1. Six Sigma Implementation Case Study
Six-Sigma is a statistical method that provides an organization with tools to advance the business process or product. The six-sigma goal is to diminish the defects in the process or product. The goal of a six-sigma project is to decrease the defects to 3.4 per million opportunities, which is 99.99966 percent of the time. By implementing six-sigma on a project, the organization can get an almost perfect process and product. To achieve the most optimal results, the project team must understand the customer needs, data and statistical analysis and devotion to improving and reinventing the process or product
1.1 The DMAIC Six Sigma Methodology
The DMAIC six-sigma is a data driven approach used to advance a process or product for an organization. It is a quality improvement approach with five phases, which are: define, measure, analyze, improve and control. The basic equation of Six Sigma, Y = f(x), defines the relationship between a dependent variable ‘Y’ or the outcome of a process and a set of independent variables ‘x’ or possible causes which affect the outcome.
1.2Shoe Industry Background
The footwear industry has seen swift expansion over recent years, due to the demand of new and innovative footwear products. The advancements of technology and new trends are constantly evolving to keep up with the consumer needs. The global footwear market is estimated to reach $371.8 billion by 2020. The Asia-Pacific market makes up the single
1. Six Sigma is a management philosophy that sets objectives, collects data and analyzes results as a way to remove wasted expenses from its processes and help reduce the number of defective products produced. Six Sigma uses quality measures to strive for near perfection by eliminating errors and variables.
Six Sigma simply means a measure of quality that strives for near perfection. Six Sigma is a disciplined, data-driven approach and methodology for eliminating defects in any process. In another meaning Six Sigma is a highly disciplined process that helps us focus on developing and delivering near-perfect products and services.
The basic principle of improvement by the processes of Six Sigma methodology is by the reduction of diffusion. The six sigma approach aims to reduce defect levels to only a few parts per million for an organization's key products and processes. The Six Sigma philosophy is based on the fact that all processes from design, through to manufacturing and to services provided to customers, display aberrances, which may result in product errors that cost time and money. These errors are variations of processes that can be reduced by various methods in order for the real cause of the problem to be systematically identified and
Six Sigma is a business metrics that seeks to identify and eliminate causes of errors or defects as well as failures in business processes by focusing on output that are critical to customers (De Feo, Barnard 2004). It is also a measure of quality that strives to eliminate defects using the application of statistical methods. In this case, a defect is defined as anything that could lead to customer dissatisfaction. Six Sigma’s statistical quality control is the method used to measure variability in a product for evaluation and corrective actions. When the product metrics exceeds the bounds of acceptability, based on statistical inference, the product can be rejected with reasonable assurance that does not meet requirement. It aims to identify and eliminate waste in order to increase speed and flow from start to finish. It also identifies the critical steps, and deleting those not required or nonessential. There are so many metrics process in today’s business industries but the metrics that Six Sigma’s statistical thinking can also be defined as a thought process. In which it recognize the variation is all around us and present in everything we do. The Six Sigma’s interconnected processes and identifying, characterizing, quantifying, controlling and reducing variation provide opportunities for improvement within any organizations or firms. That is to say,
Jay Greenstein (2012) published an article in a Leadership journal called "Process: Lean Six Sigma Principles." He took a problem and followed the DMAIC methodology step by step explaining what needs done in each step. According to Greenstein (2012) "The idea behind Six Sigma is that in any given business process, there are three to five key steps in that process that must be controlled to get the desired result" (p. 31). The author uses an analogy for this and discusses going out to eat at a favorite restaurant and ordering a favorite dish; the customer expects the same great meal every time, not a variation of the dish.
