SIX SIGMA

A measurement tool evolved and

vigorously implemented by Motorola
Corporation during 80s. (1988 -
First recipient of Malcolm Baldridge
Award)

Invented at MOTOROLA, perfected

at G.E.
A statistical measurement tells
how good products, services
and processes really are.

- Helps gauge pace

- Helps draw comparison with
similar or dissimilar products,
processes and services.
Six Sigma is:
- a business strategy
- one of working smarter, not harder

OBJECTIVE

DMAIC – Define, Measure,

Analyse, Improve and Control
every one of the process
 Six sigma terminology

A Defect- any mistake or noncorformance

passed on to the customer
Unit of work- output of a process or an
individual process step
Defects per unit- a measure of output quality

Defect per unit= No. of defects discovered/No

of units produced
Two different processes may have different
number of opportunities (the complexity of
processes may also vary)

Hence defects per million opportunities is

defined
dpmo= DPU* 1,000,000
opportunities for error
eg: 3 mishandled bagagge for 8000
passengers and average baggage per person is
1.6 then dpmo= (3/(8000)(1.6)) 1,000,000 =
234.375 dpmo
Six sigma refers to a quality level
at most – 3.4 dpmo
(accounting for 1.5 std dev off
target)
 Quality level
Off 3σ 3.5σ 4σ 4.5σ 5σ 5.5σ 6σ
centering
0 2700 465 63 6.8 .57 .034 .002

0.25 3577 665 99 12.8 1.02 .1056 .0063

0.5 6440 1382 236 32 3.4 .71 .019

0.75 12288 3011 6665 88.5 11 1.02 .1
1 22832 6433 1350 233 32 3.4 .39
1.25 40111 12201 3000 577 88.5 10.7 1

1.5 66803 22800 6200 1350 233 32 3.4

1.75 105601 40100 12200 3000 577 88.4 11

2.00 158700 66800 22800 6200 1300 233 32

PROBLEM CATEGORIES

1. Conformance problems
2. Unstructured problems
(lack of standardization
3. Efficiency problems(cost and productivity)
4. Product design problems(new products- defining
CTQ)
5. Process design problems(designing new processes
or revising existing ones
Project Selection:
“mess management”
Top down /bottom up
picking the low hanging fruit

Customer issues ranking based on

ranking according to customer
importance

Project ranking based on correlation

to customer issues
 Six sigma problem solving
Breakthrough

DMAIC methodology

Define – ‘project scoping’

addresses who, what, metrics, cost/revenue calculations, when

Measure- Data collection

Questions- what is to be answered
What type of data needed to answer the question
Where to find the data
Who can provide
How to collect with minimum effort and minimum
chances of error
Analyse- Lack of knowledge of process working, how it
should work, lack of control of materials and equipment
used in a process.
Poor instrument calibration and testing, failure to
understand capability of a process to meet specifications,
inadvertent errors in performing work

Improve- Quesitons :adapt?Modify?Magnify?Substitute?

Rearrange? Reverse? Combine?
Control: maintaining the improvements
 Six sigma Black Belt training at GE

Elementary statistical tools ( basic statistics, statistical thinking,

hypothesis testing, correlation, simple regression)

Advanced statistical tools (design of experiments, analysis of various,

multiple regresssion)

Product design and reliability (qfd, fmea)

Measurement (process capability, measurement systems analysis)

Process control(control plans, statistical process control)

Process improvement(process improvement planning, process mapping,
mistake proofing)

Implementation and teamwork(organisational effectiveness, team

assessment facilitation tools, team development)
 Six sigma and lean production

Lean production – “getting more for less”

5s- Seiri(sort), seiton(set in order) seiso(shine)
seiketsu(standardisation) shitsuke(sustain)
Visual controls
Efficient layout and standardised work
Pull production(or kanban)
Single minute exchange of dies (SMED)
Total Productive Maintenance