Soft Savings

Soft savings are the intangible benefits of continuous improvement. Contrast this with hard savings which are those that can be directly pointed to as a line item on some sort of financial record such as a receipt or an invoice. Soft savings include things like reduced frustration, improved job satisfaction, Read more…

Hard Savings

Hard savings are those that are directly linked to reducing to an actual expense. There should be no confusion about how much was actually saved, as there is an invoice, payroll stub, bill, receipt, or the like associated with the expense. Even though there is a specific, quantifiable expense, there Read more…

SWOT Analysis

SWOT analysis stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. It is a structured approach for assessing a project, new business venture, ongoing concern, or similar situation. By itself, SWOT analysis has limited utility. It has much more value when used with a purpose, such as a product launch, an annual Read more…

Tribal Knowledge

Tribal knowledge is the unwritten collective wisdom of an organization. It refers to the tradition of tribes handing information down from generation to generation in the time before the written word was developed. In the same fashion, when information is not document properly, it must be passed from employee to Read more…

Histogram

A histogram is a specialized form of bar chart that shows the distribution of the data it is representing. Each bar represents a uniform range of data values, with the height of the bar showing the number of occurrences that fall into that range. Because a histogram shows a distribution, Read more…

Capability

Capability simply means that a person or machine has the ability to perform a required task. It is a binary measure. That simply means that it is physically possible in the current state to do something, or it is not. Capability should not be confused with yield or effectiveness (how Read more…

Common Cause Variation

Common cause variation is the predictable, repetitive, systemic portion of variation. Contrast this with special cause variation, caused by unusual occurrences. Common cause variation, in a nutshell, is the consistent random (or random appearing) fluctuation built into a process. It is also frequently referred to as noise. While common cause Read more…

6 P’s

The 6 P’s is a mnemonic tool similar to the 6 M’s. Both are used to categorize causes on an Ishikawa (cause & effect) diagram. The 6 M’s were traditionally used for fishbone diagrams on the shop floor or other production environments. The 6 P’s originated when more and more Read more…

6 M’s

The 6 M’s are a mnemonic tool used primarily during the creation of a cause & effect diagram. The 6 M’s are: Machines Methods Materials Mother Nature Manpower (People Power) Measurements Watch the 6 M’s Video Let’s look at the 6 M’s in more detail. Machines: Tools and equipment used Read more…

Delphi Method

The Delphi method of predicting outcomes has been around for a long while but is not widely used in continuous improvement. It is the process of posing questions to many experts and using a summary of their results to further a discussion to predict a future outcome. One such panel Read more…

Buffer (Production)

A production buffer is a type of inventory allocated specifically as a hedge against variation. The root cause of the unpredictability may be due to the normal variation of a process, or any of a variety of types of special cause variation. The latter causes include things like supplier unreliability, Read more…