HRM Six Sigma paper, Motorola
...ortunities; the greater the sigma number, the fewer the defects.” The average product or process defect rate at most major companies hovers around four sigma, or more than 6,000 defects per million. By contrast, the Six Sigma level the expectation remains just 3.4 defects per million. In the big picture, “the central idea behind Six Sigma is that if you can measure how many ‘defects’ you have in a process, you can systematically figure out how to eliminate them and get them close to ‘zero defects’ as possible.” Six Sigma’s standard of 3.4 problems per million opportunities is “a response to the increasing expectations of customers and the increased complexity of modern products and processes.” In the end, Six Sigma brings the company to near flawless execution in identified areas of operation through the use of very knowledgeable personnel with distinct roles in a methodological model. Six Sigma is “not reliant upon new techniques or high-tech razzle-dazzle, but its foundation remains dependent upon tried and true methods that have been around for decades.” It is “a disciplined, data-driven approach and methodology for eliminating defects (driving towards six standard deviations between the mean and the nearest specification limit) in any process -- from manufacturing to transactional and from product to service.” In fact, “Six Sigma discards a great deal of the complexity that characterized Total Quality Management (TQM)” where there are over 400 tools and techniques. Six Sigma takes “a handful of proven methods and trains a small cadre of in-house technical leaders to a high level of proficiency in the application of the techniques.” The fundamental objective of the Six Sigma methodology is the implementation of a measurement-based strategy that focuses on process improvement and variation reduction through the application of Six Sigma improvement projects. The methodology of Six Sigma concentrates on the application of a simple performance improvement model known as DMIAC, or Define-Measure-Analyze-Improve-Control. In the Define stage, goals are established for the activity desiring improvement. At the top levels of management, the goals will be strategic objectives for the organization such as a greater market share or increase in profit growth. At the operational level, “a goal might be to increase the throughput of a production department.” Finally, at the project level, the goals will focus on reduction of defects in production and increase throughput. Once the improvement goals in the various activities have been defined, the Six Sigma model calls for a means to measure the existing system. Goal-seekers must “establish valid and reliable metrics to help monitor progress towards the goal(s) defined in the previous step.” Having defined their goals and established a means to measure performance, the DMIAC model then requires an analysis phase. The company must Analyze the system they are currently operating in and identify ways to eliminate the gap between the performance of the system or process and the desired goal. Upon the identification of means of improvement, the next phase requires Improvement in the system. Companies must be creative in finding new ways to do things better, cheaper or faster. In the final stage, management is required to Control the new system. This involves “institutionalizing the improved system by modifying compensation and incentive systems, policies, procedures, MRP, budgets, operating instructions and other management systems.” The most important part of a successful Six Sigma DMIAC model is the creation of an infrastructure to ensure the model is established and defined properly and that performance improvement activities have the necessary resources. According to Pyzdek, “failure to provide this infrastructure is the #1 reason why 80% of all TQM implementations have failed in the past.” When a company initiates the Six Sigma strategy, improvement and change becomes the full-time job of a small but critical percentage of the organization’s personnel. The process will involve “changing major business value streams that cut across organizational barriers.” The transformation begins with the endorsement from the CEO of the firm who will initiate the top-down implementation. Upon the CEO’s approval, the launch of Six Sigma involves several key personnel to include the Champions & Sponsors, Master Black Belts, Black Belts, Green Belts and the company workforce. Aside from the Sponsors, the remaining individuals who will make Six Sigma a success will come from within the company. The Six Sigma Champions & Sponsors are high-level individuals who understand Six Sigma and are committed to its success. In very large organizations, the Six Sigma Champion will be a full-time employee with significant influence and power, such as an Executive Vice-President. The role of the Champion is to oversee the Six Sigma process implementation and communicate the system’s message every opportunity. Additionally, the Champion serves as the primary liaison between the CEO and the other Six Sigma personnel, providing the boss with updates and timelines in regards to goal accomplishment. The sponsors are individuals external to the company formation hired to “help initiate and coordinate Six Sigma improvement activities in their areas of responsibility.” The sponsors will serve as consultants and be available as subject matter experts in making Six Sigma work and guiding the company towards perfection in identified areas. The Master Black Belts maintain the highest level of technical and organizational proficiency. The main role of the Master Black Belts in the Six Sigma program is to provide the technical leadership. They maintain a complete understanding of the mathematical theory on which the statistical methods of Six Sigma are based and work closely with the hired sponsors to ensure the company’s efforts are bringing them closer to the desired 3.4 errors per million opportunities. They will train the other implementation team members to include the Black Belts and Green Belts. The Black Belt personnel come from within the company and are normally “technically oriented individuals held in high regard by their peers.” They will be actively involved in the process of organizational change and development of new methods which will require a master of a wide variety of technical tools in a short period of time. As a part of training, Black Belts receive 160 hours of classroom instruction on the methodology and one-on-one project coaching from Master Black Belts. In the end, the Black Belts will work with the customers, employees and suppliers to identify methods in which the company can be more efficient in eliminating errors in targeted areas of operations. This development of deficiency-reducing techniques ultimately leads to the goal of only 3.4 errors per million opportunities. The final members of the Six Sigma staff are the Green Belts, who serve as project leaders capable of forming and facilitating the development of teams and managing projects from concept to completion. Like the Black Belts, Green Belts will be chosen from the company’s work force but will only receive only five days of classroom training. The primary role of the Green Belts is to monitor the progress of the workers once the new methods and techniques are established to eliminate the costly errors. The Green Belts will track prog...