The Certified Six Sigma

Green Belt Handbook

Second Edition

Roderick A. Munro, Govindarajan Ramu,

and Daniel J. Zrymiak

ASQ Quality Press

Milwaukee, Wisconsin
American Society for Quality, Quality Press, Milwaukee 53203
© 2015 by ASQ
All rights reserved. Published 2015
Printed in the United States of America
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Munro, Roderick A.
  The certified six sigma green belt handbook / Roderick A. Munro, Govindarajan Ramu,
  and Daniel J. Zrymiak.—Second edition.
  pages cm
  Revised edition of: The certified six sigma green belt handbook / Roderick A. Munro . . .
  [et al.]. c2008.
  Includes bibliographical references and index.
  ISBN 978-0-87389-891-1 (hard cover : alk. paper)
  1. Six sigma (Quality control standard)—Handbooks, manuals, etc.  2. Production
  management—Handbooks, manuals, etc.  3. Quality control—Statistical methods—
  Handbooks, manuals, etc.  I. Ramu, Govindarajan.  II. Zrymiak, Daniel J.  III. Title.

  TS156.C4235 2015
 658.5—dc23 2014046292

ISBN 978-0-87389-891-1

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 Chapter 21: A. Statistical Process Control (SPC) 377

The histogram provides a visual picture of the variation and center of the process,
while the mean and standard deviation provide numerical values for comparison.
Process improvement is not limited to the factory floor or manufacturing
facility. Any process (machinery, office, sports team, household, and so on) can be
monitored using basic SPC techniques. Once control of the process is established,
you can then make changes to see if these either alter the variation (range) or move
the target (average).

Process Capability: Special versus Common Causes

In the 1920s, Shewhart developed control charts to distinguish between assignable
variation—characteristic of systems out of control—and chance variations within
controlled systems. The assignable variation that causes the process to go out
of control should be detectable with the appropriate control chart.
Every process has variation. Process improvement requires reducing the
amount of variation that is currently present. Variation can be physical or mechan-
ical (that is, tool, machine, maintenance, equipment, environment) or procedural
(operator, accuracy, legibility, workload). The specification limits should reflect
the voice of the customer. The process variation reflects the voice of the process.
This is expanded in Chapter 15, Process and Performance Capability.
Process variation has two main categories: special and common. Variation
must be traceable to its sources, making it necessary to distinguish between com-
mon and special causes.
The common causes of variation are those that are inherent to the process and
generally are not controllable by process operators. Common cause variation is
also known as natural variation and refers to the many sources of variation within
a process. Common causes reside in processes within statistical control, and can
be characterized by location (process average), spread (piece-to-piece variability),
and shape (distribution) for predictability.
Special causes of variation include unusual events that the operator, when prop-
erly alerted, can usually remove or adjust. Special causes are sometimes called
assignable causes. Unless all the special causes of variation are identified and miti-
gated, the process output will be unpredictably influenced, with random results.
The principal purpose of control charts is to recognize the presence of spe-
cial causes so that appropriate action can be taken. While both special and
common causes can be detected with statistical techniques, common causes are
more difficult to isolate and remove. A process is considered to be in statistical
control when only common causes remain after special causes have been removed.

Tactics
A principal problem is the separation of special and common causes. If you adjust
a process in response to common cause variation, the result is usually more varia-
tion rather than less. This is sometimes called overadjustment or overcontrol. If you
fail to respond to the presence of a special cause of variation, this cause is likely
to produce additional process variation. This is referred to as underadjustment or
undercontrol.