Six Sigma education is a necessary part of many businesses today. It is a business management strategy that was originally developed by Motorola but has since been adopted by many other companies. There is some controversy about the subject but in its most simple form it functions to improve the quality of outputs in manufacturing and business processes. It is centered around identifying and eliminating errors and defects by using quality management methods. Each Six Sigma project includes statistical and financial targets.
It is interesting to note wher the term “six sigma” comes from. It actually originates from the idea that if you have six standard deviations between the specified limit and the mean, that every item will meet specifications. This is based on capability studies that measure standard deviation in sigma units. It is a math function that represents being efficient.
Six Sigma projects usually follow two main methods. The DMAIC and the DMADV. They each have five phases and some similar processes. DMAIC is used primarily for improving existing business processes, while DMADV is used for creating new products and process designs.
DMAIC has five different steps. The first is to define high-level goals and identify the current processes. Next is to measure the key parts of the current process and collect data that is relevant to the project. Then comes analyzing data to confirm cause-and-effect relationships. You have to find out what the relationships mean, and try and consider all of the factors. Next is to improve the process based on your previouis analyzation of the findings. This could be done with techniques like design of experiments. Last step to DMAIC is to control to make sure that there are no deviations from the target. This would mean setting up pilot runs and mechanisms to monitor all processes.
DMADV has a similar first step in that it is to define goals for design that will meet strategy for customer demands. Next is to measure and identify characteristics that are critical to quality (CTQ’s), risks, and capabilities of the process. Following that is analayzing to find design alternatives, and to make a high-level design approach to select the best choice. Last is to verify the design, do some test runs, and put the production process to work and then give it back to the owners.
The hierarchy to Six Sigma is set up much like martial arts with black belts, yellow belts and green belts. There are master black belts as well as champions and executive leadership. It is a vertical leadership model starting at the top with the Executive Leadership (CEO), and trickles down to the yellow belts. There is some controversy here as people have called it unoriginal and a flamboyant revamp of traditional facilitators. Other criticisms claim that although Six Sigma does effectively reduce errors and defects it also ends up stifling creativity because it does not allow for new products and technologies to be developed.
No matter what your view is of Six Sigma education strategies, it is important to know how it works and how it applies to businesses.
Great work in explaning six sigma improvement dynamics.