Continuous Improvement is defined as the on-going efforts within an organization to improve the quality and value of its products, processes or services.

Continuous improvement increases the quality and value of a product.

Continuous Improvement makes an organization more competitive & ensures that an organization keeps up with the changing needs and expectations of the customer.

To truly be successful with a continuous improvement program an organization must be intentional about using a process to achieve improvements and sustain them over time.

The best organization are intentional about using a process to make improvements and sustain them over time.

Over the years, different methodologies have been created to drive continuous improvement.

Within this chapter you will learn how to define and distinguish between these different continuous improvement methodologies:

• Total Quality Management
• Kaizen
• Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA)
• Six Sigma

These methodologies each comes with a unique perspective and philosophy, or a common set of tools used to achieve their unique goals.

While these methods are all different in some way, they all share common core principles about successful continuous improvement which include:

• Customer Focus
• Employee Focus
• Process Focus
• Leadership

Customer Focus

An improvement is only an improvement if the customer agrees.

It shouldn’t be a surprise that each of these improvement methodologies keeps the customer as the primary focus.

By focusing on the customer, we ensure we’re providing only what the customer wants and nothing else (waste) both today and in the future.

Employee Focus

The greatest resource of any organization is its people – not it’s equipment, real estate, intellectual property, etc.

Organizations win when they unlock the potential within their organization and fully utilize their greatest resource.

Fully utilizing your greatest resource means engaging people in the activities of continuous improvement and empowering them to make changes to the processes that they work within.

Process Focus

All activities within a business should be viewed as part of a process, and all processes can be improved.

If you can’t describe what you’re doing as a process, you don’t know what you’re doing – W. Edwards Deming

I think this is the most often overlooked perspective of continuous improvement practitioners.  If you learn one thing from this chapter, it should be this.

Senior Leadership Support

Truly effective continuous improvement requires a culture focused on continuous improvement.

Culture and focus start with leaders.  Engaged and supportive leaders are a prerequisite for a true continuous improvement culture.

Choosing the BEST Improvement Tool

Some folks are often adamant about their being a “correct” or best improvement methodology – lean, six sigma, kaizen, total quality management, etc.

This perspective is incorrect and leads to sub-optimal results.

Continuous improvement happens when you make the right improvement, at the right time, using the right tools to maximize the results of your business.

The best tool or improvement methodology depends on the problem at hand and the needs of the customer and the business.

To maximize your results, you should use an integrated approach of all the various tools.

Lastly, remember that continuous improvement can be small, daily incremental improvements, or large break-through innovations, we’re not really distinguishing here.

What matters is that you’re engaged in the process of continuous improvement.

Total Quality Management

Total Quality Management or TQM for short is a philosophy and management approach focused on continuous improvement.

TQM enjoyed mainstream popularity in the late 1970’s, 1980’s and early in the 1990’s due to the teaching of many Quality Guru’s discussed in the Management & Leadership Chapter.

Guru’s like Deming, Juran, Crosby, Ishikawa and many others.

In the 1990’s TQM was overshadowed by ISO 9000, Six Sigma and Lean Manufacturing and has fallen out of vogue.

While TQM does not enjoy the popularity it once did, you’ll notice in the sections below that TQM laid the foundation for other future continuous improvement methodologies.

While many of the other methodologies discussed here come with unique tools or perspectives, TQM is more of a mindset that embraces many various techniques for quality improvement.

Total Quality Management (TQM) is defined by those three words that make up the name:  Total – Quality – Management.

Total – The Quality Gurus who were promoting TQM understood the value in engaging all employees in the pursuit of improvement, and the word Total in TQM implies that all individuals in an organization were responsible for continuous improvement.

Tools like improvement teams and quality circles are employed within TQM to empower and engage employees to solve problems or accomplish certain goals or objectives.

Quality – TQM was founded on the idea that Quality (meeting the customer’s needs) is the ultimate goal of continuous improvement.

The emphasis of TQM is on the customer and that Quality is defined by the customer and what they find valuable, both now and in the future.

