Lean Six Sigma Academy

I’ve been doing a tremendous amount of classroom training the last few weeks. As an aside, if you’re interested in having me or one of my colleagues conduct in person training (lean or six sigma) please contact us.

Anyhow, over the last 14 days I’ve taught more than 40 people everything from hypothesis testing to the different types of pull systems used during lean implementations.

The students have been fabulous and a true joy to teach… but that’s not the point of this article.

You see, while teaching these classes I was reminded of how important it is to just chill out and have some fun. Allow me to explain.

Teaching Stats is Boring

Teaching statistics to a bunch of Black Belts is not always exhilarating. There’s some math and, for some, that isn’t much fun.

Well, during one of the harder lessons on Advanced DOE (Response Surface Optimization) I decided to shake things up a bit… and by shake I really do mean shake.

Half way through this lesson we were transitioning into the teeth of the concept and I knew some students would be intimidated.

Getting’ Jiggy With It!

To counter this, I inserted a funny slide with the picture of a crazy dog dancing summarizing how we were going to take things to the next level. In other words we were about to “get jiggy with it!”

I also had Will Smith’s song “Getting’ Jiggy with It” automatically play when the dog picture appear. To add additional shock factor I asked one of my colleagues to come to the front of the room before the slide (and music) played.

Once he and I were in position I transitioned to the slide… as the music started to play we both started to dance like true fools for about 15 seconds.

My colleague attempted a form of the “sprinkler” and only the good Lord knows what my little dance moves should be called. As an aside, I’m the guy on the right in the picture above… and to protect the innocent I’ve blurred out my colleagues face so he doesn’t shoot me. Ha!

Total Engagement

But here’s the thing… once the class got over the shock of what was happening they exploded into applause. And I really mean exploded!

And most importantly… the class was totally engaged and ready to learn. They were having a tremendous amount of fun and things went far better than I ever expected with the teaching of Response Surface Designs.

The True Lesson

The true lesson for me was to never forget how powerful a little shock and extreme laughter can be.

If you are a consultant or trainer of any kind I strongly encourage you to stop taking yourself so seriously. You’re not a professor attempting to make people fall asleep. And chances are good that the material you’re presenting is pretty boring. Sorry, but it’s true.

So, don’t be afraid to shake things up a bit. And don’t be afraid to act like a fool for 15 seconds. It just might engage your students like never before!

Do you agree?

My family and I recently took a road trip.  During a stop at a restaurant I came across this sign in the restroom (click picture to enlarge it).

I’m curious to hear your thoughts on whether you think this is a weak or strong control.

What do you think?

I’m happy to announce that LSS Academy is now on LinkedIn.

We’ll obviously continue to roll strong here on the blog… but there seems to be something something special about LinkedIn when it comes to generating buzz about lean and six sigma.

So, I hope you’ll join the conversation over at the Lean Six Sigma Academy LinkedIn Group today!

There are many other outstanding LinkedIn Groups as well… just search for “lean” or “lean six sigma” and you’ll discover a lot of excellent conversation already in progress.

Mark Graban wrote a relatively simple post a few days ago that has simply BLOWN up with comments.

Mark, if I may be so bold, doesn’t really believe in certifications… especially if the words six sigma are involved!

Me, well I do have certification in six sigma… and am proud of it as I had to work my butt off for it.  And, more importantly, my certification got me interviews for jobs I wouldn’t have ever gotten without the certification.

With this said, I  am always interested in what others – like Mark – have to say on the matter.

So, while I am all about comments here on LSS Academy I’d like to encourage you to visit the Lean Blog and continue the discussion there rather than here.  As of this post there are more than 40 comments!  So please head on over there and keep the discussion going LSS Academy readers!

I recently wrote an article for the iSixSigma magazine focused on the 7 Deadly Wastes.

And as it turns out the good folks over at iSixSigma have been nice enough to allow me to offer this article to LSS Academy readers in PDF form.

So feel free to download the article and read it at your leasure.

