Application of six sigma to manufacturing and service sector including IT

What is Six Sigma? Sigma is a Greek alphabet and is used in statistics as a measure of variation in a process i.e. the capability of the process to perform defect free work. A defect is anything that results in customer dissatisfaction. As sigma increases, cost and cycle time go down while profitability, productivity and customer satisfaction go up. Six sigma is a high performance, data driven approach for analyzing the root causes of business processes/ problems and solving them. Six Sigma Methodology: DMAIC process of problem solving i.e. Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve and Control is one of the most common Six Sigma methodologies which is given below in brief: Define Identify, evaluate and select projects for improvement and select teams. Measure Collect data on size of the selected problem, identify key customer requirements, determine key product and process characteristics. Analyze Analyze data, establish and confirm the vital few determinants of the performance. Improve Design and carry out experiments to establish cause & effect relationships and optimize the process. Control Design the controls; make improvements, implement and monitor.

Six Sigma in manufacturing sector:

Six Sigma implementation methodology in a manufacturing organization encompasses the following steps. 1. Concept Introduction Seminar for senior and operational management. 2. Formulating Six Sigma Deployment Strategy with senior management. 3. Selection of the Six Sigma Projects in consultation with senior and operational management. 4. Selection of Suitable Champions, Black and Green Belt candidates. 5. Clearly defining the Roles and Responsibilities. 6. Training for Six Sigma Awareness, as also for Champions, Green and Black Belts. 7. Consulting and Hand Holding for Implementation of Six Sigma Projects. 8. Assisting the Champions in Tollgate Reviews and Final Project Evaluation. 9. Participation in the Monthly Review by the Steering Committee.

Benefit Of Six Sigma Manufacturing

Six sigma manufacturing is actually one of the most popular methods used by people in the world nowadays to improve the efficiency of production. This is regarded as a valued strategy for management and a lot of organizations are actually using this method to get the positive result in production of goods and services.

A lot of people have proved that this method works indeed. Six sigma manufacturing would focus on making business process to be more efficient. It would try to remove the defects in production and the business processes so that variations would not be so great in the production standard. It would employ several tools to control the quality and statistical methods would also be used to meet the areas which are under the target of the businessmen. Of course, this kind of management strategy actually bases on several assumptions. First of all, people have to believe that there is room for improvement. Sometimes, people would not think that this is possible. Some businessmen would always think that they are the best and they would not accept that they are some areas that the business can improve. As a result, they would fail to understand how to use six sigma manufacturing. There are a lot of benefits that people can obtain from using six sigma manufacturing. In the manufacturing sector, this kind of business management strategy can successfully reduce the number of defected products. As a result, the wasted cost of production could be eliminated and the overall revenue could be improved. Secondly, it can allow the company to adjust the standard of product efficiently. Under the six sigma manufacturing standard, a certain variety of standard would be accepted. And when the manufacturer finds that the normal standard is not very appropriate, they can use some standards which are similar but not exactly the same as the normal standard. Since they would accept a certain range of variation, they can use the variation to select the best product when some of the input variables are changed. Yes, this would be a very great thing for the research and development department. They can make use of the variations to develop some new products if they are careful enough. They can use the variation in six sigma manufacturing to test whether it is possible to make brand new products out of the original products, which can save a lot of the research cost and the risk of failure in development would be lowered as well. There are a lot of benefits that people can obtain from six sigma manufacturing. If you are interested in learning more, you can try to visit some useful websites on the internet about business management strategy. In the foreseeable future, it is expected that six sigma manufacturing would be more and more popular because a lot of people are now looking for efficient management methods and they would try to improve the quality of their products because they know that would be ruled out if they do not improve.

