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Literally,
Six Sigma is a statistical measure of
the performance of a process or product characteristic compared to a
specification level. A Six Sigma level process would exhibit no more
than 3.4 defects per million opportunities. Very few processes achieve
this level of performance and consequently most organizations endure
very high costs due to poor quality. Most company processes produce
upwards of 6000 defects per million opportunities which for many is
simply not good enough for today's competitive environment where
customer demands increase exponentially. To achieve a Six Sigma level
of performance, a systematic process based methodology and project
framework must be employed. The methods must operate within a defined
deployment structure, which involves the development of personnel at
various levels within the organization to operate and lead the six
sigma implementation program.
Much of the
hype around Six Sigma would have one
believe that it is all new, but the genesis of the techniques can be
traced back as early as the 1920s! Although the methods of Six Sigma
are not new, the structured approach to deployment, which is the
feature of many programs, is not common. Uniquely the consultants in
SBTI have operated such a structure since the late 80's and the
development of internal change agents/leaders, who in Six Sigma
companies are referred to as Black Belts, have been a feature of our
programs since that time. The elements of a typical Six Sigma program
involve:
- developing
the strategic
context, rationale and drivers
- executive
development
- project
champion development
- specialist
Six Sigma
practitioners sometimes called Black belts and Master Black Belts who
will lead Six Sigma projects
- local
Six Sigma project leader
or team member development, sometimes called Green Belt and Yellow
Belts
- systematic
project selection,
management and review, usually focused on revenue growth or
profitability improvement projects
Six Sigma
benefits stem from a significant
improvement in process performance, which in turn results in:
- increased
revenue from removing
process capacity limits
- Increased
revenue from excellent
new products or greatly improved existing products
- dramatic
reduction in defects,
cycle time and cost
- reduced
reliance on inspection
for quality
- greatly
improved customer
satisfaction
- reduced
costs from rework and
elimination of non value-adding work
Learn
more about SBTI's Six Sigma and Lean Deployment Approach
Click on your topic of
interest.
Quality
Management and Quality Initiatives – which takes priority?
Improved
Business Results with Six Sigma
How
does Six Sigma contribute to process control?
What is
Six Sigma in your Supply Chain?
What is Six
Sigma in Design?
How
does Six Sigma affect Process Design?
Quality
Management and Quality Initiatives – which takes priority?
You are an
organizational leader who struggles with
quality management. You want to
move your organization to a new
level of performance and build a company grounded in quality
management. Your productivity is not where it needs to be and you want
to grow the business faster. You are facing global support challenges
ranging from competition in the corporate arena to greatly reduced
government support in the nonprofit arena. Quality management is
lacking and you need to do something about promoting quality
initiatives. Your organization does many things well but there seems to
be something missing that you can't quite put your finger on. You have
a good strategy management, you've surrounded yourself with good people
and you have a good feeling about what needs to get done to improve
bottom line results. But you can't quite get quality management to be
part of the culture, to have your organization turn the corner. You
need quality initiatives, right away!
Quality
initiatives will lead your company into a
culture where the rigor of quality management becomes second place,
part of the DNA of the organization. A “Best in
class”
process design brings maximum bottom line results.
It's amazing
what organizations lacking in quality
management suffer from. Without alignment to the Voice of the Customer
(VOC) quality initiatives don't exist, they work in a vacuum.
Leadership development suffers, strategic management doesn't exist, and
training and development are elusive. New products & services
suffer from lack of quality and alignment to customer needs.
In Stephen
Covey's recent book, The
8th Habit,
he reports the results of a Harris Interactive poll addressing an
organization's ability to focus and execute their highest priorities.
Some 23,000 employees were polled with some surprising results:
- Only
37% said they have a clear
understanding of what their organizations are trying to achieve and
why.
- Only
1 in 5 are enthusiastic
about organizational goals and business results.
- Only
1 in 5 said they had a
clear line of sight between their tasks and their organizational goals
for business results
- On
15% felt their organization
fully enables them to execute their goals to grow the business
- Only 10% felt their
organization holds people accountable for results and improved business
As a
consulting company, Sigma Breakthrough
Technology, Inc. (SBTI) has worked with over 50 corporations in
launching Six Sigma, building a quality management program leading to
successful quality initiatives. Our experience is that the above
results were typical of most companies before Six Sigma was launched
and quality initiatives were derived to improve bottom line results.
By training
your people to follow the Six Sigma
process improvement methodologies, by building quality initiatives as
part of a quality management program you will create a disciplined
organization around problem solving and process improvement. You will
see consistency in the way your organizations select, prioritize,
resource and complete strategic projects. You will see projects that
are consistently aligned to your strategic goals and process control to
sustain a best in class environment. You will create a quality
initiative with a new core of process improvement experts –
Master Black Belts, Black Belts and Green Belts. And you will see
quality management bringing serious accountability for results. And
with all that, you will see enormous growth in creativity and
innovation.
