Six Sigma Technology Online

Six Sigma quality improvement concepts and methodologies were originally devised for use in the manufacturing sector but with the development of newer technologies, Six Sigma is now increasingly being implemented in the services sector as well.

The basic aim of Six Sigma implementation projects is to reduce wastage of scarce resources by reducing the number of defects to less than 3.4 per million opportunities that exist for such defects to occur. Six Sigma quality improvement techniques provide accurate results because they make use of statistical analysis tools. These tools are quite effective when it comes to reducing variations in a product or service.

Why Online Training

Six Sigma projects are normally implemented under the supervision of Six Sigma professionals such as Green Belts, Black Belts, and Master Black Belts. The services of these professionals are necessary for ensuring that the implementation is completed within the planned schedule and within allocated costs. The only problem is that these professionals often charge hefty amounts as fees, which may not sometimes be too costly for a company. The best option then is to train existing employees so that they can get the requisite certification and in-depth knowledge about Six Sigma concepts and methodologies.

However, enrolling employees for a regular course is not recommended because the costs can be quite high. Another thing is that in regular courses, employees will have to attend regular courses, which will result in wastage of precious productive time. The best option is to provide online training that offers the same level of certification such as Green Belts and Black Belts. Since Six Sigma is currently the highest quality standard, it is always better to opt for reputed online training courses. It would be better if the online training course is nationally recognized and is designed to cater to different types of professionals such as engineers, technical managers, and analysts. Skills developed through the training program will then help these professionals in reducing defects in manufacturing, developing and in providing services.

What To Look For In An Online Six Sigma Course

Six Sigma online courses are selected according to the level of training a company is aiming to provide to its employees. However, it is always better to opt for an all-inclusive online course that covers most of the operations related aspects of a business such as general management, design, production, services, and even customer satisfaction.

The course should also include an introduction to Total Quality Management (TQM), leadership issues in organizations, project handling skills, quality improvement processes, use of statistical tools such as diagrams and charts, and other related topics. Such a course will empower the employees with specialized knowledge and skills that will help them during Six Sigma project implementations.

Online courses for existing employees are increasingly being preferred because companies do not have to spend top dollar for the training. Another reason is that by training their employees, companies are now able to harness their existing talent pool and reduce their dependence on the services of Six Sigma professionals. All these factors indicate that the future certainly belongs to online Six Sigma training.

Tony Jacowski is a quality analyst for The MBA Journal. Aveta Solutions - Six Sigma Online ( http://www.sixsigmaonline.org ) offers online six sigma training and certification classes for lean six sigma, black belts, green belts, and yellow belts.

Communications And Six Sigma

Implementing new work techniques, strategies, or management systems in business organizations is often a daunting task for managers, as employees usually resist change. This is a fact acknowledged by several modern management theories. As such, any business organization that is planning to deploy Six Sigma needs to concentrate on building an effective communication system so that employee morale and productivity are not affected.

Employee Awareness Is Critical

Six Sigma projects are not limited to a particular set of employees or functional department and are effective only when the organization as a whole understands the need and scope of such projects. The philosophies and techniques used in Six Sigma need to be communicated to everyone in the organization through clear and open communication channels, transcending departmental barriers that would otherwise cause confusion. Making the employees aware about the positive aspects of Six Sigma and how it can help in improving their efficiency will allow managers to effectively overcome any resistance, either intentional or just because of inertia.

Methods And Processes

Teams comprising competent employees selected for implementing Six Sigma concepts in their work processes need to be provided with all of the requisite tools and information by the management. Various aspects involved in Six Sigma projects such as rationale, expectations, goals, and sequence of steps in the process need to be clarified beforehand to reduce confusion during the implementation stage. Case studies related to Six Sigma projects verify the fact that teams with clear goals and objectives achieve a lot more in a shorter period under all circumstances. As such, documentation of Six Sigma processes becomes all the more important for resolving any complications during the deployment stage. It is necessary to create a schedule, outlining the strategies that will help in effective implementation and take the process from its present state to one that is within statistical control and in line with the organization's Six Sigma goals. The schedule also needs to clearly define the role of every employee in relation to his/her contribution during the implementation stage.