Also, if you’d like to subscribe to the iSixSigma magazine and get $10 off the subscription price of $59.95 please follow this link and use the promo code: PromoA.

Please note that this is not an affiliate link meaning I don’t earn anything from this.

Full disclosure: I am on the iSixSigma magazine editorial advisory board… but I’ve long loved this magazine and would highly recommend it even if I weren’t on their board.

Balaji, a reader of LSS Academy, recently sent me the following question/comment via email:

Toyota, GM, and Ford are experts in state of the art assembly technology and in implementing Lean and Six Sigma process improvement methods and so on. Then why have GM & Ford failed? Even Toyota closed its branch production units in Japan? Though I’m also one Lean Six Sigma Black Belt I too lost the confidence that Six Sigma or Lean or TPS can’t do anything in this recession period.

Regards,
Balaji.

Correcting Misconceptions

Before getting started, let me first say that I’ve done some research and don’t believe Toyota has closed any production units in Japan. If I am wrong here feel free to comment below with a correction.

Also, before the lean purists get too excited Toyota does not practice “six sigma” the same way companies like GE and Allied Signal do.

With all of this said, Toyota is still struggling these days just like many other companies.

The company is still deep in the red, logging a net loss of 77.82 billion yen (US$817 million) for the April-June quarter.

How can this be?

So the million dollar question is how did this happen? How could the mighty Toyota, the company that “changed the world” with their production and management system, lose money like this?

The Reality of Running a Business

Well, here’s my take on it.

No matter how amazing your production or management systems are or how well you respect people or how conscious you are of the environment… if no one is buying your product or service problems are coming.

You don’t need to be a CPA to figure this out… if your expenses are greater than your sales you’re in for some trouble.

And it goes without saying that people haven’t been buying many automobiles the past few quarters and no one, including Toyota, saw it coming. Perhaps they should have… but they didn’t.

Now, to be fair, Toyota has weathered this storm about as well as any automotive company SINCE they have an amazing production and management system… but they are not infallible. Far from it.

Rise Up Continuous Improvement Practitioners!

So does this mean lean and six sigma practitioners like Balaji (or you and me) should pack up ship and run for the hills until the orders start flooding in again?

Of course not.

Your company needs you now more than ever. Specifically, they need you to:

• Attack the waste that is sucking operating income down the drain.
• Find better ways to manage the inventory that is tying up much needed cash.
• Reduce lead-times that will make you more competitive.
• Partner with your sales and marketing team to see how you can apply lean and six sigma principles.
• Stay positive while working to make things better EACH AND EVERY day even though you might feel like your boss is more focused on other things (like how to make payroll this week).

A “W” Recovery?

This market will eventually turn around. However, I’ve heard some economists claim that we might follow a “W” recovery pattern instead of the more common “V” recovery pattern we often see after recessions.

In other words, things could look better (like they seem to be now?) only to tank once more before the final recovery takes place.

But no matter how things recover one thing is for sure… the companies that work to become stronger during this recession by investing in continuous improvement will be the new winners of the post recession period. This I’m sure of.

What do you think?

Do you agree with me? Do you have any other thoughts on why lean exemplars like Toyota are losing money? Do you agree that investing in continuous improvement is more important than ever in these tough economic times?

If you enjoy statistics this is the perfect article for you! But even if hearing the words hypergeometric distribution makes you want to yack all over the floor at least give this article a quick skim as it could prove useful for you someday… especially if you ship a product or service to a customer!

The Scene

To help me with this article I’m going to make up a completely fabricated story.

Let’s say a producer of widgets (replace widgets with the product your company produces if you wish) recently shipped 1,000 units to their customer.

Let’s also say that, prior to shipping these units, the producer randomly inspected 100 widgets.

After inspection, the producer ships the 1,000 widgets to their customer, collects payment, and moves on to the next order.

The Angry Customer

A few weeks later the producer gets a phone call from their customer – who is less than pleased to say the least – explaining that they’ve discovered 4 defective widgets and they hadn’t even looked at all the widgets!

