Six Sigma For The Non-Manufacturing Sector

The Six Sigma revolution has systematically taken over various sectors of the industry owing to its methodological process variations of working towards achieving targets and eliminating any defects occurring in them throughout the procedure. Since it aims at providing top class service and works towards being a reliable and valuable enterprise for its customers, it has made an entry into areas such as banking, telecommunications, marketing, insurance, healthcare, software and construction.

Range Of 6 Sigma

Earlier the scope of Six Sigma was limited to manufacturing processes, which accounted for only two percent of the United States industry. Nowadays, the non-manufacturing corporations such as IT management, Finance, Human Resource, Sales and services have also realized the need for top quality and are implementing Six Sigma to improve their service value. In most non-manufacturing organizations, quality of the soft processes is banked on heavily for the company's success.

The non-manufacturing course follows the 5S code under 6 Sigma system, which is Sort, Set in order, Shine, Standardize and Sustain. The company requires classifying various items and then eliminates the ones, which are not related to the process and red tags them. This clears space for a much-required process that needs to be implemented on a daily basis. Secondly, it defines a work path for all individuals, decreasing the wastage of labor and focusing on specified details of the job. Polishing the work skills and worker's knowledge is also focused on to keep the work force updated with the latest developments of the world in fields of science, technology, economics, finance and others.

Need For 6 Sigma In Non-Manufacturing Ground

The non-manufacturing corporations mainly deal with customers, suppliers and clients on a routine basis. It encompasses those soft processes that are the driving force behind the production and distribution of every product and service. The soft processes are human centric and each situation is a unique case hence, it requires scientific application to reduce and manage the variances. This necessitates standardization, as the quantity of automated equipment is less and human resource is greater.

Performance And Efficiency

Efficiency is another factor which demands Six Sigma application. The managers are required to think and formulate utility processes to enhance the working conditions for subordinates thereby extracting optimum work out of them. There would be no point in extracting work from employees unless and until it is efficient to further the productivity, quality and quantity. Six Sigma provides tools that can be implemented to boost labor confidence and motivate them to better performance levels thus increasing not only their advancement but also elevates the company standards in the market.

Practical Aspects Of Implementation

Managing finances is the basic aim of all non-manufacturing concerns. To maintain an organization's status is a difficult job and furthering its stand is a Herculean task. Without adequate finances the company cannot sustain itself and implementing Six Sigma would help in sorting out the accounting needs.

Six Sigma has chances of working wonders for the non-manufacturing sector if the managers and policy makers are more receptive towards changes and new conceptual ideas.

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.

Six Sigma - The Historical Perspective

The quest for perfection is second only to human survival instincts. These are the two reasons that were solely responsible for civilizations to flourish. That we are wearing clothes today as a symbol of the quest for perfection and innovation should reinforce this statement.

Was There A Conscious Effort To Develop Six Sigma Into A Competitor To Existing Systems?

This is a na?ve and unfounded question, as Six Sigma was developed as independently as any other school of quality management systems. If we value the famous quote of M.K. Gandhi that the end result justifies the means, then it clarifies the need to have more than one quality system.

Evolution Of Six Sigma

Six Sigma has its roots in the early industrial era of Europe during the 18th century and was introduced with just one conceptual normal curve metric by Carl Frederick Gauss. In the 1920s Walter Shewhart showed how 3 sigma deviations from the mean required process correction. Later, a Motorola engineer, Bill Smith, coined the term Six Sigma, which was then copyrighted by Motorola.

The Japanese Mark

The ever quality-conscious Japanese perfected the Six Sigma concept when they took over a Motorola factory in 1970, which manufactured TV sets. The new Japanese management set out on a mission to change the way activities were going on in the factory, placing high emphasis on all activities leading to production. With their zealous approach they later begin producing TV sets with just a 5% number of defects in comparison to the original records under Motorola.

Motorola's Contribution

Mikel Harry, who is regarded as the godfather of Six Sigma, along with Bill Smith, the father of Six Sigma, wrote and codified a research report on the quality management system, which highlighted the correlation between the performance of a product in the market with the amount of adjustment required at the point of manufacturing. This report clearly established that the lesser the number of nonconformities at each stage of manufacturing, the better the performance. The report paved for implementation of "logical filters", a key approach to problem solving. With the then Motorola CEO, Bob Galvin, playing a key role, later this four stage logical filter came to be known as the skeleton of the present Six Sigma. The four stages, then identified, were Measure, Analyze, Improve and Control (MAIC).

