Unit 1 - Introduction to ‘Six Sigma’ - LearnUpondscormmedia.learnupon.com/4602/lw4d42tzrx5yma4ucr2e/res/data... · Unit 1 - Introduction to ‘Six Sigma’ The purpose of this

Unit 1 - Introduction to ‘Six Sigma’

The purpose of this unit:

• Welcome! This first unit provides a general background

and history regarding the beginnings of Six Sigma,

where it comes from, why it is used, and the foundation

concepts upon which it is built.

• This unit also provides a number of terms and phrases

used within Six Sigma. It is designed to provide a sound

foundation to understand the units that follow.

• Timing: 30 – 45 minutes

Copyright: Management and Strategy Institute

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Recommended Reading

This training includes everything you will need to study for

the certification exam. If you would like to further your

understanding of Six Sigma, we recommend these books:

• Michael L. George, John Maxey, David Rowlands, Mark Price (Sept 2004)

The Lean Six Sigma Pocket Toolbook: A Quick Reference Guide to 100

Tools for Improving Quality and Speed ISBN-13: 978-0071441193

• George Eckes (Jan 2003) Six Sigma for Everyone ISBN-13: 978-

0471281566

• Thomas Pyzdek (Mar 2003) The Six Sigma Project Planner : A Step-by-

Step Guide to Leading a Six Sigma Project Through DMAIC ISBN-13: 978-

0071411837


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The Basics of Six Sigma

• Six Sigma is an improvement methodology which uses

the following phases to make changes to any process:

Defining, Measuring, Analyzing, Improving, and

Controlling.

• “Six Sigma” measures the capability of a process to

perform defect-free work with a failure rate of 3.4 parts

per million or 99.9997%.


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• The Six Sigma methodology uses proven strategies,

tools, and statistical methodologies to improve virtually

any process.

• The goal of Six Sigma is improved process performance

and increased customer satisfaction through variability

and defect reduction, resulting in consistently producing

high quality services, products, or processes.


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• Six Sigma reduces costs and waste by determining the

Cost of Poor Quality.

• Reducing poor quality is accomplished by:

– Understanding who your customers are and what is

important to them

– Understanding customer feedback, called the Voice

of the Customer, and determining the necessary

requirements for your product

– Prioritizing issues related to your product

- Continued on next slide


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(Continued)

• Reducing poor quality is accomplished by:

– Determining internal processes and what causes

variation

– Determining what causes defects

– Developing ways to address the defects

– Developing metrics to standardize and measure the

changes made in the process


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• Although referred to regularly in today’s working world,

the Six Sigma methodology is a relative newcomer to

the landscape of theories and practices to work better.

• In 1986, Bill Smith was the first person to introduce the

principle. He was working for Motorola at the time and

had been fascinated with ways to improve working

practices. This included making them more efficient and

effective by pushing ahead with quality improvements

and trying to get the most from a manufacturing

production line.


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• Mr. Smith came up with the idea to work on a way to

minimize defects in production through continuous

improvements.

• He recognized that every manufacturing and business

process could be measured, analyzed, and improved

upon based on analysis and controlled to stay within that

new process.

• Continuing to do this would reduce variations in process

and produce output much more effectively, meeting the

desires of the customer.


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• Six Sigma clearly focuses on measuring and quantifying

the impact of an improvement project.

• It requires buy-in across the business for the project to

make changes based upon those measurements,

irrespective of personal views.

• Guesswork and assumptions have no place; it is a

precise process.


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• Six Sigma designates clear roles for people within the

project, using “belts” to define each role and contribution

as well as recognizing Six Sigma “champions.”

• Strong management to lead forward the required

changes is paramount to the process of a Six Sigma

project and key to the roles of black belts – who are the

highest level belts, akin to most martial arts. (unit 3

discusses the belts structure in more detail).


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• The term "Six Sigma" comes from statistics. A “sigma” is

a term used to denote variance from the mean average

of an event.

• It is perceived that for any event or activity, 3 measures

of these variances on either side of the mean average

will include almost all potential activities.

• So, Six Sigma originally referred to the ability of

manufacturing processes to produce a very high

proportion of output within specification.


