Application Of Six Sigma Process Optimization Techniques Essay

Price elasticity is an important concept to understand when beginning and maintaining a business that distributes goods or services. Elasticity is the economic concept that estimates when products should be introduced to consumers, and how (provided that all other variables remain constant) demand or supply will be affected by changes in the environment that affect price (Basic Economics, 2007-2010). Depending on how the percentage demanded/supplied is affected by price differentiation will determine whether or not a good or service is considerably elastic or inelastic, providing a sound guideline for business owners. The higher the elasticity, the more the demand will change if the price varies in the competitive market. Elasticity

Six Sigma is a business instrument for the betterment of a process. It is a controlled approach and methodology for obviating defects in any process such as manufacturing, businesses and any product or service. Six Sigma has been gaining tremendous popularity in industry today. However, academics have conducted limited research on this rising phenomenon. Interpreting Six Sigma primarily requires giving out a conceptual definition and describing an underlying theory. This topic uses Grounded theory approach and meager literature available to suggest an initial definition and theory of Six Sigma. This paper indicates that although tools and techniques on the topic are similar to earlier approaches of quality management, it provides a structure which is more detailed. This emerging structure for quality management attempts to improve the quality of the yield of a process by identifying and obviating the defects and causes lowering variability in business processes. Also one of the important areas touched upon is the conceptual understanding of Six Sigma. Each Six Sigma project executed inside an

We designed a survey in class to collect information of how people interest in our designs. Then, we spent a week to interview people. So, our samples might be limited on time, space and quantity. Also, people might make choices without thinking due to the questionnaires are just imagined designs other than real products. It is reasonable to consider that those problems may lead to inaccurate data which may disturb the analysis result.

Based on the above description, forms of elasticity will affect business decisions and pricing strategies differently depending on the nature and type of products or services being offered. Business organizations whose product offerings have elastic and perfectly elastic price elasticities of demand should not attempt to raise prices of their products because it will cause the quantity demanded and consequently total revenues to drop drastically. Businesses can there use the price elasticities of demand to determine whether the proposed changes in their prices will raise or reduce their total revenue. The following expression may be useful in helping business organizations to determine the impacts of elasticities on their total revenues based on the suggested price changes.

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,

A REVIEW OF A RESEARCH PAPER (QUALITY CONTROL ANALYSIS OF PACKAGING PROCESS IN MINERAL WATER INDUSTRY USING SIX SIGMA)

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

Implementation of Six Sigma throughout 3M worldwide, presents extensive benefits to the organization. The most important element is the initiative is supported and motivated beginning with the CEO. (Schroeder, R., & Goldstein, S; 2013) the top five benefits are:

General Electric company terms six sigma as [1] “a highly disciplined process that helps us focus on developing and delivering near-perfect products and services”. Six sigma has originated for use in the manufacturing industry however, in recent years it is being implemented in typically all IT business structures. Six sigma is the new quality management metric. The quality control checks made by the organizations have helped them in achieving a certain degree of efficiency, however adapting to the six sigma methods can help the organization unleash their full productivity potential. Six sigma is all about achieving quality check in every step of the business process. Six sigma focuses on achieving the highest level of quality right from the start without losing a level of precision and accuracy. Implementing six sigma in a service sector environment reaps several benefits (Jiju Antony, 2007)

Six Sigma Process Improvement is a thorough way to deal with enhancing business forms by tending to the basic reasons for variety that prompt poor execution as experienced by the client, who is the beneficiary of the yields. The early types were Motorola and GE in the 1980s. From that point forward, numerous associations running from assembling to benefit in all areas, have effectively conveyed Six Sigma to convey quantifiable cost, quality and time based enhancements.

The IT Call Center has a high link to strategic imperatives as shown by its desire to be more competitive and profitable. The company’s goal is to improve IT services for both online and call center support in order to increase customer satisfaction. This project is strategically crucial because data analysis shows a link between high customer satisfaction and new account growth thereby increasing overall profitability. Should the company decrease support costs per call at the call centers and high customer satisfaction help increase new account growth, the firm should see greater revenues of about $3 million and lower expenses, which impacts the overall critical financial metrics (Hallowell, p.6). Since senior management and the project team were able to define a couple key goals that, with improvement, can impact some of the company’s critical measures, the project’s overall link to strategic imperatives is high.

Lean and Six Sigma are two different methodologies originally designed to meet the demands of manufacturing companies. Lean was born in the premises of Toyota and their production system. Lean is about eliminating waste to improve processes. Six Sigma, on the other hand, is a management methodology that seeks to eliminate variation in processes (Goldsby & Martichenko, 2005). Where these two methodologies meet, is in their final goal of process improvement. With two different ways of implementation, these methodologies complement each other in practice, this is why many organizations choose to make a multidisciplinary implementation, and apply both Lean and Six Sigma to achieve better and longer results.

"If you do just Six Sigma, you 're not going to maximize the potential of your organization. You have to do both," - Mike Carnell, President of Six Sigma Applications

Over the last thirty years, the views on quality management shifting from a focus on product inspection and problem identification to the theme that product quality is determined by the process used to produce the product (Jayaraman, Kannabiran, & Kumar, 2013; Kerzner, 2013). As a result many quality/process improvement initiatives and methodologies have been developed over the last few decades; one such methodology is known as Six Sigma and has become the most popular of the quality improvement initiatives (Ismyrlis & Moschidis, 2013). This paper will provide a brief overview of Six Sigma along with an explanation of the DMAIC methodology. The paper will present an example from the author’s workplace in software engineering to illustrate effective application of the DMAIC process.

Implementation of Six Sigma in Indian industries • to find out the future challenges of Six