This is based o the idea that if a company focuses on the customer, then they will be successful.

Management – TQM is a process-centered approach. TQM stresses that all activities within an organization are part of a process or system that can be managed and improved.

TQM teaches us that our results (good or bad) are a reflection of a process. Bad results (poor quality) is a sign of a bad process and represent an opportunity for improvement.

This word, management, also stresses the involvement and support of top leaders within an organization who are responsible for guiding the organization to the achievement of the overall objectives of the organization.

This includes proper goal setting, creating a positive culture, focusing on the customer, empowering employees to make changes, providing training and feedback, and managing progress towards key organizational objectives.

While TQM might not be in vogue right now, its legacy has carried on in the modern-day Quality Management System, Lean Manufacturing and Six Sigma methodologies.

Kaizen

Kaizen comes from Japanese and is often translated into Change (Kai) for the Better (Zen).

Kaizen refers to any improvement, big or small, that has a positive impact.

Kaizen does not directly translate into or imply the word “continuous” or “philosophy”.

However, the spirit of kaizen, and its application in industry as a methodology for improvement has taken on a continuous nature.

Similarly, while the name itself does not necessarily imply anything about the size of the change, Kaizen often implies smaller-scale, daily improvements involving every member of an organization.

In fact, most kaizen practitioners would tell you that the hallmark of Kaizen is its emphasis on the engagement of all employees, specifically those on the shop floor who perform the value-added work.

What Kaizen practitioners and others have found is that by engaging all associates in improvement, it combines the collective talents within a company to create a very powerful engine for improvement.

Specifically, employees are engaged in identifying and resolving problems within their areas of specialty, driving out errors, waste and variation.

This emphasis on employee engagement is based heavily on the process-centered mindset where every activity is viewed as a process.

When we view every activity as a process, then we can empower our employees to improve the processes within which they work.

In terms of specific tools used within Kaizen, because the word translates to change for the better or improvement, it implies any tool can be used to implement a Kaizen (improvement).

One tool that is commonly used within Kaizen is the tool of Standard Work, and it relates back to the process-centered mindset.

Standard Work is a living document that represents the “best way” to perform a task or execute a process.

Standard Work is similar to Work Instructions discussed about in Documentation of the Quality System chapter which are the detailed “How – To” instructions that describe the specific actions required to execute a process the right way.

Having Standard Work for a process creates a foundation for improvement and consistency.

All employees are performing a task the same way, and the right way, and then improvements can be made to that common approach.

The Standard Work represents the “current state” of a process, and all employees are encouraged to improve on the current state and create the “future state: of the process.

Both of these aspects, the engagement of all employees and the process-centered mindset, make kaizen a very powerful mindset and strategy for improvement.

The other hallmark of Kaizen worth discussing is the strong focus on experimentation and action.

Kaizen practitioners will often engage employees using improvement teams (similar to quality circles) to challenge them to experiment with various ways to solve a problem. Very similar to the PDCA cycle that we will discuss next.

While much of the activity within Kaizen is done continuously, on a small scale, another technique within Kaizen has become popularized – The Kaizen Blitz.

The Kaizen Blitz is a focused and intense improvement effort where a team of subject matter experts and process stakeholders are chartered to solve a large problem or make a breakthrough improvement in a short period of time.

This Kaizen Blitz is seen by some Kaizen practitioners as somewhat counter to the true spirit of Kaizen as a continuous activity, however it remains a popular tool for rapid improvement.

Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA)

The Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) Cycle is a simple yet powerful process for continuous improvement.

The PDCA cycle was popularized by Dr. Edwards Deming who gave credit for the concept to Walter Shewhart and thus the cycle is often called the Deming cycle or the Shewhart cycle.

Later in his career Deming wanted to emphasize the “Check” step and the required amount of study and analysis that should be performed in this step.

Because of this he shifted towards calling it the Plan-Do-Study-Act.  So, the cycle goes by many different names, but it is the same concept.