Some Issues Of Concern

Lack of clear and effective communication channels is one of the main reasons responsible for frustration and underachievement when it comes to implementing Six Sigma concepts and philosophies. The problem is complicated, as it is very difficult to determine whether the communication provided by the management is enough or falling short of the organization's needs. Very often managers may believe that they are effectively communicating with the employees, but in reality, they may easily underestimate the number of issues on which employees need information.

Improving Communication

The best way of improving communications is to assess the situation from an employee's point of view. This way the management can easily decide the type of information needed by the employees, identify their confusions and worries, and select the most effective channel of communication. As communication is a two-way street, it is better to ask the employees themselves about their needs and expectations either through written or verbal contacts. The management can organize open-house sessions or get feedback through e-mails or questionnaires.

Be Realistic

The managers need to be aware that it takes time to develop effective communication systems and as such, they need to remain honest, clear, and compassionate for building trust among the employees. It is important not to promise anything that cannot be fulfilled, as nothing turns off employees more than the feeling of being betrayed. Genuine, considerate, and unvarying communication is thus essential for building employee engagement throughout the Six Sigma deployment process.

Tony Jacowski is a quality analyst for The MBA Journal. Aveta Solution's Six Sigma Online offers online six sigma training and certification classes for lean six sigma, black belts, green belts, and yellow belts.

Business Process Management And Six Sigma

Six Sigma was devised to incorporate continuous improvement in the industry procedures through its methodological systems of identifying faults and correcting them. In short, it minimizes the number of errors that may occur while a task is being performed. This is achieved by way of daily scrutiny of the process and sharpening the techniques used therein. Initially, Six Sigma was implemented only in the manufacturing stream but eventually moved on to other fields where it has proved its mettle.

However, with advancing technology and increasing complexity of situations faced each day mere Six Sigma implementation is not enough. This is where the Business Process Management gets integrated with Six Sigma to create a better performance-enhancing tool.

BPM

Business Process Management are those set of activities, which are undertaken by a corporation to either better the current processes or alter them to suit new age requirements. This phenomenon supports and modifies the company's processes and gives them useful management strategies, models the data flow, manages people, resources and systems at any given time.

Reason For The Merger

The coming together of BPM and 6-Sigma was initiated since what one lacked the other could provide, thereby leading to a better approach towards analysis, understanding and improvising business techniques. For instance, 6-Sigma lacks the ability to collect large amounts of data, which is instantly provided for by BPM. Likewise, BPM is deficient in analytical tools to solve a difficult and complex business crisis and needs Six Sigma methodology to intervene.

Usefulness Of The Union

Integrating Six Sigma and BPM has led to expansion of a corporation's scope of functionality and its service quality. The following points explain the changes occurring due to the collaboration.

It helps in processing long-term performance results of the organization since there is a considerable amount of reduction in the number of errors and useless inventory, which in turn eliminates customer dissatisfaction. The entire value chains of the institution are illustrated in a better and detailed manner, understood in depth and managed properly. Both the processes together give near perfect estimations, which aid in altering business policies if required and also bring about necessary changes in management procedures that enhance performance levels. As Six Sigma fails to effectively control business processes and most of the time relies on the manual methods and control mechanism, which hampers performance initiatives greatly. BPM involvement aids the controlling process and terminates the drawback instantly. Since 6-Sigma cannot gather the extensive data required for any research and policy implementation, BPM fills in for this lapse by enhancing the projects by accelerating the collection and distribution of critical data. The product design is improved due to combine application of BPM and Six Sigma. Such companies are at a better advantage of creating a superior product right at the inception time. Initializing physical, feature wise market growth is possible by focusing on customer expectations and undertaking surveys since BPM is apt at supplying buying patterns and customer attitude records. Punching Six Sigma data into the BPM system is much faster and more precise.

Tony Jacowski is a quality analyst for The MBA Journal. Aveta Solution's Six Sigma Online offers online six sigma training and certification classes for lean six sigma, black belts, green belts, and yellow belts.

Lean Six Sigma - 5 Reasons Your Organization Needs It

Lean Six Sigma provides a powerful combination of the Lean manufacturing approach and Six Sigma. The two concepts are not very different in their outlook and methods, or in their applications and goals. Lean Six Sigma works on the philosophy of increasing speed by focusing on waste reduction. The result of Lean applications is shown in the improvement of quality and on reduced processing times and costs. Combining 6 sigma with Lean manufacturing augments short-term results with the power of comprehensive changes. The result is Lean Six Sigma.

