In looking at my old files, I found this old presentation of the time I was at eBay. There, I was responsible for implementing Lean and Six Sigma in the Call Centers.

As with most things, it’s always important to have some fidelity to the methodology, but one can’t be a slave to it. In other words, we must adapt and adjust as appropriate, given the needs, maturity, and desires of the organization.

At eBay, there was a desire to use elements of Lean and Six Sigma in eCommerce. So, that’s what I developed and implemented.

Below is an old presentation I gave showing the work we had done at eBay and the successes we achieved.

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σ sigma is a letter of the Greek alphabet. Mathematicians use this symbol to signify standard deviation, an important measure of variation. Variation designates the distribution or spread about the average of any process.

The blue Line designates narrow variation while the orange line designated wide variation. Obviously the less variation within a process makes the process more predictable, assuming the mean is not moving all over the place. If you took the height of everyone in class would you expect a large variation or narrow variation. What if you had a few professional basketball player in the room, would that widen or narrow the variation?

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I usually post a few articles per week on a topic related to Lean or Six Sigma. But, for the last several months, I’ve been busy planning, building, and preparing for the launch of my membership program where I’ll provide full HD videos in Lean and Six Sigma. I can’t wait to tell you about it.

I’ve been in the Lean and Six Sigma world for a while – about 12 years. That’s young still compared to some of my peers, but thankfully I’m a young car, but with many, many miles (at least that’s how someone explained it to me once). Based on my experience, I’ve seen many, many online lean and six sigma programs crop up here and there and my evaluation of a lot of them is that they are of poor quality, generally. And, after looking at the price tag – they’re expensive too. What do I mean?

The chart below explains in a picture much better than what I can with words.

The Shmula.com Lean and Six Sigma Training will Provide the Best Value for your Money: High Quality Training in Lean and Six Sigma and it will fit anybody’s budget. Period.

Enough of my explanations. Just go here to watch the video for a much better explanation that what I can give you.

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Below are just some of the well known quality pioneers, their brief background, and what they contributed to the foundations and History of Six Sigma. Remember, this is a sample of the influencers of Six Sigma. There are more that are not indicated in this Shmula.com Premium Video.

Following the summary table, you can view a 7:36 HD Video that explains a little more detail about each quality guru and their influence on Six Sigma.

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In this Shmula.com Premium HD Video, we discuss Measurement System Analysis, or MSA. Measurement System Analysis is a critical step in the Measure Phase of the DMAIC Framework in Six Sigma. Specifically, in this video we discuss the following:

• Precision and Accuracy
• Bias, Linearity, and Stability
• Repeatability and Reproducibility
• and learn how to Identify various components of variation.

Several examples are shown. This video is a prerequisite for the Gauge R&R Video, which is next. This video is 5:28 minutes long.

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This is really crazy. But here we go.

My Crazy Idea

Most of you know that I’m launching an online training curriculum for both Lean and Six Sigma. This curriculum will include hundreds of hours of HD Videos that teach the entire DMAIC framework in Six Sigma and also all the components of Lean contained in the Toyota House. But, I’m doing it differently than the others.

But wait, most online training I’ve seen is pretty dry, boring, and usually forces you to look at some person’s face for several hours. And, in HD, that person’s face is even more unattractive and you’re being forced to watch it for hundreds of hours? Really?

How am I different? I explain my approach in the video below.

Message versus Messenger

Most instructional designers know that the messenger is just as important (sometimes even more so) than the message. What I mean is this:

• a poor messenger can deliver a great message, but the student will still not receive it.
• a great messenger can deliver a poor message, and the student will likely receive it.

But, what if you have a great messenger and rich, premium content? The student will benefit absolutely.

The State of Lean and Six Sigma Online Training

If you look around and shop around, you’ll find a few things are common:

• Online Lean and Six Sigma training is delivered by some unknown entity, where the backgrounds of the program authors are not even found on the website.
• Some Online Lean and Six Sigma training is provided by reputable folks, but still don’t meet the student’s needs because they have made their material hard to understand, and their method of delivery is poor.
• Online Lean and Six Sigma training is beyond most people’s pocket books and is unnecessarily expensive.
• Most online Lean and Six Sigma training is very manufacturing centered and fails to meet the needs of those in service industries.
• Most online Lean and Six Sigma training is overly complex. More than it needs to be.