While this 4-step process was popularized by Deming and Shewhart, they certainly did not invent this methodology.

The PDCA Cycle is a reflection of the scientific method.

The scientific method goes like this – create a hypothesis and design an experiment to test that hypothesis (Plan), execute the experiment (Do), analyze the results (Check) and put that new knowledge into use for future experiments (Act).

A fundamental aspect of both the scientific method and the PDCA cycle is its iterative nature.

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Scientists use knowledge from previous experiments to build on their understanding of a problem or topic and plan future experiments. Thus, the scientific method is an iterative process.

Similarly, the PDCA cycle is an iterative process where the results of the first cycle should drive the next iterative improvement or cycle. This is where the power of the PDCA cycle truly comes from.

This iterative nature puts the continuous in continuous improvement, and gives the PDCA it’s real power.

The PDCA cycle is so powerful that it is the recommended improvement methodology within ISO 9001.

The PDCA cycle can include the usage of other various tools from other methodologies – including the 7 QC Tools (Check Sheets, Control Charts, Scatter Plots, Pareto Analysis), 7 Quality Management & Planning Tools, and other Statistical methods (Design of Experiments).

The Steps of the PDCA Cycle

Let’s jump into the 4-step process and review the details of each step.

Step 1 – Plan

The 1^st Step in PDCA is to create a plan on how to accomplish your goal.

Poor planning can invalidate the whole PDCA process.

Having a plan is critical, and you must do your due diligence in this step to maximize the results of your effort.

As it relates to planning, you’ll want to be crystal clear about the goal or objective you’re trying to accomplish.

The PDCA cycle is versatile enough to be used when solving a problem, changing a process or achieving a new target condition.

This planning step is similar to the Define step in DMAIC where we’re defining our problem statement, or establishing the goals/objectives of a project.

If you’re goal is to solve a problem, then your plan should outline the experiment you wish to run to determine root cause. This might include the usage of a DOE, or the establishment of a null hypothesis you’d like to test.

If you’re goal is to achieve a new breakthrough goal or implement a change, then you will want to design the new processes necessary to deliver the expected results.  This new process is what will be studied in the PDCA cycle.

This planning phase should also include a discussion about the potential risks to achieving the goal and any countermeasures that can be used to mitigate that risk.

Depending on the complexity of the situation, the planning step might include the creation of a project charter, a flow diagram, brainstorming + Affinity Diagram, or an Activity Network Diagram.  These are the 7 QC Tools and 7 Quality Management and Planning tools we learned about previously.

This planning phase can also include the creation of new check sheets to facilitate effective data collection on the current state of the process and future state of the process.

Step 2 – Do

Step 2 in the PDCA Cycle is to DO what you planned.

This might mean executing an experiment and collect data on the product or process being studied.

This might mean implementing a new process, or changing an old process.

Collecting data and observing the process (or experiment) is important during this phase as you will use this data (or experimental observations) in the next step to determine if the change/experiment was successful.

Step 3 – Check (Study)

Step 3 in the PDCA Cycle is the check and study the results of the experiment conducted in the DO phase.

This should include the analysis of all data, which can be done using ANOVA, Pareto Analysis, Hypothesis testing, Histograms, Process Capability Analysis, Scatter Plotting, Linear Regression, Yield Analysis, etc.

You should also compare the results you observed in the experiment against what you originally expected.

This is the time in the cycle where you learn something new about your product, process or problem.

This includes reviewing what went well and what didn’t go well with your original plan, and uncovering gaps in your knowledge.

Step 4 – Act (or Adjust)

Step 4 is the take action based on what you learned in step 3, or make adjustments to your original plan.

This might include implementing a corrective action to solve a problem, or fully implementing a change to a process or product.

If the results of your experiment were negative, use the knowledge you learned to go through the PDCA cycle again, or make adjustments to the initial plan.

If the results were positive, brainstorm the next target condition for your product or process and iterative through the PDCA cycle again.

Regarding of the results, start the cycle all over again using the knowledge from the previous cycle.