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The Meaning of Six Sigma

• Processes that operate with "six sigma quality" over the short term are assumed to produce long-term defect levels below 3.4 defects per million opportunities. This is not strictly accurate as being within six standard deviations; only roughly 4.5 deviations cover this, but the accepted principle allowing for modifications over time is that Six Sigma will work to this level of accuracy. (unit 09 goes into greater detail on statistics).

• Six Sigma's implicit goal is to improve all processes to that level of quality or better.

• Six Sigma is a registered service mark and trademark of Motorola Inc.


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• Sigma levels determine the rate of defects and are a

standardized measure of the error rate of a process,

based on the Defects per Million Opportunities (DPMO)

estimate.

• The Sigma Level estimate is a long-term estimate of the

process defect opportunities.

• At the Six Sigma level, a business process produces

only 3.4 defects per million opportunities.


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• At the 5th Sigma level, 233 defective parts per million

occur.

• At the 4th Sigma level, 6,210 defective parts per million

occur.

• At the 3rd Sigma level, 66,807 defective parts per million

occur.

• At the 2nd Sigma level, 308,538 defective parts per

million occur.

• At the 1st Sigma level, 690,000 defective parts per million

occur.


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• There are two common analogies you will see which

help to put Six Sigma into perspective. One deals with

surgeries, and the other deals with airplane crashes.

• They both put the criticality of Sigma performance levels

into perspective. An example follows:


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• If you have a surgeon who is performing your surgery,

are you comfortable with a surgical infection rate or

negative outcome rate at the 2nd sigma level using this

chart?

• Are you comfortable with an airline that has a crash rate

at the 3rd sigma level? Probably not.

• We feel more comfortable with businesses and

companies functioning at the 5th or 6th level of sigma.


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General History of Six Sigma &

Continuous Improvement

• The history of performance and process improvement

dates back to the late 1880’s. This was in large part

related to the industrial revolution.

• With the invention of steam and the business need for

new manufacturing processes, companies noticed an

increasing need for standardization and later for

reducing variability.

• In 1798, Eli Whitney introduced mass production and

interchangeable parts, which was a pivotal point in the

emerging quality frontier.


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• Since then, a multitude of quality control methods have

been developed. Some come and some go but each of

them has brought a new way of looking at what we do as

a process, and each of them has added some new tool,

skill, or improvement opportunity.

• Total Quality Management (TQM) or (TQMS) provided a

good framework for continuous improvement in the late

1980’s and early 1990’s, but now industries rely more on

proven methodologies which rely on mathematical

substantiation and hypothesis testing.


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• As we evolve in quality improvement, organizations

such as the International Standards Organization,

develop standards to further refine and provide

framework for consistent quality management systems.

• Examples are the ISO 9000 (Quality Management) or

9001 (Quality Management Systems) standards.


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• As businesses move along the continuum of quality

improvement, they realize the value economically,

socially, and strategically for obtaining certifications such

as Six Sigma. For their organization and their

employees, it is a winning strategy.

• Great companies today realize that the money invested

in performance enhancement is returned exponentially

to the organization.


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• Six Sigma is the result of bits and pieces of many

individual contributions to the quality movement.

• The word “sigma” has been used for years by

mathematicians and engineers as a symbol for a unit of

measurement of variation called the standard deviation.

Understanding deviation in a process is important to

place it under control.


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• It is important to remember the Six Sigma methodology

is not a revolutionary way of thinking, but more of an

evolutionary development in the science of continuous

improvement.

• Six Sigma uses the best elements from historical quality

initiatives to provide a process of managing quality using

credible experience and proven tools.

• Business success depends on improving business

process and results in combination with great customer

service.


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• Here is a brief overview of some of the key contributions

to quality history and the quality movement over the last

100 years:

– In 1798, Eli Whitney introduced mass production and

interchangeable equipment parts. This led to

significant improvements in repair downtime.


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• In 1913, Henry Ford began the moving automobile

assembly line. This further exemplified the need for part

consistency. If something broke, it needed to be repaired

rapidly to eliminate assembly line delay.

• In the 1920’s, quality began to be driven by inspections.

• In 1924, Walter Shewhart introduced process control

charts and methods to collect and analyze data in ways

which could be displayed so employees could more

readily see the changes they made.


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• In the 1950’s, the U.S. military developed the military standard MIL-STD-105A, and the U.S. government required statistically-based levels of product quality from its vendors.

