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Design of experiments (DOE) is a key tool in the Six Sigma methodology. DOEs help improve processes in a quantum fashion, and is an approach for effectively and efficiently exploring the cause and effect relationship between numerous process variables (Xs) and the output or process performance variable (Y). DOE helps in the following ways: The […]

This is my second article from my series reflecting research on strategies and trends in deploying Six Sigma. Our research is performed not in an academic lab but with direct application in companies through advanced team-training concepts and relevant project coaching. Although subjects vary, the structure of my articles will remain similar starting with What […]

Once upon a time there was a company who decided to implement Lean manufacturing. They hired a large prestigious consulting firm who created the grand strategy and trained everyone in lean thinking. Significant operating improvements were identified. It was all documented in a report two inches thick. Teams were launched, a lot of activity took […]

In manufacturing circles it is generally accepted that inspections are money wasted. But in the world of software that is definitely not the case. This brief case study uses scorecards to illustrate the value and payoff that can be realized by introducing software inspections. By comparing defect counts and defect fix efforts from two completed […]

Measurement system analysis (MSA) can be fun, always impresses the customer, and can often result in an important surprise or two. Learn why gage R&R is only one part of the equation for achieving near risk free measurements of all types. Characterizing measurement error is one of the most important yet overlooked and misunderstood aspects of […]

Six Sigma is a mantra that many of the most successful organizations in the world swear by and the trend is getting hotter by the day. So much so that corporations like GE insist that every project be a Six Sigma project. The Six Sigma methodology has indeed made a tangible difference to the bottom […]

Now, more than ever, Corporate America is suffering from a growing lack of commitment, loyalty, creativity and ideas from its own employees. Called employee engagement, this unseen, unquantifiable and unbudgeted influence has long been a powerful contributor to American business success. Sadly, with more than 2,000,000 employees lost to downsizing in the last 18 months, […]

If you think Six Sigma won’t work for your company, you are either ignorant or refuse to change. Every business process can be measured, improved and controlled using the Six Sigma methodology. Reading the iSixSigma Discussion Forum unearthed a thread about the application of Six Sigma to Facilities Management: When it comes to the implementation […]

Control charting is a tool used to monitor processes and to assure that they remain in control or stable. Proposed by Walter Shewart in 1924, control charts help distinguish process variation due to assignable causes from those due to unassignable causes. Table 1: Types of Process Variation Found on a Control Chart Types of Variation Variation […]

Much has been written about the techniques and tools of Six Sigma. A large part of Black Belt training is focused on mastering the “hard” skills. Most case studies demonstrate the usefulness of tools or techniques. Any experienced, successful practitioner of Six Sigma will tell you that the soft skills of facilitating a group are […]

There is plenty of variation to be found among adopters of change programs – from widely successful to not so much. Most likely, your success lies somewhere in between. To move closer to wildly successful, mark off each one of these seven keys to success for a process improvement deployment.

Six Sigma, Total Quality Management (TQM) and its variants are now widespread in American business. Yet many executives raise serious questions about the their value. Fortune magazine, The Wall Street Journal and Business Week have all presented examples of serious failures. Several recognized Six Sigma companies have experienced financial troubles. On a more personal level, […]

A recent iSixSigma Discussion Forum thread posed the following question: “Have there been any Six Sigma deployments that have failed?” My answer is ambiguous enough to make me sound like a politician. The question immediately begs definition of the term “failure.” My definition of a failure would be anything that does not deliver the Return […]

Everybody is familiar with control charts for quality control. An example of a control chart is shown below. In the example a packaging company who made blisters for the pharmaceutical industry found the process average for a critical characteristic was out of control. There were some ideas about possible causes but, as in most other […]

A frequently asked question by Six Sigma practitioners is how to select appropriate metrics for a particular organization or process. Considerable material has been written on this subject. This paper focuses on three aspects that should be of interest to Six Sigma practitioners: Why are metrics – and more importantly appropriate metrics – needed? A five-step procedure […]

A repeated series of actions and variables is a process. A collection of processes is a system. Virtually perfect Six Sigma quality results from an optimal interaction of all the variables in a given system. Process and system questions we all face at work include: Which variables are the most important to the customer? Am […]

With the deployment of Six Sigma many organizations ask themselves various questions: What is critical to my customers? What is critical to the bottom line? How do I get a handle on these processes and assure their performance? What should my newly trained Black Belts attack? Without the methodology to pursue the answers, the pressure […]

