The Roots Of Six Sigma Measurement

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.

“The term Six Sigma was coined by Bill Smith in 1986, while at Motorola. It was coined as a target for defect-free product manufacturing. The term was derived from the idea that process capability can be described by product or service deviation from specification.” (“Six Sigma Basics”). Although this theory turned in to what we now know as Six Sigma, the origins of statistical process control can be traced to Walther Shewart and Edward Deming.

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).

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,

During the mid-1980s, GE went global by making significant pushes into Europe and Japan. In the late 1980s, he turned hierarchy upside down, pioneering a program known as Work Out where employees would tell their bosses their suggestions to make the company better. This challenged employees and management to discover creative ways to streamline the organization, simplifying work and removing unnecessary processes. Ultimately, in 1995, Welch initiated GE’s Six Sigma initiative to eliminate the common cause variation found in business and work processes. Still a part of GE’s strategy 20 years later, Six Sigma is a “highly disciplined process that helps focus on developing and delivering near-perfect products and services”. In other words, the idea behind it is to measure how many "defects" there are in a process in order to figure out how to

The 6-Sigma methodology first originated in 1986 in Motorola. It all began when a sales manager called Art Sundry, told the CEO, Bob Galvin that the quality of their products stinks. Galvin then visited manufacturing plants throughout the country and realised that what Art Sundry said was in fact very true. The company looked to develop a methodology that could help them measure and identify detects, thus reducing the number of defects and the 6-Sigma methodology was created. Once they introduced the 6-Sigma methodology it increased the levels of

As per Chief Executive Officer George Fisher top management commitment, education and training is the major contributor for effective implementation of Six Sigma. Motorola’s commitment for Six sigma reflects in investment in Research and development and starting of Motorola University for training on quality.

Partner with world class suppliers who offer Motorola a competitive. Once a diverse supplier To minimize and ideally eliminate defects from the manufacturing process, the concept of Six Sigma was introduced. Motorola spends more than $ 25 million on a top-down training program to make understand of working on six sigma in the company.

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.

This led people to look for techniques to reduce variations in any process. To resolve issues related to this problem, a quality parameter called SIX SIGMA was invented. Six Sigma had its origin as a measurement standard relating to the concept of normal curve by Carl Friedrich Gauss (1777 – 1855). Walter Shewhart established that the process needs either a correction or new design if the deviations were more than three sigma levels from the mean. However, the credit of coining the term Six Sigma was given to Bill Smith (Engineer at Motorola) in early and mid-1980s. Motorola earlier used to measure the defects in thousands of opportunities, later developed a much better standard of defects per million opportunities. Six Sigma is achieved when the process produces no more than 3.4 defects per million opportunities. By using techniques that Six Sigma methodology had, the variations in manufacturing a product went down, reducing the number of defects in total manufactured products. As a consequence of implementing Six Sigma, Motorola made an estimated profit of $16 Billion. Many other companies started to implement Six Sigma in their company and have reached to the maximum potential.

Looking at the success of Motorola, many companies like Texas Instruments, Allied Signal etc started using Six Sigma methodology to bring organization-wide improvements.

In my perspective, the criticisms of the Six Sigma approach are unfounded. First, the writer of the article in Fortune Magazine, Lee Clifford argued that the Six Sigma concept can be mind-numbingly vague. This argument seems baseless because Six Sigma is a clear concept and if an approach introduces a systematic implementation of producing error-free products and services, such initiative should be regarded as a step in the right direction not only for the manufacturing industry but for the consumer population in general. Another criticism is that more companies are applying the Six Sigma while producing products that the consumers do not want. Understandably, the approach does not

Literature regarding the theory and implementation of Six Sigma has been reported by researchers from many developed countries. Similar kind of studies in other parts of the world needs to be carried out to understand various issues affecting Six Sigma implementation. Moreover, the report on implementation of Six Sigma and its benefits in a developing country like India are rather scanty. The purpose of this research is to assist Six Sigma management professionals and researchers in gaining a better understanding of the critical factors that affect the successful implementation of Six Sigma in Indian context. Considering both our research objective and the exploratory nature of the study, decision was taken to use the Delphi approach, which seemed to be appropriate. A multi-round Delphi study was designed to reach a consensus on various issues that affect the implementation of Six Sigma. The outcome of the research will help to formulate strategies for effective implementation of Six Sigma in Indian context. The broad objectives of the study are: • • • to find out the key drivers for the implementation of Six Sigma in the Indian organisations to determine the key factors for successful implementation of Six Sigma initiatives to identify problems faced by Indian industries in implementing Six Sigma and its solutions