Six Sigma is a methodology, a statistical analysis tool and a management system designed to streamline business processes by eliminating defects. The implementation of Six Sigma aims to improve and sustain quality, eliminate waste and increase profit. This is achieved by the:
- Reduction of variations in processes
- Measuring, analysis, improvement and control of processes
- Involvement and commitment of the whole organisation including top level management
Processes are measured and defects recorded, the objective of Six Sigma is to operate processes with less than 3.4 defects per one million opportunities. The implementation of these processes can enable huge savings for the organisation. Motorola claims that the implementation of Six Sigma saved the company in excess of 17 billion American dollars.
Originally developed for the manufacturing industry Six Sigma is now applied to the service industry. This means, however that rather than measuring manufacturing processes for defects, organisations need to look to their employees. Streamlining employee performance may cause problems; the human factor needs to be taken into consideration. It may look good on paper to have fewer employees serving more customers, but customer and employee satisfaction may suffer. To improve the Six Sigma system for the service industry, more emphasis is needs to be placed on:
- Understanding and managing customer needs
- Adapting business processes to meet those needs
- Using data analysis to minimise variation in those processes
- Using the above to quickly improve existing processes using sustainable practices
What’s in a name?
“Sigma” comes from statistics and means the measurement of variance. Mainly six sigma is about measuring defects (quality) and production time. There is a statistical scale for measuring this.
“Six” refers to the highest possible score on the scale (0 being the lowest score), this would be a defect score of 0.34% and and an on-time score of 99.966%
Six Sigma time and quality measurements methodology can be applied to all types of businesses that have customers, including service industries. Six Sigma tools allow organisations to assess and measure the quality of their processes and improve delivery to the customer. this can be done incrementally one sigma level at a time.
If you would like to learn more about Six Sigma you could attend one of our many Six Sigma Training Courses. Our Lean Six Sigma Yellow Belt training 2 day course provides delegates with an understanding of Lean Six Sigma tools and processes. For those who want to get stuck in and start to use Six Sigma Processes our Six Sigma Green Belt training course is the place to start.
