ARTICLES (WHITE PAPER)

Smarter Solutions, Inc. provides in these articles (white paper) how-to details that can have significant benefit to both organizational leadership and practitioners. Described (among other things) is the Integrated Enterprise Excellence (IEE) business management and improvement system which goes beyond Lean Six Sigma and the Balanced Scorecard. IEE provides a means to integrated predictive scorecards with the processes that created them. From IEE, organizations can determine where to focus improvement efforts so that the business as a whole benefits.

Enhanced Attribute Data Control Chart with Process Capability Statement

Performance Measurements, Process Metrics /

Attribute, pass/fail proportion data, can be monitored over time for stability and then, when a process is stable, provide a prediction statement. When a process has a recent region of stability, it can also be said to be predictable. When this occurs, we can use historical data to make a statement about what we might expect in the future, assuming things stay the same; e.g., the center line of the chart if no transformations are needed to create the 30,000-foot-level chart, and the subgroup sizes are approximately the same.

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AQL Process (Acceptable Quality Level) Issues And Resolution

Business Intelligence and Analytics, Statistical Analyses /

When determining an approach for assessing incoming part quality, the analyst needs to address the question of process stability. If a process is not stable, the test methods and confidence statements cannot be interpreted with much precision. Process control charting techniques can be used to determine the stability of a process.

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Enhanced Approach for How to Show Process Improvement

Performance Measurements, Process Metrics /

With a high-level process-output tracking at the 30,000-foot-level, there will be an infrequent subgrouping/sampling plan such that the typical variability from input variables that could affect the response will occur between these subgroupings. An infrequent subgrouping/sampling interval could be day, week, or month, where responses from differing people, departments, machines, and so forth would be captured within each subgroup. 30,000-foot-level charting does not offer timely identification of process changes but instead provides a high-level view of how the process is performing from a customer-of-the-process point of view.

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Enhancement of Porter Value Chain Framework and its Predictive Scorecards

Business Management System, Integrated Enterprise Excellence /

Linkage of processes with the predictive performance measurements for these processes is accomplished through an Integrated Enterprise Excellence (IEE)1 value chain. With this system, when a performance metric or key performance indicator (KPI) is not achieving its desired objective, the processes associated with that metric in the value chain need improvement.

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Lean Organization Management Techniques

Business Management System, Integrated Enterprise Excellence /

Lean has a very good tool set; however, it is not a business management system. To better address the challenges of the day, organizations need an effective business management system that integrates Lean tools with predictive scorecards and analytical/innovative strategies so that undertaken process improvement efforts have whole-enterprise benefits.

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Enhanced Lean Six Sigma DMAIC Process Roadmap for Conducting Business Improvement Efforts

Business Management System, Integrated Enterprise Excellence /

Lean Six Sigma is a well accepted business improvement methodology, but when you read about companies that have introduced Lean Six Sigma (LSS), the results are not always consistent. There are as many examples of success as there are of failure. Many studies on the impact of LSS show three key characteristics that are correlated with success: leadership support from the top levels of the company, high-potential employees provided LSS training, and the LSS methodology being used. From the outside, nearly all Lean Six Sigma programs and methods appear the same; they use DMAIC and they may provide a certification. All LSS methodologies are not the same, not by a long shot. The article discusses how the Smarter Solutions’ Lean Six Sigma roadmap and methodology provide students the highest probability of success in solving their project in a short period of time.

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Weibull Distribution Example: A Transformation with Surprising Result

Business Intelligence and Analytics, Data Analysis /

Transformation of process data to achieve normality seems like magic, but it is not. There are a lot of reasons that specific transformations make sense and should be used, such as a lognormal transformation of standard deviations and of time data. But, when it comes to the Weibull distribution, there is no logical or inferential information that provides any guidance on a transformation to normality, until now. Rick Haynes has found a relationship between the Weibull distribution parameters and the optimal Box-Cox transformation lambda value. Through the use of the @Risk simulation program and Minitab, this article walks through the generation of an equation to predict a lambda value.

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Problems with the Balanced Scorecard Resolved Through the IEE System

Enhanced Balanced Scorecard Reporting, Performance Measurements /

Have you have ever wanted to adopt the balanced scorecard philosophy into your organization? You may like the concept but find that it is not quite enough and has its limitations. The problems with the balanced scorecard methods are not in the generic sense of balance (which is good) but in the way the original authors choose to introduce balance into the scorecard ideas. This article walks through a vehicle to develop, implement, and apply the balanced scorecard to its fullest extent so that it will be useful to leadership.

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