Now let’s move on to another major methodology – six sigma.

Six Sigma

This section on six sigma will be broken down into four major topics.

The first is an introduction to six sigma, this will include the history of six sigma, the key focus areas of six sigma, and the metrics of six sigma.

The second topic is the DMAIC process along with the various six sigma tools that can be used within DMAIC.

The third topic is the infrastructure of six sigma, including a breakdown of the belts, etc.

The fourth and final topic are the keys to a successful six sigma implementation.

Intro to Six Sigma

The History of Six Sigma

Six Sigma was developed in the 1980’s at Motorola by engineers like Bill Smith and Dr. Mikel J Harry.

Six Sigma was originally developed as an iteration on the then-popular TQM methodology, which later resulted in Motorola winning the first ever MBNQA (Malcolm Baldridge National Quality Award) in 1988 for excellence in manufacturing.

Six Sigma was famously adopted by GE’s then-CEO Jack Welch which again fueled the popularity of six sigma throughout the 90’s and into the 21^st century.

While other methodologies discussed really represent a certain mind-set or philosophy on continuous improvement, Six Sigma has matured from not only a philosophy on improvement, but also an entire tool-kit of improvement methods that have had a huge impact on the quality industry over the last 20 – 30 years.

Focus of Six Sigma

Six Sigma started with a very unique focus around improvement, which still influences six sigma practitioners today.

This is the keen focus on variation, and the desire to eliminate or decrease variation within our processes in order to achieve higher levels of quality.

As I noted above, six sigma owes much of its perspective to the TQM methodology that was in-vogue in the 1980’s and thus many of the core concepts of TQM have translated into six sigma.

These include a focus on customer satisfaction the idea that quality is defined by the customer.

Some of the new and unique focus areas within six sigma include a strong focus on a project selection process meant to boost the bottom line of an organization and help the organization achieve its strategic vision.

Six Sigma is very much focused on business results, and the project selection process requires an analysis of the impact of projects.

The other unique focus area for six sigma is that it is very heavy in statistics and fact based decision making. This will become more evident when we start talking about the metrics and tools within six sigma.

The last focus area that six sigma has is the process centered approach. Everything is a process, and every process produces an output that a customer is willing to pay for.

The performance of our processes is what makes up the essence of six sigma – let’s explore that now.

Metrics Within Six Sigma – The Capability of a Process

The concept of a process, and process capability, is central to Six Sigma and so many other concepts in quality engineering.

Every process has 3 common features: inputs, the process and outputs.

The outputs of a process are the product features and specifications that our customers desire.

The quality of our products, and the quality of these outputs depend on the process.

The output of our process can be studied and measured against the customer requirements as a reflection of the quality of the process- this is process capability.

Below you can see a histogram of the output of a process. This process has an output that’s normally distributed and is characterized by its average value and the variation of the distribution.

To assess the capability of our process we compare the output of our process (average and variation), which is often called the voice of the process, against the customer requirements (voice of the customer).

Based on this analysis you can see that our process produces non-conforming product in the tails of the distribution – the portion of the normal distribution that’s beyond the specification limit (on both sides of the distribution).

This is poor quality, and is an opportunity for improvement.  

Let’s see what happens to the process when we use six sigma tools to eliminate the major sources of variation that are causing poor quality.

You can see that after we’ve reduced the variation of the process the tails of the distribution are well within the specification limits, meaning that we’ve eliminated some rejects and improved quality.

The term six sigma reflects the number of standard deviations that fit within the specification limits.

This is a great opportunity to review some details from the chapter on probability distributions. The image below shows the percentage of the population that fits within each standard deviation.

So 68.3% of a normally distributed population falls within one standard deviation of the mean, 95.5% falls within two standard deviations, and 99.7% falls within three standard deviations.

If the specification limits are only 1-sigma away from the mean, then a large portion of the distribution will be non-conforming.

If the specification limits are 6-sigma away from the mean, then very few failures are likely to occur.

