I hit upon a mnemonic the other day, and was wondering if others had favorite little tricks for remembering topics related to Quality that they would like to share.


So here are two to start us off.

Measurement systems should be up to PARR
* Precise (enough decimal places)
* Accurate (digits given are correct)
* Repeatable (work the same for you every time)
* Reproducible (work the same for everyone)

I could never remember repeatable vs reproducible, until I realized:
* lots of people repeat themselves, but it takes at least two people to reproduce :o.

Tim

I could never remember repeatable vs reproducible, until I realized:
* lots of people repeat themselves, but it takes at least two people to reproduce .
Good one Tim. I liked that.

One we use here related to Lean projects that remove waste, we call WASTERS

Waiting (for parts, approvals, answers, equipment, repairs)
Ambiguity (unclear direction)
Scrap & Rework (both materials and time)
Transport (all excessive forms of travel, motions, etc.)
Eventual Scrap (inventory, WIP, etc.)
Redundancy (repeated or parallel tasks)
Sisyphian* waste (irrelevant or "relic" tasks that once may have had meaning)

*this was somewhat of a stretch, relating it to "repeatedly pushing a rock up a hill"

I know I'll never forget the difference between repeatability and reproducability again. Good one!

We always used the DOTWIMP mnemonic for the 7 sources of Muda. I once worked for a company that used a sentence, something like " It is Now Time to....." reduce waste and profit loss or something like that.

But, as you can see, I can't even remember what it's time to do. Bloody worthless mnemonic if you can't even remember the device itself.

I always use the SMART device to remember how to set an effective goal

S - Specific
M - Measurable
A - Achievable
R - Relevant
T - Timebound

I'll stick with FUBR and SNAFU!

Randy, the "F" stands for "fouled" right? ;)

DOTWIMP

1. Defects
2. Overproduction
3. Transportation
4. Waiting
5. Inventory
6. Motion
7. Processing


Courtesy : isixsigma.com

Randy, the "F" stands for "fouled" right? ;)
And don't forget the standard MIL-TFD-S (Make It Like-The F* Drawing-Says)

At my last company, Chrysler and Ford were both customers of ours. While we were pretty quick to say what we were thinking when there wasn't a customer visit going on, when we did have someone important in the plant, we used "Chrysler-Ford" as a replacement for "Charlie-Fox," or Cluster-F***. To the outsider, it just sounded like we were talking about a department.

Also, we always used the SWAG method of problem solving.

Scientific Wild-Arsed Guess.

F - Focus
I - Improve
S - Sustain
H - Honour

Wallace.

DOTWIMP

1. Defects
2. Overproduction
3. Transportation
4. Waiting
5. Inventory
6. Motion
7. Processing


Courtesy : isixsigma.com

Except for the first two, there's nothing intrinsically wrong with any of those. 3-7 are not "wastes"; They're are potential sources of waste.