Communication In Six Sigma
Six Sigma is a system for managing and improving quality related processes. It consists of two phases:
- Define: this phase determines the methodology and process to be used.
- Measure: this phase quantifies the process performance against defined criteria such as defects per million opportunities (DPMO).
You may have seen some of these terms while watching your favorite show on televisions or listening to a podcast, but what do they really mean? Six Sigma is something important that is affecting the world we live in on all levels, so you need to know more about it! In this blog post, I will go through the basics of Six Sigma so you get an idea what it’s all about. Continue reading to learn more about Six Sigma, how it works and what it is.
What Is Six Sigma?
Six Sigma is a set of practical techniques and tools with the main goal to improve quality through the measurement and control of performance. The goal is to reach a maximum level of quality, defined as Six Sigma. This means that any defects or errors are less than 3 sigma on the mean, which is 0.05% on the total number of defects (or opportunities) in the process. This means that 99.9995% of the output is perfect. If the output contains fewer than 3 defects, then the outputs are considered perfect. To reach a Six Sigma level of performance, processes need to control the variation in the process and reduce it to an acceptable level.
Overall, Six Sigma is a practical approach or methodology that emphasizes teamwork and problem solving and improving quality by removing all unnecessary defects (see image below). It’s not just about reducing defects, but also about improving products and services through a process that reduces waste, variability and rejects. There are several methods for measuring performance (called DMAIC). Six Sigma can be applied to all processes in an organization from manufacturing to service industries. The main goal is to understand, measure and improve any process that is affecting the quality of the products or services.
The Six Sigma methods have been adapted for use in a wide range of organizations and industries including manufacturing, technology, healthcare and government. In addition, it has been used as an improvement method by many organizations such as GE and Motorola. It’s also popular in many other businesses such as Apple and Google. However, Six Sigma is not limited to certain industries or companies; it can be applied anywhere.
Here’s a list with examples of things Six Sigma is used for and what it can help you achieve:
- Improve processes: in any business, quality of process is important. It affects the bottom line by reducing costs and improving efficiency. In addition, it improves working conditions by reducing mistakes and errors.
- Reduce defects: defects can be expensive and embarrassing, especially if there’s a recall or faulty products hit the market. Reducing defects will impact your business positively in many ways including financial performance.
- Reduce variation: variation can lead to variability which also impacts performance negatively (more on this later). A good example of variation could be the size of clothes that are too big or small. This is because the goal of the process and quality standard are not clearly defined.
- Improve productivity and work conditions: improving quality will improve productivity, which increases efficiency. This means there will be more output or profit for the same input which will lead to more satisfied customers. Also, reducing defects and variation will improve working conditions by reducing mistakes or errors.
History of Six Sigma
Six Sigma is a method for continual improvement that was created by Bill Smith at Motorola in 1986. He later wrote a book called “The Six Sigma Way” together with Mikel Harry in 1997, which has been translated into 22 languages. The meaning of the term Six Sigma comes from statistics and refers to the probability that a process will produce defects. Six Sigma is a well-known concept today and has been implemented by many companies across various industries.
The Origins of Six Sigma Methodology
The story about how Six Sigma was discovered began in 1985 when Bill Smith was hired by Motorola to find ways for reducing defects for $8 billion product line (he got promoted in 1987). To do this he started to use systems thinking and found that the problem was not a local one, but a systemic one. He called this systemic problem the “Muda”, which means wasteful activity.
He then found that there were 4 categories of Muda, which I will go through below. This discovery has led to a new quality philosophy and methodology in 1986 that has later been named Six Sigma.
The 4 Categories of Muda:
Waste is divided into two different types: defects and non-value-added work (or activities that do not add value to the customer). Non-value-added includes everything from sitting around or talking unnecessarily to waiting time or unnecessary movements.
The goal is to reduce waste to a minimum since every defect or every non-value-added activity costs the organization money. This is how Six Sigma was born (see image below).
In 1990, a group of experts lead by General Electric created the six sigma statue which symbolizes the 6 sigma method and represents its goal to reach perfection (see image below). So today when you see this famous logo, you know it doesn’t mean good enough but that they are aiming for perfection!
How Does Six Sigma Work?
The Six Sigma method focuses on improving quality by defining goals and expectations and by continuously measuring performance against these goals. There are several methods used to measure performance. However, the main one that Six Sigma focuses on is DMAIC:
DMAIC is an acronym that stands for Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve & Control. It’s a method with 5 stages:
However, the beauty of the Six Sigma method is that it’s not linear; it doesn’t always go from stage 1 to stage 5. The “wheels within wheels” concept means that people working in the organization can move between the different stages during their daily work. Most notably though is how DMAIC and DFE are used as a way to emphasize quality improvement and teamwork.
Conclusion
Six Sigma can be applied to almost any business in any industry. Companies like Google and Apple or even government institutions such as the US Department of Defense use Six Sigma in an effort to continually improve quality, reduce costs, manage processes, and meet their customers’ needs. The Six Sigma method focuses on teamwork and finding root causes of problems using data in order to fix them. It also aims for perfection which is why the six sigma statue is used as a symbol for this methodology.