Lean Six Sigma Yellow Belt — Lesson 4: Control, Visual Management, Standard Work, Team Support, and Sustained Results

Learning Objectives

• Interpret the requirements, principles, roles, and dependencies shaping control, visual management, standard work, team support, and sustained results.
• Apply a practical workflow and create a reviewable control and standard-work plan.
• Evaluate the exception where control measures are assigned without response actions and determine proportionate follow-up.

Detailed Topics

• Control applied to the course scenario and expected evidence.
• Visual Management applied to the course scenario and expected evidence.
• Standard Work applied to the course scenario and expected evidence.
• Team Support applied to the course scenario and expected evidence.
• and Sustained Results applied to the course scenario and expected evidence.

Instructor Demonstration

The instructor traces a case involving a service operations team reducing delays, rework, errors, and customer handoff problems. The demonstration links decisions to objective evidence, records the result in control and standard-work plan, and tests the condition where control measures are assigned without response actions.

Hands-On Exercise

Complete a controlled exercise covering Control, Visual Management, Standard Work, Team Support, and Sustained Results. Confirm scope and responsibilities, examine the stated exception, reach a supported conclusion, and preserve the outcome in control and standard-work plan.

1. Define the objective, boundaries, stakeholders, criteria, and expected work product.
2. Perform the activity while recording assumptions, observations, evidence, and decisions.
3. Test normal operation, the exception, and an escalation or follow-up condition.
4. Document conclusions, owners, deadlines, verification methods, and review triggers.

Scenario Analysis

• Identify the requirement or control with the strongest influence on the scenario outcome.
• Compare two defensible responses and explain their risk, operational, and evidence trade-offs.
• Decide how the control and standard-work plan should be approved, retained, reviewed, and updated.

Troubleshooting Guidance

Start where expected practice and observed evidence first diverge. Separate a missing record from an ineffective process, distinguish unclear ownership from a control failure, and treat “control measures are assigned without response actions” as a hypothesis until tested against the applicable criteria and intended outcome.

Validation Checklist

• Scope, roles, criteria, stakeholders, dependencies, and intended outcomes are explicit.
• The control and standard-work plan connects conclusions to objective, reviewable support.
• Normal operation, the stated exception, escalation, and follow-up were evaluated.
• Owners, due dates, verification methods, review triggers, and improvement actions are clear.

Lesson Outcome

Learners can apply Control, Visual Management, Standard Work, Team Support, and Sustained Results, explain the reasoning used, and defend the result through control and standard-work plan.