Six Sigma is the new rallying cry for quality improvement in the process industry. For example, Dow aims to generate an extra $1.5 billion per year in profits after training 50,000 of their employees on the methods of Six Sigma.3 Statistical tools play a key role in achieving savings of this magnitude. In fact, sigma […]

Ask successful Six Sigma deployment leaders, or experienced Black Belts, and they will usually report that change management is the most challenging aspect of deploying Six Sigma. For most practitioners, change management is the black art of Six Sigma deployment: What is change management? And how can you convert the volumes of change management theory […]

“Nothing endures but change.” – Heraclitus (fl. 500 BC). If only it were that easy. Achieving a specific change, like becoming a Six Sigma company, will not just miraculously happen, it will require a purposeful process focused on results. Change, like other processes, consists of a series of steps; each of which take time and must […]

A quality initiative in sales – an impossible dream? With the right proposition and simple techniques, not only is it possible but it can also be a successful venture. The goal is to achieve performance improvements similar to those achieved in manufacturing and elsewhere using quality-oriented techniques. Unfortunately, these initiatives often produce nothing but resentment […]

Evidence pointing to the applicability of Six Sigma and related best practices within healthcare has been steadily mounting over the past few years. Primarily based on the implementation of the DMAIC process (Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve and Control), we’re seeing an ever-widening array of documented and publicized results… from improving turnaround time for patients to […]

A problem that has often confronted practitioners using control charts is when to consider recomputing the control limits. I’ve asked this question to several experts and researched it in numerous SPC texts. Oddly, either the issue is ignored or there is no clear answer to this important question. So I’ll offer my recommendation in this […]

The Case for Change In December 1999, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) released a report that made health care providers and consumers alike sit up and take notice. The study by the IOM estimates 98,000 people die every year in the United States from medical mistakes made by healthcare professionals. In addition to the troubling […]

Learning the Six Sigma methodology can be confusing. Even if you know the Six Sigma methodology, questions arise from co-workers or in daily activities and answers may not be readily available. To help with this problem, iSixSigma has compiled a list of questions that have been posed on the discussion forum. Below are the five […]

A project charter is the first step in the Six Sigma methodology. It takes place in the Define step of DMAIC (Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, Control), and the charter can make or break a successful project. It can make it by specifying necessary resources and boundaries that will in turn ensure success; it can break […]

Six Sigma training is one of the most important factors that contributes to and helps modify and shape a Six Sigma culture. This article will help identify who in your organization is required to go through six sigma training and what type of six sigma training they should receive.

Almost all Quality professionals have heard of the benefits of Six Sigma Quality. How can it be ignored? Companies like GE, Motorola, and AlliedSignal have already saved billions of dollars with their Six Sigma Quality initiatives. According to Jack Welch, GE CEO, “the financial rationale for embarking on this quality journey is clear.” But are […]

Imagine the scenario. Herman and Gary both manage processes for your company. Herman’s process involves a simple matching of supplier invoices to purchase orders. Gary’s process is much more complex. This process involves compliance to government regulations and requires massive amounts of data to be taken, accurately summarized and reported in several different formats to […]

Black Belts and Six Sigma practitioners who are leading DMAIC (Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, Control) projects should develop a sound data collection plan in order to gather data in the measurement phase. There are several crucial steps that need to be addressed to ensure that the data collection process and measurement systems are stable and […]

I cannot over emphasize the importance of communication in Six Sigma process improvement projects. As Patrick Waddick stated in his project charter article, “a finely executed Black Belt project can suffer disappointing results if an efficient mechanism is not already in place to ensure that vital information is relayed to those members who need it.” […]

Purpose of a Pareto Chart A pareto chart is used to graphically summarize and display the relative importance of the differences between groups of data. Sample Pareto Chart Depiction How to Construct a Pareto Chart A pareto chart can be constructed by segmenting the range of the data into groups (also called segments, bins or categories). […]

iSixSigma receives many questions regarding the Six Sigma methodology and, more specifically, what each business change agent (Champion, Master Black Belt, Black Belt, Green Belt) should know in order to be effective. To help meet this need, I have created a reference document detailing what should be contained in a Six Sigma curriculum. Below is […]

Process stability is one of the most important concepts of the Six Sigma methodology, or any quality improvement methodology for that matter. Stability involves achieving consistent and, ultimately, higher process yields through the application of an improvement methodology. Does a process need to be stable in order for a black belt to improve it? Try […]

