand, SIX SIGMA projects are very metodical and robustic in approach, you will have to be very clear in your thinking processes. Further, If the Output with which you have to work is 4 hrs, your control limits should be between 0 on LSL and 3& half hrs to acheive the desired output. ( For this you will have to do a Flow tree path analysis or Critical path method analysis ). Simple would be a Value stream Mapping. Best Wishes, Sathya TSDO : Quality Program Manager MBB ; E1- LSS ; Certified LA ISO / ISMS ____________ Hi Vishwanath, 4 hrs should be the USL and less than 4 hr should be the target. Best, Param _____________ Hello Vishwanath, Spec limits would be what you are supposed to deliver on so in your case your USL will be 4 hours. You will not have an LSL. 6 hours is what the process is delivering. The other question you had is about the target value. Ideally this should be a value well within your spec limit. If you do not have this value leave it blank in Minitab 15, Thanks and Regards, Murali ______________ Dear Mr. Vishwanth, I am wg.cdr. (Dr.)Sudhir Ketkar. i am presently assisting two of the hospital laboratory in accreditation by NABL. Firstly specification limits are being given by clients. If you turn around time is within 6 SD from the nearest specification limet, it would mean that the laboratory is working at 6Sigma level. Now first of all, the clients in case of laboratories seldom have specifications except the referring clinicians and that too would depend upon the urgency of the results. No specific requirements are generally provided by the clients. It will also depend upon the nature of the investigations. One can not therefore generalise as in case of microbiology the result may take more than 24 hours and in histopath the result may well take more than 72 hours. Therefore the turnaround time will defer in few investigations. If the project charter says that the turnaroud time be less than 4 hrs and actual time exceeds 6 hrs most of the time the error would have already occured. Since there is no LSL available in this, the project does not naturally fall as a six sigma project. All projects may not be six sigma projects. It may just mean that actually process improvement may be required. you may take statistical data, and also that of a bench mark. and if you are far off the mark, do a fishbone analysis, a pareto analysis may be and try to improve the process. For Mr. Vishwadeep Khatri: I have been out of circulation for quite a while. Kindly correct me if my understanding is wrong. with regards sudhir ketkar _________________ Dear Sudhir, I read your post and there are a couple of things i would lilke to clarify for you. 1. If the data is outside spec limit it is not meeting the requirement. I am sure what u meant is that if 99.997% of the data lies within 6SD from the mean and the data is within spec limits then it is six sigma complaint. 2. if the time taken to do a test is 6 hours and the clients want it in 4 hours ( which cannt be done due to the process itself) then the process is not capable and you should have a negative cpk. (This is just a scenario) 3. All six sigma projects do not have to have a LSL and a USL. some of the projects will only have a LSL and others only a USL. In my previous post i have mentioned that use minitab and unavailable spec limt blank. what you may want to do is set a lower boundry which in this case is 0. So here there are 2 approaches one is the old Goal post mentality which say that you have to have all you points within certain spec limits and the other is reduce the variation and move the mean. the first is something which nobody uses any more. In the second option do the following 1. is there variation 2. if the variation is high then map the process and find out what is causing variation. (you might want to look at the 7 M's) 3. once you have adressed variation check wether the process itself can be reduced and move the mean to below 4hrs. Murali Nair Director Six Sigma MBB ASQ

Past responses to the above discussion is posted below. PASTED BELOW FROM YAHOO GROUPS Re: [benchmarksixsigma] Suggestions invited hey, Nice to see you work on C-SAT . Would just wana let you know my experience and understanding C-SAT is a very huge ( vast area ) for a green belt project as its not only one department involved so it is a BB project . The sample size you are talking about is very less 3 -4 % so a true RCA cannot be done on it . I would suggest you to pick up a factor that impacts the most on C-SAT and start a project on that . Others please share your thoughts. Regards rohit bhardwaj Re: Suggestions invited Hi You can calculate the sigma level for C-Sat's in the following manner: Defects (D): # of dissats received Unit (U): # of total surveys replied to by the customer (Sats plus dissats) Opportunity for error: 1 (Either the survey will be a sat or a dissat) Total Opportunity: Opportunity x Unit Defects per opportunity(DPO): Defects / Total Opportunity DPMO: DPO x 1 million Sigma Level (z): Find corresponding sigma level from the z tables Let me know if you require any further explanation in regards to running a six sigma project for CSI. Regards Shahzad Re: [benchmarksixsigma] Suggestions invited if 3-5% sample is gppd enough( more than 30 data points) but make sure that customers are selected on ramdom basisto avoid skewness in the data. you can treat this data as cotinuous and move forward. Thanks Manoj Singh Re: Suggestions invited You can determine the number of samples you need to do your analysis. In order to do this, you will need to determine the following: a) What is your overall Population Size (N). What level of confidence do you want in your analysis. Typically, this is 95%. This corresponds to Z = 1.96 c) What is your margin of error in your analysis. For example, if your margin of error (ME) = 4% and your reported CSAT = 80%, then you are 95% sure that the true value of CSAT lies between 76% and 84%. Based on the above inputs, the number of samples you would need is: SS = [(Z^2*0.5*0.5) + ME^2]/[ME^2 + Z^2*0.5*0.5/N] If N is very large, then the last term in the bracket will be close to zero. For the above example, the required sample size would be: SS = [(1.96^2*0.5*0.5) + 0.04^2]/[0.04^2] = 601. So, you would need at least 600 samples. As noted earlier, make sure that the samples are random and truly unbiased. Hope this helps, SJ.

Hi All, I work for an ITES in a BPO environment for one of the Tech processes. I plan to run a project on C-SAT. following are the challenges: 1. I have historical data of 12 months. 2. C-SAT is sent to customers on random basis, so its just 3-5% of the total volume that we support. 3. My understanding is that this should be treated as "Discrete data". Please correct me if am wrong. 4. Customer support process involves support from other outtask teams as well. Thanks all, B Panday The above discussion was started by B Panday on YAHOO GROUPS

I read through the champions discussion forum and found that we cannot have similar functionality in the subgroup as compared to the main group. Ref: http://champions.collectivex.com/discussion/topic/show/117379?page=2 The next option for us is to create a seperate site for our past participants. We may need to post some articles at both places - but that should be okay.

It also seems that we cannot highlight discussions within a subgroup!

It may still be okay to have just one main thread and users create topics rather than forums within the subgroup. We would not be able to create seperate threads that we have right now (discussion on Mfg. related issues etc). Do you see any major limitations with not having multiple forum topics? ... According to the following link: http://champions.collectivex.com/discussion/topic/show/111919 it is not possible to move topics from the main group to the subgroups. If we decide to use subgroups, we will have to quickly manually move the relevant topics to the new subgroup before other users start posting stuff to the main site. SJ.