Understanding The Six Sigma Methodology

The Six Sigma methodology; being established by Motorola Inc. is amongst the popular business improvement strategies today. A number of processes take place in an organization every day. There are many possible improvements as well as many ways of making them quick and efficient.

Six Sigma methodology is one of the highly controlled management approaches that enable companies to increase their profitability and reduce costs. As a result, they are able to deliver best products and services, higher profits and retain happier customers.

Six Sigma Methodology:

There are two types of methodologies followed in all six sigma projects. Their simplicity and ease makes it possible to implement them in any organization. These are as under:

I. DMAIC:

The DMAIC methodology is used for those projects that are targeted to improve the existing business processes. The type of six sigma methodology work on following main steps:

• Define: The Define phase of DMAIC six sigma methodology include: finding the project goals and sub-goals, establishing an infrastructure to meet these goals and project planning to improve functioning.
• Measure: This phase includes relevant data collection, preparation of various metrics based on the available data etc. It basically involves measurement of important aspects of the current process etc.
• Analyze: In this phase of DMAIC six sigma methodology, defects are analyzed to establish the ‘Cause & Effect’ relationships. This step ensures that all factors are considered and determines the root cause of defects in the process.
• Improve: This phase make use of data, metrics and analysis done in the above phases. The processes are improved by using better techniques that eliminates the root causes of defects.
• Control: This phase includes continuous control and monitoring of process improvement process to assure future products and services with zero defects.

II. DMADV:

The DMADV type of Six Sigma methodology is also known as DFSS ‘Design For Six Sigma’. It targets those projects in an organization that creates new products or process designs. Therefore team working on DMADV type of Six Sigma methodology aims to create product or process that best meets the customer needs.

• Define: The Define phase of DMADV methodology determines goals that meet the organization’s business needs and are in accordance with the customer demands.
• Measure: This phase of Six Sigma methodology works by measuring and identifying the characteristics that are Critical To Quality (CTQ), determine customer needs and specifications, product capabilities, risk factors etc.
• Analyze: In this phase alternative processes are designed and analyzed to meet the customer needs. The best design is then selected among them.
• Design: The best design chosen from above phases is designed, optimized and planned.
• Verify: In this phase of DMADV Six Sigma methodology, the design performance and its ability to meet customer needs is verified.

In order to get the maximum out of it, it is very important to understand the Six Sigma methodology and its application in your industry. An efficient and well followed Six Sigma methodology not only reduce defects but also ensures that the best resources are allocated to it. It improves business processes of your organization to best meet the company’s goals and customer demands.