Which is a principle of Lean?

Which is a purpose and use of data visualization?

Which element is identified in a problem statement?

What method aims to provide a rapid and efficient way of converting a manufacturing process from producing the current product to producing a different product?

Which is a purpose of Short Interval Management (SIM)?

What step in the 5S methodology requires that safety equipment and emergency procedures are made clearly visible for all?

How are the inputs defined in the SIPOC technique?

What metrics are considered first when deciding ’What to Measure’ in a process?

What type of variation is caused by human error or a change in environmental factors, resulting in a non-random distribution of output?

What type of data is sometimes called variable data?

Why is the ‘One-Factor-at-a-Time’ (OFAT) approach inferior to the ‘Design of Experiments’ (DOE) approach?

Which benefit is gained by implementing ‘Flow’?

What term is given to represent the maximum value minus the minimum value in a data set?

What is the purpose of a Bar chart?

Why is the Value Stream Mapping (Current State) technique used?

Which is a focus of Operational Excellence?

Which statement describes a defective product?

Which benefit is achieved from process mapping?

What quality activity is focused on preventing defects during production, rather than looking for defects in the end product?

Which of the following are examples of continuous data?

1. Number of features
2. Size in centimeters
3. Weight in kilograms
4. Pressure per square centimeter

Which method is NOT used for understanding customer requirements?

What is the outcome when designing the optimal Value Stream?

Which is a use of a concentration diagram?

What company developed the ‘Lean thought process’?

Which of the following are outcomes of implementing the ‘Pull’ principle?

1. Semi-finished products
2. Items made as they are needed
3. Minimal materials stocked
4. Reduced fluctuation

Which of the following are common brainstorming techniques used when brainstorming causes of effects?

1. Tree diagram
2. Clustering items together
3. 5S steps
4. 6 Ms

Which of the following steps are used to construct a Failure Mode and Effect Analysis (FMEA)?

1. Rate the impact of the negative effect on the customer
2. Multiply the probability with the impact, and the potential to miss it
3. Prepare a plan to respond to the negative effect after it has occurred
4. Assess the chance of a problem occurring without it being noticed

Which aspect of an organization is MOST likely to make a process of change difficult?

Which is NOT one of the eight pillars within the TPM ‘House of Quality’?

What is the primary goal of the 5-Whys technique?

What is the final aim of the Cause and Effect Matrix used in decision making?

Which of the following elements should be included in a Control plan?

1. Failure Mode and Effect Analysis
2. Out-of-Control Action Plan
3. Product and process characteristics
4. Actions to minimise potential failures

Which type of correlation is NOT a recognised relationship?

Which is an important requirement of the data collected when sampling data?

Which type of ‘Customer Waste’ is MOST likely to be the cause of an end product that fails to meet the customer’s expectations?

What is a Statistical Process Control (SPC) chart used for?

Which is the philosophy shared by Lean and Six Sigma?

What is the principle of ‘Jidoka’?

Which is the basis of hypothesis testing?

What is ‘Little’s’ formula for calculating Average Lead Time?

What Lean Six Sigma term is used to describe over-production, defects, inventory and movement?

Which is a statement about a Kaizen event?

Which is a step in the Global 8D problem solving process?

Which documentation describes how to accomplish a specific task within a Quality Management System (QMS)?

Which activity does NOT belong to the Plan step in the PDCA approach?

Which is a Value Adding Activity?

What is the Process Capability index (Cp) formula where USL is the Upper Specification Limit, LSL is the Lower Specification Limit and S is the standard deviation?

Which is NOT an example of Visual Management?

What role is a process improvement expert?

What is a purpose of Volume leveling in Lean manufacturing?

Which description outlines a purpose of a ‘Project Charter’?

What measure is used to evaluate the utilization of a manufacturing operation in terms of availability, performance and quality?

Why is visualization of data useful?

