There are many different types of certification in U.S., and all of them could be very beneficial for improving skills and knowledge as well as promotion and job hunting. This time I tried the Lean Bronze Certification held by Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME), and fortunately I passed the exam.
Continue reading “Essay: Lean Bronze Certification”Essay: Where Innovation Come From
When I recommend Lean Six Sigma or Design for Six Sigma (DFSS) to an engineer, he or she just rejects it with many reasons or just ignore it and goes away in many cases. In such cases, the engineer may not know anything about Lean Six Sigma. It could be understandable because people tend to ignore or reject whatever they don’t know.
Continue reading “Essay: Where Innovation Come From”Case Study: Attribute Agreement Analysis
As a part of MSA (Measurement System Analysis), we analyze repeatability and reproducibility of a measurement system in a Lean Six Sigma project. It’s called Gage R&R. The Gage R&R can be categorized into two types – Continuous Gage R&R and Attribute Gage R&R.
Continue reading “Case Study: Attribute Agreement Analysis”Essay: Scientific Method
The scientific method is defined in Wikipedia like below:
Continue reading “Essay: Scientific Method”The scientific method is an empirical method of acquiring knowledge that has characterized the development of science since at least the 17th century. It involves careful observation, applying rigorous skepticism about what is observed, given that cognitive assumptions can distort how one interprets the observation. It involves formulating hypotheses, via induction, based on such observations; experimental and measurement-based testing of deductions drawn from the hypotheses; and refinement (or elimination) of the hypotheses based on the experimental findings.
Essay: Table Tablet at Restaurant
I wrote about a table tablet at a sushi restaurant in Japan in the last blog post. Then I noticed that the number of table tablets in restaurants are increasing in U.S. As a customer, it is very convenient because I can do everything at the table from ordering to checking without any service done by a waiter or a waitress. I on the other hand miss the conversation with them.
Continue reading “Essay: Table Tablet at Restaurant”Essay: Conveyor Sushi is Lean
A friend of mine took me a conveyor sushi restaurant in Yokohama, Japan. And I was so surprised by the new conveyor system in the restaurant because I had never seen such technology in my rural town where I live. Probably it was pretty common in Yokohama and to my friend. So he was surprised by me because I was so surprised by the sushi restaurant.
Continue reading “Essay: Conveyor Sushi is Lean”Case Study: Root Cause Analysis with Parameter Diagram
I had a chance to help the technical support group yesterday and attended a meeting for troubleshooting. The meeting discussed a game plan for investing the problems and finding the root causes of the problems to solve. We used the parameter-diagram in the meeting because the problems and the root-causes were complicatedly interconnected.
Continue reading “Case Study: Root Cause Analysis with Parameter Diagram”Case Study: DOE for Soldering
I was asked by a black belt yesterday, who was in charge of a continuous improvement project for a factory in Dominican Republic. According to him, there seemed to be a problem in the soldering process which caused the solder bridges. He wanted to preform DOE to identify a main factor of the defect, and he already created a plan for the DOE.
Continue reading “Case Study: DOE for Soldering”Essay: Ask for Forgiveness, Not Permission
Even you find a good project or an interesting theme for research, not all your proposals will be accepted by your boss. Rather, many of your proposals will be rejected because of lack of budget or resources. I am used to be rejected of proposals, but sometimes I come to complain about it.
Continue reading “Essay: Ask for Forgiveness, Not Permission”Case Study: Effect of Design FMEA
Conducting a meeting with some engineers to a Design FMEA is pretty hard because the engineers are always busy. Gathering several engineers and conducting a long hour meeting not only makes a pressure on the project schedule but put an additional burden on the engineers. Even worse, the Design FMEA meeting does not create a tangible design elements. But the manager and the engineer could be relieved from the burden if they understand a positive effect of Design FMEA.
Continue reading “Case Study: Effect of Design FMEA”