The customer goes on to say that they are sending all 1,000 widgets back and they are giving the producer 10 days to make things right.

Calling All Inspectors

Once the widgets arrive back in the plant a team quickly inspects all 1,000 widgets. Once they are complete they realize that 36 of the widgets were actually defective!

Identified Root Cause

Luckily, the root cause of the defective units was quickly identified and an immediate countermeasure was put into place ensuring this problem would never happen again.

How Did This Order Ever Ship?

The next question that was asked was how this order ever shipped. It was hypothesized that since 100 widgets were 100% inspected at least 1 of the 100 widgets should have been found to defective which would have forced a more thorough inspection of the entire lot.

Bring in the Black Belt

Not sure how to solve this problem the team asked their local Six Sigma Black Belt to help them determine the probability of catching at least 1 defective product while inspecting 100 units out of a lot of 1,000.

The Hypergeometric Distribution

After learning more about the situation the black belt decides to use the Hypergeometric Distribution, which Wikipedia so eloquently defines as a discrete probability distribution that describes the number of successes in a sequence of n draws from a finite population without replacement.

Here is how the black belt set things up in Minitab, which is the statistical software package they use.

In this example we are dealing with a finite population of 1,000 widgets so the “Population size” is 1,000.

Since we know, in this example, 36 widgets were defective and being defective is the “Event” in this case, the “Event count in the population” is 36.

Since the company sampled 100 widgets before shipping the lot, the “Sample size” is 100.

And since, for the Hypergeometric Distribution, X is the number of defective widgets we found in the sample of 100 widgets… X can range from 0 (we found no defective widgets) up to 36 (we found all defective widgets).

Now then, since the Black Belt wants to know the probability of finding at least 1 defective widget, they want to find the probability that X is greater than 0.

So, by using an “Input constant” of 0, they learn that the probability of having no defective widgets in this lot of 1,000 widgets is ~ 2% as shown above.

In other words, there is a 98% chance that at least 1 of the 36 defective widgets should have been detected during the inspection process.

The Conclusion

With this information, the team came to the conclusion that their inspection process was broken. There were three theories that needed to be investigated.

1. The measurement system is not repeatable and/or reproducible
2. The units were not inspected at all
3. Defective units were allowed to pass

So, as is the case with many things related to continuous improvement, answering one question has created several more that need to be addressed.

What do you think?

What do you think of this analysis? Would you have done it another way? What about the conclusions of the team… can you think of another theory of why these widgets were sent to the customer?

I am the father of 4 wonderfully perfect children. I love them more than words can describe and couldn’t imagine my life without them.

And, recently, I’ve been thinking about how much having children helps me to sharpen my lean and six sigma practitioner “saw.”

Of course this isn’t to say that those without kids can’t also sharpen their lean and six sigma saws… but we parents just might have a bit of an advantage if we leverage this gift we’ve been given.

So, with this said, here are some of the ways my children help me to be better at what I do.

Commitment

Raising children takes a tremendous amount of commitment and self sacrifice. No matter what… we know at least one of our kids will be hopping on our bed by 6:00 AM each and every morning.

Likewise, anyone serious about lean or six sigma knows how important it is to stay committed to excellence. In fact, every day you should ask yourself… have I left this place better than it was when I walked in this morning?

Patience

Ah yes, patience. It goes without saying that my kids often get on my nerves and really try my patience. Especially as they learn to ‘test boundaries.’ But I know this is part of growing up so I do my best to persevere.

Likewise, continuous improvement often comes much slower than many expect or desire. In other words, patience is most definitely required!

Continuous Learning

My wife home-schools our children and I often marvel at how much my oldest (6 years old) daughter has learned.

She, if you’ll allow a proud Dad to boast for a moment, is reading at around a 3rd grade level and can work my iPhone better than most adults I know!

But the thing I am most in love with is how hungry all of my children are to learn. I pray they never lose this.