A company employs 5 members of staff who work 36 productive hours per 5-day week, producing 360 completed units between them. The Sales Manager forecasts that demand is going to increase by 50%. How many additional members of staff does the company need to employ to ensure that the Average Lead Time will be
maintained?

Which approach to change reflects a traditional management style where objectives are established by senior staff as well as guidelines, information timing and budgets?

Repeated failures of an expensive new water pump have caused costly shut downs resulting in lost profit to the organization. The failures were caused by a leak,
which resulted from a single mechanical seal. The single seal was specified because it was less expensive than the double seal option. The project team were unaware that a single seal might prove insufficient in this particular pumping process. No-one sought advice about the most effective design criteria for the process and equipment requirements. Guidelines for the purchase of capital equipment do not call for a reliability assessment. The project team were tasked to control costs and to complete the project quickly in order to get the product to market sooner. What is the root cause of this problem?

What term is given to the discrete probability distribution of the number of successes in a sequence of Yes/No experiment?

Which statement BEST describes a Critical to Quality (CTQ) measure?

Quality control issued a ‘non-conformance’ due to an incorrect bolt pattern (34 holes drilled instead of 36). The causes were a combination of engineering oversight and a lack of quality checking by the machinist. What should be documented in the problem statement when attempting to resolve this issue?

Which is the MOST likely reason to use a ‘transportation / Spaghetti (workflow) Diagram’?

Which feature is NOT shared by both Lean and Six Sigma?

Which of the following represents a good measurement system?

1. Process being measured is stable
2. Measuring instrument is regularly calibrated
3. Minimal variation caused by different people measuring
4. Measurement procedure is clear and used

A two-stage brainstorm session is being facilitated with a group of production line staff to identify potential reasons for a continued increase in the number of defects from a production line. What actions should be taken to support brainstorming techniques?

1. Invite the production manager to lead the discussion
2. Ask staff to note their suspected reasons individually
3. Sort reasons into common groups and expand ideas
4. Highlight those reasons that need further investigation

An analyst has gathered data from a population to gain an understanding of whether there is any relationship between a person’s age and their level of income. Calculating the Pearson Correlation Coefficient results in a value of 0.20. Which conclusion CANNOT be drawn about the relationship between a person’s age and their level of income?

Which customer group is MOST likely to voice requirements about operating hours, health and safety and working conditions?

What action represents a Type I Error in a hypothesis test?

What company first developed ‘Lean Thinking’ or ‘Lean Management’?

What does Value Stream Mapping (VSM) aim to achieve?

Regression Analysis is carried out on the sales of a product in relation to temperature.

Which observations can be determined about the relationship between these two factors?

The temperature in a computer server room was reaching an uncomfortable level. A technical engineer, working in this room, decided to open the fire door to let some air in. The sudden rush of air forced the technical engineer backwards, landing on the emergency power stop button, cutting all power to the servers. Which activity would NOT have helped to prevent this problem in the workplace?

Which observation indicates the presence of a constraint in a process?

What level of Lean Six Sigma ‘Belt’ is an expert in executing improvement projects which involve more than one department or organization?

When searching for a replacement part in a mountain of boxes, a member of a production team has found several boxes of other parts that have been stored in the
warehouse area for months. What two types of operational Waste are evident in this situation?

In which types of organizations is Operational Excellence applicable?

When using a Go/No go Gage to measure a critical product dimension, what will the result directly indicate?

If the current operational availability of an automated assembly machine is not enough to meet an increase in customer demand, what is the BEST way to improve the machine’s availability?

Which of the following reasons explain why Design of Experiments (DOE) would be used?

1. Factors can be varied simultaneously
2. Trials can be performed quickly
3. One influencing factor is changed at a time
4. Connections between factors can be revealed

What type of quality activity is carried out on the final product to ensure it is fit for purpose when delivered to the customer?

Which describes a ‘systematic’ approach to collecting a representative sample of population data?

How will a Future State Value Stream Map differ to the Current State Value Stream Map of the same process?