[Top]
Improved
Business Results with Six Sigma
Deploying Lean
and Six Sigma (312KB )
as an initiative to obtain improved
business results is a complex undertaking involving all levels and
functions within the business. However, there is no better path to
sustained improved business results than a full deployment of Lean
Six Sigma
. The initiative provides tight linkage to business needs and checks
for results along the way via proper metrics. The organizational
involvement ensures the right people get involved early and become an
integral part of the program. Deployment throughout the organization
creates an excitement that something real is happening which will
fundamentally change the business by demonstrating greatly improved
business results.
[Top]
How
does Six
Sigma contribute to process control?
Six Sigma projects and
methodology
typically follows these 5 phases: Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve and
Control, often abbreviated as DMAIC
(144KB ).
By following the rigorous phases of
Define, Measure, Analyze and Improve prior to the final phase, we
arrive at Process Control knowing what needs to be controlled and what
range it needs to be controlled within to keep our processes operating
on target with minimum variation.
A good
process control plan is a back bone for a
six sigma implementation strategy. Application of the six sigma tools
helps achieve greater process performance where as the process control
plan helps to sustain those results. There are some key components to a
process control plan. A process control method includes a training plan
to ensure smooth transitions and hand-offs as well as a process
auditing system. Control methods identify person responsible for
control of each critical variable and details about how to react to
out-of-control conditions in a process. Some of the designated tools
for a process control are:
- Statistical
Process Control
- Standard
Operating Procedures
- Automated
process control
The only
reason a process control plan exists is
to ensure that we consistently operate our processes such that product
meets customer requirements ALL THE TIME!
[Top]
What
is Six Sigma in your Supply Chain?
Supply Chain
management is a key part of remaining
competitive in today's rapidly changing global economy. Gone are the
days of just local competition; supply chain management is crucial to
meeting your customer expectations for on-time delivery, with high
quality at a competitive price. Deploying Six Sigma in your supply
chain management efforts requires a global training partner, with the
abilities to train your international locations and global suppliers in
multiple languages. SBTI has deployed six sigma training in over 10
languages all over the world. Often we are asked to translate
customized training materials and provide mentoring and coaching in
local languages in order to keep the supply chain competitive for our
multi-national clients.
Additionally,
SBTI has customized the deployment
and training of Six Sigma for your supply
chain management
professionals (276 KB
) to
incorporate the unique aspects of supply chain management processes
into the approach. Successful implementation of Six Sigma into the
supply chain management functions incorporates the use of statistical
methods into planning, forecasting and problem resolution efforts.
Additional
info:
Deployement
Approach
Six Sigma and Lean Process
Excellence in
Professional Services
[Top]
What
is Six Sigma in
Design?
The Design
Process is perhaps the most complex
business process at your company. It has tremendous leverage on the
future because nearly all new products and services flow through your
design process. Innovative new products and services are the future of
any company, and so much is much is at stake to obtain a great outcome
from the design process. Unlike Six Sigma in manufacturing or
continuing operations, Design for Six Sigma (DFSS)
requires
changing how all work gets done in the design function. This alignment
includes using the right tools, in the right sequence in the right way.
To properly align the tools, the New Product Development process needs
to include the right tools sequenced into the stages and reviewed at
the appropriate gates.
Additional
info:
Lean Product Development!
Six Sigma Master Black Belt
[Top]
How
does Six Sigma
affect Process Design?
Process
Design and Development is often done with
very little discipline and with even fewer tools, except in key
industries like the chemical industry. Consider that when a product
fails, the results are often immediately noticed, sometimes with
violent consequences. When a process fails, the results can be subtle
and completely overlooked until many items are through the process and
potentially in your customers' hands. Consider an invoicing process
with an improperly trained staff member and the likely outcomes when
the invoices reach customers.
Six Sigma
provides an edge to businesses in the
arena of ongoing process development. It helps improve existing core
processes using a sequential set of tools in five different phases
followed one after another. Using a DMAIC
(144KB )
(Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve and
Control) approach ensures high quality performance and on target
results for existing process development work.
The Six Sigma
methodology may be adapted to the
rigorous task of process design and development, in particular
adaptation and utilization of some key tools and techniques from Design for Six Sigma (DFSS).
SBTI has
created a one-week workshop and training program called Six Sigma Process Design
(1.92 MB )
using a subset of DFSS tools. This
program requires participants to be trained to at least the Green Belt
level of proficiency.
Also, for
less rigorous Process Design and
Development activities, the Kaizen
approach utilized in Lean
Methodologies may be used. In such an endeavor, a small focused team is
identified, a charter is written by the process owner, and the team
assembled on location to design or re-design the process in a period of
3 to 5 days. SBTI has applied the Kaizen approach to web site design
and optimization as an example.
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