Definitions

Sigma is referred as a business-driven, multi-faceted approach, which focuses primarily on process improvement, reduced costs, and increased profits

Statistical term for a process that produces fewer than 3.4 defects {or errors} per million opportunities for defects

The principle that you can create a desired outcome by configuring and controlling the inputs in a specific manner.

"non-cause for the cause"

Just because 2 events happen together doesn't mean that one has caused the other.

Deviation from expectation

Natural variation that you can act to reduce, but you cannot eliminate it.

Directly caused by something special

20% of the inputs account for 80 % of the influence on that system.

"Vital few vs. the trivial many"

4 areas or domains to which Six Sigma can be applied:

• Thinking
• Processing
• Designing
• Managing

The best performance a process, as currently designed, has demonstrated in actual operation.

Work that is done above and beyond what is required to produce a product or service.

{Reworking an item because of defects}

The value observed most frequently

The average. It is theoretical, meaning it may not have actually occurred.

The point along the scale of measure where half the data are below and half are above.

Preferred when there are outliers.

The difference between the largest and the smallest observed data values.

R = X_max - X_min

• a statistical method to define how much variation exists in a set of data or a process.

stands for Six Standard Deviations from mean

The complimentary measurement of yields is defects. If the yield is 90 percent, naturally there must be 10 percent defects.

• Defects Per Unit
• provides a measurement of the average number of defects on a single unit.

the proportion of correct items you get out of a process compared to the number of raw items you put into it.

Using the brain to storm a creative problem and to do so  “in commando fashion, each stormer audaciously attacking the same objective”.

When ideas presented in the Brainstorming session are grouped into meaningful categories

One of the 7M Japanese management and planning tool

the mathematics of the collection, organization, and interpretation of numerical data

the practice of gathering a subset of the total data available from a process or a population.

the collection, organization, and interpretation of the numerical data collected randomly from a process or a population

the collection, organization, and interpretation of the numerical data collected randomly from a process or a population

a set of interrelated work activities characterized by a set of specific inputs and value added tasks that make a procedure for a set of specific outputs

Analyzing this flowchart to investigate the process and identify the problems in the process

because it is assumed that large percentage (80%) of the problems are caused by few percentages (20%) of the processes. So the Pareto chart helps by narrowing the very few areas of concern, while analyzing the process.

A bar chart that is displayed by frequencies. Used to rank the causes of a problem from the most to the least significant.

• is a specialized vertical bar graph that exhibits data collected in such a way that important points necessary for the process under improvement can be demarcated

are defined as bar graph of a frequency distribution in which the widths of the bars are proportional to the classes into which the variable has been divided and the heights of the bars are proportional to the class frequencies

primarily focuses the changing trend or pattern over a specified period of time before measuring the performance of a process

graphic tool is used to search for direct relationship between two factors in a process, to see if a correlation exists between the two

A graphical tool for monitoring changes that occur within a process because of some common cause

Used to depict the changes in the process

the probability that the observed relationship or a difference in a sample occurred by pure chance, and that in the population from which the sample was drawn, no such relationship or differences exist

the relationship between two data sets of variable

when the value of one variable increases with the increase of the other variable.

when the value of one variable increases with the increase of the other variable.

when the value of one variable increases with the increase of the other variable. 

Regression means a relationship between the mean value of random variable and the corresponding value of one or more predictors

It lists the vital features of the project. It describes what the higher management, black belts, and champions have agreed to achieve in the process

The reasons for doing the project are stated.

different events that will determine the effectiveness of the project

A quality measurement technique to measure client happiness.

Customers perceive some product attributes to contribute to their satisfaction more than others. Kano describes this relationship in a diagram.

A set of written questions that is sent to a group of selected customers to obtain answers that will enable corporate decision-making

A selected group of customers who are unfamiliar with each other, collected together to answer a set group of questions

documenting key information about the project.

The project charter specifies the project definition

an illustration of the flow of work {Flow Chart}

Current Functioning and Expected Process

Process maps increase the visibility of any process. This in turn improves communication.

diagrammatic representation of the nature and the flow of work in any organization or process

Oval -indicates the start and end point of the process. They usually contain the words START and STOP, or END 

Rectangular Box -represents the process or an activity in the process  

Parallelogram -represents the input or the output of the process  

• Diamond -represents a decision point in a flow chart. It has two arrows coming out of it, corresponding to yes and no or true or false.
• Circle -represents a place marker. It is used when a line or page has to be changed with the flowchart. This symbol is then numbered and placed at the end of the line or the page.

On the next line or page, this symbol is used with the same number so a reader of the chart can follow the path.

• - Cause-and-effect diagram (also known as the "fishbone" or Ishikawa diagram)
• - Check sheet
• - Control chart
• - Histogram
• - Pareto chart
• - Scatter diagram
• - Stratification (alternately, flow chart or run chart)

Combination of tree diagram and a matrix chart. They are prepared to logically narrow down the focus of the team.

Prioritization matrices are supposed to be used when: 

- Vital root causes are already recognized   and the most important ones have been identified.

- When the issues that have been generated from the brainstorming session are complex and are strongly interrelated

- The resources for the progress are limited and only a vital few activities must be focused upon

is a representation of elements in tabular form

The left-most row and top-most column consists of inter-related elements and the rest of the cells consists of the symbols or the numbers that represent the strength of the relationship between the elements.

A pictorial representation of the chain of actions to be executed to complete a project.

also called arrow diagrams, network diagrams, activity charts, node diagrams etc

A version of the Activity Network Diagrams is also known as PERT (Program evaluation and review technique) chart.

The longest path taken from the start to the end of the project

is the one which is deviating from its engineering specifications

may be functioning just fine, BUT a part of it is not functioning as desired

shows the probability of a certain event occurring at different places within a given time period.

selecting a high-level process step from a process map and breaking it down to a number of steps

refers to computing the total time taken by the each sub process step (both value and non-value adding).

These are those steps, which are usually non-value adding steps but are required by law to be included. These steps cannot be improved.

tool designed to identify the problems which have occurred in a process. It not only explains what has happened and how it has happened but why a problem has occurred in a process.

those causes over which the management has some control. 

Even those causes for which no effective recommendation can be developed cannot be termed as root causes.

a tool used for establishing a correlation between two sets of variables. 

It is used to depict the changes that occur in one set of variables while changing the values of the other set of variables. 

• This diagram does not determine the exact relationship between two variables, but only determines whether the two set of variables are related to each other or
• not; and if they are related, then how strong the relationship is.

Analyzed using Regression Analysis

the process of using statistical analysis to ascertain if the observed disparities between two or more samples are due to random chance