Cycle Time Reduction and Kaizen in Six Sigma

During the Improve stage of a project, the Six Sigma team uses tools to address the causes of problems in the process. Cycle time reduction and continuous improvement tools are popular choices to address many of these problems. Reducing cycle time brings products to the market faster and improves delivery time and overall customer satisfaction. A timely and productive application of kaizen - or continuous improvement - allows an organization to eliminate waste, streamline processes, reduce costs, and create a Lean culture in the organization. This course looks at some of the common lean tools for cycle time reduction and continuous improvement, including continuous flow, setup reduction, kaizen, and kaizen blitz. This course is aligned to the ASQ Body of Knowledge and is designed to assist Green Belt candidates toward their certification and to become productive members on their Six Sigma project teams.

• Topic T4 Objective O5
• calculate cycle time and takt time, given a scenario
• Topic T9 Objective O10
• recognize the benefits of cycle time reduction
• Topic T14 Objective O15
• demonstrate your understanding of cycle time reduction concepts
• Topic T22 Objective O23
• identify characteristics of the continuous flow approach to cycle time reduction
• Topic T27 Objective O28
• recognize the characteristics of the single-minute exchange of dies (SMED) method
• Topic T32 Objective O33
• sequence the core steps of the single-minute exchange of dies (SMED) method
• Topic T37 Objective O38
• demonstrate your understanding of cycle time reduction concepts
• Topic T45 Objective O46
• determine the appropriate type of kaizen event for a given project
• Topic T50 Objective O51
• recognize examples of activities typically performed during each day of a kaizen blitz
• Topic T55 Objective O56
• recognize activities a team carries out while implementing kaizen in an organization
• Topic T60 Objective O61
• use the kaizen process to implement a kaizen event