Six Sigma

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.

Lean Six Sigma combines Lean’s time-focused waste-elimination philosophy to dynamic analytical problem solving toolkit of Six Sigma.

Now a day's global market in the world and all companies are looking up making new improvements that drive bottom line results. In that process all originations and companies are turning to process improvement methodologies such as lean six sigma. Continual improvement, as one of the objectives of a quality management system is achieved by the improvement of all processes and activities at a particular stage of the production cycle. Continual process improvement is also the only way how to survive and succeed among competitors. The management of the company will always be looking for opportunities that will enhance the effectiveness of the company’s processes. Lean Six Sigma is one of the significant methodologies of quality management, this seeks to increase productivity and improve quality of process outputs. As a customer oriented managerial strategy, it emphasizes that imperfection is an opportunity for improvement. The Lean Six Sigma system helps to effectively reduce any defective process; it improves the quality of the provided services and makes the

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 quality improvement philosophy and a methodology and collection of statistical techniques used to implement that philosophy. Six Sigma’s focuses on reducing or removing identifiable sources of changes in order to decrease the number of defects in a product. Six Sigma was developed by Bill Smith and was used to standardize the way in which defects are tallied (Meredith, 2013). As a new way of doing business, six sigma can have a significant impact on the end result of business. There are many way six sigma can be applied. For example, the scientific component of methodology is a structure approach that takes

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).

Successful Lean Six Sigma (LSS) deployments rely on the ability of a deployment to effectively apply Six Sigma DMAIC methodologies with the ability to concurrently apply Lean tools in order to drive Continuous Improvement into the culture of the business. Designing a Lean Six Sigma deployment to be an integrated model ties together the Six Sigma well structured approach with the Lean approach of matching quantity and quality to satisfy customers. Various companies have begun

Time efficient & Cost effective - eliminate the extra ideas and create the “right idea the first time”

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 establishment of Lean Six Sigma is to take a gander at items/benefits through the client 's eyes and decide how enhancements can wipe out "waste". Lean Six Sigma takes after a thorough methodology of DEFINE… MEASURE… ANALYZE… IMPROVE… CONTROL. Through this procedure we distinguish the 7 sorts of waste that is, Overproduction, Inventory, Extra Processing, Motion, Defects, Holding up, and Transportation. A group is structured to direct an Action Work Out to actualize changes that will wipe out the waste. Since "Waste makes Waste" we should ceaselessly Kaizen (improve) to streamline and streamline our methodologies. We exceed expectations to model the Toyota Production System (TPS) with the aid of Shingijutsu specialists that show us the

Lean Six Sigma should be seen as an integrated framework now to initiate the change in culture and operations, leading to business and operations improvements. Organizations should try to become lean as much as possible and should leave a space for Six Sigma methodologies and should move forward to other philosophies such as agility and innovations. Every lean or Six sigma tool is not suitable for each company but most suitable tools and techniques should be identified and implemented in Lean Six Sigma frame work to get the competitive position in the

Six Sigma professionals make decisions based on data, not emotions, share responsibility and know how to generate results. They are enthusiastic and passionate about what they do. These are the skills and qualities that make Six Sigma professionals most successful and that Six Sigma helps build in future leaders.”

We have concluded that these methodologies have evolved through various stages from the early 1700’s as “division of labor”. This was when manufacturing first moved into factories from the cottage industry. These methodologies is not only executed by conventional business but is tailored for all sorts of organizations such as government agencies, departments, charities, mutual and cooperatives as well as many others. An example that can be used is the “Six Sigma” was first developed by Motorola Inc, in the mid 1980’s. This methodology provides extensive “Six Sigma” training and consultancy services. Accordng to Motorola I.T “Six Sigma is a highly disciplined process that helps us focus on developing and delivering close to perfect products and services. This system drives clarity around business strategies and the metrics that reflect success with strategy. Through experience, Motorola has learned that discipline use of metrics and applications of this methodology is still not sufficient to drive a desired breakthrough for improvements and results that are sustainable over a period of time.

"If you do just Six Sigma, you 're not going to maximize the potential of your organization. You have to do both," - Mike Carnell, President of Six Sigma Applications

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