Six Sigma Tools

What tools are used in Six Sigma?

Six Sigma is mainly based on many statistical tools. Each tool has its own significance and application. Some of the tools are as follows:

Affinity Diagram is used to organize data and different ideas.

Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) is used to test difference between two and more independent groups. There are different types of Anova, like one way Anova, two way Anova, Factorial Anova.

Cause & Effect / Ishikawa / Fishbone diagram is used to know different causes of any problem.

Confidence Interval is method of estimating values in different range from a set of values. Commonly confidence intervals are in the range of90%, 95%, 99%, and 99.9%.

Control Charts are used to check process variations and their range.

Design of Experiment is used to investigate a system or process. In this method a set of pre-defined input are used and their effect is analyzed on the output. It is also divided in two parts, one is full factorial experiments and other is Fractional factorial experiment.

Evolutionary Operations (EVOP) is a technique used to optimize manufacturing processes.

Flow Chart is a graphical tool, used to check flow of different processes for manufacturing a product.

Failure Mode Effect Analysis (FMEA) is a tool to analyze the severity of any system failure on the whole system. It is commonly used in manufacturing industry, where it is estimated that if one component is failed, then what will be the effect on whole system or product.

Histogram is a graphical tool, used to show frequencies of events in graphical forms.

Hypothesis Testing is a technique used to verify whether a hypothesis is true or false.

Kano Analysis is a tool to know about customer requirements or demands about the product or service being offered.

Measurement System Analysis (Gauge Repeatability & Reproducibility) is used to verify that measurements collected by one operator are same. Also it checks variation between different operators and equipments.

Pareto Analysis is a graphical tool to measure main events. This works on 80-20 principle, which means that 80% problems are associated with 20%.

Poka Yoke is Japanese term, which means Mistake Proofing. This tool is being used to control or minimize human related errors in manufacturing or daily usage of equipments.

Project Charter is tool used in define phase of Six Sigma. It describes project titles, problem statement, business case, resources required, expected benefits etc.

Quality Function Deployment (QFD) is also named as House of Quality. This tool is used for incorporating customer demands in design of product or service.

Regression Analysis is a statistical tool, used to check relationship between different dependent and independent variables.

Scatter Diagram is graphical representation between two variables. One variable is taken at x-axis and other is taken on y-axis and their relationship is identified.

SIPOC Diagram is tabular form of describing who will be the Suppliers, what will be inputs, what processes are, what will be outputs and who will be the customers.

Statistical Software is the software, which is used for manipulation of different statistics. Commonly used software for Six Sigma implementation is Minitab.

Whatever the tool is used, it should be used with some objectives, because in Six Sigma implementation, it is not necessary to use each and every tool. Different companies and training organization are using different tools and software according to their course contents.

Oskar Olofsson, 2009

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I am a Swedish-based Lean consultant, and the owner of the World-Class-Manufacturing.com web site.

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