Basic Concept, DFSS Approach, And Quality Management

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.

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.

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,

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 methodologies focuses on reducing variation to eliminate defects and have a standard output with less inventory (Kubiak & Benbow, 2009). Implementation of Six

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,

One of such strategy is the implementation of Six Sigma methodology in the organization. Six Sigma is a methodology that combines the gradual and continuous improvement with radical redesign. The process of Six Sigma begins by measuring the statistical variability within a process. This means that the causes of error can only be determined if you understand the critical requirement of either the internal or external customer. Six Sigma processes are designed to reduce process variability. Six Sigma helps the organization to achieve improved process flows and better

Background to Six Sigma The contemporary business environment is rapidly evolving. With the increased impetus toward globalization, organizations are undergoing continuous and rapid change driven by increased consumer expectations, the advent of new technologies, and the very real prospect of global competition (Bendell, 2005). This has resulted in a dramatically different business environment in which the modern business, in order to survive and prosper, is forced to evolve and regularly revise their internal and external business processes. One of the tools that was developed to aid in this change process was Six Sigma.

Since the core of Six Sigma management is quality, it is consistent with lean thinking. Use lean thinking which is focusing on eliminating waste and identifying improvement. When fused with the main elements in lean production, such as 5S system, TPM, stability and standardization6, the Six Sigma production system can be better operated. Quality can prove its own value only if product can best serve customer and provides benefits to shareholders, so when comes to the quality issue, doing statistical analysis about the customers’ demand and company’s goals is essential for the “master black belt” and “black belt ” to lead teams to right places.

As a management system, six sigma permeates all aspects of an organization. Many of those who have had the opportunity to participate in six sigma projects have experienced the transformation of six sigma principles and concepts into the fabric of the management system of the companies in which they are employed by witnessing improvements that will have continuous, long term influences within the company. This is accomplished by creating alignment within the company leadership. Six sigma offers a way of thinking that facilitates improvement by reducing the amount of variation in each process. Statistical tools are used to provide insight so that management can predetermine process outcomes. It also provides a method to analyze a process to determine areas of possible improvement.

Six Sigma is a business technique that helps to continually identify and reduce the process variations or failures to achieve desirable results (Vora & Ravanan, 2014, p. 1). The organizations will be able to minimize the gap of customer expectation and product attributes. There methods being used in Six Sigma are “DMAIC” (Design, Measure, Analyze, Improve, and Control) and “DMADV” (Design, Measure, Analyze, Design, Verify). Besides, Design for Six Sigma (DFSS) is also a methodology used in Six Sigma to create lesser defect products, processes or services based on customer requirements. DFSS to achieve minimum defect rates during the development stage of the product. Thus, better quality of product or services can be produced by the organizations to increase the customer satisfaction. All of these methodologies give a big benefit in

It can be concluded that use of the Six Sigma DMAIC approach was successful in identifying the problem, improving the process, and controlling the defects

In last 25 years many companies are adopting Six Sigma methodology as a process excellence tool. Few of them are GE, Motorola, Siemens, ABB, Citi Bank, Ford etc. Many Japanese and Korean companies like LG, Toshiba, Honda, Sony and Samsung have also implemented Six Sigma. Many organizations are implementing Six Sigma in India. ICICI, Larsen & Toubro, Mahindra & Mahindra, Tata motors, HDFC are some major organizations implementing Six Sigma. Due to globalization world market is opened to Indian organizations and to compete with other countries they want to bring their products & services to world class level. To achieve this along with various methodologies Six Sigma is becoming popular in India.