A New Road Map

With the results of the efforts of Mikel Harry and Bill Smith paying rich dividends, Motorola's Corporate Policy Committee had set goals for further improvisation of the system by declaring (in 1989) that they would achieve ten times better quality in service and products, with further improvement to 1/10th by 1991.

Galvin was instrumental in spreading the sense of quality in every sphere of business activity until total customer satisfaction was achieved. Until now, Motorola's approach was limited to a disciplined statistical approach to problem solving. This approach still got Motorola the coveted Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award.

Major Contributors On Its Journey To Perfection

We can't forget the contributions made by Unisys Corp in 1988. Asea Brown Boveri in 1993 developed Six Sigma into its current form, which places importance on bottom lines and customer satisfaction. The current form of Six Sigma has implementation being carried out by key role players: Champions, Master Black Belts, Black Belts, and Green Belts.

Since then, the Six Sigma methodology has been and is applicable to different industries. The evolution of Six Sigma continues.

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

Six Sigma - The Customer Angle

The foundation of Six Sigma is customer satisfaction and cost reduction by using various metrics and statistical tools. This is a customer-focused approach equipped with strategies and discipline at all levels of administration, planning and production. Six Sigma is aimed at achieving only 3.4 defects per million opportunities.

Voice of the Customer

Six Sigma places highest priority on customer data input which provides the much-needed insight into what the customers need and what he or she is thinking about the products already on the market as a measure of performance. The design team needs to understand the requirements of the customer and predict whether the proposed (or the existing) design meets customer expectations.

How Is Customer Satisfaction Ensured?

All business activities are customer centric. Even the best product may not sell if it possesses useless value for the customers. A point in the case is the satellite phone Irridium? that Motorola developed some time ago. Although it was the first and the best in its class, it failed in the market because the customer did not find any value in that particular product.

1. Customer's Experience Of Defects and Costs: Customers have a different perspective about quality and cost. The variation in satisfaction levels across different market segments and regions needs to be analyzed as a first step towards reaching goals. In Six Sigma, customer input, however scattered it may be, when analyzed can be categorized making way for an in-depth understanding of company goals.

2. Product Relevance: The relevance of any product to the customer stems from its utility, cost and quality. A robust design is not just strong but simple, flexible and idiot-proof. It consistently produces a high level of performance despite huge variations in manufacturing and customer needs. Anything not adding value will not get customer attention.

3. Adjusting Process Capability to Customer Requirements: The need for adjusting the process capability is basically considered in DMAIC (a Six Sigma methodology for existing products), without putting significant burden on the cost. This begins with estimation of financial impact, feasibility studies of the technicalities involved and market uptake. The outcome of these studies will guide any process adjustments.

4. Controlling Process Variations: The uncertainties of processing are the variation that needs to be tackled as a critical step in achieving the 3.4 defect threshold. Uncertainties arise mainly due to a huge number of key elements in a process, outdated process steps and lack of control. Variability surrounding a product or process can be rooted out at the design and analytical stages.

5. Removing Roadblocks: The roadblocks for Six Sigma implementation can sometimes be within the organization, such as trans-jurisdictional roadblocks which sometimes threaten the effective implementation of Six Sigma. The Black Belts need Champions' intervention in removing these roadblocks.

6. Hitting the Finish line: Taking Six Sigma to its logical conclusion is no small matter, even for cash rich corporations. The millions of dollars that it takes for Six Sigma implementation and the long cycle for the results to show can unsettle even the strongest organizations. Finishing the task, despite allotment of huge funds, accessibility to knowledge base, depends primarily on the commitment level of senior leadership and a dedication to customer satisfaction.

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

The Changing Face of Corporate Management Making Six Sigma Work For You

Since its introduction, Six Sigma has literally revolutionized management processes and the way business is done. Over the years, major corporations world-widefrom Motorola to General Electrichave adopted and implemented its methodology as the keystone of their management philosophy.

As such, Six Sigma practitioners are in high demand by top companies looking to streamline their processes and increase their profit margins through this powerful management tool.

This article will provide a basic overview of the concepts and methodology that is redefining the management strategies of major corporationsand the managers they hire.

What is Six Sigma?

At its heart, Six Sigma is a business tool used to increase profit by optimizing performance. In order to understand how Six Sigma achieves this, one must first learn to look at business as a series of processes.

