Lean Six Sigma Black Belt Certification Lean Enterprise Principles 5 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Which lean enterprise principle is violated when a company produces products based on monthly sales forecasts rather than actual customer orders?
- Value
- Value stream
- Pull (Correct answer)
- Perfection
Correct answer: Pull
The pull principle requires production to be triggered by actual downstream demand; producing to forecast creates overproduction and excess inventory waste.
Question 2: In Total Productive Maintenance (TPM), 'autonomous maintenance' means:
- Machines self-diagnose and schedule their own maintenance
- Operators take ownership of routine maintenance tasks for their equipment (Correct answer)
- Maintenance is performed automatically by robotic systems
- Engineers design machines to require zero maintenance
Correct answer: Operators take ownership of routine maintenance tasks for their equipment
Autonomous maintenance trains operators to perform routine cleaning, inspection, and minor maintenance tasks, building ownership and catching problems early.
Question 3: A lean enterprise team discovers that a non-value-added step is required due to a regulatory compliance requirement. How should this step be categorized?
- Muda type 1 (necessary non-value-added) (Correct answer)
- Muda type 2 (pure waste to be eliminated immediately)
- Value-added activity
- Overprocessing waste
Correct answer: Muda type 1 (necessary non-value-added)
Necessary non-value-added activities (Type 1 muda) are steps the customer doesn't value but are required by law, safety, or business necessity and cannot be immediately eliminated.
Question 4: Which lean tool uses time observation to identify where worker effort is spent across a job cycle?
- SIPOC diagram
- Time and motion study / standardized work observation sheet (Correct answer)
- Spaghetti diagram
- Value stream map
Correct answer: Time and motion study / standardized work observation sheet
A standardized work observation sheet (time study) documents each element of a job cycle and the time spent, revealing opportunities to reduce non-value-added work.
Question 5: In lean enterprise, the 'three actuals' (san genchi shugi) principle requires managers to go to the actual place, observe the actual situation, and:
- Document the actual costs
- Understand the actual product (Correct answer)
- Engage with actual data from MRP systems
- Interview actual customers only
Correct answer: Understand the actual product
The three actuals (actual place, actual product/thing, actual situation) require direct observation of the real process rather than relying on reports or assumptions.
Question 6: A lean transformation team wants to create a 'future state' value stream map. What is the primary purpose of this future state map?
- To document defects found during a quality audit
- To design the ideal flow after waste elimination and show the improvement target (Correct answer)
- To calculate the cost savings from lean implementation
- To assign responsibility for each process step to specific teams
Correct answer: To design the ideal flow after waste elimination and show the improvement target
The future state value stream map depicts the improved flow after removing waste, serving as the implementation target and guiding improvement priorities.
Question 7: Which lean concept describes spreading work evenly across all workers to match takt time and eliminate both overburden and idle time?
- Line balancing (Correct answer)
- Jidoka
- Poka-yoke
- SMED
Correct answer: Line balancing
Line balancing distributes work elements evenly across all operators so each cycle matches takt time, eliminating bottlenecks and idle time simultaneously.
Lean Six Sigma Black Belt Certification Lean Enterprise Principles 5
Which lean enterprise principle is violated when a company produces products based on monthly sales forecasts rather than actual customer orders?