Having a process where six standard deviations of variation fit within the specification limits can be described as the ultimate goal of six sigma.

Below is a table that describes the sigma level, and the percentage of the population that will be defective, along with another common six sigma metric, DPMO (Defects Per Million Opportunities), and the Process Capability.

Below is a picture of what 2σ, 4σ and 6σ look like. The primary difference between each of these graphs is the variation, not the average value.

We can make substantial improvements to our process by eliminating sources of variation which result in more of the population falling within the specifications thereby eliminating rejects (and improving quality).

The 1.5 Sigma Shift

If you’re already familiar with Six Sigma you might be asking yourself, what about the infamous 1.5 sigma shift.

Or perhaps your saying to yourself – I thought a six sigma process delivered 3.4 DPMO, not 0.002. What gives.

Let me explain.

Over time, six sigma practitioners have recognized that the long-term performance of a process is not as good as the short-term performance of a process.

Over the long term, a process will like experience new sources of variation, or existing sources of variation grow in magnitude, etc.

The point is that long term variation is always greater than short term variation.

This phenomenon was noticed by Bill Smith, a Motorola engineer and founding father of six sigma.

To account for this change in performance, Bill recommended an empirically based (aka – best guess 😊) “long term shift” of 1.5-sigma to help folks estimate the long-term performance of their process.

We can take this shift and create new estimates for DPMO, and percent defective to estimate long term performance, and now you can see that a six sigma process is estimated to produce 3.4 DPMO in the long run.

This 1.5-sigma shift is arbitrary and often criticized as such.  However, the premise behind it is correct and thus most six sigma practitioners recognize the shift and the resulting DPMO metrics.

You can compare this to the previous table and see the drastic changes in percent defective (% defective) and DPMO.

While I certainly agree with the premise behind the shift, I think the right approach to long term variation is to base any adjustment off of your process knowledge and data.

Now let’s move on to the real hero within Six Sigma – the DMAIC improvement process.

DMAIC (Define – Measure – Analyze – Improve – Control)

DMAIC, (pronounced duh-MAY-ick) is a 5-step improvement process that is Six Sigma’s version of the PDCA cycle (and the scientific method).

Just like with PDCA, DMAIC can be used to solve a complex problem, or make major improvements to a process/product.

DMAIC is really the heart of six sigma, and like the PDCA cycle, it should be repeated often so that improvements build off each other.

Let’s go through each step in detail.

Define of DMAIC

First, we Define a goal to be achieved, a problem to be solved, or a process needing improvement.

Having a clearly defined problem statement or project goal is a critical starting point. Similarly, if you’re using the improvement kata you would start by defining the ideal state of your process.

Below are some other activities that might occur in the Define stage:

• Identify the Critical to quality attributes, customer needs or other expectations (Voice of the Customer)
• Clearly defined project objectives (scoping and timelines) along with boundaries
• Initial data that would support the definition of the problem statement
• Identify stakeholders and needed cross-functional team participants
• Perform a Cost/Benefit analysis for any proposed solutions
• Create a process map or value stream of the current state process
• Benchmark or Brainstorm the future state of the process

Measure of DMAIC

Once we’ve defined a problem, we must know Measure the current state of the process or problem.

This might include measuring the process capability of the current state process. This phase might also include designing an experiment to identify key input variables and output variables.

Below are some other activities that might occur in the Measure stage:

• Measure the process capability of the current state process
• Define and assess the effectiveness of any measurement methods (gauge R&R)
• Design and execute a DOE to test a hypothesis about root cause
• Create a business case for solving the problem using the current state data
• Implement proposed process changes on a small scale to measure the effect of the change
• Brainstorm the root cause of a problem using the cause and effect matrix
• Collect data from other data sources (customer complaints, supplier surveys, etc)

Analyze of DMAIC

Once we’ve measured our process, it’s time to analyze the results/data to identify the root cause of problem. This step can also include the identification of key variables within a process that have an impact on the critical outputs.