Why are review sessions scheduled between each of the five ‘Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve and Control’ (DMAIC) phases of a Lean Six Sigma project?

If a process has a Capability Index of Cp = 1 for a specific parameter, what percentage of units produced fit within the tolerance range?

A Kaizen Blitz is being carried out in a small retail outlet. What is the first action that should be taken by the facilitator?

The weights of 100 units have the above normal distribution. How many standard deviations is 1.85 away from the mean?

What is implemented last in a process improvement project when following the ‘Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve and Control’ (DMAIC) roadmap?

What needs to be reduced if productivity is less than demand?

What type of variation suggests that a process is ‘Out-of-Control’?

Which objective does NOT relate to bringing a process into a state of statistical control?

Which attribute is required of all Lean Six Sigma team members?

Which conclusion can be determined about the amount of sleep needed per day by age?

A pharmaceutical company has recently removed a number of surplus items from a laboratory, clearing some much-needed space. Keen to utilize this new space, technicians have begun to store various materials in this area. Three separate employees have since been taken ill due to contaminated surfaces. Which step in the 5S technique would determine where each item should be stored?

What concept is being applied in the Control phase of a Lean Six Sigma project, when a Belt identifies key metrics that can be monitored and analyzed to indicate when a process has an unusual drift or variation?

Which of the following statements are about the use of ‘Pull’ production?

1. Items are made to order
2. Items are ready earlier than required
3. Raw materials are ordered as needed
4. Customer demand drives production

Which is a use of Critical to Quality (CTQ) measures in a Cause & Effect Matrix?

Traditional printing involves converting words into a printable form, called a printing plate, which is covered in ink and then pressed against pieces of paper. The machine into which the plate is installed is called a printing press. To print a whole book several plates will be installed in succession into the press. Which step in the printing process is LEAST likely to require the press to be stopped before a changeover of the plate can be conducted?

Which of the following are Six Sigma metrics?

1. Precision to tolerance ratio
2. Rolled Throughput Yield
3. Proportion of defective products
4. Process Capability index

Which characteristic of a company is MOST likely to influence the success of a Lean Six Sigma project?

‘Which is a purpose of the Eight Disciplines (8D) Problem solving method?

What is the purpose of calculating Risk Priority Numbers (RPN) in a Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA)?

What document is formally required in a quality system to describe the sequence of activities together with necessary tools and the timings for how long each item should take?

A study is to be carried out on a litter of puppies.

Information about the first puppy has been captured:

The analyst has stated that statistics on the appearance and personalities of the puppies cannot be measured, because this type of data cannot be counted or measured.

 Is this statement correct?

Customers at the self-service checkouts of a supermarket must scan each purchase and put it in a bag in the ‘bagging area’.

Often the customers receive the error message ‘please put the item in the bag’, because they cannot open the plastic bags quickly enough.

In the DMAIC roadmap, which of the following is determined before the Define phase Gate Review?

1. The customer’s experience when opening a plastic bag takes longer than the checkout allows
2. Which parts of the scanning, bagging and weighing process are involved
3. The average time to open a bag; the average time taken for the error message to appear
4. Who has the most influence out of the customer, bag supplier and software supplier

A farmer is seeking ways to improve the farm’s existing process for feeding cattle, so gathers information to create a SIPOC diagram.

Which of the following entries and reasons are appropriate on a SIPOC diagram?

1. ‘Feed storage container’, because this affects the quality of the feed
2. ‘Collect feed and fill troughs’, because this is part of the process
3. ‘Cattle fertilized field’ , because this is an output of the process
4. ‘Fed cattle’, because these are an input to the process

According to the KANO model, which performance feature of a product or service is MOST likely to satisfy a customer’s expectations?

An egg distributor wants to monitor the number of eggs damaged or broken in transit. Each crate holds 288 eggs. Each shipment contains a different number of crates.

