Black Belt Process Jedi Unisex T-shirt

This fun, funny manufacturing insider's t-shirt is not available in stores.

Six sigma black belts are sorcerers…masters of the mystical art of process improvement.

Our exclusive design makes an excellent gift for the thousands of ladies in the world of lean six sigma. That includes industrial engineers, quality improvement experts, op-ex professionals, and all lean thinkers.

Artwork by Brazilian artist, Denio Viana

Our design features a woman in a karate gi with a black belt, of course, striking a meditative Jedi telekinesis pose. Her eyes are closed, arms are raised.

She's using her lean six sigma super powers to levitate the muda (Japanese: waste) up and out of her client’s process, like Master Yoda lifting Luke Skywalker’s X-wing fighter out of the Dagobah muck.

And like any manufacturing employee with safety on her mind, she’s wearing standard issue eye protection.

#IYKYK

If you don’t know, she’s floating away the delay, which are represented by D-shaped blocks in her process map, because we all hate the wait. She’s carrying away the travel, shown as arrow blocks, because moving people, material, and information around is not value added activity. And she’s lifting out the defective process steps, shown as broken and cracked rectangles, presumably for some root cause analysis.

For lean manufacturing experts, or anyone familiar with the Toyota Production system, non-value added activity is easy to spot. It’s anything that doesn’t change the form, fit, or function of the product. In health care the test for whether an action is value added is if it builds on a patient’s health information or is a part of direct care provision. Everything else is non-value added.

The full taxonomy of non-value added activity, commonly called the 7 wastes, are listed here roughly in order of badness:

1. Defects (and the energy required to prevent them)
2. Delay (when the process is stopped)
3. Over processing
4. Over production
5. Travel or Transport between workstations
6. Inventory (all inventory represents cash, temporarily transformed)
7. Motion (movement within a workstation)

LIMITED TIME ONLY!

Like all of our shirts, this fun insider's design is offered exclusively to QI Curiosities customers.

It pays to buy in batches

• Buy 3-4 for 15% off.
• Buy 5 for 20% off.
• Buy 6 or more for 25% off.

Our comfy t-shirts are soft and lightweight, with just the right amount of stretch.

• 100% combed and ring-spun cotton (Heather colors contain polyester)
• Fabric weight: 4.2 oz./yd.² (142 g/m²)
• Pre-shrunk fabric
• Side-seamed construction
• Shoulder-to-shoulder taping
• Blank product sourced from Nicaragua, Mexico, Honduras, or the US

This product is made especially for you as soon as you place an order, which is why it takes us a bit longer to deliver it to you. Making products on demand instead of in bulk helps reduce overproduction, so thank you for making thoughtful purchasing decisions!

Size guide