How is Pete Abilla and Shmula Different?

After evaluating the market, here’s my approach:

• I’ve created my material to meet the needs of people who are not in manufacturing. Don’t get me wrong – I love manufacturing folks, but there’s a very large segment of people who are not in manufacturing and their needs are being ignored. I’m not going to ignore them.
• The material I’ve created is rigorous, but very disarming. How? I use cartoon personas that teach difficult subjects because research has shown people are more receptive to messengers that are disarming and non threatening. What’s more non threatening than a cartoon?
• Affordable. My pricing structure is stupid cheap. I’m not a huge marketer, so my weakness comes out in how I am pricing this thing. I want you to have value. To me, value is Premium Content + Fair Price. Plain and simple.
• Bottom line: I have you in mind. I want you to get value out of this. So, I will put in the time, energy, and focus into making you as happy as I can.

So, Here’s My Offer

Let’s face it, even though I’ve been publishing on Lean and Six Sigma for ~7 years, this online training stuff is new to me and I’m learning. Making HD videos for me is also new. What I mean is that as I build the online training curriculum, I’d like your feedback along the way and be forgiving if there are any kinks in the system. I want to make this the best and I need your help. But I know your time isn’t free, so here’s my offer.

• Get the monthly plan for $49.99 Per Month.
• Stay in the program for 3 months
• After 3 months, I’ll give you the Manage for Daily Improvement Training for FREE. It’s a $200 Value.

I’m not quite ready to launch yet, but wait. Coming soon.

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Standard Work is a foundation of Lean. Yet, it’s a concept that’s not understood well and, even worse, is often ignored by most companies that profess to practice lean in their operations.

I created a video that demonstrates the importance of Standard Work. This game is called the Standard Pig Game, or sometimes the Standard Pork Game. It’s a simple game, but very helpful in teaching the concept of standard work. I hope you enjoy it and find it helpful.

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In this 6:46 minute Premium HD Video entitle “Business Needs Assessment”, we introduce several ways to identify the needs of a business and demonstrate how to create a business case from that information. We specifically teach two specific methods:

1. Performance Metrics Mapping: This explains the nested approach and how to align your specific areas of responsibility to that of the broader organization.
2. The Strategy Tree: This is an alternative to Hoshin Kanri. It is used in some Toyota Plants and is a very effective alternative to Hoshin Kanri.

The video below also explains how to use the downloadable templates included as part of the DMAIC Training Curriculum.

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The Project Charter in Six Sigma DMAIC Project is one of the most important artifacts that will keep the team on the same page, stakeholders aware and communicated to, and will help the Black Belt Project Lead stay on track and focused.

In this 5:37 minute Premium HD Video, you’ll learn how to create a strong and effective Project Charter using the free downloadable template that is part of your premium membership.

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In this short 2:51 minute Premium HD Video, you’ll learn how to apply a simple yet effective method for project selection within the context of a DMAIC Six Sigma project. We’ll teach you how to use the project selection matrix. You can also download the template completely for free, as part of your premium membership.

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Descriptive Statistics in Six Sigma plays an important role. But, if we do not display that data in a way that can be easily understood, then it becomes useless to us or, worst yet, we might draw the wrong conclusions from it.

In this module, we discuss Descriptive Statistics as used in the Measure Phase of Six Sigma. We’ll go through the key measures that describe key characteristics of variation in a data set.

Descriptive Statistics includes measures of location and measures of dispersion.

Measures of Location

Measures of Location is formally called measures of central tendency. For this type of descriptive statistic, we are mostly interested in the Mean, Median, and the Mode.

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This article discusses the common probability types of distributions in Six Sigma Black Belt Projects. Many statistical approaches you’ll learn later are built on the assumption that the data is normally distributed. So, it’s important to gain an early understanding of the normal distribution. We’ll also cover some less common statistical distributions used in Six Sigma Black Belt Projects and show why they matter.

The Normal Distribution

The most common distribution used in Six Sigma is the normal distribution.

The Normal Distribution has these 3 unique characteristics:

1. Only Random Error is Present
2. There is no evidence of Assignable Cause
3. There are no drifts or shifts in the data as evidenced by the fact that the [Mean = Median = Mode].

