QMS & EMS London

Continuous improvement is a basic element of modern industry and there are many tools and methods available to help with continuous improvement. Some situations, such as reducing manufacturing costs by 10%, may require the use of the Six Sigma methodology. For other situations, such as root cause analysis, the Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) and basic quality tools may be sufficient.

Root Cause Analysis (RCA) is a popular tool in the engineer’s problem-solving tool kit. Virtually, it implies that there is only one root cause, when in reality most problems are usually caused by a complex combination of several factors, some of which are more significant than others.

Lean means creating more value for customers with fewer resources. A lean organization understands customer value and focuses its key processes to continuously increase it. The ultimate goal is to provide perfect value to the customer through a perfect value creation process that has zero waste.

In 1920, Sir Ronald A. Fisher invented a statistical way to compare data sets. Fisher called his method the analysis of variance, which was later dubbed an ANOVA. This method eventually evolved into Six Sigma data set comparisons. 

Kaizen is a japanese term that means continuous improvement, taken from words ‘Kai’ means continuous and ‘zen’ means improvement. Some translate ‘Kai’ to mean change and ‘zen’ to mean good, or for the better.

What is Lean?  The core idea is to maximize customer value while minimizing waste. Simply, lean means creating more value for customers with fewer resources.  A lean organization understands customer value and focuses its key processes to continuously increase it. The ultimate goal is to provide perfect value to the customer through a perfect value creation process that has zero waste. 

"Almost everybody does brainstorming wrong and turns it into an enormous waste of time. When most people do brainstorming, they run all over the place and think outside the box. I think they should think inside the box, the right-sided box". — Ralph Keeney An emeritus professor at Duke’s Fuqua School of Business and a consultant to such diverse organizations as the Department of Energy and, just last month, a German power company with $40 billion in revenues, Keeney has devoted his career to a discipline called “decision science,” helping companies and government agencies bring focus and rigor to their decision-making process so that they can waste less time spinning their wheels and instead get clear on their objectives before they try to meet their goals.

"Data-driven method for achieving near perfect quality. Six Sigma analysis can focus on any element of production or service, and has a strong emphasis on statistical analysis in design, manufacturing and customer-oriented activities."  — UK Department for Trade and Industry  Six Sigma is now according to many business development and quality improvement experts, the most popular management methodology in history.