You’ve selected your Six Sigma projects, even chartered one, and now you’re business is trying to figure out the status of the project and it should move to the next phase. Charles Waxer presented the article, Successful Six Sigma Project Reviews. I would like to help you make those words of wisdom a reality by […]

I’m sure all of us experience daily memos, emails, voice mail, procedures, forms, and reports that are nearly meaningless due to lack of context. Some ramble on with obvious passion but fail to explain what the heck they’re talking about. Some are very beautiful with lots of statistical charts and graphs yet without simple contextual […]

Obvious Areas For Improvement External Defects Anything you have recently been audited or formally rejected for Anything you haven’t been audited or rejected for, but you know is out of specification or not meeting regulations Anything you inspect and/or contain to protect the customer Anything you cover for by having a guy in the customer’s […]

In the 21st century, new technologies will be developed and improved and will eventually be obsolete for the need of more advanced technologies. In this dynamically changing world, product cycles are expected to last for just a few months. To meet these demanding requirements product developers have to develop products in the shortest amount of […]

The Six Sigma quality methodology almost always requires a Black Belt or Green Belt to lead a team in solving a problem. When teams members interact – and no matter how well the Black or Green Belt can facilitate – opinions of the individual team members will inevitably differ and the team may end up deadlocked, compromising […]

One of the crucial elements of the project charter in the define phase of a Six Sigma project is the selection of project metrics. Project metrics selected should reflect the voice of the customer (customer needs), as well as ensure that the internal metrics selected by the organization are achieved. Metrics selected should be simple […]

Six Sigma practitioners often state that Six Sigma is not about learning statistics, but is instead about understanding which tool to apply to each situation and how to properly interpret the results. We will attempt to understand the meaning of this statement in four real world examples I have experienced in industry. Control Charts Subgrouped […]

A tremendous amount of work goes into the design, planning and execution of a productive team meeting. Attendees should always know the purpose and desired outcome(s) of the meeting before getting too deep into the content. The meeting should start on time, an agenda should be set and previous meeting notes should be reviewed, if […]

“I entered the Six Sigma program with our organization in May as a BB candidate. Since then I have encountered a number of setbacks and frustrations. They aren’t unique to me, either. Many other BBs at my company are experiencing the same things. I’m hoping for some general advice. What can you do (as a […]

The Black Belt’s ability to maximize team members’ contributions is critical to the success of the Six Sigma project. Many factors must be addressed. Assuring Basic Team Member Needs During World War II Abraham Maslow (1908-1970) developed his famous hierarchy of needs study. He showed an individual needs hierarchy ranging from the most basic, to […]

Most processes, particularly those involving life data and reliability, are not normally distributed. Most Six Sigma and process capability tools, however, assume normality. Only through verifying data normality and selecting the appropriate data analysis method will the results be accurate. This article discusses the non-normality issue and helps the reader understand some options for analyzing […]

It was a Japanese manufacturing engineer named Shigeo Shingo who developed the concept that revolutionized the quality profession in Japan. Originally called “fool proofing” and later changed to “mistake proofing” and “fail safing” so employees weren’t offended, poka yoke (pronounced “poh-kah yoh-kay”) translates into English as to avoid (yokeru) inadvertent errors (poka). The result is […]

This is a familiar question that is often addressed by organizations. In fact, it is the wrong question. These concepts are nothing more than tools in your management toolbox. You don’t fix a watch with a hammer, and you get the same results when you deploy Six Sigma, Lean and Kaizen incorrectly. The fact is, […]

Businesses provide an indivisible combination of products and services to their customers. The customers’ view of the value the company provides is based on the quality of the combined package of product and service. So how does the quality professional provide management with a tool to benchmark the operation’s performance and monitor the view the […]

All Six Sigma proponents agree to the fact that the key to Six Sigma improvement success is the building up of an effective infrastucture. An effective infrastructure lays the foundation for the success of the organization in its implementation of Six Sigma. It is a known fact today that the success of Six Sigma lays […]

Most fairly accurate descriptions of equipment and/or process lifetimes assume that failure rates follow a three period I II III “bathtub-curve pattern” where failures/errors: I – Decrease during the debugging or improvement time period. II – Remain relatively constant and at their lowest levels during the normal equipment or process operating period. III – Increase […]