• In 1954, Joseph Juran began to introduce his concept of integration known as “Big Q” in Japanese factories. The Big Q involved quality through management’s active involvement and ownership. This led to the Japanese constantly improving quality and manufacturing capability in the 1970’s. Ultimately, their capabilities became more effective than those employed in the United States.


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• The key focus became defect elimination and cycle time

reduction. Both of these improvements resulted in

improved productivity and true success for Japanese

companies such as Toyota.

• By the 1980’s, American manufacturers realized if

Japanese companies did it, why couldn’t they; and so

they did, with companies such as Motorola and GE

leading the way.


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• In 1987, the International Organization for

Standardization (ISO) developed a series of quality

standards that were adopted by most of the

industrialized world to serve as a single global standard.

• In 1987, the U.S. Government introduced the Malcolm

Baldrige National Quality Award, presented annually by

the president and designed to provide an operational

definition of “business excellence.”


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• In 1987, Motorola adopted the concepts of Six Sigma

and shared the new methodology and philosophy with

their suppliers, engineers and managers. This resulted in

billions of tangible savings to Motorola.

• Other corporations began to engage in Six Sigma such

as Honeywell, Ford Motor Company, and General

Electric with the same results. They saved money by

reducing repair times, increasing customer satisfaction,

reducing order delays, reducing defects, increasing

productivity, and decreasing measurement error.


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• Shewart and Deming helped develop some key process

improvement ideas and theories.

• In 1920, Walter Shewart explained how three sigma or

three standard deviations is where a process needs to be

corrected. This is the point where a product will need to

be remade because it will not pass a quality inspection.

• Dr. W. Edwards Deming (1900–1993) is best known for

reminding management that most problems are systemic

and that it is their (management's) responsibility to

improve the systems so that workers can do their jobs

more effectively.


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• Deming's theories were taught as a part of his System of

Profound Knowledge. His knowledge system consists of

four interrelated parts:

(1) Theory of Optimization

(2) Theory of Variation

(3) Theory of Knowledge

(4) Theory of Psychology


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• In the theory of optimization, the objective of an organization is the

optimization of the total system and not the optimization of individual

subsystems.

• In the theory of variation, his philosophy focuses on improving the

product and service variability in design and manufacturing

processes.

• In the theory of knowledge, Deming emphasized that knowledge is

not possible without theory, and experience does not establish a

theory by itself. He says copying a best practice without

understanding the theory behind it could be devastating for an

organization.

• In the theory of psychology, he helped explain how to understand

people, interactions between people, and interactions between

leaders and employees in a system of management.


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• When developing better interactions between employees

and managers, he noticed that workers were responsible

for 10 to 20 percent of the quality problems in a factory,

and that the remaining 80 to 90 percent was under

management's control. It was their responsibility to

manage the programs accordingly.

• Deming knew higher quality leads to higher productivity,

and higher productivity leads to long term competitive

strength for businesses. Quality improvements result in

less rework, fewer mistakes, fewer delays, and better use

of time and materials. He taught quality and productivity

improvement for over fifty years. He also developed the

Deming Cycle.


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• The Deming Cycle is also known as the Plan-Do-Check-

Act (PDCA) Cycle or Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) Cycle. It

was invented by Walter Shewhart, but popularized by and

significantly enhanced by Deming.

• PDCA and PDSA are cyclic processes for planning and

testing improvement activities prior to full-scale

implementation.


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• The steps in the Deming PDCA or PDSA Cycle are:

1. Plan a change or test it (P).

2. Do it (D) by carrying out the change or test on a small

scale.

3. Check it (C) by observing the effects of the change or

test.

4. Study it (S) by reviewing what you have done or

changed.

5. Act on what you have learned (A).

6. Repeat and continuously evaluate the process.


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Deliverables of a Lean Six Sigma Project

• There are several key deliverables for a Six Sigma

project. It is important to remember that Six Sigma is not

designed to be a quick fix to mask a business problem.

• Lean Six Sigma is more of a high level, intense system

to promote ongoing quality improvement. The ultimate

goal is continued improvement and sustained quality.


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• Six Sigma focuses on reducing defects, preventing

rework, and eliminating waste in processes which

produce a customer’s product.

• By using research and data collection, organizations can

discover internal problems that may or may not be

apparent, allowing them to take action to reduce errors

and rework which cost time, opportunities, and money.

