The History and Role of Six Sigma and Lean in the Manufacturing Environment

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.

Mankind’s interrelation with manufacturing systems has a long history. Nowadays we see manufacturing systems and their applications as systems in which goods are produced and delivered to the suitable places where we can obtain them. We are conscious of the fact that everything we consume or obtain is produced at some facilities. We are also aware of the fact that many components involve at these processes such as laborers, capital, and machines. Nevertheless, majority of people might not realize how these processes have developed all along this time and changed our daily lives surprisingly. Manufacturing, as a crucial part of the industry, has always had overwhelming impacts on our life habits, societal

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 degree of engineering production has substantially increased over the last one hundred years. There exists numerous reasons why the world has been able to progress so quickly in the last one hundred years than the few thousand years before. The main answer lies in the invention of the assembly line. Prior to the assembly line, production rate was dependent on the precision of specific parts for an item and a worker’s ability to assemble the specific parts together. The assembly line eliminated the idea of a worker who must be trained to build every part of a machine or item. Instead, the assembly line focused more on small independent jobs for lesser trained employees. With the assembly line, an employee would

Six Sigma is a set of tools, processes and techniques that aid in the improvement of any

The creation of a consistent culture of safety and quality in an intensive care unit can be a major challenge. Many healthcare organizations are embracing the Six Sigma strategy to reduce variability and decrease risk for central line-associated bloodstream infections. This process is known as the Define-Measure-Analyze-Improve-Control (DMAIC) process. The five steps required are as follows: 1) define the project goal and identify issues to address; 2) measure the current trends to obtain baseline data; 3) Analyze root cause(s) of problem; 4) improve the process, while removing barriers; and 5) control the process through monitoring (Loftus, Tilley, Hoffman, Bradburn, & Harvey, 2015).

Six Sigma aims to establish the causes of errors, measures those errors, and assess them so that they can be minimized. It has five types of examination that aids to solve problems when utilized. These analysis steps include define, measure, analyze, improve and control. The sigma letter is a character that is occasionally used by statisticians to define the variability of any method, particularly the extent of uncertainty with the outcome. There is a big evidence of proof that the use of this process might lead to an enormous minimization of errors in manufacturing, healthcare or any service that is related to the customer. Moreover, the bigger the sigma the fewer the errors permitted. The goal of sigma converts into a maximum of 3.4 defects per every million opportunities, methods, events, proving that it can be used to solve any problem that any product or service fails to meet client’s needs and requirements (Arthur, 2011).

In this session of Leading and Managing Change, the class is tasked with writing about an organizational change that we are or have been involved with and its outcome. For my example, I am writing about a failed organizational change that I was part of that occurred in 2007 and involved a Lean Six Sigma initiative.

Statistical Process Control experienced its most significant growth and expansion during the quality revolution in the 1980’s (Woodall & Montgomery, 1999). It was during this time period that the focal point of quality changed from being merely acceptance or customer defined quality criteria to actual process control (Woodall &

Prior to this the manufacture of goods was often done in peoples homes using their hands, or basic machinery- the ‘designer’ also created the product. Industrialisation shifted this, with the introduction of powered special machinery, factories and mass production. Many everyday

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,

The development of the assembly line has greatly impacted the way in which products are manufactured for the masses today. The innovation of the assembly line reduced the cost required to make products which opened the market of luxury items, such as cars and kitchen appliances, to the middle class. The first assembly line designed for large scale manufacturing was developed by Henry Ford in 1913. Ford desired a method to produce a large quantity of the Model T car at a minimal cost. Ford achieved this method by standardizing the parts required to make the car, simplifying large tasks into smaller ones and increasing the demands of manual labour. Ford’s assembly line provided other car manufacturing companies with

Six sigma and lean system has the same way of approaching but uses different technology to achieve the goal. The both procedure lives up to expectations for to dispense with waste and expand the productivity of the procedure and convey the zero defect items. Recognizable of primary cause of waste is the fundamental distinction between lean and six sigma. lean innovation says that waste originates from undesirable steps in the production process which don 't add the value of the final product while six sigma says that waste is a direct result of variety of diverse procedures.

Second, volatility function with Six Sigma (Zhou et al. 2016) is another alternative to apply statistical anomaly detection methods to achieve filtering overloading information. Statistically, Six Sigma is a practical tool to choose the activities that distribute on both tails of the distribution to investigate the original reason for these anomalies. At each time, the volume cannot be too much, but this tool can continuously adapt and tune the benchmark to fit operational reality. Hahn et al. (2000) described Six Sigma as a disciplined and statistically based approach for improving product and process quality. Schroeder, Linderman, et al. (2008) used a ground theory approach to defining Six Sigma methodology as the following: “Six Sigma is an organized, parallel-meso

Lean and Six Sigma, both are different words or we can say two powerful methodology which changed the view of the manufacturer to the customer. Lean Six Sigma pleased customer with manufacturers over the years by its implementation of various industries. Today, almost all industries have adapted Lean Six Sigma methodology to make standard quality products. I personally feel proud and fortune as I am able to consume quality products at present because of hard work of my past generation’s Quality engineers, mathematics and statisticians. In the remembrance of these great minds I would like to discuss about origins of Lean Six Sigma origins of statistical tools.