Road Map for the Six Sigma Process

This discussion will start with a simple product life cycle, in which a customer identifies the need; the supplier designs, manufactures, and delivers the product; and the service organization supports the product. The process to produce the product to meet customer needs is a set of structural and logical activities that focuses on the customer, cultivates innovation, ensures product robustness and reliability, reduces product cost, and ultimately increases value for the end cus- tomer and business owner (shareholders). Product quality must meet or exceed customer expectations. The quality concept in Six Sigma can be divided into two phases:

• A Product Design Quality Level Program

• A Product Manufacturing, Sales, and Service Quality Level Program

Product Design Quality

In the Six Sigma concept, product design quality is identified as a DMADV process (also Design for Six Sigma, DFSS methodology), where:

Define—Define the project goals and customer (internal or external) deliverables.

Measure—Measure and determine customer needs and specifications. Analyze—Analyze the process options to meet customer needs. Design—Design (detailed) the process to meet customer needs.

The DMADV process (DFSS methodology) should be used when: • A product or process is not in existence at a business and one needs to

be developed.

• The existing product or process has been optimized using either DMAIC (to be discussed later) or some other process and it still does not meet the expected level of customer needs or Six Sigma level metrics.

A documented, well-understood, and useful new product development process is a prerequisite to a successful DMADV process. DMADV is an enhance- ment to new product development process, not a replacement. DMADV is a busi- ness process concentrating on improving profitability. If properly applied, it generates the correct product at the right time and at the right cost. DMADV is a powerful program management technique.

Six Sigma initiatives at the product design quality level are tremendously dif- ferent from initiatives at the product manufacturing, sales, and service quality lev- els. However, the DMADV process is beyond the scope of this book, and its process details will not be presented here. The fundamental differences between DMADV and DMAIC are presented in Table 1.2.

Product Manufacturing, Sales, and Service Quality Level Program

Any process beyond the scope of DMADV is a part of a program called DMAIC, pronounced (Duh-May-Ick), where:

Define—Define the project goals and customer (internal and external) deliv- erables. Define is the first step in any Six Sigma process of DMAIC and identifies important factors, such as the selected project’s scope, expectations, resources, Table 1.2. Differences between DMADV and DMAIC

DMADV DMAIC

Focuses on the design of the product Looks at the existing processes and

and processes fixes problem(s)

Proactive process More reactive process

Dollar benefits more difficult to Dollar benefits quantified rather quantify and tend to be much more quickly

long term; may take 6 months to a year after launch of the new product before business will obtain adequate accounting data on the impact

schedule, and project approval. This Six Sigma process definition step specifically identifies what is part of the project and what is not and explains the scope of the project. Many times the first passes at process documentation are at a general level. Generally, additional work is required to adequately understand and cor- rectly document the processes.

Measure—Measure the process and determine current performance. The Six Sigma process requires quantifying and benchmarking the process using actual data. Yet, a Six Sigma process is not simply collecting two data points and extrap- olating some extreme data values. At a minimum, consider the mean or average performance and some estimate of the dispersion or variation (calculating the standard deviation is beneficial). Trends and cycles can also be very informative. Process capabilities can also be calculated once performance data are collected.

Analyze—Analyze the data and determine the root cause(s) of the defects. Once the project is understood and baseline performance is documented, estab- lishing the existence of an actual opportunity to improve performance, the Six Sigma process can be utilized to perform a process analysis. In this step, the Six Sigma process utilizes statistical tools to validate root causes of problems (issues). Any number of tools and tests can be used. The objective is to understand the process at a level that is sufficient to facilitate formulation of options (develop- ment of alternative processes) for improvement. A team should be able to com- pare the various options to determine the most promising alternative(s). It is also critical to estimate financial and/or customer impact on potential improve- ment(s). Superficial analysis and understanding will lead to unproductive options being selected, forcing a recycle through the process to make improvements.

Improve—Improve the process by eliminating defects. During the Improve step of the Six Sigma process, ideas and solutions are implemented. The Six Sigma team should discover and validate all known root causes for the existing opportu- nity. The team should also identify solutions. It is rare to come up with ideas or opportunities that are so good that all of them are instant successes. As part of the Six Sigma process, checks must ensure that the desired results are being achieved. Sometimes, experiments and trials are required to find the best solution. When conducting trials and experiments, it is important that all team members under- stand that these are not simply trials, but that they are actually part of the Six Sigma process.

Control—Control the implemented process for future performance. As a part of the Six Sigma process, performance-tracking mechanisms and measurements must be in place to ensure that the gains made in the project are not lost over a period of time. As a part of the control step, telling others in the business about the process and the gains is encouraged. By using this approach, the Six Sigma

process starts to create potentially phenomenal returns: ideas and projects in one part of the business are translated to implementation in another part of the busi- ness in a very rapid fashion.

The DMAIC process can also be presented as:

Define ² Measure ² Analyze ² Improve ² Control

These are the five key steps in the Six Sigma process. Every process goes through these five steps. The steps are then repeated as the process is refined.

Key guiding elements that team members should strive to avoid or minimize as they go through the Six Sigma process include:

• Leadership resistance • Unclear mission

• Limited dedicated time for the project • Prematurely jumping to a solution • Untrained team members

• Unsatisfactory implementation plan

To implement the Six Sigma program, business/organization members must be assigned defined responsibilities. These members must take their responsibili- ties seriously.

As a high-level organization structure is defined, the management group should also begin identifying Six Sigma projects. The implementation structure and project selection are parallel processes. The next two sections will discuss the Six Sigma implementation structure (identifies program participants and their responsibilities) and program selection (selecting a project that qualifies as a Six Sigma project).