Six Sigma: The Roadmap for the Future

Introduction

In the olden times there was the concept of "Zero Defect" but it was considered more as a hypothetical term rather than having a more practical aspect because though the companies propagated that their processes or services were of Zero Defect but very few customers relied on them because defects were always there. A "Defect" can be defined as any product or service that does not conform to the set standards or satisfaction of the customer. Now, Six Sigma is a concept that tries to achieve a near zero defect with 3.4 defects in a million events.

What is Six Sigma?

Six Sigma is a methodology used to improve any business process by constantly reviewing, updating and re-tuning the existing process. Six Sigma provides the tools to improve the capability of any business process. Six Sigma professionals evaluate a business process and determine ways to improve upon the existing process. Six Sigma incorporates the same principles and techniques used in Business, Statistics, and Engineering.

Six Sigma improves the process performance, decreases variation and maintains consistent quality of the process output. This leads to defect reduction and improvement in profits, employee morale, product quality and finally customer satisfaction.

Six Sigma Strives for perfection. It allows for only 3.4 defects per million opportunities for each product or service transaction.

Six Sigma relies heavily on statistical techniques to reduce defects and measure quality.

Evolution of Six Sigma

Japan has been credited with the evolvement of Quality Systems like TQM, Kanban, Kaizen, etc., but Six Sigma has been evolved by the Americans by a company called Motorola in early 1990's. Later in the mid- nineties, GE and Allied Signal adopted it. According to Jack Welch CEO of GE, "Six Sigma is the most challenging and potentially rewarding strategy that GE has ever undertaken". Now Japan has always been known for controlling wastages by having Just-in-time Inventory systems but this concept of Six Sigma, which relies heavily on statistical controls, encompasses all the systems and gives near perfect and measurable results, which in other systems cannot be done easily.

Six Sigma was originally centered around manufacturing improvements. The reason for this was knowledge of the statistical tools in the manufacturing functions and the ease with which we can quantify the benefits. However the customers did not readily see these improvements. The approach was therefore broadened to all business operations. The success of these companies with the six sigma approach caught the attention of the Wall Street making it a popular strategy that is being adopted by many organizations worldwide. Indian organizations such as Wipro, Tata Motors, Hero Motors, Godrej-GE have also adopted six sigma strategy to improve their businesses (Reference: Business Today, Sept 22, 1999).

Six Sigma levels and Process

The Greek letter for Sigma, , represents one standard deviation from the normal or average. The higher the sigma level the better the quality level.

Levels of Sigma Performance

Motorola developed a five phase approach to the Six Sigma Process called DMAIC which is a continuous process as the diagram shows until the highest level in the Six Sigma is achieved, i.e., 3.4 defects per million.

D: Define Opportunities
M: Measure Performance
A: Analyze Opportunity
I: Improve Performance
C: Control Performance

Six Sigma Implementation

Implementation of Six Sigma begins with education and training within an organization. The beauty of this Quality Management Concept is that it has various levels of Six Sigma training which are: -

Six Sigma Champion: Champions undergo five days of training and are taught how to manage projects and act as advisors to various project teams.

Green Belts: They undergo two weeks of training that includes project-oriented tasks. They act as team members to the Six Sigma project team. Their cooperation and involvement is necessary for projects success.

Black belts: They receive four weeks of trainings and are directly involved in the implementation of Six Sigma Projects. They are the project leaders and go through in-depth training on Six Sigma approach and tools and work full time on the project.

Master Black Belts: These are the people who conduct Six Sigma Training and also have on the job training and experience.

The Six Sigma implementation can be done by following the steps in the given model: -

Step 1:
In order for Six Sigma to be successful, top level management and everyone below them must fundamentally believe in the strength of it. Managers need to support all individuals and teams involved in improving the quality of the product or service or process.

Step 2:
In this step information gathering through intensive communication with customers, suppliers, and employees takes place. Information about the conditions of the processes, products and services that can be improved, are found and analyzed.

Step 3:
Training this is the most important step and the organizations should strive to have all of its employees trained on Six Sigma on various levels. An organization should have a mix of Black Belts and Green Belts for effectively implementing a Six Sigma project. Black Belts are the all day problem solvers who also operate as team leaders in Six Sigma projects. Green Belts are the team members in Six Sigma projects.

Step 4:
In this step we develop a monitoring system that can be both internal and external. Internal like the amount of wastages and external like the customer satisfaction.

Step 5:
In this step the business processes that are to be improved are chosen the problems that were identified are removed and valueless activities and sub processes are terminated. Here the Six Sigma project is at a critical stage. Before improvements it is necessary that a plan is made and the changes are communicated throughout the organization. Documentation of the improvements is very necessary so that these improvements can be replicated everywhere in the organization.

Step 6:
In this step the Six Sigma project is at its mature stage and the changes and improvements are made and analyzed by simulations and statistical methods and if any discrepancies are found then again the cycle is repeated.

Conclusion

Six Sigma is a powerful approach to achieve breakthrough improvements in manufacturing, engineering and business processes. This approach relies heavily on advanced statistical methods that complement and reduce the process and product variations. It is a new way of doing business that would eliminate the existing defects efficiently and would prevent defects from occurring. In a country like India where high quality standards are still to be achieved Six Sigma has a very bright future.