1. Principles of Six Sigma
Chapter 10
Principles of
Six Sigma

2. Key Idea Introduction
Although we view quality improvement tools and techniques from the perspective of Six Sigma, it is important to understand that they are simply a collection of methods that have been used successfully in all types of quality management and improvement initiatives, from generic TQM efforts, to ISO 9000, and in Baldrige processes.

3. Six Sigma A simple quality metric
An overall strategy to quality improvement

4. Six-Sigma Metrics
Defect – any mistake or error that is passed on to a customer
Defects per unit (DPU) = number of defects discovered  number of units produced
Defects per million opportunities (dpmo) = DPU  1,000,000  opportunities for error

5. Six-Sigma Quality
Ensuring that process variation is half the design tolerance (Cp = 2.0) while allowing the mean to shift as much as 1.5 standard deviations, resulting in at most 3.4 dpmo.

6. k-Sigma Quality Levels

7. Six Sigma (Chapter 3)
Based on a statistical measure that equates to 3.4 or fewer errors or defects per million opportunities
Pioneered by Motorola in the mid-1980s and popularized by the success of General Electric

8. Key Idea (Chapter 3)
Six Sigma can be described as a business improvement approach that seeks to find and eliminate causes of defects and errors in manufacturing and service processes by focusing on outputs that are critical to customers and a clear financial return for the organization.

9. Key Concepts of Six Sigma (1 of 2) (Chapter 3)
Think in terms of key business processes, customer requirements, and overall strategic objectives.
Focus on corporate sponsors responsible for championing projects, support team activities, help to overcome resistance to change, and obtaining resources.
Emphasize such quantifiable measures as defects per million opportunities (dpmo) that can be applied to all parts of an organization

10. Key Concepts of Six Sigma (2 of 2) (Chapter 3)
Ensure that appropriate metrics are identified early and focus on business results, thereby providing incentives and accountability.
Provide extensive training followed by project team deployment
Create highly qualified process improvement experts (“green belts,” “black belts,” and “master black belts”) who can apply improvement tools and lead teams.
Set stretch objectives for improvement.

11. Key Idea
Although originally developed for manufacturing in the context of tolerance-based specifications, the Six Sigma concept has been operationalized to any process and has come to signify a generic quality level of at most 3.4 defects per million opportunities.

12. Projects as Value-Creation Processes
Projects - temporary work structures that start up, produce products or services, and then shut down.
Project management – all activities associated with planning, scheduling, and controlling projects

13. Six Sigma Project Teams
Champions – senior managers who promote Six Sigma
Master Black Belts – highly trained experts responsible for strategy, training, mentoring, deployment, and results.
Black Belts – Experts who perform technical analyses
Green Belts – functional employees trained in introductory Six Sigma tools
Team Members – Employees who support specific projects

14. Key Idea Project Management
Successful project managers have four key skills: a bias toward task completion, technical and administrative credibility, interpersonal and political sensitivity, and leadership ability.

15. Project Life Cycle Management (1 of 2)
Project Quality Initiation: Define directions, priorities, limitations, and constraints.
Project Quality Planning: Create a blueprint for the scope of the project and resources needed to accomplish it.
Project Quality Assurance: Use appropriate, qualified processes to meet technical project design specifications.

16. Project Life Cycle Management (2 of 2)
Project Quality Control: Use appropriate communication and management tools to ensure that managerial performance, process improvements, and customer satisfaction is tracked.
Project Quality Closure: Evaluate customer satisfaction with project deliverables and assess success and failures that provide learning for future projects and referrals from satisfied customers.

17. The Definition of a “Project”
Performance
Required performance
Target
Cost
Cumulative
Budget limit
Due Date
Time (“schedule”)

18. Problem Solving
Problem: any deviation between what “should be” and what “is” that is important enough to need correcting
Problem Solving: the activity associated with changing the state of what “is” to what “should be”

19. Quality Problem Types Conformance problems
Unstructured performance problems
Efficiency problems
Product design problems
Process design problems

20. Project Selection
One of the more difficult challenges in Six Sigma is the selection of the most appropriate problem to attack.
Two ways to generate projects:
Top-down
Bottom-up

21. Key Factors in Six Sigma Project Selection
Financial return, as measured by costs associated with quality and process performance, and impacts on revenues and market share
Impacts on customers and organizational effectiveness
Probability of success
Impact on employees
Fit to strategy and competitive advantage

22. Problem Solving Process
Redefining and analyzing the problem
Generating ideas
Evaluating and selecting ideas
Implementing ideas

23. Key Idea Problem Solving
A structured problem-solving process provides all employees with a common language and a set of tools to communicate with each other, particularly as members of cross-functional teams.

24. DMAIC Methodology
Define
Measure
Analyze
Improve
Control
DMAIC

25. Define Describe the problem in operational terms
Drill down to a specific problem statement (project scoping)
Identify customers and CTQs, performance metrics, and cost/revenue implications

26. Measure Key data collection questions
What questions are we trying to answer?
What type of data will we need to answer the question?
Where can we find the data?
Who can provide the data?
How can we collect the data with minimum effort and with minimum chance of error?

27. Analyze Focus on why defects, errors, or excessive variation occur
Seek the root cause
5-Why technique
Experimentation and verification

28. Improve Idea generation Brainstorming Evaluation and selection
Implementation planning

29. Control Maintain improvements Standard operating procedures Training
Checklist or reviews
Statistical process control charts

30. Tools for Six-Sigma and Quality Improvement
Elementary statistics
Advanced statistics
Product design and reliability
Measurement
Process control
Process improvement
Implementation and teamwork

31. Design for Six Sigma
Focus on optimizing product and process performance
Features
A high-level architectural view of the design
Use of CTQs with well-defined technical requirements
Application of statistical modeling and simulation approaches
Predicting defects, avoiding defects, and performance prediction using analysis methods
Examining the full range of product performance using variation analysis of subsystems and components

32. Six Sigma in Services and Small Organizations
Six Sigma is equally applicable to services. However, services have some unique characteristics.

33. Key Idea Six Sigma in Services
All Six Sigma projects have three key characteristics: a problem to be solved, a process in which the problem exists, and one or more measures that quantify the gap to be closed and can be used to monitor progress.

34. Key Six Sigma Metrics in Services
Accuracy
Cycle time
Cost
Customer satisfaction

35. Lean Production and Six Sigma
The 5S’s: seiri (sort), seiton (set in order), seiso (shine), seiketsu (standardize), and shitsuke (sustain).
Visual controls
Efficient layout and standardized work
Pull production
Single minute exchange of dies (SMED)
Total productive maintenance
Source inspection
Continuous improvement

36. Traditional Economic Model of Quality of Conformance
Total cost
Cost due to nonconformance
Cost of quality assurance
100%
“optimal level” of quality

37. Modern Economic Model of Quality of Conformance
Total cost
Cost due to nonconformance
Cost of quality assurance
100%