Six Sigma

Six Sigma Training, developed in 1986, is a business development strategy

developed by former handset giant Motorola to reach forecasted financial targets
through quality management and statistical methods. Six Sigma trainees are
classified with a martial arts system of the colored belts, and is one of the most widely
used management strategies across various business sectors.
The term Six Sigma is derived from the maturity of a manufacturing process, or
"sigma rating", which indicates the percentage of defect-free products (or "yield")
produced. A 99.99966% defect-free yield, or 3.4 defects per million products, is
regarded as the Six Sigma standard. The term "Six Sigma" was coined by Motorola
in its heyday, causing the term to be popularized and adapted at first by industry
rivals, and then by businesses in other industries. At its heart, the Six Sigma system
is built on top of the older DMAIC management system.
DMAIC System
 Defining the problems

 Measuring key aspects of the production process

 Analyzing the data to study cause and effect relationships

 Improve upon the current processes to reduce defects and process variation

 Control and modify future operations to reduce the likelihood of defects

The main focus of the Six Sigma system is to remove all production defects,
consolidate fragmented variables in manufacturing and business practices, and to
use standard quality and statistical management methods to improve the quality of
finished products. Six Sigma training produces an elite group of employees within a
workforce, operating in an internal hierarchy - comprised of "Black Belts", "Green
Belts", and lower levels, who draft and oversee a Six Sigma project. Six Sigma
projects are done strictly "by the book", and must follow a defined sequence of steps
to attain the desired financial results.
Six Sigma Doctrine's Three Goals
 The reduction of process variation leads to stable and predictable process results.

 All manufacturing and business processes can be measured, improved upon and
controlled with fixed variables.

 The entire company must be committed - from the top down - to the Six Sigma
doctrine for the implemented changes to have any measurable impact.
Six Sigma Separates Itself in Four Ways
 Culturing strong and passionate leaders is necessary at every level to
successfully apply the Six Sigma ideals.

 The focus should always be on the end product - quantifiable financial returns -
and in some cases the ends will justify the means.

 All decisions must be made using empirical evidence backed by verifiable data,
and not by broad assumptions.

 The hierarchy of the belt system is necessary to encourage Six Sigma followers
to remain competitive, and in some cases, make hard and ruthless decisions to
reach the set goal.

Lean Six Sigma

The success of Six Sigma has led to the creation of a divergent business
management style called Lean Six Sigma, designed for lean manufacturing, which
is meant to reduce process flow and waste issues. By shifting the focus from
manufacturing defects to inefficient work processes, Lean Six Sigma are often
considered the "ultimate efficiency experts" in the industry. However, Lean Six
Sigma is also focused on shifting wasted processes towards growth processes, by
re-allocating stagnant manpower and capital to more productive, forward-looking
projects…
http://www.businessdictionary.com/article/620/six-sigma-guide-to-training-and-
certification/

Advantages & Disadvantages of Six Sigma

Six Sigma Advantages

The main advantage of Six Sigma compared to other approaches to quality control
is that Six Sigma is customer driven. Six Sigma is defined as a limit of 3.4 defects
per one million products or service processes, where anything not acceptable to the
end customer is considered a defect. Six Sigma addresses the entire process behind
the production of an item or completion of a service, rather than just the final
outcome. It is proactive rather than reactive, as it sets out to determine how
improvements can be made even before defects or shortcomings are found.
Six Sigma Disadvantages

Because Six Sigma is applied to all aspects of the production and planning process,
it may create rigidity and bureaucracy that can create delays and stifle creativity. In
addition, its customer focus may be taken to extremes, where internal quality-control
measures that make sense for a company are not taken because of the overlying
goal of achieving the Six Sigma-stipulated level of consumer satisfaction. For
example, an inexpensive measure that carries a risk of a slightly higher defect rate
may be rejected in favor of a more expensive measure that helps to achieve Six
Sigma, but adversely affects profitability.

http://smallbusiness.chron.com/advantages-amp-disadvantages-six-sigma-
43963.html

Here are examples of Six Sigma tools that have always been helpful in reducing
error level and obtaining optimum benefits from the projects.

Six Sigma examples are plenty as the methodologies are extremely effective in
cutting down defects from the system. There are many examples of organizations
which have reaped benefits from the strategies and this is why many others are
following the same path. There are several tools which are applied to achieve the
desired level of services.

 Brainstorm: This is an example of a Six Sigma tool which allows the

employees of a company think innovatively and come up with suggestions
and ideas for the improvement of the company. The ideas often help the
company to derive effective solutions for various critical situations.
 Affinity Diagram: This is the tool which helps sorting out the best ideas from
the ones provided by people.
 Histogram: This is a sort of a bar chart that helps estimating and evaluating
the data collected from various aspects of the system.
 Pareto Charts: The Pareto chart is an example of Six Sigma application tool
that helps short-listing the causes of different problems, which is one of the
easiest ways to solve them as the effort is reduced.

https://sixsigmabasics.com/examples.html