Any business can basically be viewed as a machine comprised of many moving parts, called processes. This idea can be applied to any department, across the boardfrom Human Resources to Research and Development, from a hiring process to a manufacturing process, from marketing to distribution. All the main parts of whole must be synchronized for optimum performance in order for a company to be successful. The same applies to the processes that make up the individual departments. In this way, everything is interlocked and interdependent. And by extensionas the saying goesyou are only as strong as your weakest link.

With this in mind, Six Sigma sets out a disciplined data-driven methodology to measure and analyze the processes that a company ultimately runs on. Its ultimate goal is the optimization of performance by identifying and eliminating defects in the process, resulting in higher customer satisfaction, and thus profit.

The Underlying Principles

Six Sigma is a powerful management tool used to optimize performance by eliminating defects in corporate processes. A defect in process can be seen as an obstacle to customer satisfaction, which is the lifeblood to any company's profitability. Therefore, while Six Sigma analyzes and improves the internal processes of a company, it's ultimate aim is to increase the degree of customer satisfaction.

The term Six Sigma itself offers clues to the ideas at the heart of its methodology. The word sigma is a statistical term for measuring deviation from perfection. The six refers to six standard deviations. Taken together, the term translates into a methodology that, when applied to processes, seeks to produce no more than six standard deviations from the defined point of perfection. In the Six Sigma methodology, this has been defined as no more than 3.4 defects per million opportunities. While the statistical terminology might sound intimidating, the idea of making only 3 mistakes for every million attempts is easy enough to grasp and shows the power of the methods at work.

The methods that underpin the overall Six Sigma approach are split into two categories. The first, DMAIC (Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve and Control), is used to analyze and improve existing processes. The second, DMADV (Define, Measure, Analyze and Verify), is used to develop new processes that adhere to the stringent deviation specifications of Six Sigma.

Obviously, the closer you are to perfection, no matter how you define it, the better off you are in any endeavor. In the business world especially, the competitive edge can be a razor thin line separating competitors in any market space. When it comes down to it, the company that makes the fewest mistakes is the most successful.

Thus, the processes of Six Sigma offers a competitive advantage to any company that can master its conceptsand to any individual trained to implement it.

Make Six Sigma Work for You

Six Sigma training is recognized at two levels of certification reflecting the expertise of the individual. These categories are divided into Six Sigma Green Belts and Six Sigma Black Belts.

The Green Belt program introduces managers to the fundamentals of the Six Sigma methodology as well as how it apples to the overall management structure. Green Belts have the basic training of valuable skills that can be immediately applied to critical business processes.

The Six Sigma Black Belt is, as the name suggests, a master of the methodologies and practices of Six Sigma. They have full knowledge of the DMAIC and DMADV methodologies and can implement them in a leadership role.

Obtaining your Green Belt or Black Belt in Six Sigma methodologies will make you more enticing to potential employers. So if youre looking to boost your career in the corporate world and gain some invaluable knowledge that will give you a leg up on the competition, consider taking a Six Sigma program such as the one offered by Villanova University today. It might just be the break youre looking for.

Matt McAllister is a writer for http://www.searchforclasses.com To read more of his articles and to learn more about online education visit http://www.searchforclasses.com/newsletter/

Six Sigma Training 101 Better Management Basics

What is Six Sigma?

Six Sigma is a quality management program that is designed to achieve a six sigma level of quality for products. In the mid 1980s, Motorola pioneered Six Sigma and it has since been adopted by many other companies and manufacturers. Service companies also implement Six Sigma strategies to improve customer service and relations. The idea behind Six Sigma is that failures in quality and customer satisfaction occur after the sixth sigma of likelihood in a normal distribution curve. Hence, the idea is that there are less defects per product or customer service. Motorola defines the success of six-sigma quality in terms of the number of Defects Per Million Opportunities.

Why Use Six Sigma?

Many companies and critics of Six Sigma believed that achieving six levels of quality was impossible, but many companies have proved the critics wrong. Some companies even go beyond six-sigma. An example of this is GE Aircraft Engines, which operate at Nine Sigma levels of quality. Six sigma is practical because it reduces the amount of errors in customer service and products. This leads to increased customer satisfaction, increased revenue, more returning customers, and the acquisition of new customers. Companies that can implement six-sigma successfully have higher standards of quality and usually produce better products and services.

Why is it only Six Sigma?