The obvious conclusion from items 1-3 is that if the data is not normally distributed, then the following are likely true:

1. Probably more than random error is present
2. Probably there is evidence of assignable special cause

Most Used and Abused Distribution

While pretty and smooth, the normal distribution is the most used probability distribution – and because it’s so misunderstood, it’s also the most abused. And while it serves as the foundation of many statistical tools that we’ll learn later in the Measure Phase and in the Analyze Phase, encountering the normal distribution in real life is not common.

Characteristics of Normal Distribution

The Normal Distribution is a function of two parameters: The Mean and the Standard Deviation.

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The secret to making resolutions end in disaster is also the secret to a really bad movie. So let me teach you about how to make a really bad movie.

In the beginning, our hero lives an ordinary life. We wouldn’t want to watch that for long but, unfortunately for us, we have no choice since this is a story about bad movies and bad resolutions.

So, our hero continues on living an ordinary life.

And why is that so bad? Don’t most of us have ordinary lives?

The answer is a resounding NO! But, more on that later. Back to the bad movie.

Ordinary is another word for no plot. No drama. No conflict. AND…

No Resolution.

You get it?

The word Resolution is found within the context of a STORY.

So, what’s your story?

Bad movies have terrible plots or no plot at all. The hero winds his way through 2 hours of nothing. No beginning, no middle, and no end. Nothing to hook us in.

Think of great movies.

• For Godfather, the conflict was within the family – living a good honorable life versus honoring the family.
• For Contact (a classic by the way), it was Jodi Foster and her dealing with the tension between science and religion.
• For Napoleon Dynamite, his story was the conflict of a nerd in Idaho and his love for a hot chick.
• For Nacho Libre, his story was a complex tension between his love for Lucha Libre and his equally strong love for God and being a man of the cloth.

Your story might be your desire to lose weight so you can look hot for your spouse and your equally strong love for Twinkies. For me, it’s my unnatural desire to drink soda and my daily stomach ache whenever I consume Mountain Dew.

Great stories and Great Resolutions begin with Conflict.

Now that’s out of the way, figure out what your conflict is and what’s the tension. Be really clear on the tension and make sure the “pull” is either polar and that the pull is coming from a place that has enough strength to pull either way – emotionally.

Bad movies Don’t Have Tension

Think about it. Suppose your conflict is between losing weight and your desire to look great for your spouse. Most of us would agree that’s adequate tension with a strong pull either way – to lose weight for your spouse and to continue eating that really unhealthy but yummy fatty and salty and sugary foods. The pull is strong either way.

Bad movies have conflict but do nothing with it.

Instead, they show the conflict, and then they complain on Facebook.

That’s right.

Bad movies are like people that Resolve to lose weight, but do nothing and instead post their complaints on Facebook.

Why is that so bad, you ask.

Because it’s Tension Gone Unresolved.

There’s that word again – resolve.

To resolve tension – pressure must be released and can only be released from either side of the “Pull”. That’s why it’s called tension. Posting on Facebook doesn’t resolve it.

You Are Not Ordinary

We are not ordinary. Think about it. Your life is actually full of drama and that’s a good thing. Let me explain.

Don’t Be a Bad Movie

So, let me summarize:

• Bad movies don’t have a plot. Nothing to hook us in.
• Bad movies have tension, but do nothing with it.
• Bad movies explain the tension, but don’t resolve it.

So, make your resolution the opposite of a bad movie. Then, maybe this year it won’t end in disaster.

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The 5 Whys technique, from Taiichi Ohno, is an effective technique traditionally used to arrive at root causes of a problem. But, the method can also be used in other interesting and valuable ways. One such way is how the 5 Whys can be used in qualitative interviews for product research.

Latent Needs

I don’t know where I first heard it, but I believe that 90% of mental processing happens in the without us being conscious of it. We process signals, clues, emotions, moods – without us even being aware that we’re doing it. If this is true, then we have needs and thoughts that we aren’t able to verbally articulate because we’re not aware of them in the first place.

This is why customer surveys in product research don’t always work. The adage about the iPod rings true here – that if customers were asked about their music listening habits and what they wanted, none would have asked for an iPod – they would’ve asked for a better Walkman.

