User manual
A field guide to running a DMAIC project end-to-end.
Define
Lock in the problem statement, scope, and team before you touch data.
- Charter
- Open the assignment, switch to the Charter tab, and fill the seven panes (Team, Overview, Drivers, Leverage, Risks, Stakeholders, Schedule). The header progress bar tracks how complete the charter is.
- Schedule
- Add DMAIC milestone dates beneath the charter. The schedule rolls up into the executive summary on the report.
- VOC + CTQ
- Capture customer voices (VOC) and translate each into a measurable CTQ with target + spec limits.
Measure
Map the process and put numbers on it.
- Process detail
- Add a process row, set its lower/upper spec, and either type measurements directly or import from Excel/CSV (one column per process).
- SIPOC + VSM
- Use SIPOC for high-level scope; switch to VSM when you need step-level cycle/wait times. The VSM efficiency tile turns red below 25%.
- Live shadowing
- Open a shadowing session to time real work in the field. The "End step + start next" button commits an observation; "Wait/blocked" tracks idle time.
Analyze
Find the vital few from the trivial many.
- Capability charts
- With ≥ 8 raw measurements you get the full pack: histogram with normal overlay, I-chart with control limits, and a sigma-level gauge.
- Run / box / scatter charts
- In the Toolkit, run-chart shows Nelson rule violations; box plot shows whiskers and outliers; scatter shows the fitted regression line.
- Fishbone & 5-Whys
- Hypothesise root causes by category (people, process, equipment, materials, environment, management) and drill with 5-Whys.
- FMEA
- Score Severity / Occurrence / Detection — the system computes RPN and flags the top items.
Improve
Pick solutions and pilot them.
- Recommendations
- Track each improvement from Proposed → Approved → Implemented; tag difficulty so leadership sees the lift.
- Solution selection / Cost-benefit / PICK matrix
- Toolkit entries that quantify trade-offs. Pin the winning analysis with the "Pin to report" toggle.
- Piloting + Poka-Yoke
- Document the pilot plan and any error-proofing you put in place.
Control
Hand it back to the operators with guardrails.
- Control plan + Response plan
- Spell out the metric, target, and the action when the metric drifts. Response plans surface in the report appendix.
- SOP + Audit checklist
- Keep a single source of truth for the new way of working and the audit cadence.
- Report (HTML + PDF)
- The report compiles charter, capability, pinned toolkit runs, recommendations, and any AI assessment. PDF rendering runs as a background job — the button shows progress and downloads automatically when ready.
Tips
- Pin the most important toolkit runs so they appear in the executive summary.
- Use the org switcher in Settings when you belong to multiple workspaces.
- The calculator (top nav) is independent of any assignment — handy for quick sanity checks.