Below are some other activities that might occur in the Analyze stage:

• ANOVA Analysis of a completed DOE to identify critical inputs to a process and its outputs
• Scatter Plot (Linear Regression) analysis to quantify the relationship between inputs and outputs of a process
• Pareto Analysis of various root causes and contributing factors to a problem
• Process Capability Analysis of Future State Process (Implemented small scale process change)
• 5 Why Analysis to determine the root cause and contributing factors associated with the problem
• Assess the impact of an experimental change to a process (future state analysis)

Improve of DMAIC

The improve step is when we use the knowledge learned in the first 3 phases to make positive changes to our process.

This might include implementing a corrective action to solve a quality problem, or fully implementing a change to a process to reduce variation or waste, etc.

Below are some other activities that might occur in the Improve stage:

• Make changes to a process to eliminate variation or eliminate waste
• Implement corrective actions to a process and test the results of the future state
• Use mistake-proofing (poka-yoke) to eliminate a failure mode within a process
• Implement standard work to define the “best way” to perform a task
• Communicate the proposed changes to the affected stakeholders
• Train affected employees and stakeholders on the new process
• Brainstorm unintended consequences associated with proposed process changes and any countermeasures and contingencies to mitigate risk

Control of DMAIC

The last step in the improvement process is Control.  This is often the most forgotten or overlooked portion of the improvement cycle.

This final step is an improvement over the PDCA cycle because it forces users to consider how they are going to control the changes recently implemented and sustain the improvement over time.

With all of the time and attention that the current problem is getting, it’s hard to imagine how anyone could forget about it. But with time, memory fades and successful process changes can degrade.

So, it’s important that we spend time focusing on how we will Control the change we made to our process. This will ensure that the root cause of the problem was eliminated and that the objectives we achieved will be sustained over time.

Below are some other activities that might occur in the Control stage:

• Implement SPC (Control Charts) to monitor and control the process
• Create or update a control plan that maps the relationship between CTQ’s and critical process inputs
• Revise Standard Work to ensure process changes are captured & lessons learned are captured
• Track improvements after a change and confirm the benefits originally estimated
• Brainstorm other potential processes that could benefit from a similar change
• Perform an After Action Review (AAR) to determine what went right/wrong along the way
• Plan the next iteration through the DMAIC process.

Tools in the Six Sigma DMAIC Process

I wanted to summarize the DMAIC process and the various tools available to the six-sigma practitioner into a single table for easy reference. Many of these tools are discussed in other chapters of the CQE BOK:

These tools are not unique to six sigma, however six sigma practitioners have integrated these tools succinctly into the DMAIC process for maximum effectiveness.

Infrastructure & Belts within Six Sigma

One unique aspect of six sigma is its special infrastructure of people within the organization (white belts, yellow belts, green belts, black belts and master black belts) who are experts in the tools and methods of six sigma.

One reason touted for this distinction of experts are the various statistical and data drive tools used within six sigma which require a unique skill and cannot be properly utilized by all employees.

This idea of having “special” employees is a stark contrast to other methodologies (TQM, Kaizen, PDCA, Lean) which all stress the importance of engaging ALL associates in continuous improvement.

In my opinion, this unique structure of experts is a shortcoming within six sigma.

The biggest asset of any organization is its human resources – people.  Engaging and empowering the biggest asset within your company will always lead to better outcomes, and anything less would certainly limit the success of an organization.

This is one of the reasons that six sigma has evolved into lean six sigma (LSS), thus allowing six sigma practitioners to take advantage of the lean/kaizen perspective which results in the full engagement of all associates within an organization.

Tips on Six Sigma Implementation

I would be remiss if I didn’t spend a quick second sharing two tips on the successful implementation of six sigma.

The first tip that leads to effective implementations of six sigma is a heavy focus on training on the various tools and techniques within six sigma.

This training should focus both on how to use the tools, but more importantly, when to use the tools. It’s easy to understand how a tool works.

It takes a deeper understanding of all of the tools to know which tool is the right tool to be used at any given moment.