Five Reasons Your Organization Needs Lean Six Sigma

Corporations increasingly prefer implementing Lean Six Sigma over any other methodology. Here are the five top reasons that organizations prefer Lean Six Sigma.

1. Lean Six Sigma is applicable across industry sectors: Although Lean manufacturing was originally developed as a quality management tool with a manufacture-centric approach, of late, industries across the board have accepted and successfully implemented the seamless Lean Six Sigma tool. The notion that Lean Six Sigma can't applied to non-manufacturing sectors doesn't hold true any more.

2. Lean Six Sigma results in immediate functional improvements: Implementation of Lean Six Sigma results in faster-than-expected reduction of production time and costs. This is because of the application of its tools such as kaizen (method of constantly analyzing process flow and its application), kanban (helps pull up production) and poka yoke (mistake-proofing).

3. Helps create value for consumers: The combined application of Lean manufacturing and Six Sigma results in tangible and real value creation for consumers. Consumers of products and services can enjoy better experiences in terms of increased utility and reduced prices. More and more organizations are showing an inclination to implement Lean Six Sigma for obvious reasons - it improves their bottom lines.

4. Practicality of execution: Lean Six Sigma facilitates transformation of organizations by creating a powerful linkage between strategic priorities and improvements in operations. Strategic priorities are the goals set by the top management team for higher returns on investment and improved customer experiences.

5. Focus on sustainable management capability: Lean Six Sigma's highly sustainable approach, being woven into every aspect of business, leads to the creation of sustainability from top down. Sustainability results from the quick realization of tangible benefits of implementing the program.

By implementing the Lean Six Sigma approach, organizations have realized time and again that it is possible to streamline their operations and to create value for both management and customers alike. The bottom lines of companies have soared with the successful implementation of Lean Six Sigma. As a result, many companies have created enormous value for their shareholders. Organizations are drawn to the Lean Six Sigma approach due to its fast implementation and results, in addition to creating additional value for the consumer at no extra cost.

Tony Jacowski is a quality analyst for The MBA Journal. Aveta Solutions - Six Sigma Online offers online six sigma training and certification classes for lean six sigma, black belts, green belts, and yellow belts.

Company Politics And Six Sigma

No grouping of human beings is without some amount of politics. Managing deployment of Six Sigma in your organization will unavoidably run into some personal issues and conflict. However, with deft handling of the personal and political issues that come up, along with patience and perseverance, your Six Sigma deployment will not get derailed.

Political factors that can affect a Six Sigma project include personal resistance to change, inflexible company policies, and incompatibility with existing organizational methods and goals. Not surprisingly, all of these factors also affect business processes of any kind. They are not unique to Six Sigma. This is one of Six Sigma's strengths: realistically acknowledging the way politics work in an organization. Six Sigma is not just number crunching. It understands the importance of and encourages the involvement of people throughout and at all levels of the organization working together toward a common goal. Six Sigma encourages planning, communication, and openness about processes, procedures, and information.

Many people see change, any change, as loss?a loss of their power or a loss of the security of the old way of doing things. Thus, people are prone to defend the old way, out of habit and out of unease. They wonder how change will affect them and what exactly happens behind the scenes and if they don't know, become apprehensive. This is a problem that can be overcome through communication. Six Sigma successes require clear and open communication at all levels. Any change in an organization will meet some resistance, either intentional or just from inertia. When management can effectively communicate that it is behind that change and can communicate the positive aspects of the change, resistance and ?turf? politics can be countered and overcome.

Another problem is people who disregard the value and power of Six Sigma and consequently, they are reluctant to support Six Sigma projects. To the uninitiated, Six Sigma may appear similar to or simply an evolution of other quality programs. There have been so many quality improvement fads over the years. It is not surprising that people are now a little jaded. Others may see Six Sigma as solely another cost-cutting or productivity enhancement fad. This is a short-sighted view. Six Sigma is neither a fad nor just another quality initiative. It is a ?way of life.? It is a multi-level, cyclical movement toward continual process improvement. The quality improvement fads sell themselves as cheap and easy quick fixes. The reality is that there are no quick fixes to significant process improvement. Six Sigma understands that; it is not a simple quick process. However, the right Six Sigma training and information will help people to understand that Six Sigma is significantly different; it is a robust continuous improvement strategy and process.