• Businesses should use Six Sigma and quality

management system standards to ensure that they

consistently produce products and services to meet the

critical to quality standards of the customer.


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• In order for organizations to meet their goals for quality

improvement and Lean Six Sigma, they must meet

several key deliverables along the way under the DMAIC

model.

• First, the deliverables for the Define phase will include:

– Developing a fully-trained project team who is

committed to the improvement and has the full

support of management, including necessary

resources.

– Identifying what characteristics are Critical to Quality

for the customer, developing a project charter, and

mapping the known business processes.


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• The deliverables of the Measure phase include

identifying key measures, developing and deploying a

data collection plan, developing a baseline for

performance, documenting variation, and communicating

it to team members and stakeholders.

• The deliverables of the Analysis phase involve a root

cause analysis for concerns, gap analysis, and a top-to-

bottom data and process analysis.


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• The deliverables for the Improve phase involve

developing possible solutions, determining which ones

are the best solutions, and then developing a

subsequent implementation plan.

• The final deliverables in the Control phase include

standardizing processes, documenting procedures,

implementing the monitoring plan, and ultimately

transferring ownership of the project and closing the

project.


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Problem Solving Strategy Y=f(x)

• The problem solving strategy all begins with a simple

equation: y = f(x)

Although Six Sigma talks a lot about statistical analysis

and measurements and various other mathematical

applications, at the core of the process is one simple

equation:

y=f(x), or more accurately, y=f(x)+ Ɛ.


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Problem Solving Strategy Y=f(x)

• The core parts of this equation are described as

followed:

– ‘y’ represents the desired outcome, result, or goal you

want to achieve.

– ‘x’ represents the input, factors, variables, or elements

required to create the outcome.

– ‘f’ represents the function or process applied to the

variables, by which they are modified, changed, or

altered – the transformation processor.

– ‘Ɛ’ represents some level of error or the amount of

difference due to uncertainty or predictability when the

process is applied and how near or far it is from the

desired outcome. Copyright: Management and Strategy Institute

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Problem Solving Strategy Y=f(x) • This is perhaps easier to see as an example:

When you bake a cake, you take a set number of ingredients,

combine them in a certain way, bake the mixture, and after a

period of time, you get a cake ready to eat.

– ‘y’ is the cake that you desire

– ‘x’ represents the ingredients

– ‘f’ represents the mixing and baking process that is applied

to the ingredients to create the cake

– ‘Ɛ’ – If you made this cake several times, the outcome may

not always be identical. You may use a slightly lower heat

setting in the oven, a slightly differing amount of an

ingredient, and you may cook it for a few minutes more or

less. The end result will be broadly the same, but each will

have some variance from the others. That difference is

represented by ‘Ɛ’, the Greek letter epsilon. Copyright: Management and Strategy Institute

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Problem Solving Strategy

• This is referred to as The Principle of Determinism.

This principle explains that every outcome is the result of

a process being applied to it or determined by the

application of a function.


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Problem Solving Strategy

• The Principle of Determinism is a core belief running

through Six Sigma. All outcomes are determined by the

way inputs are transformed – according to some said

process.

• The cause and effect philosophy of Six Sigma means that

you look at a 'process' and see how the process allows

for variation. The inputs, process function, and errors

within that process all affect the outcome. They cause the

outcome to be a particular way – the cause and effect of

Six Sigma.


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Voice of the Customer, Business, and Employee

• Quite often, a customer is the person or group who

drives the project and is the focus of a project.

• Customers define requirements, needs, or wants. They

have a vested interest in a project. They also pay for the

project, support resource needs, and evaluate and use

the results of the project. They provide the “Voice of the

Project” and are considered the “Voice of the Customer.”


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• Defining the Voice of the Customer (VOC) includes what

the customers’ requirements are for products and

services and what their expectations are: both positive

and negative, including likes, dislikes, problems, and

suggestions.

• It helps determine core business processes involved in

their needs and helps the project team develop the

Critical to Quality elements (CTQs) and develop key

process metrics (KPOVs). The VOC asks what each

customer desires; specifically, what is important to them,

and what do they perceive is a defect in a quality or

service.


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• The purpose of the Voice of the Customer (VOC) survey is to

identify key business drivers of internal and external customer

satisfaction. The VOC is necessary to properly focus the Six

Sigma project and develop the right measures.

