A

INVESITIGATIVE STUDY

OF

EFFICIENCY

INTO

QUALITY MANAGEMENT PROCESS

6 SIGMA

Vs

ACE
(ACHIEVING
COMPETITIVE
EXCELLENCE)
 CONTENTS

1. Introduction

2. Back Ground

3. Alternatives

4. Proposed Solutions

5. Recommendations

6. Conclusions

7. Executive Summary

8. References
I. Introduction

Total quality management is a management philosophy aimed at

continuous growth in quality improvement of products, processes and

services to achieve and surpass quality standards. It consists of strategic

planning, organizing and implementing each process activity and of

removing all the wasted effort and energy that is routinely spent. It is a

methodology of strategic overview of quality and focus on prevention not

detection of problems.

In the early 1990’s companies started developing their own total quality

Management principals. The most notable of all these new theories was

Six Sigma which was developed by Motorola Corporation and later

implemented by other industry giants like General Motors, Microsoft,

Helwet-Packard etc., another significant new generation Quality

management theory was ACE-(Achieving Competitive Excellence)

developed by United Technologies Corporation(UTC). While 6 Sigma

approach is data oriented in quality management of products, services,

processes and customer experience, ACE approach is process

improvement, waste elimination, skill improvement, problem solving and

decision making tools.

This investigative study deals with comparison of both 6 Sigma and ACE

by analyzing their common and contrast principals, their strengths and

weaknesses in the various domains of quality management improvement.

It concludes by showing which domains are suitable for 6Sigma and

which suit for ACE.

2. Background

6 Sigma is a quality system developed in mid 1980’s by Motorola

Corporation to assure better quality products, services, processes and

customer experience. It was highly successful and later adopted by other

manufacturing giants like General motors. It is now the chosen quality

system for most product development companies. It strives to reduce the

process errors and variation thereby reducing product failure levels. The

word Sigma is of Greek Language Latin origin and stands for standard

deviation. Standard deviation is a statistical way of describing the

difference in variation in a set of data or process. 6 Sigma system has a

yield rate of 99.9997% and produces 3.4 defects per one million

observations. The goal of this system is to increase customer satisfaction

and to improve company profits by reducing process variation and

defects. It has six major themes which are supported by many tools:

1) Genuine Focus on the customer

2) Data & Fact driven Management

3) Process Focus

4) Proactive Management

5) Boundary less Collaboration

6) Drive for perfection with tolerance for failure.

The problem solving process of 6 sigma is called DMAIC an acronym for

Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve and Control. There is a trained teams

in very company to implement this 6 sigma system. They are divided

according to their roles as Black Belt, Yellow belt, Green belt and Master

belt.

ACE-Achieve

Competitive Excellence is a qulaity management system developed in

1996 by synthesizing 2 previous qulaity management systems viz., 1)

Lean Manufacturing process of the Toyota Production System and 2)

Quality Improvement teaching of Dr.W.Edwards Deming. An ACE

operating system has three elements

1) Hardware-12 tools encompossed in three categories a)Process

improvement and waste elimination b) Problem Solving c) Decision

Making

2)Software- Competency to develop and implement qulaity process and 3)

Humanware-Culture of continuos quality improvement in all levels of

workers.

The seven ACE tools of Process Improvement and waste elimination

are 1) 5S(Visual Workspace)+6s =a)Safety b)Sort c)Straighten d)Shine

e)Standardize f)Sustain

2) Value Stream Management

3)Process Control & Certification

4)Standard Work

5)Production Preparation Process (3P)

6)Total Productive Maintenance

7) Set-up Reduction

The four tools of Problem Solving (DIVE process –a)Define the

problem, b)Investigate probable root causes c)Verify what is the actual

caused)Ensure a mistake-proof solution) are

1)Market Feedback Analysis

2)QCPC (Quality Clinic Process Charts)

3)Relentless Root Cause Analysis

4)Mistake Proofing

The single tool of Decision Making

1)Passport Process

Just like 6Sigma’s belts Ace has medals to measure the company’s

training and quality improvement Levels anmed after Olympic medals

1) Qualifying – Aware of ACE quality Management process–

a)Customer expectations quantified

b)Performance baselines and gaps identified

c)Savings demonstrated from waste eliminations

2)Bronze=Improved Performance-60% of the company process involves

ACE-a) Measurable improvements in key customer deliverables achieved

b)Business results positively impacted and

c)Significant business performance improvement targets set for Silver

3)Silver=Steep change in business performance-80% of the company

process involves ACE-a) Business performance Silver targets sustained

b)Stretch business performance goals set for Gold

4)Gold=Delighted stakeholders-100% of the company process involves

ACE. a)Best-in-class customer satisfaction and businessperformance

The financial results after implementing ACE are documented in a master

database called QSTARS(Quality Savings Tracking & Reporting

Systems). ACE involves and empowers every employee by training them

in Quality Management strategies, evolving own strategies and

implementation.
3.ALTERNATIVES:

The primary contrasts between 6 Sigma and ACE quality control systems

are the below:

1) 6-sigma was developed in 1980’s and ACE was developed in mid

1990’s. so it is fair to say that the new generation system will better suit

today’s economy/market scenario’s.

