SIX SIGMA
Six Sigma was originally developed as a set of practices designed to improve business processes and eliminate defects.
In Six Sigma, a defect is defined as anything that could lead to customer dissatisfaction.
Six Sigma 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, improved and controlled.
• 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 special infrastructure of “Champions”, “Master Black Belts”, “Black Belts” etc. to lead and implement the Six Sigma approach.
• A clear commitment to making decisions on the basis of verifiable data, rather than assumptions and guesswork.
A key methodology of Six Sigma is DMAIC.
The basic methodology consists of the following five steps:
• Define process improvement goals that are consistent with customer demands and the enterprise strategy.
• Measure key aspects of the current process and collect relevant data.
• Analyze the data to verify cause-and-effect relationships. Determine what the relationships are, and attempt to ensure that all factors have been considered.
• Improve or optimize the process based upon data analysis using techniques like Design of Experiments.
• Control to ensure that any deviations from target are corrected before they result in defects. Set up pilot runs to establish process capability, move on to production, set up control mechanisms and continuously monitor the process.
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Showing posts with label Six Sigma. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Six Sigma. Show all posts
Sunday, July 31, 2011
Thursday, November 26, 2009
Six Sigma Solution Video (Part I & II)
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Benefits Claimed by Six Sigma
(a) Making processes more rigorous by using hard, timely data, not opinions or gut feel, to make operating decisions.
(b) Cultivating customer loyalty by delivering superior value.
(c) Strengthening and rewarding teamwork by aligning employees around complex processes whose performance can still be easily, clearly and empirically measured.
(d) Accustoming managers to operating in a fast moving internal business environment that increasingly mirrors marketplace conditions outside the company.
(e) Achieving quantum leaps in product performance.
(f) Reducing variation in service processes, such as the time from order to delivery, or offering a consistent, high-quality service experience.
(g) Improving financial performance, through cost savings from projects, increased revenue from improved products and expanded operating margins.
(source: BPP Learning Media)
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(b) Cultivating customer loyalty by delivering superior value.
(c) Strengthening and rewarding teamwork by aligning employees around complex processes whose performance can still be easily, clearly and empirically measured.
(d) Accustoming managers to operating in a fast moving internal business environment that increasingly mirrors marketplace conditions outside the company.
(e) Achieving quantum leaps in product performance.
(f) Reducing variation in service processes, such as the time from order to delivery, or offering a consistent, high-quality service experience.
(g) Improving financial performance, through cost savings from projects, increased revenue from improved products and expanded operating margins.
(source: BPP Learning Media)
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Six Sigma DMAIC Strategy
Six Sigma Project Phases
Six Sigma process improvement projects follow a five phases pattern known by the acronym DMAIC.
• Define customer requirements
• Measure existing performance
• Analyse the existing process
• Improve the process
• Control the new process
Define Phase
• Is a planning phase – project definition, documentation of the existing process?
• The establishment of precise customer requirements from the process in question is an essential part of this phase.
• Customer requirement can be divided into 3 levels:
o Basic requirements are the minimum the customer will accept.
o Satisfiers improves the quality of the customer’s experience
o Delighters are totally unexpected by the customers
• Both external and internal customers may be vague in stating their requirements so careful research and logical definition are required.
• An important output from this phase is careful documentation of the process as it exists, probably using some form of flow diagram.
Measure Phase
• In this phase, statistical tools selected using black belt expertise, are used to assess current performance. Harmon suggests three measurement principles:
o Only measure what the customer thinks is important.
o Do not measure that the customer is satisfied with.
o Only measure things that can be improved.
• Three main areas for measurement:
o Inputs such as raw materials and product specifications
o Process elements such as cost, time, skills and training
o Outputs and customer satisfaction
• Outputs and customer satisfaction derive from and are determined by inputs and processes. This relationship is represented as an equation Y=f(X), Y is the output and X represent input and processes. Y is used to meant goal or objective.
Analyse Phase
• Each element of the process may be assessed into one of three categories:
o Value adding
o Necessary support to value adding activities
o Non-value adding.
• Establishing the status of the various aspects of the process will require the use of a range of techniques including statistical analysis, Pareto analysis and the Fishbone Analysis.
• Analysis should produce a list of problem causes and potential areas of improvement.
Improve Phase
• It is appropriate to revisit the project charter at the beginning of this phase, so as to incorporate any implications of the information obtained.
• Improving the process demands creative thought, can be guided by the wider experience of the team and its expert consultants.
• The problems identified in the analysis phase will indicate fruitful areas for consideration.
• People closely involved with the operation of a process usually develop ideas for improvement. There is often value in these ideas because of the great intimacy their authors have with the details of the process and its organizational setting.
