Manufacturing Six Sigma Best Practice Tools & Templates

Simplify and streamline your approach for managing requests for proposals (RFPs) and evaluating vendors. Use the RFP & Vendor Evaluation Manager to coordinate activities for one or multiple RFPs. Track your outstanding RFPs and gain visibility into the status of each. Evaluate vendors using common criteria and scoring to objectively identify the top vendors for selection. Manage vendor responses and documents in a single place to ensure all data is fully organized and accessible. Assign tasks to team members and track progress by individual RFP or for your entire portfolio of RFP projects.

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Maintenance Manager provides a simple way to create and track maintenance tickets and projects for your manufacturing plant. Manage maintenance issues and requests in a single place. Gain visibility into all maintenance-related issues for specific types of requests and across equipment with a simple dashboard. Assign individuals to manage specific maintenance projects and track the status of each task related to the maintenance issue. Export data and dashboards anytime to presentation and spreadsheet files.Learn More »

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The Help Desk Ticketing Manager will help you manage, track, and report out on your help desk support requests and activities. Help Desk management has never been easier, whether you’re an individual support representative or Help Desk supervisor. Create support tickets using a simple template and track tickets to resolution. View a complete dashboard to search and find tickets, view analytics including ticket priorities, ticket status, ticket types, and assigned agents. Customize your support process to include specific locations, departments, groups, priority levels, status indicators, and support categories. The Help Desk Ticketing Manager will save you time, streamline your process, and reduce the overall overhead of your help desk.

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The Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) application provides a complete process, inventory, and dashboard for managing your standard operating procedures. Create SOPs using a simple template. Use intuitive workflows to approve, manage changes, and publish procedures. Track official SOPs and view archives and of historical processes. Search, export, and edit your standard operating procedures to ensure your operations are always fully current and compliant.Learn More »

The Key Performance Indicators Dashboard gives you a simple way to manage the most important KPIs for your business. Use the KPI wizard to instantly create KPIs that measure and track quantifiable metrics for any business function or activity. Use bar charts, graphs, status indicators, status notes, and tasks with assigned owners to ensure progress toward your most important measurable goals.Learn More »

The 5 S System is an essential Lean efficiency process consisting of 5 steps that are based on the following Japanese terms:

1. Seiri – Sort
2. Seiton – Set
3. Seiso – Shine
4. Seiketsu – Standardize
5. Shitsuke – Sustain

The purpose of the process is to ensure the physical space a business occupies remains well-organized, easy to navigate, and conducive to productivity. Each “S” represents a different step towards creating a safe, efficient, and clean work area, which helps increase employee satisfaction and quality and value for customers.

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An A3 Report is a tool used by team leaders and managers to document a set of key data points and important information needed for ongoing progress checks and decision-making.Learn More »

The Audit Checklist provides guidelines for practitioners to identify elements of a process or specific items to be examined in the further understanding and following of procedures necessary for continuous monitoring and steady improvement.Learn More »

A Balanced Scorecard is a model that summarizes an organization’s high-level strategic goals, initiatives designed to reach those goals, and metrics, or key performance indicators, that monitor success over time, and shows how they are connected to the mission, vision, and core values of the organization. It is a strategic planning tool used ubiquitously in organizational management that clearly and concisely communicates what the organization has set out to achieve and how it proposes to do it.Learn More »

Benchmarking is the process of comparing an organizations performance to those of the top standards in the industry, which can be another organization within the industry or an organization in another industry that operates at the level that the industry is hoping to achieve.Learn More »

The Black Belt Project Storyboard should be used when you want to share best practices or learnings from a specific change management initiative or project to a wider audience within an organization or to a broader group of stakeholders.Learn More »

A Black Belt Tollgate Checklist is one of the tools of the trade of a Six Sigma project manager or practitioner. The Checklist outlines the deliverables for each phase of DMAIC and helps provide guidance on which deliverables and checks must be completed before moving on to the next phase.Learn More »

Business Process Reengineering (BPR) entails reimagining and redesigning a company’s essential business processes, systems, and structures in order to increase value for customers. An intensive change management process, implementing BPR indicates that the company is making a radical departure from stagnant operating methods, in part by introducing new technologies, in an attempt to drive rapid and significant improvement in customer service.Learn More »

Business leaders and managers using the Cause and Effect Matrix (also known as a C&E Matrix) will be better able to prioritize the Key Process Input Variables (KPIVs) based on Key Priorities of Customer Outputs (KPOVs). The matrix helps establish correlation between process input metrics and customer outputs during root cause analyses.Learn More »

Critical Success Factors are the core actions that underlie an organization’s strategic objectives that must be accomplished at the highest level possible in order to achieve the overall goals and mission of the organization.Learn More »

DMAIC stands for Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve and Control, and the DMAIC Checklist helps guide leaders to complete the DMAIC process.Learn More »

The DMAIC Roadmap methodology is typically implemented when an organization reaches a certain level of organizational culture and experience to warrant it. Each of the steps must be mastered and completed in a particular order in order to get the most out of the DMAIC methodology.Learn More »

