A Beginners Guide to Six Sigma

Introduction

 

Remember the time when the first-ever smartphone was launched? Great, you do. But do you remember how it reached out to so many people across the globe that suddenly it became a necessity? 

 

People were using their normal oversimplified feature phones till then. But suddenly a revolution took over the world by storm and smartphones became a thing of daily use. Nowadays, one can't even imagine a life without them. Was all this just because of the new technology? No! 60 percent of this revolution was made up of a thing called “Marketing”. 

 

Marketing around the world has changed a lot since its beginning. People have witnessed some of the most unpredictable things becoming the talk of the town. This marketing thing works on a few methodologies. With time we have seen marketing changing. And this is solely because of the rules and conducts designed by some of the experts.

 

To keep in pace with the rapidly transforming marketing sector, “Motorola”, the American marketing giant, designed a new quality management process concept. The concept kept on changing as the markets grew, and in the end, it came out and was received well by other companies as well.

 

It was named “Six Sigma”. This blog is an introduction to what Six Sigma is and how it works. So, let’s dive in.

 

What is Six Sigma?

 

The Six Sigma Methodology is a collection of business tools, statistical theory, and statistical quality control knowledge that aids in the improvement of business processes. It can boost productivity while reducing process inconsistencies. The system reduces faults and increases revenues while also improving employee morale and product quality. The goal is to eliminate inconsistency, waste, and faults, all of which are detrimental to consumer loyalty.

 

The Six Sigma Methodology provides a high level of quality in which a corporation, organization, or business makes every effort to achieve excellence in the products or services it sells. It is a data-driven and highly systematic technique to eliminate problems. This method will describe how processes are performing quantitatively. Simply, a fault is anything that does not meet the requirements of the customer.

 

This extensively used strategy has evolved and is now frequently employed in the commercial sector. This method was first used in the early 1980s. At the time, a three-sigma deviation from the mean has deemed an error that needed to be corrected to improve production quality. 

 

Following that, many measurement standards were suggested, and the concept was further refined. Six Sigma is now a recognized regularly trademark. In other words, there are fewer than 3.4 defects per million opportunities when a product meets six sigma standards.

 

The method evolved as a result of practitioners experimenting with statistical analysis to tackle problems faced during manufacturing. The outcome of this investigation was pretty enlightening. The findings pointed to a lower-cost, faster production method as well as a higher-quality product that would ensure consumer pleasure.

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Now that we know what six sigma is, let us look at the principles of six sigma.

 

5-key principles of Six Sigma

 

Six Sigma has a straightforward goal: to offer near-perfect goods and services for company transformation and maximum customer happiness (CX).

 

The Six Sigma methodology has two goals:

 

• Identifying the problem

• Solving it.

 

And these two goals are fulfilled through five principles.

 

They are:

 

1. Concentrate on the Customer

 

This is predicated on the widely held concept that "customer is king." The primary goal is to provide the most value to the customer. To do so, a company must first understand its customers, their wants, and what motivates them to buy or stay loyal. This necessitates developing a quality standard based on what the consumer or market needs.

 

2. Find Your Problem by Measuring the Value Stream

 

To identify waste regions, map the processes in a given process. Gather information to identify the exact issue that needs to be addressed or modified. 

 

Establish specific data collecting goals, such as specifying the data to be collected, the reason for the data collection, the expected insights, guaranteeing measurement accuracy and building a standardized data collection system 

 

Determine whether the data is assisting in the achievement of the objectives and whether the data needs to be refined or new information obtained. Determine the issue. Ask questions to get to the bottom of the problem.

 

3. Get Rid of the Garbage

 

Once the problem has been recognized, alter the process to eliminate variation and consequently problems. Remove any steps in the process that do not bring value to the client. If the value stream fails to identify the source of the problem, tools are employed to find outliers and trouble areas. 

 

To achieve quality control and efficiency, streamline functions. Finally, by removing the aforementioned garbage, bottlenecks in the process are eliminated.

 

4. Keep things moving

 

All parties should be involved. Adopt a structured approach for problem-solving in which your team contributes and collaborates on their various areas of expertise.

 

Because Six Sigma procedures can have a significant impact on a business, the team must be well-versed in the principles and methodology employed. To limit the risk of project or re-design failures and ensure that the process runs smoothly, specialist training and knowledge are necessary.