Six Sigma is a quality improvement philosophy and a methodology and collection of statistical techniques used to implement that philosophy. Six Sigma’s focuses on reducing or removing identifiable sources of changes in order to decrease the number of defects in a product. Six Sigma was developed by Bill Smith and was used to standardize the way in which defects are tallied (Meredith, 2013). As a new way of doing business, six sigma can have a significant impact on the end result of business. There are many way six sigma can be applied. For example, the scientific component of methodology is a structure approach that takes
Six Sigma was first introduced in the 1980’s by none other than Motorola. It was not however necessarily a novel concept at the time so much as it drew from a conglomerate of proven manufacturing principles. It is strikingly similar to the scientific method in design. Six Sigma approaches areas that may not necessarily be viewed as problematic with an open mind. It seeks to analyze problems or questions with a stepwise, statistical, and quantitative focus in order to discover, fix, or disprove problems that may or may not exist within a process. By doing this Six Sigma can improve efficiency and therefore improve positive outcomes for whatever the endpoint may be (Mast, Bisgaard, & others, 2007).
The Six Sigma methodology can be described as a management philosophy that focuses on developing and delivering near perfect products services. The approach uses the DMAIC structure and a set of improvement tools to identity causes of variation and to develop improvement strategies that reduce opportunities for defects and variation in process (Galli & Handley, 2014). DMAIC is the acronym for Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve and Control. The central idea behind Six Sigma is that if the defects of a process can be measured, then solutions
First, The Six Sigma, usually intended as a professional plan, includes refining, scheming, and monitoring procedure to minimalize or remove excess while enhancing gratification and increasing financial steadiness. The performance of a procedure—or the process competence—is used to ration enhancement by associating the baseline process competence (before development) with the process competence after directing possible solutions for quality development.
Six Sigma in a nutshell is a theory to target client’s needs, while smashing the problem barrier. It was created at the Motorola Group in 1986 by former senior engineer Bill Smith. His goal for Six Sigma was multi-layered, targeting the quality of products and services, developing a philosophy and a strategic process within his company.
The concept of Six Sigma was developed in the early 1980’s at Motorola Corporation (Harry and Schroeder, 2000). Six Sigma can be defined as a statistical measure of the performance of a process or product (Kumi et. al., 2006). It is used as a quality control mechanism, which seeks to reduce defects or variations in a process to 3.4 per million opportunities thereby optimizing output and increasing customer satisfaction (Sambhe, 2012). Sigma is representing the standard deviation, a unit of measurement that designates the distribution or spread about the mean of a process (Six Sigma Academy, 2002). In addition, the Six Sigma uniquely driven by close understanding of customer needs, disciplined use of fact, data, and statistical analysis, and diligent attention to managing improving, and reinventing business processes (Pande, P., et. al. 2000). The Six Sigma methodology uses statistical tools to identify the factors that matter most for improving the quality of processes and generating bottom-line results. The Six Sigma DMAIC (Define, Measure,
This paper reviews some related literatures to describe methodology, implementation and future researches . The present paper summaries the initial Six Sigma basic concept, DMAIC deployment.
Six Sigma is a method that provides organizations tools to improve the capability of their business processes. This increase in performance and decrease in process variation lead to defect reduction and improvement in profits, employee morale, and quality of products or services. Six Sigma quality is a term generally used to indicate a process is well controlled (within process limits ±3s from the center line in a control chart, and requirements/tolerance limits ±6s from the center line).
Definition of Six SigmaSix Sigma is not a mere methodology or a quality tool. It is a philosophy i.e. a systematic way of thinking to solve quality problems. Six sigma involves
This paper is an analysis of the three published journals on Six Sigma model. This literature review discusses about the different parameters which are used in implementing a successful Six Sigma methodology. Kamran Moosaa* and Ali Sajidb (2010) made a study on critical analysis of Six Sigma implementation. Six Sigma is known as a method, metric or a programme. It follows a DMAIC (Define, Measure, Analyze, Improvement, and Control) process. The other articles state that how teamwork and process management are beneficial for Six Sigma implementation in an organization. Hence, this literature review evaluates that Six Sigma is better in pursuing continuous improvement in customer satisfaction, increasing profits, and in overall business strategy when compared to other Total Quality Management tools.