Using the 5 Whys for Market Research

But, using the 5 Whys can be helpful in qualitative interviews that can get us closer to those latent and unarticulated needs. Here’s an example ¹:

General Mills does this with qualitative interviews, but after the respondent answers a question, the interviewer answers the respondent with another question focused on trying to get the conversation to a more abstract or emotion level. For example, you might get an interview like this:

Q. Why did you pick out Cheerios when you selected a breakfast cereal?

A. Because it tastes pretty good and it’s low fat.

Q. Why is it important to you that a cereal is low fat?

A. Well, I heard that the oats in Cheerios make a difference in lowering your cholesterol levels.

Q. And why is it important to lower your cholesterol levels?

A. Well, I have a three year old son, and I want to be around for him when he’s older, because you know I had an uncle that died of heart disease, and I don’t want that to happen to me.

This approach helps to surface latent needs and also provides marketers with more emotional and captivating messages for their product – messages that resonate with customers because it addresses a latent need.

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“What does it mean to be Lean Six Sigma?” is a common question asked by curious folks interested in Lean or Six Sigma, but without first hand experience. Answering the question isn’t as easy as it sounds.

Usually, I’ve answered this question best by showing them what Lean looks like through a tour of an organization that has adopted Lean as a management system. Or, I’ve answered this question also by involving the questioner in an improvement activity so they answer their own question through their own experience with Lean.

But, in the absence of the appropriate words to use, a tour of an organization that has adopted Lean and Six Sigma, or explaining through first-hand experience, the next best thing might be answering that question with a picture.

That’s what Jabil did ¹.

If you’re not familiar with Jabil, they are a manufacturing organization that produces circuits. In the world of continuous improvement, Lean, and Six Sigma, Jabil is an organization that is respected for their dedication to the Lean management philosophy and their sincere practice of it – not as a flavor of the month, but a sincere practice of Lean throughout their company.

They recently published an infographic that answers the question “What is Lean?” and you can find it below.

PS: one cool thing is that they cited me and Shmula.com in the creation of their infographic. Thanks guys.

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Histogram – 7 QC Tools for Graphical Analysis is one of the most simplest and helpful tools used in Lean and Six Sigma. It is one of the 7 QC Tools (Quality Control Tools). It is a graphical analysis chart that helps us to see, not necessarily infer, conclusions from a data set. A Histogram allows us to see the shape of your data set. In this 3:01 minute HD Premium Video, you will learn the following:

• What is a Histogram
• When to use a Histogram
• How to create a Histogram

This video on the Histogram is part of our video training series on the 7 Quality Tools as used in Lean and Six Sigma. Enjoy the video below.

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One can learn a lot about Poka Yoke and Human Errors. This is a story about what a coffee cup taught me about how poor design in our products and systems invite human error.

Many years ago, I had to travel to Dublin every few months for work. I had team members there and part of my responsibility was to be a good leader and spend time with face to face. I was living in Salt Lake City at the time and it was a pleasure to spend time with them, even though it took me away from my family every few months or so.

One very early morning while waiting for the taxi to pick me up at my hotel to take us to the airport, my colleague with whom I was traveling with at the time had ordered coffee while I ordered a Coke since I’m not a coffee drinker. They brought him his coffee in this cup.

At first glance, I thought to myself “Wow, that’s a fancy cup” because, in America, cups mainly look like, well, cups. This, on the other hand, was no ordinary cup – this was a fancy European cup.

But, wait. Take a closer look. Do you see any problems?

Let me tell you my friend’s experience. Perhaps you’ll see the issues as I tell you his ordeal.

• When my friend stirred the spoon, it hit the bumps on the inside of the cup.
• The handle is a not really a handle that allows your fingers to securely hold the cup. Instead the handle is a ceramic stub, forcing my friend to use every muscle available in his thumb and forefinger to hold this fancy coffee cup.
• The handle has a little well, allowing the coffee to occupy the space. Coffee is hot. And, hot coffee on a handle where your thumb and forefinger is means you will burn yourself with every courageous attempt at a sip of coffee.

Here’s another picture to see what I mean:

Poka Yoke, Human Errors

For practitioners of Lean and Six Sigma, we know that Poka Yoke means error proof or designing our processes, products, and systems in a way that helps to prevent errors. But what many of us, I think, underestimate the power of poor design and how it invites us to make errors without us even realizing it.

The System: Organization, Team, Individual

Moving from a product context to a service context, design can occur at, I believe, 3 levels: the organization, the team, and the individual. Let me use a case study to explain.