 

5. Ensure a Responsive and Flexible Ecosystem

 

Business transformation and change are at the heart of Six Sigma. When a flawed or inefficient process is eliminated, it necessitates a shift in work practices and employee attitudes. 

 

A strong culture of flexibility and openness to changes in procedures can help ensure that projects are completed quickly and efficiently. People and departments involved should be able to adapt to change quickly and seamlessly, thus processes should be built to assist this. 

 

Finally, a competitive advantage can be gained by a company that keeps an eye on the data, evaluates the bottom line on a regular basis, and adapts its operations as needed.

 

(Must read: Statistical data analysis)

 

 

Six Sigma Methodologies

 

DMAIC and DMADV are the two most used Six Sigma methods.

 

DMAIC is a Six Sigma approach that uses data to improve existing goods and processes. When an existing product or process can be upgraded to meet or exceed the customer's needs, the DMAIC approach should be implemented. 

 

The five phases of the DMAIC technique are:

 

D – Define, 

M – Measure, 

A – Analyze, 

I – Improve, 

C – Control.

 

The five phases of the DMAIC process

 

1. DEFINE

 

A customer-centric strategy is the starting point for the Six Sigma process.

 

• Step 1: The customer's perspective is used to define the business challenge.

• Step 2: Make a list of your objectives. What are your objectives? What resources will you employ to attain your objectives?

• Step 3: Create a flowchart of the procedure. Verify that you're on the right track with the stakeholders.

 

2. MEASURE

 

The project's metrics and the methods used to measure them are the emphases of the second phase. What can you do to improve? How do you put a number on it?

 

• Step 1: Quantify your issue with numbers or supporting facts.

• Step 2: Establish a performance metric. Limits for "Y" should be set.

• Step 3: Assess the measurement system that will be employed. Is it capable of assisting you in achieving your goal?

 

3. ANALYZE

 

The third step examines the process to identify the variables that influence it.

 

• Step 1: Evaluate your process to see if it is efficient and successful. Is the procedure assisting you in achieving your goals?

• Step 2: Put your objectives into figures. Reduce the number of defective goods by 10%, for example.

• Step 3: Using historical data, identify variations.

 

4. IMPROVE

 

This procedure looks at how changes in "X" affect "Y." This is the stage where you figure out how to improve the process's implementation.

 

• Step 1: Make a list of possible causes. Determine which of the "X" factors discovered in Process III has an impact on "Y."

• Step 2: Look for connections between the variables.

• Step 3: Determine process tolerance, which is described as the precise values that particular variables can have while being within acceptable bounds, such as product quality. Which boundaries require X to keep Y within bounds? What operating conditions might have an impact on the result? Tools like robust optimization and validation sets can be used to attain process tolerances.

 

5. CONTROL

 

In this final step, you make sure that the performance goal you set in the previous phase has been met and that the planned improvements are long-term.

 

• Step 1: Make sure the measurement system you're going to use is accurate.

• Step 2: Determine the capabilities of the process. Is the objective being met? Will the target of reducing defective items by 20%, for example, be met?

• Step 3: Once the previous step has been completed, but the process into action.

 

(Related blog: Types Of Agile Methodologies)

 

 

Six Sigma and the Microsoft story: An example

 

Microsoft is one of the world's largest software companies. Microsoft implemented Six Sigma methodologies to use a robust data-driven process to help eradicate any defects in their systems and data centers to systematically reduce IT infrastructure failures in order to improve the reliability and availability of its networks worldwide.

 

To generate a baseline measurement for detecting faults, the organization first created standards for all of its hardware and software. Microsoft used root-cause analysis, which included gathering data from previous high-priority events, server failures, and product group members' and customers' recommendations. Microsoft created baseline standards for future measurement based on historical data.

 

On a daily and monthly basis, large amounts of data were collected from multiple servers. The problems were detected by data analysis and reporting, and remedial actions for each defect were then defined. 

The issues were ranked according to the severity of the faults' impact on the company's operations and underlying services. The teams used the Six Sigma methodology to carry out defect eradication efforts. 

 

As a result, fault remediation improved by 40% within the first year. Between 18 and 125 days, the mean or average duration between server failures improved. 

 

Microsoft enhanced the availability of its servers, increased customer productivity, and improved customer happiness as a result of Six Sigma. The success of Microsoft is a perfect example of how six sigma is slowly transforming the industry.

 

(Also read: What is FCAPS?)