Introduction
Throughout this discussion, we will analyze the core concepts of the Six Sigma, including its history, how it could be incorporated into an organization’s process improvement system to have a reduction in its product defects, aspects within an DMA/C process, and the overall importance of implementing the essentialness of Six Sigma as an initiative for quality control.
History
The Six Sigma process is considered to be a type of development which strives to offer consistent improvements and offer newer solutions from earlier initiatives or efforts. Although some of the methods, such as data driven decision making, business results focus, among other characteristics that are utilized in the Six Sigma; the concept of Six Sigma has a long history which dates back to the 17th century. This process was first witnessed with Eli Whitney who invented the cotton gin in the year of 1787 with his uniformity system. He applied the “six sigma process by proving to the general public that he was able to produce interchangeable similar parts which could function for the random selection of an assembly of musket parts” (Chakraborty & Kay Chuan, 2013).
Another historical example which illustrates the usage of the six sigma process was seen with Henry Ford in 1913 with his assembly line that physically moved. The main purpose, however was to have product consistency so only good and usable parts were being utilized for the production team, and not slow the assembly line down by cherry picking the bad parts. Next, in 1988, the company Motorola had to sternly implement the practice of quality control because their products were manufactured from foreign countries, therefore, the company had to take extra precaution to ensure that their products met the standards of the United States consumer expectations. The Motorola executives also integrated the “concepts of product specifications and process capabilities. In addition, they utilized the Cpk and Cp measurements for the comparison of product performances. The calculations for the capabilities became the defects per million opportunities (DPMO)” (Deshmukh & Chavan, 2012). We will talk more about this concept specifically later in this review.
Although we can review many more examples of various companies that applied the technique of Six Sigma and its similar tactics; it is important to understand the core focus of this discussion. It is not to perceive the information from a historical perspective, but mainly to understand the true depth of how companies use the Six Sigma to reduce defective parts or products overall. We will take a look at this characteristic in the next portion of our review of the Six Sigma concept.
Incorporating Six Sigma into an Organization
The main idea from the six sigma concept is to focus on the defects which may occur from variation (Chakraborty & Kay Chuan, 2013). The organizations that incorporate the Six Sigma method has discovered the importance of conservation and that includes not to waste, or produce product inefficiencies which only proves to lose time, money and resources. For instance, if a company decided to operate at a three sigma level, then the organization would only produce an average of sixty-six or sixty-seven thousand defects per a million opportunities. While on the other hand, if a competitor company decided to implement the Six Sigma method, then they would produce four defects per million which is highly more effective and cost efficient. Furthermore, the Six Sigma is similar to an organizational structure for consistent and continuous improvements. This structure includes the Green Belts, Black Belts and the Champions (S. Reosekar & D. Pohekar, 2014). This process alone has the ability to transform an entire organizational culture because it places such a huge impact on the aspects of financial performances and customer satisfaction.
DMAIC Process
The DMAIC process stands for the following: D) Define specific opportunities, M) Measure product performances, A) Analyzing any opportunities, I) Improving the performances, C) Controlling the Performances and in some work scenarios, the organization uses the option of T) which is the transfer of best practices, or share any learned knowledge to various areas throughout the organization (Chakraborty & Kay Chuan, 2013). The company Motorola had initially created the DMAIC acronym for reminding employees of the reinforcements and accomplishments for the company’s quality control and high expectation of good products.
It is highly emphasized that the companies who use the concept of the Six Sigma for the achievement of breakthrough product improvements that are sustainable over time, then the process metrics and structured methodology have to be extended in a sense. In addition, the team leaders of the Six Sigma are the black belts who work with the necessary team members, and who are trained as the green belts. “Once the team members hold this accreditation, then their tasks would consist of the analysis and measuring the performance of the organization’s identified essential processes” (Lertwattanapongchai & William Swierczek, 2014).
Lean Six Sigma
Another crucial aspect of the Six Sigma is the lean six sigma. This concept focuses on both the qualities of inventory and speed. It is identified by most organizations who use the lean six sigma as a “cultural changing structure and a root cause analysis of the actual six sigma” (Deshmukh & Chavan, 2012). Companies will be able to dramatically improve their overall profit rates by either designing and monitoring their daily business activities with the utilization of the lean six sigma. Therefore, both lean six sigma and six sigma are two of the most powerful efficiency and improvement methods used by organizations throughout history. All members of the organization could benefit including the stockholders, customers, employees and suppliers.
Conclusion
In conclusion, we learned about two essentials concepts which improves the productivity of an organization, which are the Six Sigma and the Lean Six Sigma. Companies, whether domestic or international have been using these methods since the 17th century, but of course it was not officially known as the Six Sigma until the 1930’s. Businesses know that once these methods are implemented, then they will build the foundation to reduce the number of wastes and instead become successful. It is believed that the future of the Six Sigma will only to continue to evolve, with even greater ways of handling efficiencies and improvements. In my opinion, it is believed that they will no longer label the members of the organization as black belts, green belts or champions because it distracts the focus of the functions of the six sigma. Instead, all efforts should be for the sake of the customer and strive to continuously improve those processes so that they are one hundred percent satisfied.
References
Chakraborty, A. & Kay Chuan, T. (2013). An Empirical Analysis on Six Sigma Implementation in Service Organizations. Lean Six Sigma Journal, 4(2), 141-170. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/20401461311319338
Deshmukh, S. & Chavan, A. (2012). Six Sigma and SMEs: A Critical Review of Literature. Lean Six Sigma Journal, 3(2), 157-167. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/20401461211243720
Lertwattanapongchai, S. & William Swierczek, F. (2014). Assessing the change process of Lean Six Sigma: A Case Analysis. Lean Six Sigma Journal, 5(4), 423-443. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/ijlss-07-2013-0040
S. Reosekar, R. & D. Pohekar, S. (2014). Six Sigma methodology: A Structured Review. Lean Six Sigma Journal, 5(4), 392-422. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/ijlss-12-2013-0059
