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Browsing All posts tagged under »Six Sigma«
Celebration! 100,000 readers!
Time for a little celebration. Today the TAPUniversity blog surpassed 100,000 visits or reads. Over the last two years our blog readership and contributions have grown steadily. Several hundred professionals check in each day and explore over 400 articles and growing. We’ll continue to publish and hope you’ll share in our exploration of the Management […]
Time for a quick celebration – 400 posts!
February 16, 2011 by Dave Kohrell
I wanted to share a little milestone. We reached 400 posts yesterday. Our blog is primarily targeted for education, learning and conversation. While we do need some money to keep the lights on, we try to keep the commercial pitches and “monentization” to a minimum. Thank you everyone who has participated, read and engaged with […]
Certification Exam Feedback: PMP®, CBAP®, CISA®, CISM®, CISSP®, ITIL®, CSM®, Lean Six Sigma®
February 5, 2011 by Dave Kohrell
Certification exams for management and information technology have become a necessity for finding a job, advancing a career and validating knowledge. Certification does not measure intelligence, work habits, team work and a myriad of additional competencies and talent needed to succeed. Sometimes they’re a necessary evil. Other times they bring a tremendous sense of fulfillment! […]
2010 in review
January 2, 2011 by tapuniversity
The stats helper monkeys at WordPress.com mulled over how this blog did in 2010, and here’s a high level summary of its overall blog health: The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads Wow. Crunchy numbers A helper monkey made this abstract painting, inspired by your stats. About 3 million people visit the Taj Mahal every year. This blog was […]
Risk Management Approaches
December 2, 2010 by Dave Kohrell
Weaving throughout the Business Analysis Body of Knowledge (BABOK), ISACA content & CobiT, Lean Six Sigma best practice and the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) / PRINCE 2 is the concept of proactively managing risk. Risk is based on a probability of an event occuring (positive and negative) and the impact should that even […]
Risk Priority Number (RPN)
September 30, 2010 by Dave Kohrell
Risk management weaves through multiple disciplines. Addressing potential future events, both good and bad, is the focus of risk management. There are two primary factors: 1) the probability of that event occurring and 2) the impact of that event occurring. Take those two together (multiply) and a Risk Priority Number can be calculated. For example […]
Management “Nexus” – the intersection of multiple disciplines
September 14, 2010 by Dave Kohrell
Nexus – 1. a means of connection; tie; link. 2. a connected series or group. 3. the core or center, as of a matter or situation. In geek’dom – a moderately successful 1994 Star Trek movie that saw one 700 year old guy named Soran (wonder if they’d been reading Tolkien) not only take on […]
RFP’s – Vendor Selection – Scoring
August 8, 2010 by Dave Kohrell
In a Request For Proposal selection process or project a flexibility, well defined rubric is critical. That rubric is more commonly known as score sheets, scales and weights. The best practice is to define that rubric prior to issuing the RFP – the selection committee needs to know 1) what they are selected and 2) […]
Request For Proposal
July 24, 2010 by Dave Kohrell
A Request For Proposal (RFP) is a common way to select for a vendor based solution or product. They are used when what is needed can be identified and described, but a detailed step by step method may not be known. RFP’s may result in a fixed bid or cost plus performance contract awarded to […]
N and n
November 27, 2009 by tapuniversity
Pop’s Popcorn Factory employs 1000 people. Management wants to know employee views on a number of topics such as whether they would prefer having underground parking built for them or a soda-fountain shop opened in the factory. They randomly chose a sample of 150 people from the list of 1000 employees to take a survey. […]
Kitting
November 25, 2009 by tapuniversity
Four children are assembling gingerbread houses around their dining room table. Each child is making five houses so that the family has enough to give away as gifts to relatives. Rather than have each child run back to the kitchen every time they need a spoon or have each child try to find a certain […]
Type I Errors and Type II Errors
November 24, 2009 by tapuniversity
One of the most common questions I get in our Six Sigma courses is how to understand the difference between Type I and Type II errors. I’ll offer an explanation and then describe how I personally remember which error is which. Type I and Type II errors are mistakes made when performing null hypothesis testing. […]
NQM One Month Later
November 23, 2009 by tapuniversity
As I was reading about Six Sigma I ran into an unfamiliar acronym—NQM. I found that it stands for National Quality Month. I was curious about which month it was and hoped that it would be this month so I could write something well-timed to commemorate it. But it isn’t—NQM is October, so I just […]
TGR & TGW
November 20, 2009 by tapuniversity
In the spirit of Thanksgiving being less than a week away, imagine hosting the traditional family meal at your home. Eager to impress the family, you have carefully written out specifications for each dish. You’ve made a rub for the turkey that contains a myriad of ingredients, and you’ve added sour cream to the mashed […]
Quality Circle
November 19, 2009 by tapuniversity
A Quality Circle is a small group of people with a leader that works together to suggest ideas for improving quality in their organization. The concept of the Quality Circle originated in Japan. An example of a Quality Circle would be five employees at Furry Friends Food, a pet food company, that meet every Tuesday […]
Central Tendency
November 17, 2009 by tapuniversity
How much time has Carl been spending test driving different cars? When describing the data collected on a given variable, whether it be a Six Sigma or other type of study, a measure of central tendency is often reported. The Mean, Median, and Mode are all measures of central tendency. Here is an example: Carl […]
Instant Pudding
November 16, 2009 by tapuniversity
“Let’s put up some posters around the building stating that quality is our number one objective, and we’ll certainly have fewer defects and better productivity.” This is an example of Instant Pudding. We may want quality and productivity to improve easily and almost effortlessly, but in reality it takes knowledge and hard work. Rather than […]
Null Hypothesis
November 13, 2009 by tapuniversity
Carl wants to know whether there is a difference in how fast men drive versus women. He’ll be using radar to clock the speed of every car that goes by for an hour and record whether the driver was a man or woman. In Null Hypothesis testing, the Null Hypothesis must be stated and the […]
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May 17, 2011 by Dave Kohrell
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