The DPO and DPMO Calculator provides a tool to estimate the DPO rate and DPMO rate of any process or system within your organization.Learn More »

Eight Disciplines (8D) is a problem solving methodology and model designed to find the root cause of a particular problem within a business. It is most commonly used in the auto industry by quality engineers but has also been applied to other industries and sectors including retail, healthcare, finance, government and manufacturing.Learn More »

The Five Whys Process provides business leaders and managers with a simple and easy to understand methods used in the Analyze phase of DMAIC (Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, Control) within the Lean Six Sigma process.Learn More »

Gap Analysis is a method of determining how an organization’s current state differs from its desired future state and the steps it needs to take to achieve desired performance results.Learn More »

The Gemba Walk was developed by Toyota as a way to eliminate waste from their production operations. It is focused on implementing consistent process change and requires managers and executives to visit the production floor and see in person how a specific operation is done.Learn More »

The Hoshin Planning System is a seven-step procedure that outlines how to implement business strategy. More specifically, this system aims to align the goals that the organization is trying to achieve with its strategy and the resources that are available within the company.Learn More »

House of Lean refers to the implementation of Lean Methodologies into a company. It is an analogy that refers to building a house – in order to be built properly, lean strategies must be done in a proper order to be successful.Learn More »

Kaizen is a general continuous improvement philosophy that seeks to eliminate waste, inefficiency, and improve quality and productivity on an incremental basis. It is found within a wide variety of process improvement methods at the organizational, team, and individual level.

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Key Outcome Indicators help measure the overall performance and success of an organization. Many companies use Key Outcome Indicators across departments to measure the success of specific groups and the organization as a whole.Learn More »

Key Performance Indicators (also known as KPIs) help measure the overall performance and success of an organization. Many companies use KPIs across departments to measure the success of specific groups and the organization as a whole. In addition, Key Performance Indicators are a helpful tool in decision-making since they create visibility into the measurable success factors of an organization. KPIs can also be used to understand where a team, department or organization stands with respect to the implementation of its strategies, goals and projects.Learn More »

Leading and Lagging Indicators are two types of measurements used when assessing performance in a business or organization. The difference between the two is that a leading indicator can influence change and a lagging indicator records only what has happened in the past.Learn More »

Lean Manufacturing is focused on efforts to reduce waste, improve quality and ultimately make the customer happy. It also highlights the importance of reducing waste, which is defined as unnecessary work which does not add value to the product.Learn More »

The MECE (Mutually Exclusive Collectively Exhaustive) framework provides business leaders and managers with a way of dividing information up into elements that are “mutually exclusive” and “collectively exhaustive”. The MECE framework is famously used by McKinsey consultants to structure information and reduce complexity by avoiding overlaps while gathering a comprehensive collection of data points without leaving room for alternatives.Learn More »

In order to avoid wasting valuable time on team meetings which lead to no clear outcome, use the Meeting and Project Roles template. This template provides you with a simple structure and outline to identify members of a project team and their duties during regular team meetings.Learn More »

MTBF and MTTR are two of the most important Key Performance Indicators for managers and business leaders to look at when trying to improve the reliability of a product, service or piece of machinery. They can be used independently but are even more useful when put together. MTBF stands for Mean Time Between Failures, and is the average length of time before a piece of machinery or a product breaks. MTTR is Mean Time to Repair, or the average length of time it takes to get a piece of machinery back up and running or repaired when it does break down.Learn More »

OEE stands for Overall Equipment Effectiveness, and is generally considered to refer to a measurement in “Total Productive Maintenance” programs. The measure looks at effectiveness and efficiency of machinery or processes and is commonly referred to in reference to Lean Manufacturing.Learn More »

Operational Performance Management (OPM) is the alignment of all departments within an organization to ensure that they are working together to achieve a common set of business goals. This includes all activities required to keep a business running productively across the organization.Learn More »

A Pareto Chart is a tool used by business leaders to analyze data about the likelihood of certain problems occurring through the analysis of problem frequency and root causes.Learn More »

Performance-Based Budgeting is a method of developing budgets based on the relationship between program funding levels and expected results from that program. The performance-based budgeting process is a tool that program administrators can use to manage more cost-efficient and effective budgetary funding.Learn More »

Process Control Plan is a tool used to document and track the elements of quality control within a system in order to make sure that quality standards are upheld and maintained for a specific product, process or service. A Process Control Plan helps to formalize and document the system of control and quality control during a process.Learn More »

Project Priority Matrix is a tool to help business leaders work out what the key priorities for a specific project should be. The tool can also be used to prioritize and select from multiple projects in order to prioritize and select which project among many should be pursued first.Learn More »

A Project Purpose Worksheet provides a simple table for a business leader to outline their own responses to four simple questions related to the purpose of the project and the mission of the business overall.Learn More »