• It is, however, important that all proposals for improvement are subjected to a rational review so that their implications may be considered in as much detail as possible. Cost and resource consequences are of particular importance.
• Implementation will require careful planning, probably small scale piloting and selling to stakeholders who were not involved in the project.
Control Phase
• Control process is a routine and continuing part of the management role.
• When a process has been improved, it is necessary to maintain some of the measurement process used during the improvement effort in order to exercise control.
• The cost of monitoring must be considered, so that the extent of measurement will be minimized.
• Some processes can be monitored automatically, with control systems that generate exception reports automatically.
(source: BPP Learning Media)
*****************************************
*********************
Six Sigma process improvement projects follow a five phases pattern known by the acronym DMAIC.
• Define customer requirements
• Measure existing performance
• Analyse the existing process
• Improve the process
• Control the new process
Define Phase
• Is a planning phase – project definition, documentation of the existing process?
• The establishment of precise customer requirements from the process in question is an essential part of this phase.
• Customer requirement can be divided into 3 levels:
o Basic requirements are the minimum the customer will accept.
o Satisfiers improves the quality of the customer’s experience
o Delighters are totally unexpected by the customers
• Both external and internal customers may be vague in stating their requirements so careful research and logical definition are required.
• An important output from this phase is careful documentation of the process as it exists, probably using some form of flow diagram.
Measure Phase
• In this phase, statistical tools selected using black belt expertise, are used to assess current performance. Harmon suggests three measurement principles:
o Only measure what the customer thinks is important.
o Do not measure that the customer is satisfied with.
o Only measure things that can be improved.
• Three main areas for measurement:
o Inputs such as raw materials and product specifications
o Process elements such as cost, time, skills and training
o Outputs and customer satisfaction
• Outputs and customer satisfaction derive from and are determined by inputs and processes. This relationship is represented as an equation Y=f(X), Y is the output and X represent input and processes. Y is used to meant goal or objective.
Analyse Phase
• Each element of the process may be assessed into one of three categories:
o Value adding
o Necessary support to value adding activities
o Non-value adding.
• Establishing the status of the various aspects of the process will require the use of a range of techniques including statistical analysis, Pareto analysis and the Fishbone Analysis.
• Analysis should produce a list of problem causes and potential areas of improvement.
Improve Phase
• It is appropriate to revisit the project charter at the beginning of this phase, so as to incorporate any implications of the information obtained.
• Improving the process demands creative thought, can be guided by the wider experience of the team and its expert consultants.
• The problems identified in the analysis phase will indicate fruitful areas for consideration.
• People closely involved with the operation of a process usually develop ideas for improvement. There is often value in these ideas because of the great intimacy their authors have with the details of the process and its organizational setting.
• It is, however, important that all proposals for improvement are subjected to a rational review so that their implications may be considered in as much detail as possible. Cost and resource consequences are of particular importance.
• Implementation will require careful planning, probably small scale piloting and selling to stakeholders who were not involved in the project.
Control Phase
• Control process is a routine and continuing part of the management role.
• When a process has been improved, it is necessary to maintain some of the measurement process used during the improvement effort in order to exercise control.
• The cost of monitoring must be considered, so that the extent of measurement will be minimized.
• Some processes can be monitored automatically, with control systems that generate exception reports automatically.
(source: BPP Learning Media)
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The Essence of Six Sigma
The Six Sigma Concept
• Six Sigma is a quality management methodology developed at Motorola in the late 1980s.
• Harmon and Pande and Hopp describe six sigma as the latest development in an evolutionary process that began with Scientific Management and continued through lean manufacturing and TQM.
• The essence of Six Sigma is to improve a process to the extent that there is only the tinniest probability that it will produce Unsatisfactory outputs.
• Probability – because there is no certainties in this sort of work.
• Pande and Hopp identify six themes in Six Sigma:
o Genuine focus on the customer
o Data and Fact driven management
o Processes as the key to success
o Proactive management
o Boundaryless collaboration
o Performance combined with tolerance of failure
(source: BPP Learning Media)
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• Six Sigma is a quality management methodology developed at Motorola in the late 1980s.
• Harmon and Pande and Hopp describe six sigma as the latest development in an evolutionary process that began with Scientific Management and continued through lean manufacturing and TQM.
• The essence of Six Sigma is to improve a process to the extent that there is only the tinniest probability that it will produce Unsatisfactory outputs.
• Probability – because there is no certainties in this sort of work.
• Pande and Hopp identify six themes in Six Sigma:
o Genuine focus on the customer
o Data and Fact driven management
o Processes as the key to success
o Proactive management
o Boundaryless collaboration
o Performance combined with tolerance of failure
(source: BPP Learning Media)
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