The number of eggs broken in transit has been counted. Because of the different size of each shipment, the control limits vary. On average 1 broken egg was found in each shipment.

What type of chart would be appropriate to capture this information?

A pharmaceutical company has recently removed a number of surplus items from a laboratory, clearing some much-needed space. Keen to utilize this new space, technicians have begun to store various materials in this area. Three separate employees have since been taken ill due to contaminated surfaces.

Which step in the 5S technique would determine where each item should be stored?

After returning from a two-week vacation a manager reviewed the Xbar and R charts that were maintained during the manager’s absence. One of the Xbar charts shows the last 50 points to be very near the centre line. In fact, they all seem to be within about one sigma of the centre line.

What is the BEST explanation for this occurrence?

Which risk rating from a Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA) indicates the need to develop actions to reduce the ‘potential effect(s) of failure’?

Which is NOT a perspective described by the Balanced Scorecard (BSC) to develop metrics, collect data and analyze it?

Why might a project team conduct a ‘stakeholder analysis’?

A production manager has asked a member of the production team to present a summary of the team’s performance over the past three months.

The data presented was clear and concise, and delivered in a professional manner.

However, the data showed the team’s performance to be lower than expected, and that one member in particular had failed to meet several of the performance targets set.

Which response from the production manager would NOT be appropriate?

A scaffolding company is replacing its existing steel bracketed scaffold system with a new ‘Snapit’ system. They want their new system to be light and easy to transport, and yet be
as strong as the old system. They would like to reduce the time it takes to erect and dismantle the scaffold towers on site, and yet maintain the same level of stability as the old system.

How should the safety requirement be captured for the external Critical to Quality (CTQ)?

Which feature is NOT shared by both Lean and Six Sigma?

A process produces the following statistics:

What is the Rolled Throughput Yield (RTY) for this process?

An engineer samples 100 parts from a production process. 20% defective parts are expected.
The engineer plans to use the normal distribution to calculate a confidence interval for the mean proportion defectives.

Why is this choice allowed?

Which attribute is required of all Lean Six Sigma team members?

project team at a Pizzeria restaurant must create a current-state value stream
map to improve their pizza-making process. The project leader has gathered a team that
includes the wait staff, kitchen staff and management to ensure that everyone who is involved in the process is represented. The team create a high-level map of the processb by gathering information about each step, including activities, cycle times, defects and inventory; some of which are given in the table below.

The scope of the pizza-making process value stream is from the time the customer places an order to the time that the pizza is delivered to the customer’s table (in
minutes).

Which action would reduce the Cycle Time?

A two-stage brainstorm session is being facilitated with a group of production line staff to identify potential reasons for a continued increase in the number of defects from a production line.

What actions should be taken to support brainstorming techniques?

1. Invite the production manager to lead the discussion
2. Ask staff to note their suspected reasons individually
3. Sort reasons into common groups and expand ideas
4. Highlight those reasons that need further investigation

What is the Range (R) of the data set: 2, 5, 6, 9, 8, 5, 7?

The Pareto chart below shows the paint defects from an automotive assembly plant:

The assembly plant manager has decided that there is no question as to which problem needs to be addressed first, the ‘Dirt’ defect.

Is the assembly plant manager correct in this conclusion?

What is the name of the Six Sigma roadmap that is used for design rather than improving the manufacturing of a product?

If the current operational availability of an automated assembly machine is not enough to meet an increase in customer demand, what is the BEST way to improve the machine’s availability?

A hypermarket needs to link the products it displays on the shelves to the inventory in the warehouse and then to the supplier. The following steps have been introduced:

1. The person responsible for the products on a shelf will place a flag on the top of the shelf when the shelf needs to be replenished
2. The person in the warehouse will recognize this flag and will send some products to be displayed
3. The person in the warehouse will update the warehouse data system with this withdrawal
4. The data system will send an order to the supplier for more products

Which step needs to be added to make this process a Kanban system?