• The VOC asks what each customer desires, specifically what is

important to them and what do they perceive is a defect in a

quality or service.

• Once data is developed, it can be used to translate customer

feedback into project goals and objectives, including Critical to

Quality (CTQ) attributes and requirement statements.

• Voice of the Customer analysis tools such as quality function

deployment (QFD) translate customer requirements into

performance measures.


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• CTQ flow-down is used to convert the voice of the

customer to specific needs using a tree map, where the

tree map is the voice of the customer and the branches

lead to the specific features.

• It helps determine the big Y’s and little y’s or the effects

of the causes.


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• Several methods can be used to determine the voice of the employee, voice of the business, voice of the process, or voice of the customer.

• To do so, you can use various methods to collect customer feedback, wishes, and desires for products and services. These include surveys, focus groups, interviews, or observation. You can identify the key elements that make these tools effective.

• The collection of customer data through surveys, interviews, in person, focus groups, email, or phone help determine the needs of the customer and the voice of the customer.


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• VOC data can be developed in two forms: those which

are reactive in nature and those which are proactive in

nature.

– Reactive examples include complaints, sales

reporting, or web page activity.

– Proactive examples include interviews, surveys,

market research, benchmarking, and quality

scorecards.


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• The what and why indicate specifically what you want to

know about your customers.

• The customer survey was designed with these factors in

mind:

– What don’t you like?

– What are your expectations?

– What’s important to you?

– What’s a defect?

– How do we compare to our competitors?

– How are we doing?

– What do you like?


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• The voice of the customer determines what

improvements are desired and need to be made. All

improvements are done with the goal of increasing the

quality of the business output.

• The three key input components of quality are the

customer, the employee, and the process. Once you

determine the customers’ requirements, you need to

determine what data is needed to make improvements.

There are several ways to display this data.

• The Six Sigma project team will develop primary and

consequential metrics such as quality, cycle time, or cost

and establish key project metrics that relate to the voice

of the customer.


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Six Sigma Roles and Responsibilities

• Six Sigma team formation typically consists of

stakeholders, executives, champions, and team

members (yellow belts) who are led by a green belt or

black belt.

• Project level membership may include master black belts,

black belts, green belts, or yellow belts who help in

management of the improvement initiative.

• Team members are obtained throughout the organization

for expertise and technical guidance.

• Executives provide the strategic alignment within the

organization for initiatives and Six Sigma projects.


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• Champions guide the team through organizational

support and resources, removing roadblocks.

• Master black belts train black and greenbelts and

manage the strategic direction of the Six Sigma program.

• Black belts lead problem-solving Six Sigma teams.

• Green belts assist with data collection and analysis for

black belt projects.

• Yellow belts review overall activities and participate as

project team members.


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Position Role Action

Executive Management Champions Sponsor the project

Black Belts Consultants Provide Guidance

Green Belts Consultants Operations

Yellow Belts Consultants Identify processes that need improvement

Project team Process Execute the Actual Work

Subject Matter Experts Expertise Provide Guidance

Position Roles and Responsibilities


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• This chart provides an “at a glance” overview of the

different positions and their roles in a project.

Six Sigma Terminologies

• As you progress through the units, you will learn a

number of terms, words, and phrases that may be

unfamiliar to you.

• Some words you may know, but within a different

context. When a term is used for the first time, it will be

highlighted and an explanation will be given for it within

the context of that section.


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Six Sigma Terminologies

• Throughout all units, you will need to be aware of some of the following terms and phrases. Understanding them now will help you as you build up your knowledge through the subsequent units.

– ‘function’ relates to a process or application – e.g., the manufacturing process is a function.

– ‘variation’ refers to a difference from the expected or likely outcome.

– ‘variance’ and ‘standard deviation’ are statistical terms of measuring such variations.

– ‘error’ refers to the amount of difference or variation from the perfect expected outcome.


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Unit Summary

In this unit, you have learned about:

• The historical context of Six Sigma being developed

• What Six Sigma as a term means and the levels of Sigma

• The y=f(x) + Ɛ function

• The Principle of Determinism

• Cause and Effect

• Deliverables of a Lean Six Sigma Project

• Voice of the Customer, Business, and Employee

• Six Sigma Roles and Responsibilities


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Six Sigma Opportunities

The purpose of this unit:

• This unit will look at quality appraisal tools and how they

relate to Six Sigma.