2) The implementation scope of ACE is greater than that of 6-Sigma

3)ACE delivers on many fronts like a)cost reduction b)Productivity

Improvements c)customer satisfaction and 4)top-line growth whereas 6-

Sigma delivers falls short in productivity improvements as it does not

include Lean manufacturing process

4)ACE operating system trainers are called Pits whereas 6-Sigma trainers

are called Black belts. Generally Pilot associates are elected from diverse

educatioald experiential background while 6-Sigma Black Belts are

selected from a singular background of engineers or leaders.

5) For most companies who have in-house manufacturing units, many of

its ACE piolts are in-house engineers whereas 6-Sigma black belts are

external entities.

6)While ACE is process centric 6-Sigma is customer centric

7)ACE excels at process improvement and quality improvement 6-Sigma

excels at measurements with its strong statistical algorithms.

8)ACE is a amalagamation of a)Lean Manufacturing of Toyota(4 tools)

b)Quality improvement teachings of Deming(5 tools) c)other TQM

systems(3 tools) whereas 6-Sigma is a individual system.

9)ACE was developed by UTC to enhance its market competitive edge by

improving both qulaity and customer satisfaction whereas 6-Sigma was

developed by Motorola to primarily eliminate defective products and

improve quality.

10)ACE focuses on the aligning manufacturing with waste elimination

whereas 6-Sigma focuses on aligning product designing with quality

improvement.

11)6-sigma gets it strength from use of statistical value derived from

previous existing data. So the results are undisputable whereas ACE does

not have this feature

12)6-Sigma provides a common language for the entire hirearchy of

workers and management to speack wheras ACE does not have this

feature.
13) 6-Sigma certifications are well respected for improvements in the area

of process control wheras ACE certification are respected for their

improvements in cost control

14) For ACE the backbone of its doctrine is elimination of wastage(all

improvement activities are aimed at removing wastage and standardizing)

whereas the backbone of 6-sigma doctrine is Customer satisfaction(all

improvements are linked back to customer satisfaction)

4. Proposed Solution: After detailed investigative research into both the

qulaity mangement systems of 6-Sigma and ACE, I prefer ACE over 6-

sigma on the counts of 1)Scope of implementation 2)cost cutting in

manufacture and 3)better improvement production time. My reasoning is

based on the primary goals of any business entity of chepaer costs and

better productivity. In addition I also suggest to include the statistical

calculation od 6-sigma into the ACE program.

5. Recommendations: After completing my research study I forward

these recommendations. 1. Implement the ACE program in addition to 6-

Sigma statistical data calculations.

2. Train all levels of workers and management in the ACE program

3. Gradually increase the scope of the ACE implementation to the whole

organization and its subsidaries.

4. Collect the finanacial data(QSTARS) and tally it with the previous

avaiable financial data to check the growth rate.

5. Sustain the quality management and make it part of business startegical

planning.

6.Conclusion: In conclusion of my comparative study of the two qualaity

management processes I strongly recommend the implementation of ACE

with the addition of 6-Sigma statistical data analysis. ACE has far greater

scope than 6-Sigma and will derive greater value than 6-sigma in the

long-term existence of the organization both in cost cutting and

manufacturing time.
 7. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
7.1- Objective
The primary objective of this investigative study was to research the pros and cons of

two quality management systems 1) 6-Sigma quality management system and 2)ACE-

Achieve Competitive Excellence Operating System. Both of them are highly regarded

in the industry circles for their training certifications and the value they bring to the

company both good will and Financial.

7.2- Method
My primary research methodology was to collect as much data as I could gather on the

subjects of 1) 6-Sigma and 2) ACE. I also consulted company managers who had

implemented these quality systems at their organizations. After the collection of

required data and the managerial view point, I sorted the entire data into pros and cons

based upon the feedback of the companies which implemented them. This helped me a

lot in deducing the best quality management for an organization.

7.3 – Results
My research study started with 1)collection of data, 2)collection of view points,

3)sorting the data into pros and cons . After thorough study of the pros and cons of the

2 quality management system 1)6-Sigma and 2)ACE Operating system I could safely

recommend the superiority of ACE over 6-Sigma on three postulates 1) Scope of

implementation coverage 2) training and certifications 3) levels of quality control

7.4- Summary of Correlation

After through research of the pros and cons of both quality systems and getting the

view-point of managers of implementation organizations I conclude with my

recommendations are ACE is superior to 6-Sigma in implementation scope, training

and certification and levels of quality control achieved. The only additional tool it

needs from 6-Sigma is the statistical calculation of standard deviation.