Lean Six Sigma Yellow Belt Certification The Analyze Phase 5 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: In FMEA (Failure Mode and Effects Analysis), what does the Risk Priority Number (RPN) represent?
- The total cost of all failures in a year
- The product of Severity, Occurrence, and Detection ratings (Correct answer)
- The number of defects per million opportunities
- The percentage of time the process fails
Correct answer: The product of Severity, Occurrence, and Detection ratings
RPN = Severity × Occurrence × Detection; it prioritizes failure modes so teams focus improvement efforts on the highest-risk issues first.
Question 2: Which of the following best describes a 'process map' used during the Analyze phase?
- A chart showing defect frequency over time
- A visual representation of the steps, inputs, and outputs of a process (Correct answer)
- A table listing all potential failure modes
- A graph comparing supplier performance
Correct answer: A visual representation of the steps, inputs, and outputs of a process
A process map (flowchart or value stream map) visually depicts each step in a process along with inputs, outputs, and decision points to identify inefficiencies.
Question 3: A team calculates that their process produces 3.4 DPMO. What sigma level does this correspond to?
- 3 sigma
- 4 sigma
- 5 sigma
- 6 sigma (Correct answer)
Correct answer: 6 sigma
3.4 defects per million opportunities corresponds to a Six Sigma level of performance, accounting for a 1.5-sigma shift in the mean.
Question 4: What type of variable is 'number of customer complaints per day'?
- Continuous variable
- Discrete (attribute) variable (Correct answer)
- Nominal variable
- Ordinal variable
Correct answer: Discrete (attribute) variable
Count data like complaints per day are discrete (attribute) variables because they can only take whole-number values and cannot be subdivided meaningfully.
Question 5: Which lean concept refers to producing only what is needed, when it is needed, and in the amount needed?
- Poka-Yoke
- Just-In-Time (JIT) (Correct answer)
- 5S
- Kaizen
Correct answer: Just-In-Time (JIT)
Just-In-Time (JIT) production pulls work through the system based on actual demand, eliminating overproduction and excess inventory waste.
Question 6: A Yellow Belt team discovers that a key input variable (X) explains 72% of the variation in the output (Y). What statistical measure expresses this relationship?
- Correlation coefficient (r)
- Coefficient of determination (R²) (Correct answer)
- Standard deviation (σ)
- Process capability index (Cpk)
Correct answer: Coefficient of determination (R²)
R² (coefficient of determination) expresses the proportion of output variation explained by the input variable(s) in a regression model.
Question 7: During Analyze, a team identifies that a supplier change introduced a new type of defect. This is an example of which type of variation?
- Common cause variation
- Special cause variation (Correct answer)
- Random noise
- Measurement error
Correct answer: Special cause variation
A supplier change is a specific, assignable factor that creates special cause variation — a departure from the process's normal, stable behavior.
Lean Six Sigma Yellow Belt Certification The Analyze Phase 5
In FMEA (Failure Mode and Effects Analysis), what does the Risk Priority Number (RPN) represent?