Many people do not know how six-sigma relates to 3.4 defects per million. Essentially, people do not know how having six levels of sigma improves quality significantly. Many companies used to have less sigma, usually about three or four. However, Motorola was the first to use six levels. Six is the perfect number because whereas four sigma makes sure that there are only about 2.6 problems in a thousand. However, the problem arises with deviation. Imagine a manufacturing process in which a drill makes a hole that is supposed to be 100 micrometers. With four levels of Sigma, only about 1 in 400 will be defective. This unfortunately does not take into account the average value of measurement, which will shift over time. So, if the measurement gradually drifts as each new hole is drilled, about 6.6% of the output will be off by 1.5 sigma in each direction at anytime. If the process has drifted by 150 micrometers, then the hole will be off by 300 micrometers, which is an extremely large defective rate. Using 6 sigma, with a 1.5 sigma shift to make up for average deviation, the ratios are much lower and therefore the defective rates are much more sensible. The same drift in a six-sigma process will still only produce a defect for products or services that are more than 4.5 sigma away from the average in the same direction. Using the mathematics of a normal curve, this works out to 3.4 defects per million which is much more acceptable.

Conclusion

Customers value quality above all other things in a business. If a business produces a high quality product or service, more customers will return, and that business will gain new customers. Six-sigma helps to ensure the quality of goods and services is only the best. Six-sigma, when implemented correctly, is very effective and that is why many companies today use Six-sigma. This process was pioneered more than 20 years ago by Motorola, and has proven its lasting qualities through its continued use in the business world. Any company that wants to gain and retain customers while producing a high-quality product should consider the use of Six-sigma.
Dana Schorden enjoys writing about Six Sigma. Learn more at Six Sigma Weblog ( http://www.sixsigmablog.org/training/), a weblog with daily six sigma training tips and news.

Six Sigma And Healthcare

Six Sigma methodologies aim at improving overall quality by eliminating defects and achieving near perfection by restricting the number of possible defects to less than 3.4 defects per million. Six Sigma methodologies were originally developed for implementation in the manufacturing sector but with time their use has spread to the services sector as well. In the services sector, Six Sigma concepts are used mainly for eliminating transactional errors.

Today, the concepts and methodologies of Six Sigma are increasingly being used in the healthcare industry for improving the quality of services rendered, increasing efficiency, and eliminating human errors that can often prove fatal. However, the use of Six Sigma in the healthcare industry is a relatively new phenomenon as compared to other service industries that have undergone some type of data-supported, systematic, quality-improvement process. With medical and technological advancements, the demand and expectations for improved medical care are continuously increasing. However, due to lack of effective management systems, inefficiency is increasing, which often leads to congested emergency rooms, customer complaints, and lost revenues.

Benefits

Six Sigma concepts and methods enable a healthcare organization to offer improved healthcare services to patients by streamlining business processes. In the healthcare industry, the quality of services rendered depends a lot on human skills, which is often very difficult to measure and control. Six Sigma is effective as it is based on a comprehensive approach that focuses on improving both human as well as transactional aspects of a process. Although implementing Six Sigma concepts in the healthcare industry is a challenging task, it does help in getting quick results.

In the healthcare industry, the factors that determine the quality and efficiency are usually the flow of information and interaction between people. Six Sigma helps in streamlining the flow of information and achieving strategic business results by initiating cultural shifts all throughout the organization. Six Sigma focuses on improving processes rather than just concentrating on the task, which helps in increasing the scope of improvements. It provides the necessary tools and methodologies that help in analyzing and transforming human performance, necessary for achieving significant long-term improvements.

Process

Six Sigma helps in defining a vision for the future, identifying specific goals, and establishing quantitative measures for turning that vision into reality. It helps in formulating goal plans and setting timelines for moving from current performance levels to Six Sigma performance levels. The plans are defined only after documenting their effects on the organization’s work processes’ that may include flow of information, surgical site procedures, handling patients, and others.

The basic requirements for successfully implementing Six Sigma programs are usually long-term vision, commitment, leadership, management, and training. It is important to provide the requisite training to doctors, nurses, and the administrative staff for making them aware about the various concepts and methodologies. The training may initially appear to be expensive, but is often worth the cost when one considers the benefits such as improved quality of services and increased efficiency. It is necessary for employees working in a healthcare organization to develop an understanding about the various Six Sigma concepts. This will help them in integrating new techniques into the Six Sigma processes for improving quality and effectiveness.

Tony Jacowski is a quality analyst for The MBA Journal. Aveta Solution's 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.