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Lean Six Sigma · 8 Essential Terms
Lean Six Sigma core language for career exams and operations interviews: DMAIC versus DMADV, CTQ, defects, 5S, kaizen, poka-yoke, value-stream maps, and the eight wastes.
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The improvement cycle: Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, and Control. It improves an existing process rather than designing a new one.
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Every term, pronunciation, definition, memory hook, and exam trap is written out here so you can review the whole set or print it.
duh-MAY-ik
The improvement cycle: Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, and Control. It improves an existing process rather than designing a new one.
Mnemonic. DMAIC fixes a process that already exists. DMADV designs a new one.
Exam trap. If the process does not exist yet, DMAIC is the wrong cycle. Design work points to DMADV: Define, Measure, Analyze, Design, Verify.
see tee kyoo
Critical to quality: a measurable characteristic that the customer uses, explicitly or not, to judge whether the output is acceptable.
Mnemonic. CTQ is the customer's must, stated so it can be measured.
Exam trap. A CTQ written only in internal jargon the customer would not recognize is the trap. Translate the voice of the customer into a specification you can measure.
DEE-fekt
An output that fails to meet a customer requirement or a specification. In Six Sigma math, defect opportunities are counted against units.
Mnemonic. A defect is a broken promise to the requirement, not a broken feeling about the process.
Exam trap. Do not count a rework loop as zero defects because the customer eventually received a good unit. The internal failure still happened.
five es
A workplace discipline: Sort, Set in order, Shine, Standardize, and Sustain. The point is a stable, visible process, not a one-day cleanup.
Mnemonic. 5S is five habits. Without Sustain, the other four were a Saturday.
Exam trap. Stopping after the cleanup photo is the trap. Standardize and Sustain are the exam's way of asking whether the improvement will exist next month.
KY-zen
Continuous improvement through small, ongoing changes made by the people who do the work. A kaizen event focuses that habit into a short, intense workshop.
Mnemonic. Kaizen is the small step you keep. A radical rebuild has a different name.
Exam trap. A multimillion-dollar system replacement is not a kaizen. Call it what it is. The exam uses kaizen for incremental, participative improvement.
POH-kah YOH-kay
Mistake-proofing: designing the process or the fixture so the error is prevented or is instantly obvious. A checklist can help; a physical interlock is the stronger form.
Mnemonic. Poka-yoke makes the wrong move hard or impossible, instead of asking people to try harder.
Exam trap. Training alone is not poka-yoke. If the same error is still easy to make, the design has not changed.
VAL-yoo streem map
A map of the flow of material and information required to deliver a product or service, separating value-added time from waiting and other waste.
Mnemonic. The value stream map shows the waits between the work, not only the work.
Exam trap. A process flowchart of one department is not a value stream map. The map has to cross the handoffs and show information flow and time.
ayt waysts
A lean list of muda, remembered as TIMWOODS: transportation, inventory, motion, waiting, overproduction, over-processing, defects, and non-utilized talent.
Mnemonic. TIMWOODS: the waste is not only scrap. Excess inventory and unused skill count too.
Exam trap. Overproduction is the waste that feeds the others, not a sign of a healthy buffer. The trap is defending a large finished-goods pile as lean because the line never stops.