Nt1330 Unit 7

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.

Six Sigma more successful quality control methodology than other quality improvement techniques such as TQM or QC. Because it is very rigid with its targets and identify all types of defects by its tools. TQM technique involves predetermined quality level and standards for an organization to improve their efficiencies for production. It does not allow organization to realize full potential of it by limiting it to predefined standards. It also base on simple statistical tools and techniques. Six Sigma involves consistent and steady quality improvement with its

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

The healthcare industry bases its existence on the health and quality of life of patients. People essentially entrust healthcare organizations with their lives every second of the day, which is why they have become increasingly aware of the need for eliminating variation in quality. Any minute error has the potential to lead to harmful outcomes and even fatal results for patients. When a procedure has been established and is performed repeatedly, the slightest percentage of variance represents a much larger string of errors. The quality of life of the individual is dependent on the organization’s ability to provide efficient care and even more accurate treatment, all while minimizing variation. Patient care revolves around services rendered by humans, which makes errors more difficult to identify and quantify. An increasing number of healthcare organizations have been adopting quality improvement (QI) measures to ensure that such errors are caught and eliminated.

It can also optimize cash collections, increase registration accuracy, and improve patient throughput. Moving forward, the ability to demonstrate excellence will become even more important to health care systems’ and providers’ bottom line, and using Lean Six Sigma techniques will become essential to monitor critical processes.

Once the team is satisfied with their data and determined that no additional analysis is needed to understanding the problem, it’s time to move on to the improve phase. The team would start collecting improvement ideas. The control phase is when the team would begin to document how they should pass the structure on to the employees who will work within the process (goLEANSIXSIGMA.com, n.d.). The Lean Six Sigma helps the healthcare industry find several basic and standardized solutions for many of their organizational and procedural issues. The Lean Six Sigma can enhance the visual management procedures and reduces the complexity and time of processes. It can also be used in various ways within the healthcare industry and enable healthcare professionals to offer sound and efficient care to the human general public (Six Sigma Online, n.d.). In healthcare organizations where the Lean Six Sigma has become a part of the overall business strategy, the leadership realized that it’s not about the training or the tools. It’s about looking at things from a new and different angle and using a reliable approach to manage and lead change. It's also about making an investment in people by equipping the staff with solid skills and empowering them to solve the problems they are face with in their daily work (Pexton,

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).

A quantitative study conducted by Lifvergren, Gremyr, Hellstrom, Chakhunashvili, and Bergman (2010) analyzed the experiences and from a hospital group during a three-year period after the introduction of Six Sigma. It reports on 22 large Six Sigma improvement projects, their results and influence on other improvement activities. The study shows that 75% of the completed projects reached their goals within 18 months. The average net cost savings per completed project/year was $55,300. Overall, the results showed that Six Sigma is a useful concept when trying to improve healthcare processes. They recommend that Six Sigma should be an addition to the improvement practices used in healthcare development initiatives. It was also observed that the Six Sigma program can create much organizational pull regarding quality management and improvement efforts if teamwork is applied.

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 is a process improvement initiative developed by Motorola that assist organizations in identifying and reducing defects and inefficiencies within their existing business processes. The quality management system is a project-oriented system that drives cost savings and increases firm’s profitability by reducing variation in firm’s processes, products and services. (Russell, 2011). The process begins with four steps align, mobilize, accelerate and govern. Companies begin aligning by constructing company-wide metrics surrounding financial and strategic goals of the organization. These metrics are used to determine the area of the business that requires the most improvement and would have the largest financial

The Continuous quality improvement (CQI) is very essential component of public health. The quality management is focused not only on product and service quality, but also on the means to achieve it. It was good explanation about healthcare delivery systems in the US, public health agencies and national public health performance standard program (NPHPSP) and they should have responsibility to achieve CQI. I have perceived CQI key concepts, aims of public health delivery system and how core and support system functions based on methods. Six sigma is significant role in public health management for process improvement to eliminating the defects. I learned six sigma process improvement model which help to improve quality care. However, many hospitals and healthcare practices have adopted six sigma management tools to help achieve goals. Employing six sigma principles in healthcare settings can help eliminate defects and variations in processes and it can help make procedures more streamlined, less cost and help

The most popular example of which is the LEAN thinking and the Six Sigma concept. Six Sigma approach to improve quality has been used in many organizations since its inception at Motorola Corporation in the 1980s to measure and improve product and service quality. Six Sigma mainly focuses on defects that occur in million opportunities (Jayanta K. Bandyopadhyay, 2005). Six Sigma is heavily drawing attention from both private and government hospitals and health systems seeking a better approach to achieving long-term results whether financially or in terms of health safety and quality improvement. Six Sigma has been used to address many of the most common challenges faced by healthcare industry, including safety of patients, optimization of technology, market growth, apt resource utilization and the time up to which the program performs correctly with good outcome. In some instances, it is used to focus on a specific department or procedure, and in others, it is implemented on an enterprise-wide basis to achieve a cultural transformation (Pexton, February 26, 2010).

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,

“Six Sigma” and the “Cost of Quality” to a manufacturing company is a systematic approach that increases profits and improves customer satisfaction rates by eliminating the root cause for defects or errors in all processes, by creating new and more effective processes. To the health care company, “The Cost of Quality” may look and feel slightly different, yet in many ways both are the same. Both companies may operate and produce different products, and operate in two different market segments, both are concerned with delivering customer driven quality products or services in the most cost effective manner. Therefore, if we use a comparative analysis and the Six Sigma standard problem solving methodologies and apply it to the “Costs of Quality”, “Six Sigma Project Selection” and the role of “The Green Belt” we know that each looks to eliminate the root cause of defects and poor customer satisfaction scores. We will discuss these similarities and the differences in manufacturing and in health care and the importance of determining who the “Voice of the Customer” (VOC) is, to responding quickly to any sudden market change or in customer driven demand changes and for each current customer, lost customer, or any future customers.

Making a comparison with a simple standpoint, the six sigma’s methodology is used to incremental improvement of existing processes, as it is the six sigma main tool, DMAIC. This tool is a strategy based on statistical quality, which gives much importance to data collection and accuracy of the data as a basis for improvement.