3m's Conundrum of Efficiency and Creativity Essay

The driving factors for a success or failure of implementing Six Sigma is largely dependent on the inputs set forth at the conception and duration of the integration. This whitepaper will compare and contrast these critical inputs for a successful deployment. In order to accomplish this five various companies: GE Electric, W.R. Grace, Royal Chemicals, Diversified Paper and Lemforder. Some of these organizations had very successful results while others failed to reach their full potential. What is clear is the similarities of those that succeed and those that failed.

In this document we have done a detailed study of Six Sigma and Lean Six Sigma and how they help Business Analysts to maximize their skill sets to attain maximum process improvements in their activities. We introduce the topic, provide a historical timeline and disucuss its relevance to the topic. After that, we analyze current state and use the information to provide results in Analysis and Synthesis section.

Companies and organizations need to shift from merrily pushing for creative thinking and focus on what creativity really mean. I don’t think ideas shouldn’t

Design can be related to the creation of products goods and services for the benefit of customer satisfaction. When a product is not created effectively the organization could be plagued with costly problems down the line. However, Six Sigma uses tools that will allow companies protection from future problems and widespread liabilities (Kumar et al., 2009). If an organization implements six sigma in well planned out and methodical way, the benefits for the organization could be endless and have a positive effect well into the future of the organization. Therefore, main focus of Six Sigma is to ensure speedy breakthrough performances, substantial financial outcomes, and to have long lasting effects. Another component of Six Sigma is Total Quality Management which focuses things such as strategy, process, and the end

The six sigma Black Belt has found and accepted all known underlying drivers for the current open door. The six sigma methodology obliges Black Belts to distinguish arrangements. Couple of thoughts or opportunities are good to the point that all are a moment achievement. As a major aspect of the six sigma approach there must be checks to guarantee that the coveted results are being accomplished. A few investigations and trials may be needed with a specific end goal to locate the best arrangement. At the point when making trials and tests it is imperative that all task partners comprehend that these are trials and truly are a piece of the six sigma

Six Sigma improves the design, the original design business strategies, optimize satisfaction and minimize waste while increasing the financial stability or include monitoring the process of elimination.

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 concept of Six Sigma is completely consistent with the aims and objective of many healthcare organizations. At times it is very challenging to attain an excellent Six Sigma accomplishment level in real life. A good example is, a health organization that has 100,000 surgeries annually, apparently it would be allowed only one undesirable occurrence for every three years, which is not very sensible. Nevertheless, the concept behind it is still beneficial and significant, and in

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

The author juxtaposes the two management philosophies Six Sigma and Total Quality Management and, therefore, perceives that they have chief components indistinguishable. Gibson & Tesone (2001) demarcated five stages in the fad’s life cycle and on comparing with Six Sigma & Total Quality Management cycle found the analogous pattern being trailed by them. On the

Brian Hindo’s article “At 3M, A Struggle Between Efficiency and Creativity,” depicts “Design for Six Sigma,” as detriment to innovation. Quality programs such as Six Sigma and ISO 9000 are created to apply metrics and measurements to processes in an effort to reduce variation and eliminate defects. As explained by Hindo, Six Sigma stands in direct contrast with the fundamentals of innovation. Innovation involves variation and experimentation. Where Six Sigma seeks to avert or eliminate risk; innovation is the result of embracing risk taking in potential fields for a possible impactful gain. Prior to implementation of Six Sigma, 3M employees were able to propose independent research projects and receive funding to proceed

Breyfogle III, F.W., Cupello, J.M. and Meadows, B. (2001), “Managing Six Sigma”, John Wiley and Sons, New York.

Supervision determined that the shop would save their customer money by implementing six sigma. The resistance level from senior employees where high as fear and misunderstanding develop between the employees and upper management. The implementer forced the changed rather implementing HR action plans and facilitating change. By developing a timetable, the important to establishing a realistic expectation would depend on the outcome of change (Jackson, Schuler, & Werner, 2011). This may lead to involving employee in the implementation plan which did not happen with this

Imagination, creativity and innovation are present in every human and can be encouraged and made good use of. There is a strong connection between these three core processes. As Robinson has noted:

Looking at the success of Motorola, many companies like Texas Instruments, Allied Signal etc started using Six Sigma methodology to bring organization-wide improvements.