Likewise, all lean and six sigma practitioners must continue to learn. There are many ways to go about this such as reading books, or blogs, or online training that never ends.

Long-term Thinking

As parents my wife and I are constantly thinking long term with respect to our children. We are doing our very best to form their faith while teaching them to be good citizens.

Likewise, many business owners and senior executives would do well to focus on the long term and not on how to simply make Wall Street happy this week.

Why, Why, Why, Why, Why

If there is one lean principle most kids have mastered by the age of 3 or 4 it’s how to ask why over and over.

Sadly most parents – myself included from time to time – often grow tired of hearing so many questions day in and day out which often times beats this amazing gift right out of our most important assets (our kids).

So, it goes without saying that if we grown-ups all learned – or remembered – how we used to ask why over and over… well, the world might just be a better place.

Let’s Hear from More Parents

If you’re a parent or spend a lot of time around children… what have I missed? Are there other things you’ve learned from your little one’s about continuous improvement or life in general?

Today I submit a quick, but extremely important post if you produce a product of any kind.

There are two different ways your product can be “bad.”

It’s defective

First, said product can be defective. This is to say something is wrong with it. It doesn’t work like it’s supposed to. It doesn’t look like it’s supposed to. The customer, who pays you good money, ain’t gonna be happy with said product.

It has multiple defects

Second, the aforementioned defective product might have multiple defects. This is to say there are many things ‘wrong’ with the product. It has 103 different scratches all over it, 14 surface mount components are not soldered correctly, and the text on the label is incorrect in 3 different places.

Manage the defects

In summary, it only takes one defect to create a defective product. But a single defective product can have a zillion defects.

What does this me to you, maker of said product? You need to stop focusing on how many defective units you produce… instead you should be laser focused on the number of defects you’ve created the past month.

Do you agree? Is this how you manage your business?

“Knowledge is what keeps the momentum going between dreams and reality.” -Author Unknown

I am a firm believer that the “thinking” that occurs while practicing lean manufacturing and six sigma is extremely important.

I was reminded of this by, well, myself when I re-read an answer I gave Kevin Meyer a month or so ago for a blog series he’s running.

And I won’t back away from this since I truly believe that learning how to think is far more important than any single “tool” or “technique” one can learn.

But does this mean the tools and techniques of continuous improvement aren’t important? Of course not.

In fact, I’d be willing to wager that the more tools and techniques you know the better you’ll be able to think and solve problems. Allow me to explain.

Continuous Improvement Snobs

There are some folks so in love with either lean or six sigma they snub their nose at the other.

Some ‘lean purists’ will attempt to say, for example, how six sigma is no good and that they wouldn’t be caught dead using “it” as if it (six sigma) were some type of disease.

Likewise there are ‘six sigma purists’ who think lean is a second class continuous improvement citizen due to what they feel to be a simple set of tools.

With all due respect, I find both sets of people highly ignorant… but that’s just me.

Learn it all

My approach has always been to learn as much as I can about all facets of continuous improvement. You see, I could really care less if something is labeled lean, six sigma, lean six sigma, TOC, etc.

All I want to know is how to solve problems no matter the situation. And time has taught me that sometimes a so-called six sigma toolset might be of better use than a so-called lean toolset.

For example, I am not sure I’ve ever read Dr. James Womack or Dr. Jeffrey Liker (two leading ‘lean’ experts) ever write about the benefits or importance of a repeatable and reproducible measurement system.

Likewise, I am not sure I’ve ever read George Box (a leading statistical expert) write about the greatness of an andon system. But does this mean six sigma ‘belts’ should not learn about what an andon system is? Of course not.

Morale of the story

So, the morale of my rant is this. I truly believe the more you learn the more you’ll be able to think. And the more you’re able to think the better you’ll be at solving problems. And, in the end, isn’t that what continuous improvement is really about?

Do you agree with me? Have you ever heard a ‘lean’ guru bash six sigma or perhaps a ‘six sigma’ guru bash lean? What is your response when they do?