A Project Schedule Worksheet provides a simple framework for a business leader or manager to use to track planned start and end dates for specific tasks that fall under a larger project alongside notes and current task status.
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A Project Screener Worksheet provides a simple framework for business leaders or managers to validate the premise of a project by asking four key questions designed to enable the creation of a draft goal statement.Learn More »

The Project Selection Guide is a tool used by business leaders and managers to assess whether or not a project should be pursued based on the value of potential improvements, overall meaningfulness to the business, and ability for the project to be managed effectively by the existing team.Learn More »

A QDIP Board is a bulletin board hung in a process or production area which quickly conveys how manufacturing is performing in 4 key areas. Specifically, they are Quality, Delivery, Inventory and Productivity.Learn More »

RACI is an acronym for Responsible, Accountable, Consulted and Informed. RACI Charts or the RACI Matrix are tools for outlining roles and responsibilities within a team or organization to ensure that nothing falls through the cracks.Learn More »

The RATER Model is a tool for evaluating the quality of your company’s services. It is an acronym that stands for Reliability, Assurance, Tangibles, Empathy, and Responsiveness, each of which is a different dimension against which the quality of your service provision is assessed.Learn More »

A Sample Size Calculator allows you to determine the sample size within a population necessary to test in order to make an accurate assessment without surveying an entire population or testing every single individual within a certain set.Learn More »

The SIPOC Analysis Template can be used by a business leader or manager to identify the relevant parts of a process improvement project before work begins. SIPOC Analysis is particularly helpful when defining a complex process that requires additional scoping, and it is typically carried out during the Measure phase of the Lean Six Sigma DMAIC (Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, Control) process.Learn More »

A Six Sigma Balanced Scorecard is a model that summarizes an organization’s high-level strategic goals, initiatives designed to reach those goals, and metrics, or key performance indicators, that monitor success over time.Learn More »

SMART Performance Metrics is a tool used to create criteria to help improve the chances of an organization’s business success. It is an acronym that many businesses use for different purposes, from goal-setting to performance reviews to evaluating innovation.Learn More »

SMART(ER) Goals stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-Bound, Evaluate and Re-Do. Setting SMART(ER) Goals helps to clarify ideas, focus individual or team efforts and efficiently use time and resources.Learn More »

An SQDC Board is a bulletin board hung in a process or production area which quickly conveys how manufacturing is performing in 4 key areas. Specifically, they are Safety, Quality, Delivery, and Cost.Learn More »

An SQDCM Board is a bulletin board hung in a process or production area which quickly conveys how manufacturing is performing in five key areas. Specifically, they are Safety, Quality, Delivery, Cost and Morale.Learn More »

A Standard Operating Procedure, or SOP, is a document or process outline that has been created to show operators how to carry out a specific task, process or activity. It can be delivered as a document, presentation, workflow document, or even a video.Learn More »

Strategic Goals are the high-level, overarching objectives that an organization sets out to achieve over a set timeframe. They articulate what the organization plans to do to fulfill its mission and vision, and they form the foundation for designing and implementing strategic initiatives, which are the actual projects and programs that get implemented in service of accomplishing the Strategic Goals.Learn More »

A Strategy Map is a clear visual representation of the major strategic objectives of an organization, usually based on a framework or model like the balanced scorecard. This representation is useful for communicating the organization’s strategy in a digestible way to employees at all levels of the organization.Learn More »

A Strategy Roadmap, also known as a Strategic Roadmap, is a visual depiction of where the organization currently is and where it would like to go in the future, including a plan to get from the current to the desired state.Learn More »

SWOT Analysis is a strategic planning tool that explores an organization’s internal and external environment, including strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.Learn More »

In Six Sigma, Takt Time refers to the available time for production divided by the required units of production during the same period. Time available for production includes the total number of hours that employees work on production minus any breaks or meetings.Learn More »

The Theory of Constraints is a methodological approach for isolating the most significant barrier or bottleneck in a process and then eliminating it in a systematic fashion.

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Value Stream Mapping is a Lean process of graphically illustrating the movement of materials and information through an organization from supplier to the customer. The purpose is to create a map of the current state of your organization’s supply chain to identify bottlenecks, inefficiencies, or buildup of inventory and take corrective action.

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Values Statements articulate an organization’s core beliefs and principles that drive performance and behavior. They contain the essential and enduring tenets of an organization.Learn More »

Vision Statements define and describe the vibrant future an organization wishes to create and achieve. The intention of a vision is to guide, inspire, and motivate people to reach the desired end state for the organization.Learn More »

The Voice of the Customer Table is a template which helps business leaders and managers frame the inputs received through the process of carrying out a Voice of the Customer (VOC) exercise.Learn More »

The XY Matrix (or the Cause & Effect Matrix) is a six sigma tool which can be used to prioritize key inputs and simultaneously rank priorities of customer outputs. The XY Matrix tool is most frequently used to support the DMAIC “measure” phase to show the relationship between X (Cause) and Y (Effect) factors.Learn More »