Six Sigma

Six Sigma

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Six Sigma is a set of techniques and tools for process improvement. It was developed by Motorola in 1986.[1][2] Jack Welch made it central to his business strategy at General Electric in 1995.[3] Today, it is used in many industrial sectors.[4]

Six Sigma seeks to improve the quality of process outputs by identifying and removing the causes of defects (errors) and minimizing variability in manufacturing and business processes. It uses a set of quality management methods, including statistical methods, and creates a special infrastructure of people within the organization

("Champions", "Black Belts", "Green Belts", "Yellow Belts", etc.) who are experts in these methods. Each Six Sigma project carried out within an organization follows a defined sequence of steps and has quantified value targets, for example: reduce process cycle time, reduce pollution, reduce costs, increase customer satisfaction, and increase profits.

The term Six Sigma originated from terminology associated with manufacturing, specifically terms associated with statistical modeling of manufacturing processes. The maturity of a manufacturing process can be described by a sigma rating indicating its yield or the percentage of defect-free products it creates. A six sigma process is one in which 99.99966% of the products manufactured are statistically expected to be free of defects (3.4 defective parts/million), although, as discussed below, this defect level corresponds to only a 4.5 sigma level. Motorola set a goal of "six sigma" for all of its manufacturing operations, and this goal became a by-word for the management and engineering practices used to achieve it.

Contents

1 Doctrine

2 Methodologies

2.1 DMAIC

2.2 DMADV or DFSS

2.3 Quality management tools and methods 3 Implementation roles

3.1 Certification

Doctrine

Six Sigma doctrine asserts that:

Continuous efforts to achieve stable and predictable process results (i.e., reduce process variation) are of vital importance to business success.

Manufacturing and business processes have characteristics that can be measured, analyzed, controlled and improved.

Achieving sustained quality improvement requires commitment from the entire organization, particularly from top-level management.

Features that set Six Sigma apart from previous quality improvement initiatives include:

A clear focus on achieving measurable and quantifiable financial returns from any Six Sigma project. An increased emphasis on strong and passionate management leadership and support.

A clear commitment to making decisions on the basis of verifiable data and statistical methods, rather than assumptions and guesswork.

The term "six sigma" comes from statistics and is used in statistical quality control, which evaluates process capability. Originally, it referred to the ability of manufacturing processes to produce a very high proportion of output within specification. Processes that operate with "six sigma quality" over the short term are

assumed to produce long-term defect levels below 3.4 defects per million opportunities (DPMO).[5][6] Six Sigma's implicit goal is to improve all processes, but not to the 3.4 DPMO level necessarily. Organizations need to determine an appropriate sigma level for each of their most important processes and strive to achieve these. As a result of this goal, it is incumbent on management of the organization to prioritize areas of improvement.

"Six Sigma" was registered June 11, 1991 as U.S. Service Mark 74,026,418 (http://tarr.uspto.gov/servlet/tarr?regser=serial&entry=74026418). In 2005 Motorola attributed over US$17 billion in savings to Six Sigma. [7] Other early adopters of Six Sigma include Honeywell (previously known as AlliedSignal) and General Electric, where Jack Welch introduced the method.[8] By the late 1990s, about two-thirds of the Fortune 500 organizations had begun Six Sigma initiatives with the aim of reducing costs and improving quality.[9]

In recent years, some practitioners have combined Six Sigma ideas with lean manufacturing to create a methodology named Lean Six Sigma.[10] The Lean Six Sigma methodology views lean manufacturing, which addresses process flow and waste issues, and Six Sigma, with its focus on variation and design, as

complementary disciplines aimed at promoting "business and operational excellence".[10] Companies such as GE,[11] Verizon, GENPACT, and IBM use Lean Six Sigma to focus transformation efforts not just on efficiency but also on growth. It serves as a foundation for innovation throughout the organization, from manufacturing and software development to sales and service delivery functions.

The International Organization for Standardisation (ISO) has published ISO 13053:2011 defining the six sigma process.[12]

Methodologies

Six Sigma projects follow two project methodologies inspired by Deming's Plan-Do-Check-Act Cycle. These methodologies, composed of five phases each, bear the acronyms DMAIC and DMADV.[9]

DMAIC is used for projects aimed at improving an existing business process.[9] DMAIC is pronounced as "duh-may-ick" (<ˌdʌ ˈmeɪ ɪk>).

DMADV is used for projects aimed at creating new product or process designs.[9] DMADV is pronounced as "duh-mad-vee" (<ˌdʌ ˈmæd vi>).

DMAIC

The DMAIC project methodology has five phases:

Define the system, the voice of the customer and their requirements, and the project goals, specifically.

Measure key aspects of the current process and collect relevant data.

Analyze the data to investigate and verify cause-and-effect relationships. Determine what the relationships are, and attempt to ensure that

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