Six sigma in service sector:

How 6 Sigma Can Benefit The Service Industry: Six Sigma goes in to the details of improving customer service, generating business expansion and gaining knowledge about the service sectors business processes. Most service industries revolve around areas of finance, human resources and sales and marketing. Hence, 6 Sigma delves deeply into the subject of soft skills. Six Sigma can be applied to a company that provides housekeeping services. Firstly, the companies working processes would need to be understood. Using the DMIAC method or the define-measure-improve-analyze-control method, 6 Sigma can definitely implement quality in any industry. As the main aim of this methodology is to reduce defects, the first step would be detecting the particular defect. Secondly, data will be collected to observe how, why and how often these defects occur. Next, the Six Sigma team implements an

outstanding employees method of working as the normal method for all employees. Finally, new employees are taught the correct techniques. Six Sigma Training for IT Departments The IT Department at a company is often the one with the highest of budgets and with good reason. The IT Department tends to replace equipment more often than they do repair it, and software goes out of date so quickly (as well as computers and other equipment). Rather than spend money to upgrade existing machines, most IT Departments find it easier and less timeconsuming to just purchase the newest models. While there is some validity in this replace it philosophy, Six Sigma training can help teach employees in the IT Department ways to approach this philosophy more frugally. Rather than making what can be considered unnecessary purchases, employees will learn to make due with the resources they have available. Overhead is greatly reduced with this shift in thinking. With savings like this, IT Departments can more easily afford those big projects that might be necessary in upcoming years. Aside from the financial savings, Six Sigma training can also help an IT Department with job management skills. This department is never without a huge workload, and each day brings with it new requests coupled with older ones that have yet to be completed. Job prioritization is essential with IT projects. Not fixing the correct issues right away can halt productivity throughout the entire company. This can make for inpatient customers of all kinds; both internal and external. Learning 6 sigma philosophies will assist with job prioritization and time management. Opportunities for providing support to customers will be maximized with less downtime and wasted time on projects that dont require immediate attention. IT Departments generally also have issues with inventory, which consist of anything from software licensing and renewal to hardware in storage and throughout the building as well as backup tapes sent offsite. With so much inventory turnover to keep track of, its easy for companies to lose track of what they even have. Learning inventory control is another benefit of Six Sigma training. Systems can be implemented to ensure that all inventory is accounted for and documented, making it easier to see whats on hand and whats needed for future endeavors. IT Departments may be resistant to anything new as they fail to see how they can benefit from any type of process improvement methodology. Clearly there are several ways in which Six Sigma training can benefit the IT Department. Meeting the bottom-line as cheaply and efficiently as possible is a goal for every company and this is easier to do with Six Sigma. Six Sigma and its use in Software Development
Six Sigma and its use in Software Development is often referred to as Software Six Sigma. This is a strategy used to improve, accelerate and sustain the process of making programs. Software Six Sigma helps to speed up the test and integration aspects of product development and allows the delivery of high quality products to consumers. It also improves the predictability and repeatability of the development process. This process applies SPC or Statistical Process Control and other similar

applications that are necessary within the test cases, modules, architecture, and requirements. These tools are collectively referred to as the 6 sigma tool kit. It is used to continuously improve processes and quality, is mainly based on the applications within software development. This process is used to categorize the tools, processes, and product metrics in order to stabilize the process. In turn, it improves the quantitative management relating to product quality. There are various aspects of this process, such as its ability to correctly measure data, accurately plan development procedures using historical data, use statistical tools in order to provide real time analysis and decisions, accurately quantify the SPC and its benefits and costs, and lastly, to predict high quality products. This is an effective management program which uses these tools to provide engineers with factual management decisions. Software development is in constant need of problem solving in order to provide defect free products. This process allows engineers to predict issues that may arise based on their probability of happening, which results in less errors overall. There have been some organizations which still struggle with this process. There are some barriers as it concerns to Six Sigma use in software development. These barriers include: Projects are not a very useful or integral aspect of developmental problem solving. Training and certification can be a lengthy and time consuming process. Poor sponsorship opportunities and complex allocation of responsibilities does not help the product development and process improvement aspects. There are far too many competing programs in effect such as ISO 9000, Total Quality Management and Capability Maturity Model. Software is inherently different, thus developers are usually able to solve these issues on their own. Standard processes do not fully relate to the process of software development. Although software development and management differ from what Six Sigma is used to control, there are still many applications of Software Six Sigma today.