Six Sigma

Six Sigma is one of the most important developments in the field of business improvement. It is also one of the most over-hyped and misunderstood initiatives, leading to confusion and controversy. Those studying or working in the area need to understand not only the mechanics of conducting Six Sigma projects, or even implementing the wider initiative. They must also grasp the underpinning principles and logic. This book looks at both the academic and practical aspects of Six Sigma to give a deeper and more subtle understanding of how and why it works, and the limitations of the approach.

Six Sigma is one of the most important and popular developments in the quality field. It has saved huge amounts of money and improved the customer experience for a large number of organizations across the world, yet it is applied in an inconsistent and often reductive fashion in many companies. This has led to criticism in the literature and a number of abandoned implementations. This study guide is designed to provide an overview of the key elements, important historical context and current debates in the field of Six Sigma. It aims to give a coherent view of the underlying principles, and how these relate to practical application in a range of organizations as well as to other areas of study. The broad Quality Management context, within which Six Sigma fits, will not be explored in this book in detail. More information on this can be found in the companion guide: “Quality Management in the 21st Century” also available at Bookboon.com.

The guide flows from principles and background to more detailed consideration of Six Sigma as both a business level initiative and project-based improvement methodology. Due to the complexity of many of the issues addressed, it is possible to write much more on any single topic but I have tried to cover most of the key points in order to provide a foundation and further literature linked from the text allows the reader to investigate any topic in more depth if they wish. Finally, at the end of each chapter there are a number of questions for you to develop your thinking in the area.

1 Introduction

2 Background and History
2.1 Development of Quality Thinking
2.2 Six Sigma: The Next Evolution
2.3 Definition of Six Sigma
2.4 Summary

3 Why Six Sigma?
3.1 Introduction
3.2 To Improve Financial Performance and Profitability
3.3 To be Responsive to, and Focused on, Customers
3.4 To Improve Product and Service Performance
3.5 Contributing to Organizational Learning
3.6 Summary

4 Six Sigma: Key Strategic Concepts
4.1 Six Sigma is Strategic
4.2 Six Sigma is About Customers
4.3 Six Sigma is About Variation
4.4 Six Sigma is About Process and Scientific Investigation
4.5 Six Sigma is About People and Learning Not Cost
4.6 Summary

5 Strategic Six Sigma
5.1 Introduction
5.2 Vision, Mission and Values
5.3 Strategic Objectives
5.3 Hoshin Kanri and Six Sigma
5.4 Summary

6 Customers
6.1 Introduction
6.2 Customer Satisfaction and Customer Value
6.3 Summary

7 Variation
7.1 Introduction
7.1 Special and Common Cause Variation
7.2 Process Capability
7.3 Summary

8 Processes and Scientific Investigation
8.1 Introduction
8.2 Business Processes: The Reality
8.3 Scientific Investigation
8.4 Summary

9 People and Organizational Learning
9.1 Key Six Sigma Roles
9.2 Belt System Issues
9.3 People and Change
9.4 Organizational Learning
9.5 Summary

10 Sustainable Six Sigma Deployment
10.1 Deployment Model: Kotter
10.2 Deployment Logic: System of Profound Knowledge (SoPK)
10.3 Steps 1 to 3: Envisioning the Transformation
10.4 Steps 4 to 7: Enacting the Transformation
10.4 Step 8: Institutionalise the New System
10.5 Summary

11 Six Sigma Projects: Key Concepts
11.1 Basic Statistical Concepts
11.2 Variation, the Normal Distribution, DPMO and Sigma Levels
11.3 The Scientific Method and the DMAIC Cycle
11.4 The Four Focuses of a Six Sigma Project
11.5 Process
11.5 People and Change
11.5 Summary

12 DMAIC
12.1 Introduction
12.2 The Define Stage
12.3 The Measure Stage
12.4 The Analyse Stage
12.5 The Improve Stage
12.6 The Control Stage
12.7 Summary

13 Customer Focus in DMAIC
13.1 Introduction
13.2 What Does the Customer Value?
13.3 What is the Value Stream?
13.4 What Design/Process Elements Affect Customer requirements?
13.5 Quality Function Deployment
13.6 Summary

14 Variability Reduction in DMAIC
14.1 Introduction
14.2 Building and Using Control Charts
14.3 Responding to Out of Control Conditions
14.4 Process Capability
14.5 Responding to Incapable Processes
14.6 Evaluating the Measurement System
14.7 Summary

15 Soft Aspects of DMAIC
15.1 Learning in and Between Projects
15.2 People in Improvement
15.3 Summary

16 Processes in DMAIC Projects
16.1 Introduction
16.2 Supplier-Input-Process-Output-Customer (SIPOC) Diagram
16.3 Process Flow Chart
16.4 Value Stream Mapping
16.5 Soft Systems Methodology
16.6 Summary

17 DMAIC in Service Organizations
17.1 Introduction
17.2 Service is Different
17.3 The Dimensions of Service Quality
17.3 Contribution of Six Sigma
17.4 Potential Modifications to Six Sigma in Service Environments
17.5 Summary

18 Successful DMAIC Projects

19 Example of a Six Sigma Project
19.1 Introduction
19.2 Project Background
19.3 Selection of a Quality Characteristic
19.4 Methodology
19.5 Summary

20 Quality by Design (for Six Sigma)
20.1 Introduction
20.2 The DFSS Process
20.3 The Voice of The Customer
20.4 Impact of Late Design Changes
20.5 Design for ‘X’
20.6 DFSS Tools
20.7 Summary

21 Six Sigma: A Critique
21.1 Introduction
21.2 Accepted Strengths of Six Sigma
21.3 Reasons for Failure and Critical Success Factors
21.2 Inherent Conceptual Issues
21.3 The Future
21.4 Summary

22 References

Graeme Knowles is a Principal Teaching Fellow at The University of Warwick. He has worked in Quality Management and Process Improvement for over 20 years in both senior industrial and academic roles, and is a qualified Six Sigma Black Belt.