EXIN LSSA Green Belt Practical key terms

A measurable characteristic of a product or service that directly reflects what the customer values, translated from vague customer wishes into a specification the process can be controlled against.

The structured collection of customer needs, expectations, and complaints gathered through interviews, surveys, and complaint data, used as the starting input for defining improvement projects.

A classification of customer requirements into must-be, performance, and delighter categories, used to decide which features create satisfaction and which only prevent dissatisfaction.

A high-level process map showing Suppliers, Inputs, Process steps, Outputs, and Customers, used at project scoping to agree on boundaries and identify who supplies and receives the process.

A short document that authorizes a improvement project, stating the business case, problem statement, goal, scope, team, milestones, and expected financial benefit.

A factual description of the gap between current and desired performance, including magnitude, location, timing, and impact, written without stating a cause or a solution.

The identification of people and groups affected by or able to influence a project, mapped by interest and influence so that communication and involvement can be planned.

The five-phase improvement cycle of Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, and Control, used for solving problems in existing processes where the root cause is not yet known.

A diagram of the sequence of steps, decisions, and handoffs that turn inputs into outputs, used to expose rework loops, delays, and non-value-adding activity.

A map of material and information flow through a process that records cycle times, waiting times, inventories, and decision points, used to calculate total lead time versus value-adding time.

A process activity that changes the form or function of the product or service in a way the customer would pay for, performed correctly the first time.

The categories of non-value-adding loss in a process: defects, overproduction, waiting, non-utilized talent, transportation, inventory, motion, and extra processing, remembered by the acronym DOWNTIME.

The actual place where work is done, such as the shop floor or service counter, where observation of the real process replaces assumptions made in meeting rooms.

The practice of going to the real place and seeing the real object or activity firsthand before drawing conclusions, rather than relying on reports or secondhand description.

A structured, regular visit to the workplace by leaders to observe process, ask questions, and identify improvement opportunities without blaming individuals.

Continuous small-scale improvement carried out by the people who do the work, often through short focused events that implement changes quickly rather than through large capital projects.

The Plan-Do-Check-Act cycle of testing a change on a small scale, studying the result, and then standardizing or adjusting, used as the engine of continuous improvement.

A documented, agreed method for performing a task that specifies sequence, timing, and required quality checks, forming the baseline against which improvement is measured.

A workplace organization method comprising sort, set in order, shine, standardize, and sustain, aimed at removing clutter and making abnormal conditions immediately visible.

A mistake-proofing device or procedure that prevents an error from being made or makes it immediately obvious, such as fixtures that only accept a part in the correct orientation.

The expression of a process output Y as a function of input and process variables x, used to focus investigation on the controllable causes rather than on the symptom.

A high-level process map showing Suppliers, Inputs, Process steps, Outputs, and Customers, used at project scoping to agree on boundaries and identify who supplies and receives the process.

A precise, unambiguous description of how a characteristic is measured, including the instrument, procedure, and decision criteria, so that different people obtain the same result.

A study that quantifies how much variation in measured data comes from the gauge, the appraisers, and the method, before the data are trusted for decisions.

A repeatability and reproducibility study that separates variation from repeated measurements by one appraiser from variation between appraisers, expressed as a percentage of total or tolerance variation.

A study of agreement among appraisers when judgments are categorical, such as pass or fail, reported as within-appraiser and between-appraiser agreement against a known standard.

Observations that fall into categories or are counted, such as number of defects or pass or fail results, analyzed with proportions and count-based methods rather than averages and variances.

Measurements on a scale that can take any value within a range, such as time, weight, or temperature, which carry more information per observation than categorical data.

A symmetric bell-shaped probability distribution defined by its mean and standard deviation, in which about 68 percent of values lie within one standard deviation of the mean.

A measure of the spread of data around the mean, equal to the square root of the variance, expressed in the same units as the original measurements.

A comparison of process spread and centering against specification limits, expressed as indices such as Cp and Cpk, indicating how often the process will meet requirements.

The upper and lower values of a characteristic set by the customer or design, defining acceptable output, and unrelated to the natural variation of the process itself.

A time-ordered plot of a process measure with statistically calculated control limits, used to distinguish common-cause variation from special-cause signals.

Lines on a control chart placed typically three standard deviations from the center line, computed from the process data itself, marking the expected range of common-cause variation.

The routine, inherent variation produced by the design of a process and its many small influences, which requires management action on the system to reduce.

Variation arising from an identifiable, non-routine event or assignable source, signaled by points outside control limits or non-random patterns on a control chart.

The underlying reason, verified with evidence, that when removed prevents recurrence of a problem, as distinct from the symptom or the immediate trigger.

A questioning technique that repeatedly asks why a problem occurs, typically about five times, to move from the visible symptom toward a verifiable underlying cause.

A cause-and-effect diagram that groups potential causes into branches such as people, machine, method, material, measurement, and environment, used to structure brainstorming before data collection.

A planned set of runs in which factors are deliberately varied together so that their individual and interacting effects on the response can be estimated efficiently.

A statistical procedure that compares observed data against a stated null hypothesis, returning a p-value used to judge whether an effect is larger than expected by chance.

A method that fits a mathematical relationship between one or more input variables and a continuous output, quantifying both the strength and the size of each effect.

The relationship stating that average lead time equals average work in process divided by average throughput, used to predict how reducing WIP shortens waiting time.

A pull signal, often a card or electronic indicator, that authorizes production or replenishment only when downstream consumption frees capacity, limiting work in process.

A single instance in which an output fails to meet a specified requirement, counted per unit for some measures and per opportunity for others.

A document listing the process steps, the characteristics to be monitored, the measurement method, sample size, frequency, and the reaction when a result falls outside limits.

The structured approach to preparing people for a process change, addressing communication, training, resistance, and reinforcement so that new methods actually stick.