Which is a purpose of the Eight Disciplines (8D) Problem Solving method?

The influence of alcohol and sleeping pills on a motorist driving a car is to be tested, specifically the braking distance. Which of the following can be assessed using the One- Factor-At-a-Time approach?

1. Normal braking distance when sober
2. Consequence of drinking a large volume of alcohol
3. Effect of several sleeping pills have on reaction time
4. Effect of both alcohol and sleeping pills combined

Which of the three generic competitive strategies is evident in an organization that is performance driven, based on teamwork and welcomes change?

When comparing a short-term process capability index Cp to a long-term process performance index Ppk, what should the result be?

Assuming all data in the table below is accurate, a shift manager has been asked to calculate the Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) during this shift.

The shift manager has submitted an OEE of 83.30%. Is this correct?

The manager of a coffee shop has created a list of customer requirements by listening to complaints, handing out surveys, holding focus groups and conducting
interviews. One common need was Good Customer Satisfaction. In order to understand what it is that fulfils this need, the coffee shop manager has created a Critical to Quality (CTQ) Tree:

Is this an appropriate translation of the Voice of the Customer (VOC) into Critical to Quality (CTQ) metrics?

Which of the following describe elements of metrology?

1. Process of checking the accuracy of a measurement device
2. Adjusting as instrument to make sure it is within specification
3. Scientific study of the atmosphere and how it evolves through time
4. Ability to relate measurement to a reference standard in a way that is verifiable

A manufacturing company is replacing an existing horizontal saw with two new vertical cutting saws. These saws will guarantee accuracies to 0.0005”, making it easier to accurately cut large panels into smaller size pieces whilst taking up less floor space.

At the early stages of the DMAIC project, in every customer focus group, customer interview and customer survey, the Voice of the Customer (VOC) specified the need for ‘safety’.

The Process Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA) reviewed a number of potential safety issues and scored each of these with a relatively high Risk Priority Number (RPN).

The project leader has developed a Control plan to inspect and monitor process performance in detail, but this does not include any measures for safety.

Should this Control plan be implemented?

A bicycle manufacturer is planning to design and launch a new super lightweight range of road bicycles. It is understood that the market for this range of products has grown exponentially with the boom in triathlons. Race participation has shown an increase of more than 300% in the past three years.

At which stage in the product lifecycle should the manufacturer forecast profits from this new range to reach its peak?

Phillips & Company manufacture screwdrivers.

After thorough market research, they determine that customers would prefer rubber handles on their screwdrivers rather than plastic handles and would be prepared pay €1 more for such a feature.

To manufacture and ship the new handles there is an additional cost of €0.60 per unit. Is there any added value in changing the design to rubber handles?

The goal of an experiment is to find the best way to microwave a bag of popcorn. When a bag of popcorn is cooked in the microwave according to the instructions on the packet, most of the kernels pop, but some do not. The length of time the popcorn is in the microwave (between 3 and 5 minutes) and the power setting (between 5 and 10) seem to have an effect on the number of kernels popped. There are two brands of popcorn to choose from (A or B).

We know that popping corn for a long time on a high setting tends to scorch the kernels. Combined popping time (PT) and power settings (PS) are to be constrained (PT×PS < 40)

Which factor is NOT considered a factor of influence in this experiment?

A Kaizen Blitz is being carried out in a small retail outlet.

What is the first action that should be taken by the facilitator?

The changeover process of a press is shown below:

1. Run empty / stop production
2. Remove Mould ‘A’ from the press
3. Mould ‘A’ is cleaned and stored
4. Mould ‘B’ is picked up from storage
5. Adjusting Mould ‘B’ under the guidance of a mechanic specialist
6. Mould ‘B’ is installed in the press
7. Release production process by supervisor
8. Start production

What activities should be eliminated or made ‘external’ in order to reduce the changeover time?

Who introduced the concept of ‘Statistical Process Control’ (SPC)?