• It will also help you consider when Six Sigma projects

are appropriate and how to decide when to move

forward with the opportunity.

• Timing: 40 – 50 minutes


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Unit 2 - Fundamentals of Six Sigma

• Fundamentally, the training and use of Six Sigma

philosophies and principles will allow employees and project

teams to understand how systems interrelate and how to use

the application of quality improvement methodologies which

complement Six Sigma, such as Lean.

• Six Sigma relies on a Body of Knowledge (BOK) that contains

information on general content and topical areas users should

know and pursue in their initiatives. Key fundamentals are that

users should be able to:

– Master data collection techniques, project charter

development, and document usage

– Apply and use Six Sigma tools and process analysis

– Understand team dynamics and apply project

management skills


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Fundamentals of Six Sigma

• Implement statistical process control (SPC).

• Strategically plan improvements.

• Understand tactical design principles for organizational application.

• Perform hypothesis testing.

• Perform statistical and process capability calculations.

• Perform and analyze the results of correlation and regression.

• Analyze and interpret risk studies and implement improvement processes.

• Deploy control plans and sustainment opportunities.


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Managing Quality

• Depending on what sort of business you work in or have

experience with, the nature of quality will be different.

• The general assumption across all businesses is that

quality products are products meeting the needs or

expectations of the customer.

• In effect, quality is not about what you produce being

accurate as you see it, but rather as the customer

sees it.


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Managing Quality

• The customer is the person receiving the output

produced from the product – the ‘y’ in the equation we

discussed in the previous unit.


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Managing Quality

• How quality is achieved within the workplace is

examined by a raft of philosophies and practices, not

least of which is Six Sigma.

• First, it’s worth looking at a few other approaches to

quality:


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Managing Quality

• ISO9000 series of certifications are governed by the

“International Standards Organization” – ISO. They

cover a range of methods for documenting quality

standards and approaches within the workplace.

• However the ISO certification only confirms correct and

proper documentation is maintained, kept accessible,

and held by a business.


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Managing Quality

• In itself, it does nothing to improve quality and in effect

gives quite a high level approach to the documentation

of a process and practice within a business.

• Certification can be obtained by any business that can

provide evidence of the required documentation and

does nothing to improve quality.

• ISO is however a well-respected and acknowledged

business benchmark that demonstrates intent with

regards to quality production.


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Managing Quality

• Lean Methodology works on the basis of improving

quality by eliminating waste within the business.

• Credited with coming out of Toyota in the 1970’s, it is

sometimes referred to by the term Muda, which is the

Japanese name for it.


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Managing Quality

• Three Forms of Waste


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Mura

Muri

Muda

Managing Quality

• In Lean, you have three types of waste:

– Mura is unevenness in work demand or work flow.

– Muri is having a greater demand than capacity in any given time or overburdening the process, series of processes, or system. We can all relate to making mistakes when we are rushed or stressed; this is caused by Muri. We establish the capacity for work and then ensure we do not try and force more into the system than it can handle.

– Muda waste has two types: type 1 is the necessary but non value adding waste. This is where, from a business perspective, we do it to meet regulations.


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Managing Quality

• Lean has some very useful applications in reducing

waste and improving quality by reducing excess or

ensuring that the product meets the customer

expectations without wasting effort in exceeding that

expectation.


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Managing Quality

• Many tools within the Lean practice have moved across

to Six Sigma, and their correlations have become so

noticeable that ‘Lean Six Sigma’ has become a practice

in itself.

• We will touch on this in a later unit for those studying to

Black Belt level. However, by itself, it has limitations in its

applications.


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Managing Quality

• Total Quality Management – or TQM, is one of the most

popular quality methodologies around. Next to Six

Sigma, it is probably one of the most tool-driven

methods, but does not have the mathematical or

statistical relations found within Six Sigma.


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Managing Quality

• TQM relies on examining problems and proposing

solutions that need to be accepted by the populous – in

effect, a democratized solutions process.

• It identifies ‘good ideas,’ but does not necessarily identify

the best.


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Managing Quality

• That said, it will normally make improvements in quality

as part of its process of further reviews.

• Its cause and effect analysis ensures that better-than-

existing processes are put forward at all times.

