Success Of Six Sigma

The success story of Six Sigma began with Motorola, the USA which launched these programmes for removing variation in manufactured electronic items. It was soon followed up by GE and Ford. In the first five years after the introduction of Six Sigma techniques, GE saved ten billion dollars. That is a lot of money which can find uses in some other projects of the organisation. Thus, Six Sigma Training is the most sought after and also available in many institutes. However, one with all the study material and trained faculty are The Knowledge Academy.

Six Sigma teams comprise all employees of the organisation thus their training in Six Sigma becomes a very expensive proposition. Also, a lot of thought goes into choosing a Six Sigma project. The evaluation of the need for a Six Sigma project is done by the top management. It has to convince itself that there is a need for improvement in service or there is a need to remove a defect recurring in the product. Once that is done a charter defining the defect and the affirmation that it needs to be eradicated from the roots is signed by the top management. Six Sigma project champion then forms various Six Sigma teams to get down to the job of removing the defect totally and give a near zero-defect yield. This is the essence of Six Sigma methodology. The top rank of project champion can be achieved by doing Six Sigma Certification.

Six Sigma Training also covers the statistical part of it. It trains one to handle data so that one can mathematically work out the Sigma value of a manufacturing process for a particular product. Statistically, sigma is a measure of the dispersion from the mean. If you specify the mean quality standard of a product and then define the upper and lower limits of acceptance then all manufactured items must lie around the mean value and not exceed the set limits. This curve is drawn looks like a bell. When you spread this curve to six times sigma on either side of the mean you have on ground achieved near zero-defect yield. It means only 3.4 defects per billion opportunities.

The Six Sigma technique deploys the application of a tool called DMAIC. It means that if one proceeds step by step following the DMAIC one would achieve success. D stands for define- it means we must first define the defect. What is it that has caused customer dissatisfaction? The feedback received from the customers or by one to one contact with them gives enough data to arrive at an answer. Thereafter, the Six Sigma teams get down to measuring (M) it. It means finding out what is causing the defect to occur. Once, the reason for the defect is known the process of analysis (A) starts. All possible solutions to the problem are studied and then the best one is chosen for implementation (I). The implemented solution is then controlled (C) for a certain period of time and its effectiveness is monitored until it is placed as a substitute technology permanently. A Six Sigma Certification is worth acquiring to be a much sought after quality management professional.