Continuous Improvement is the ongoing improvement of processes, products, programs and services through incremental (progressive small steps) and breakthrough (giant step) actions

5 “S” - A set of workplace organization rules designed to increase efficiency and help enable lean manufacturing, as defined by: Sort- separate and categorize needed and unneeded materials and tools;

Set in Order- arrange tools and other items for ease of use;
Shine (or scrub)- maintain high level of cleanliness;
Standardize- create a systematic plan to perform the first three steps;
Sustain- devise methods to turn performing the steps on an ongoing basis into a habit.

Six Sigma Practices – Problems and processes are analyzed statistically to improve performance using tools such as Fishbone Diagrams, Control Charts, Pareto Charts, and Histograms.

Root Cause Analysis - A process improvement tool that examines the individual processes within a system, identifies the control or decision points, and uses a series of why? questions to determine the reasons for variations in the process paths.