Once projects are begun, Six Sigma projects can become a battle of wills for control over which strategy, approach, or tool is used. Team meetings can devolve into arguments over which measurement to use, how it will be calculated, which charts will be generated, whether to use DMAIC or DMADV, etc. Six Sigma is not about making things more difficult. It is about using common sense to make things easier. It is certainly about recognizing that there is more than one road to improvement and more than one right answer to a problem.

In overcoming political problems, the leadership of senior management is critical. Successful Six Sigma programs are built on a solid organizational foundation. The organizational structure and system needs to be clearly identified and communicated to the entire organization to successfully implement Six Sigma Quality. Becoming a Six Sigma organization doesn't just happen. Planning and training goes into setting up a successful Six Sigma organization. Employee roles and responsibilities must be established and clearly communicated to all. For many companies successful in Six Sigma, the key factor has been the direct involvement of their top leaders.

Six Sigma is about getting everyone involved. A Six Sigma project forms a team of people who work together to identify problems and develop solutions. Such teams are not isolated teams rearranging the world for everyone else to live in. These teams are serving the organization by employing the skills and tools they have learned to increase quality and reduce defects. Instilling the team concept along with expert training will go a long way toward solving potential political troubles in your organization. Peter Peterka is the principal Six Sigma Consultant in practice areas of DMAIC and DFSS. Peter has over 15 years experience including implementation of Six Sigma in Healthcare.

Six Sigma Assessment

Assessing Six Sigma is not end-of-the-process post implementation, although an analysis of a failed Six Sigma project points out the lack of commitment by upper management and lack of attention to the cultural and business investment required for accomplishing and sustaining new tiers of performance. It is in this context that assessment of Six Sigma becomes necessary, especially when new attempts by companies on improvement projects, reveal that the journey will be long and hard.

Assessing The Different Implementation Stages of Six Sigma

The key to the success of Six Sigma implementation lies in assessing the status quo at various stages. Assessments reveal the deviations the implementation efforts have taken from the intended line of progress. As the deployment of Six Sigma is signified by emphasis on accomplishing benchmarks in process optimization and control to render progressively higher degrees of quality, performance efficiency and timeliness, a system of assessment needs to be inbuilt which puts in place an appropriate set of checks and balances.

Six Sigma Assessment Procedures

There has not been a single assessment procedure either devised or used by any one company which applies to all processes and industries. Companies successful at their Six Sigma implementation have developed and adopted their own assessment procedures. Some of them have used their own internal audit teams with their own criteria to assess the progress of Six Sigma implementation. Even using the audit procedures developed by Malcolm Baldrige Quality Awards is not new and unique. Many Six Sigma companies have actually gone ahead with evolving a custom developed audit system based on ISO 9000.

The Assessment Categories in Six Sigma

The fundamental premise of assessment in Six Sigma is identifying and reading the gaps between ‘as is’ and ‘should be’ conditions of the process stages. The ‘should be’ list of conditions is what is established at the beginning of the deployment described in great length for each category. The categories for assessment are listed below:

1. Leadership
2. Communication and Implementation in Everyday Activities
3. Project Effectiveness and Efficiency
4. Organizational Transformation
5. Customer Impact

The requirements of these top level categories are the customized topics needed for achieving overall objectives. The method of assessment contains written tests and interviews starting with top level managers down to line employees, in addition to meetings and seminars.

The overall results are shown as applicable to the core business process. The results of leadership assessments that show possible areas for improvements are essentially helpful in chalking out a course correction plan. The results also show weaknesses that are to be assessed as the first step toward fine tuning the exercise for needed changes.

The need for assessment may be fulfilled whenever it is warranted. In the normal course, where the results take 4-6 months to show, the assessment can be scheduled as an annual exercise. Experience from successful implementation of Six Sigma has shown that major roadblocks in changing an organizational mind set lies in sustaining the gains made.

Aveta Solutions – Six Sigma Online ( http://www.sixsigmaonline.org ) offers online six sigma training and certification classes for lean six sigma, black belts, green belts, and yellow belts.