Six Sigma


Six Sigma.

Do you really need six sigma?

Ask a consultant whether six sigma will work in your organization?

Do you expect them to say no to you!!!!! Off course it has done wonder to so many companies then why it will not work for you...

However before making a final decision just look at following questions...

  • How many small improvements you have done recently based on suggestions from people or just learning from your own mistakes or excellent jobs?
  • Do you have measurable targets which you monitor (except profit, sale or percent completion) for improvement purpose?
  • Have you been changing your management system (e.g. Quality Manual) regularly based on experience?
  • Are you using simple analytical tools (e.g. 7 tools of quality management) to analyse and improve your current situation?
  • Have you looked at your work place and thought of having a clean work place (e.g 5S) , where it is difficult to hide problems?
  • Are good jobs recognized and appreciated?
  • What is general work culture - (1) To hide problems (2) To bring out problems and solve them or (3) Play a blame game.
  • Are you ready to spend time and money it required for training and projects?

Answer to these questions will tell you whether you should go for six sigma or may be it is better to start slow with some basic improvement ideas.

Or why not to work to improve effective implementation of ISO 9001 for the time being.

However if you decide to implement six sigma, get ready to gain some fo the following results

  • Cost reduction
  • Productivity improvement
  • Market-share growth
  • Customer retention
  • Cycle-time reduction
  • Defect reduction
  • Culture change
  • Product/service development
  • .......And many more.

The popularity of Six Sigma is growing. Companies such as Motorola (1987), Texas Instruments (1988), IBM (1990), Asea Brown Boveri (1993), Allied Signal/Kodak (1994), GE (1995), Whirlpool, PACCAR, Invensys, & Polaroid (1996/98), and many other companies worldwide have successfully implemented Six Sigma.

Recently Ford, DuPont, Dow Chemical, Microsoft and American Express have started working on instituting Six Sigma processes.

??What is DMAIC??