A 2-level Full Factorial design with 4 quantitative factors A, B, C and D is created. 4 centre points and no replicates are used. The results of the analysis are below.

Factorial Regression: Response versus A; B; C; D

Analysis of Variance

What can be concluded from the results table using a 5% significant level?

An anti-virus software company (AVS) released a software update to all its customers. The software update contained an unidentified coding error. This error
caused a healthy system file to be flagged as being malicious. Once the file was tagged as malicious, a built-in safety mechanism caused the system to reboot in an attempt to remove the malicious file. This caused the users to experience the ‘blue screen of death or an endless series of attempted reboots. Tens of thousands of users were impacted causing an estimated €50 million in lost productivity.

It is unknown why the coding error occurred, but possible fault paths need to be examined. The AVS quality assurance process missed the coding error before going into production.

There was no peer review of the software update completed before release. Both of these quality system failures require further examination. The following has been recorded in the table below:

Is this an appropriate application of the 5-Whys technique for this problem?

A team leader has been asked to do a Capability and Performance analysis on a process.

Although the data collected from each rational subgroup is normally distributed the data from the process as a whole is clearly not distributed normally.

Which of the following tools might be used in this analysis?

1. Capability analysis for each sub-group based on normal distribution assumption
2. Use a Box-Cox transformation and then analyse the process data with the standard tool
3. Identify the distribution and use a method that is based on the non-normal distribution
4. Perform a Z-transformation then analyse the process data with the standard tool

A courier company maintains statistics on all of its delivery routes. Past records show Route X takes between 10 and 15 minutes to deliver to, depending on variations in traffic. When checking the delivery records during the past week, the shift manager noticed that on Tuesday Route X took 34 minutes to complete delivery.

The shift manager has flagged this as a common cause variation and has proposed the use of bicycles, which can move more easily through traffic jams than the vehicles they currently use.

Is this a valid observation?

Which is the use of a skill matrix?

What statement describes a correlation analysis?

Which of the following questions should be asked on the completion of a process improvement project?

1. Should anything have been done differently?
2. What aspect of the project should be changed if doing it again?
3. What are the customer’s requirements and expectations?
4. What were the weakest and strongest points?

Volume leveling has been applied to a manufacturing process. A single product is produced in three sequential steps:
Step 1: 20 minutes Step 2: 30 minutes Step 3: 50 minutes

These steps are operating independently of each other. The manufacturer of this product has promised to supply a customer with 100 units in three weeks or 95 production hours.

What is the largest number of units that can be produced in this time?

A manufacturing company is introducing a new training program at a cost of €42,000. The company’s existing training program cost €60,000 over the same period.

The new, more efficient and effective training program is expected to deliver increased productivity, improve customer satisfaction, employee safety and morale and reduce absenteeism.

Which of the following are soft benefits of the new training program?
1. Employees feeling safer
2. Cost savings of €18,000
3. Greater customer satisfaction
4. Higher employee morale

Consider an investigation among 10 households on their spending behavior regarding food as a function of their income.
Regression Analysis: weekly food spending versus income

Analysis of Variance

Model Summary

Coefficients

Regression Equation

Weekly food spending = 1.2 + 0.0484 income

Which observation is appropriate for this data set? 

A micro-brewery, working to the ‘Just In Time’ (JIT) principle, has received an order for 50 crates of beer. Each crate contains 24 x 30cl bottles (0.3 litres). With only one brewing kettle operational, the brewery can produce up to 100 litres of beer each day.

The manager of the brewery has promised to deliver the order in three days. Is this a realistic Lead-Time for this order?

Which activity will increase the ongoing overall costs of production?

A manufacturing plant has a number of inspections built into its production process. Many of these inspections are required for to comply with health and safety regulations, some are for control purposes and two are inspections that have been mandated by the customer.

Should any of these inspections be classed as the ‘Over-processing’ type of ‘Waste’ (Muda)?