Operations Management Metrics Essays

While looking to enhance quality levels, a group of Motorola engineers designed a set of quality management tools that utilized statistical data as an approach toward the reduction of defects, and the improved maintenance of quality (Reddy & Hutton, 2013). Focusing on process improvement and variation reduction, Six Sigma uses a measurement-based strategy to improve quality, based on a systematic methodology known by its acronym - DMAIC (iSixSigma, 2012). Once problematic issues are recognized, the DMAIC model strives toward finding a long-term solution through the five phases of defining systems. By measuring key aspects of the current process for data collection, analyzing the collected data and verifying cause and effect relationships, improving current processes from data analysis, and controlling operations to prevent impact in any future process disruptions (Wallace & Webber,

There are always pros and cons to any quality improvement methodology. For instance, the pros of Six Sigma tend to place extreme importance on leadership and its support for the success of the project. Another pro is the integration of different human elements, which include cultural change, and focus on the customer and their needs. “By using the concept of statistical thinking, Six Sigma encourages applications of statistical tools and techniques that reduce variability” (Harry, 2000). The cons of Six Sigma include, not having the quality data available, especially when a new process has been implemented without having the data available. Often the solutions that Six Sigma proposes can be costly and only a small

Operations Management in an organisation is repsonsible for managing and in making decisions concerning the activities that convert inputs into outputs , that is goods and services. This covers both short term actvities as well as longer term activities to meet strategic goals. Inputs can be the raw materaials need to manufacture goods such as furniture or the computers needed to create a service like online shopping site. Operation management’s role is to make decisions to improve how operation activities function, for example, to improve the final quality of the output or to change production methods to be more efficient in terms of cost and in time.

Operations management (OM) is that phase of an organization where inputs are put into operations to acquire required output (services) without compromising on quality. In other words operations management is also described as combining and transforming various resources in the operations sub-system into value added services in line with formulated policies of the organization. (Kumar and Suresh, 2009)

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).

Six Sigma is a highly disciplined process that helps us focuses on Problem solving and delivering near-perfect products and services. Why "Sigma"? The word is a statistical term that measures how far a given process deviates from perfection. The central idea behind Six Sigma is that if you can measure how many "defects" you have in a process, you can systematically figure out how to eliminate them and get as close to "zero defects" as possible. The Six Sigma methodologies are a business philosophy and initiative that enables world-class quality and continuous improvement to achieve the highest level of customer satisfaction. Metrics established that align an organisation’s strategic goals and values to that of their customer’s needs and

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,

Many Greek symbols are used for statistical representations including σ, pronounced and written as sigma. This symbol refers to a standard deviation from the mean in statistics, and it is often used in quality specification measurements. Thus, six sigma (6σ) refers to six standard deviations from the mean. Literally speaking, six sigma is a statistical measure of variability. However, in the context of quality and process improvement, six sigma refers to a statistical- and factual-based approach to quality and process improvement. In fact, “some argue that Six Sigma is an advanced quality improvement

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Six Sigma is a quality management strategy that helps companies to deal with customer’s expectation by providing better quality of products, services and processes at the lowest possible manufacturing cost (Verma & Parihar, 2016). Through the methodologies such as “DMAIC”, “DMADV” and “DFSS” as mentioned above, the outcome of the entire process will be enhanced by decreasing the defects or failures rates. First of all, Six Sigma includes five steps: define measure, analyze, improve and control. The first step is basically used to identify customers’ requirements and expectations (Nave, 2002). In order to sustain a business, customer satisfaction is important because it will generate benefits such as increase profitability or decrease price sensitivity. Better quality of a product is undeniably one of the requirements in achieving business sustainability as it could help to attract potential customers and retain loyal customers. Hence, the large market share and good image of the company will lead the company to sustain its

Six Sigma method is used to measure variation and defects in quality. Current competitive environment needs the qualitative product. Each feature of product including packaging should have quality to sustain in the market. So, the producers give consistent importance to quality control. The Six Sigma is very useful tool to find defects and its statistics. Six Sigma method has the goal of 3.4 defects per million parts. Six Sigma leads to world-class quality of the product. Six Sigma uses DMAIC tool and SIPOC for various analysis. Quality management program was firstly used by Motorola Inc. It describes quality measurement. Six Sigma is structured data driven method, which is using for quality improvement and eliminating waste.

The term six sigma (6σ) began as an operational appraisal or a measure of quality. Utilizing six sigma, procedure objectives are established in parts per million (PPM) in every part of the manufacturing procedure. From the time when its source, six sigma has now progressed into a procedure for enhancing organizational proficiency and efficiency by concentrating on productivity, price decrease, and improved quality. Six Sigma is a fixated and quantifiable management discipline that utilizes a disciplined, data-driven approach to work to remove imperfections across every business area, together with management, service delivery, design, production and customer satisfaction, stressing breakthrough improvement for improved bottom line

Six Sigma, is a management process that focuses on setting extremely high quality standards; followed by the collection data related to the process and finally analyzing the collected data to find solution to reduce defects in products or services (Rouse, M., Calloway). This Philosophy of Six Sigma simple, if you can count the number of defects in a process, you can determine how to eliminate those defects (Rouse, M., Calloway). The standard for achieving Six Sigma is less 3.4 defects per million (Rouse,

As explained by Kumar and Kaushish (2015), Six Sigma is a “disciplined data-driven approach and methodology for eliminating defects in any process” (p. 7). Six Sigma stresses the reduction of variation within processes by identifying and eliminating the root causes of defects (Jayaraman et al., 2013; Kerzner, 2013; Kumar & Kaushish, 2015). The goal of Six Sigma is to get as close to zero defects as possible. The term Six Sigma comes from the Greek letter σ (sigma) which in statistics represents one standard deviation (Ismyrlis & Moschidis, 2013; Kumar & Kaushish, 2015; Mădălina, 2014). Six Sigma, or six standard deviations, yields a

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.