Introduction to Lean Six Sigma. Basic practical level.

Explore lean philosophy and toolkit to eliminate waste and create customer value, applying the plan to check, adjust pdc cycle, and aligning flow with customer demand through lean principles.

Identify and reduce defects by tracing their causes—such as unclear process instructions, equipment malfunctions, and wrong data—and apply root-cause tools to protect quality, prevent customer claims, and minimize waste.

Explore how overproduction in lean six sigma ties to frozen capital, longer lead times, and wasted space, and apply smed, just-in-time, and value stream mapping to reduce it.

Reduce waiting waste across production and administration by tackling delays, bottlenecks, and unplanned downtime. Apply value stream mapping and just-in-time manufacturing to cut lead times and improve customer satisfaction.

Identify and unlock unutilized talents as a key Lean Six Sigma waste, empowering all employees through training, idea generation, and inclusive problem solving to boost Lean Six Sigma outcomes.

Identify and distinguish necessary from unnecessary transportation, analyze waste boundaries, and apply tools like value stream mapping, spaghetti diagrams, process mapping, and standardization to reduce transport waste.

Identify inventory as a Lean Six Sigma waste caused by overproduction, with examples like cars and data; learn how just-in-time, processes, and balanced production reduce stock and prevent hidden costs.

Identify extra processing as waste when quality exceeds customer needs, and apply standardization, voice of the customer, and Lean Six Sigma to remove defects and lower variation.

Explore the 6M framework in Lean Six Sigma—man, machine, material, method, measurement, and mother nature—and see how data, data sources, and variation analysis apply to manufacturing and management.

Apply the 5G principle for Lean Six Sigma by going to the actual place, observing facts, and examining equipment. Use six angles to identify root causes and verify against standards.

Identify and eliminate waste using lean tools like the waste observation form. Measure and quantify waste, describe it clearly, and assign actionable steps with a responsible person to drive improvement.

Standardization documents the current best practice and standardized work, ensuring consistent procedures, reducing variability, delivering predictable, safer results, and reducing waste.

Learn to use value stream mapping and process mapping to visualize the process, map material and information flow, identify waste, and plan a future state for improvement.

Learn how error proofing and mistake proofing prevent defects through three levels of controls (prevention, warning, and detection), and apply practical real-world examples to reduce defects.

Learn how visual management in lean six sigma links data to people, using displays, markings, gauges, layouts, kanban, and huddle boards to sustain continuous improvement and safety.

Develop problem solving as a core lean skill by defining the problem clearly and distinguishing troubleshooting from improvements, using a four-element problem statement: what, where, when, and how you know.

Shape brainstorming as a problem solving tool that expands ideas through divergent thinking within the PDSA cycle. Build cross-functional teams to plan, capture, and select actionable ideas.

Explore special brainstorming techniques, including individual brain writing and rapid ideation via online tools, to generate unique ideas and minimize bias.

Examine a fishbone diagram of a chemical supply problem where the division of chemicals exceeds 10%, causing undersupply, oversupply, and creation of reserves, and preview the five whys.

Five whys is a simple questioning technique to uncover the root cause by asking why multiple times, recording the problem, and verifying answers with facts.

Identify root causes with RCFA, distinguishing physical, human, and latent factors, and apply a seven-step problem-solving process to prevent repeat failures and sustain improvement.

Master how 5S standardizes the work environment to reduce waste, boost safety, and drive lean thinking and continuous improvement through the steps: sort, set in order, shine, standardize, sustain.

Learn how data drives Lean Six Sigma, from data collection and storage to retrieval, preprocessing, and analysis, with a focus on data quality as the voice of the process.

Learn to use the pie chart to present data as a fraction of a whole for quick, visual comparisons, noting its limits when there are too many pieces.

Learn how the burrito chart visualizes the pareto principle and the 80/20 rule to identify the most influential factors and prioritize improvements.

Explore mean, median, and mode as measures of central tendency, with formulas, examples, and comparisons showing how each reflects data differently and responds to outliers.

Explore how a histogram represents the distribution of numerical data, including construction into ten bins and analyzing mean, median, and normal distribution curves with a mineral water example.

Explore histogram shapes to interpret non-normal data, including bimodal and skewed distributions, and learn how mixed processes and set point shifts reveal Lean Six Sigma insights.

Explore box plots to visualize quartiles and medians, identify the interquartile range, and flag outliers in numerical data, using bottle-volume examples from the course.

Box plots visualize central tendency, median, and variation, and contrast with histograms to assess skewness. A one-year data case reveals median deviation and greater variation, triggering retraining and corrected measurements.

Analyze how trend charts, or run charts, reveal how a process evolves over time, highlighting outliers, step changes, and gradual shifts to investigate causes.

Explore scatterplots to visualize relationships between continuous variables, interpret regression trend lines, assess correlation strength, and distinguish correlation from causation through practical examples.

Six Sigma introduction shows how reducing process variation lowers defects and costs, boosts customer satisfaction, and uses sigma levels, defects per million opportunities, and process mapping to guide decisions.

Explore the define phase of a Lean Six Sigma case study in a pulp mill, detailing CTQ, SMART goals, and stakeholder alignment to stabilize pulp brightness.

Apply the measure phase with financial metrics, MSA, and capability analysis; ensure process stability and data accuracy while addressing defects per million opportunities.

Explore the control phase, where the project team implements solutions, builds standard work, uses control charts to monitor brightness, trains process owners, and ensures sustainability.

Explore the concept of variation in processes, including process, measurement, and sampling variation, and learn to distinguish common cause from special cause variations with practical examples.

The final funnel experiment visualizes a process and shows that an in-control process yields the best results when left alone. Rules 2–4 illustrate process tampering and common-cause variation.

Understand how the A3 of sustainability guides handover to the process owner. Capture current situation, goals, metrics (86–90% brightness, PPK ≥ 1.33), root causes, and countermeasures.