• One issue is that its lack of measurement doesn’t

indicate how much better the new process is or if the

best option is being adopted.


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Starting Six Sigma

• When thinking about Six Sigma in any business, it can

be a bit daunting.

• If you’ve been told that your business is going to start

adopting Six Sigma methodology and the business will

be better because of it, it can all feel a little

overwhelming.

• How do you know when to consider a process for

improvement, how to identify it, and what to do …..


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Starting Six Sigma

• Six Sigma is a top-down methodology – that means that

the decision to implement comes from the top – whether

that is the top of the business, your division of the

business, or some other production unit.


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Starting Six Sigma

• The decision to take forward an improvement review

within the business has to come from executive buy-in.

• But, what if you are one of the leaders within the

business, how do you suggest or recommend Six

Sigma? Well, the simple answer is… You just do.


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Starting Six Sigma

• One of the key considerations of Six Sigma is the desire

to meet the needs of the customer.

• So, consider the business and its customers – and

remember the definition of a customer is someone who

receives the product (the ‘y’). They can be internal or

external customers.

• You’ll need to consider if there is any place where the

business is not meeting its customers’ needs. Or more

likely, where you think it is not meeting their needs.


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Starting Six Sigma

• This is where you need to focus your opportunity for

deployment.

• Deployment is the use of Six Sigma in examining the

quality of an area of the business.

• Six Sigma projects should be selected on the basis of

their cost-benefit analysis.


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Starting Six Sigma

• Every business has limited resources, and no matter

how many people you have trained within the business,

and to whatever level they are trained, there are only a

finite number of resources available to you.

• You’ll need to learn to maximize their application.


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Starting Six Sigma

• A simple method of evaluating projects uses the Pareto

Priority Index (PPI):

PPI = Savings ($) x Probability of Success

Cost x Completion Time


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Starting Six Sigma

• The PPI increases as the probability of success or

savings value increases, but decreases as the cost to

implement or the completion time becomes greater.

• How you calculate each of these values is open to

interpretation, but what is important is that no matter how

you choose to measure (as is evident through Six Sigma

as a whole), that measurement is accepted as accurate

by the business and is consistently applied.


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Starting Six Sigma

• An example of comparisons between projects can be

seen in the table below:

Project | Savings ($,000) | Probability of Success | Cost ($,000) | Completion (months) | PPI

A 250 95% 25 4.5 2.1

B 400 75% 12 10 2.5

C 700 50% 8 6 7.3

D 1500 60% 42 9 2.4

• In this table, the outcomes of the PPI for A, B & D are

broadly in line with each other, but Project C is

significantly higher. Therefore, Project C would be a first

choice to deploy.


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Starting Six Sigma

• This is not the only method and is not infallible as it does

not consider a number of important variables that may

be considered when deploying a project.

• Consideration of business reputations, customer or

stakeholder weight, supplier timing, or even staffing

impact are not taken into account here. Yet, these may

all be valid areas of consideration when deciding on a

deployment.


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Starting Six Sigma

• Applying a relatively simple formula like this can help to

focus opportunities of deployment and decision making

on which projects to fully deploy.


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Starting Six Sigma

• When you have decided upon project deployment, it is worth your time to get a rough idea of what resources you need for the project. Then, recruit a deployment leader.

• This scoping will put a very loose framework around the intended project. It need say nothing more than a few descriptive words (e.g., “Looking at the way we package our sandwiches,” “Should we consider emailing our customers,” or “Do customers need the tennis balls in a box?”)

• These may seem like strange little questions on their own, but they just start the process of focus prior to deployment.


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Starting Six Sigma

• We will come back to the role of the deployment leader

in the next unit when we look at how the team is made

up.

• We will also look into far more detail at focusing the

deployment activity when we look at the intrinsic

principles of Six Sigma in later units.


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Unit Summary

In this unit, you have learned about:

• Other Quality methodologies: ISO, Lean, and TQM

• What to consider before deploying a Six Sigma Project

• How to choose potential projects

• The Pareto Priority Index (PPI)

• Initial scoping questions of the project

• Managing Quality


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Documents

Unit 1 - Introduction to ‘Six Sigma’ - LearnUpondscormmedia.learnupon.com/4602/lw4d42tzrx5yma4ucr2e/res/data... · Unit 1 - Introduction to ‘Six Sigma’ The purpose of this