The second, and most important tip to a successful implementation of six sigma is outstanding support and focus from top management.

In fact, without support from top management it’s almost impossible for a six sigma implementation to truly flourish.

 

Conclusion

You already know this but . . . .  the best organizations are continuously improving to better serve their customers.

Continuous Improvement makes an organization more competitive & ensures that an organization keeps up with the changing needs and expectations of the customer.

To truly be successful with a continuous improvement program an organization must be intentional about using a process to achieve improvements and sustain them over time.

Over the years, different methodologies have been created to drive the continuous improvement of products, processes or services.

Within this chapter we learned how to define and distinguish between theses continuous improvement methodologies:

Total Quality Management Summary

Total Quality Management or TQM for short is a management approach that enjoyed mainstream popularity in the late 1970’s, 1980’s and early in the 1990’s.

Total Quality Management (TQM) is defined by those three words that make up the name:  Total – Quality – Management.

Total in TQM implies that all individuals in an organization are responsible for continuous improvement. This requires that an organization engages all employees in the pursuit of improvement.

The word Quality reminds people that the ultimate goal of continuous improvement is to meet the needs of the customer today and tomorrow.

Management reminds us that TQM emphasizes a process-centered approach, and stresses the value of good leadership/management within an organization.

While TQM might not be in vogue right now, its legacy has carried on in the modern-day Quality Management System, Lean Manufacturing and Six Sigma methodologies.

Kaizen Summary

Kaizen comes from Japanese and is often translated into Change (Kai) for the Better (Zen) and refers to any improvement, big or small, that has a positive impact.

While the name itself does not necessarily imply anything about the size of the change, Kaizen often implies smaller-scale, daily improvements involving every member of an organization.

Similar to TQM, Kaizen practitioners value the engagement of all associates, and the process-centered mindset.  One tool that reflects these values is Standard Work, which is a living document that represents the “best way” to perform a task.

While much of the activity within Kaizen is done continuously, on a small scale, another technique within Kaizen has become popularized – The Kaizen Blitz.

The Kaizen Blitz is a focused and intense improvement effort where a team of subject matter experts and process stakeholders are chartered to solve a large problem or make a breakthrough improvement in a short period of time.

Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) Cycle Summary

The Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) Cycle is a simple yet powerful process for continuous improvement.

The PDCA cycle was popularized by Dr. Edwards Deming who gave credit for the concept to Walter Shewhart and thus the cycle is often called the Deming cycle or the Shewhart cycle.

The PDCA Cycle is a reflection of the scientific method, and a fundamental aspect of both the scientific method and the PDCA cycle is its iterative nature, which is what makes it continuous in nature.

This cycle is a 4-step process where you plan out a change, implement that change, check (or study) the results of that change, and then act to make that change final, or adjust the initial plan based on what you learned in the check phase.

Six Sigma Summary

Six sigma is a big topic and we broke it down into four unique sections.

The first section was the history and focus of six sigma where we learned that engineers at Motorola first developed six sigma, with a unique focus on reducing or eliminating variation to improve the capability of their processes.

The second topic within six sigma is the DMAIC (duh-MAY-ick) process, which is the heart of six sigma.

This 5-step improvement process is Six Sigma’s version of the PDCA cycle (and the scientific method), and can be used to solve a complex problem, or make major improvements to a process/product.

Whole books can be written about the DMAIC process, and we focused on the key steps and activities within each phase of DMIAC.

The third topic is the unique perspective within six sigma which is its special infrastructure of people within the organization (white belts, yellow belts, green belts, black belts and master black belts) who are experts in the tools and methods of six sigma.

This idea of having “special” employees is a stark contrast to other methodologies (TQM, Kaizen, PDCA, Lean) which all stress the importance of engaging ALL associates in continuous improvement.

Finally, we finished with the tips for a successful implementation of a six sigma improvement program which include a heavy focus on initial upfront training, and the necessary support of top leaders in the organization.

Next: Lean Tools