Back in 1999, a seminal paper entitled ¹ “To Err Is Human: Building a Safer Healthcare System” by Kohn, et al, examined the state of the healthcare system. The numbers the authors presented shook the industry. They reported that 44,000 people died in US hospitals every year from preventable medical errors. They estimate that number could be up to 98,000. Even at the lower estimate of 44,000, deaths from preventable medical errors were higher than the mortality rate of breast cancer and HIV/AIDS.

This finding shook the industry and led to many patient safety initiatives thereafter.

But the authors made one very significant conclusion that perhaps received the most scrutiny because it flew against the commonly held belief that human errors were due to personal recklessness and general sloppiness in the delivery of care from healthcare professionals ². That conclusion was this:

The majority of medical errors did not result from individual recklessness, but instead were caused by faulty systems, processes, and conditions that led people to make mistakes or failed to prevent them.

In other words, pointing the finger at individuals for mistakes made is not the entire story. Perhaps we need to look into the design of the systems, processes, and the conditions that led to the errors also.

Back to the Coffee Cup

Suppose my friend burned his hand. He didn’t, but let’s suppose he spilled his coffee that morning and burned his hand. Knowing him, he would’ve blamed himself. He would called himself stupid. He would’ve felt like spilling the coffee and burning himself was all his fault.

Would he be right?

NO.

The design of our systems, processes, and the conditions that led to the event have everything to do with whether human errors are made or not. Just like looking at the poor design of the coffee cup brings insight into why coffee is easier to spill and burn the person holding the cup, looking into the design of systems, processes, and the conditions that led to the error will also bring the same insight and allow us to make longer lasting improvements that may truly prevent human errors.

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You are a murderer of Love; A Reject of Romance – have you ever been accused of being either of those before? Yeah, me too. Lean and Six Sigma is NOT for Lovers.

Until Now.

That’s right. Maybe you’ve been accused of the following also:

• “You’re too process oriented”
• “You’re too systematic”
• “You’re too focused on problem solving”
• “You’re too concerned about metrics”

Or how about these…

• “You’re just not romantic enough.”
• “You don’t care about my feelings. You only care about processes.”

Or

“If you’re so concerned about improving things, why don’t you improve our marriage!”

If you’ve ever been accused of those things and more, then we feel you’re pain. We have too.

So, For Christmas I Got This

My sister-in-law gave me an awesome gift for Christmas.

In our family we draw names and I was lucky enough to have my sister-in-law draw my name this year. Now, this girl is super thoughtful. I’m the type to pretty much get a give card and sign it and then call that a gift.

No, not her.

She actually thought about me, my interest, what I was up to – she took the time to really know me and she catered my Christmas gift to me – yup, especially for me. It was so cool.

This is What I Got

I received a mystery shoe box covered in Christmas wrapping. There was a curious note on the side that said “Life with Care”.

What’s going on? So, I opened the box.

In it, I found this. It’s Kanban Cody, my online persona – the guy who does the online lean six sigma training.

And then the card was a SIPOC Diagram. Wow! And, the process is Having a Fun Date!

As it turns out, having a fun date isn’t that hard. And, when, put into the the SIPOC framework, even people in process improvement can actually have a fun date:

SIPOC: Have A Fun Date

Wow. This is getting really interesting and helpful. Each step of how to have a fun date is spelled out for me in an easy to follow way, totally setting me up for success.

Also in the box were some candy, a gift card to a restaurant and also a gift card to buy movie tickets.

My sister-in-law is the best. Her gift was thoughtful and totally perfect for me. And, with me sharing this post with many of you, I hope you find the SIPOC for having a fun date helpful and may all your dates be as romantic and awesome as mine will be from now on and forever.

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This video on the Cause and Effect Diagram is part of the 7 Quality Tools series. In this Premium, member-only 5:26 minute video, you will learn the following:

1. What is the Cause and Effect Diagram?
2. When should you use it?
3. How to create one.

We also cover some history and explain how the Cause and Effect Diagram is also the Ishikawa Diagram and how Root Cause Analysis is, at its core, the purpose of the Cause and Effect Diagram.

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Today I’m giving away a really helpful tool that can save you time and money in your data collection efforts. Today I’m giving away a Checksheet Template Download. This Checksheet Generator will allow you to quickly create a checksheet so that you can quickly begin data collection. Watch the video to learn more.

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