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Introduction to Six Sigma

Six Sigma is a process improvement methodology based on statistics aimed at reducing variation in a process to 3.4 defects per million defect opportunities. It has the ability to detect critical underlining issues that lead to lost revenue, failure to meet customer expectations and exposing a companys Hidden Factory When studying variation to improve the process you expose the Hidden Factory; the rework, the cover-ups, the hours and days of wasted time in a company to correct mistakes. Every time a corrective action is taken or a machine is rerun, or a warranty claim is processes, you are incurring unnecessary rework. When you accept these events as that just the way it is, you have mentally hidden all these activities from your improvement potential. The Hidden Factory runs in the back ground of every organization. It is the factory that fixes problems, corrects mistakes and otherwise wastes both time and money; a companys two most precious commodities. Six Sigma exposes the Hidden Factory and returns time and money back to the company. The benefits of Six Sigma include clear value proposition and return on investment, top commitment and accountability, customer focus, business metrics, process orientation, project focus, and a complete culture change that evolves in systematic approach to problem solving and a pro-active attitude among employees. Companies today face increasing demands to generate revenue and decrease costs. Companies who adopt Six Sigma teaching are able to improve their profit margins as well as developing an intimate understanding of their process. The true challenge of a company is deciding whether or not to change the status quo and expose their Hidden Factory by implementing a quality program. This requires a long-term commitment from senior management and the ability to assess their current capability and needs.

Cost of Poor Quality

One area Six Sigma focuses on is the cost of quality (COQ). Motorola discovered that the cost of producing high quality products and services was less than the cost of producing poor quality products and services. Costs associated with COQ fall into one of four main categories: prevention costs, appraisal costs, internal failure costs, and external failure costs.

Prevention costs
Costs in the prevention category are those incurred trying to proactively prevent poor quality. These include training, capability studies, vendor surveys, and quality design. All employees should be given training appropriate to their role in an organization. Capabilities studies should be carried out to find out if your business processes are capable of producing goods that meet your customers' requirements.

QualityPromoter | International Vendors should be surveyed to ensure that the goods or services they supply to your organization are produced to the same high-quality standards as those your organization produces. Finally, products should be designed to meet rigorous quality standards.

Appraisal costs
Those costs incur when an organization is inspecting or testing the quality of the goods and services it supplies to its customers. Inspection and testing: The inspection and testing costs occur when everything that comes off a production line needs to be inspected and tested to ensure it meets your customers' requirements. Test equipment and its maintenance To carry out the testing, your organization needs to spend money on test equipment. This equipment needs to be calibrated and maintained. Inspection and test reporting After products have been inspected and tested, reports of the findings must be created, circulated, and analyzed to decide what action needs to be taken, if any. Then the reports must be stored in a retrievable format. Any other reviews, which generate costs Other reviews may be needed, all of which have costs associated with them, such as employee time and the necessary materials to carry out the reviews. These reviews may include the tracking of variables such as ambient environmental conditions, temperature, or time of day.

Internal failure costs

Those costs incur rectifying product defects created in the company's manufacturing or distribution of its product. These costs include scrap and rework, design changes, retyping letters, and excess inventory. Jot down some of the elements that generate these types of costs in your organization. The employees may be doing a lot of overtime to rectify problems, or large numbers of seldom-used parts may be kept in inventory.

External failure costs

Those costs are spent to fix problems once products have reached the customer. These include warranty costs; customer complaint visits, field service training costs, returns and recalls, liability suits, lost business, and lost reputation. After identifying where its money was being spent, Motorola was able to virtually eliminate the cost of poor quality by producing goods and services of consistently high quality.

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The Elements of Six Sigma Management

Does your organization already have quality business processes in place? Six Sigma can be integrated into your organization without interrupting your current business practices because it is based on five elements which are part of nearly all successful business management initiatives.

The elements of Six Sigma are:

1. Genuine focus on the customer Many organizations promise to provide customer satisfaction. The key is to truly understand customers' requirements and expectations. Customer focus is the top priority of Six Sigma. Improvements are based on the value to, and impact on, the customer. 2. Data-and fact-driven management Six Sigma requires management by fact. Business decisions are not made on assumptions or opinions. Organizations are required to understand what data is needed to gauge performance and to analyze the data to understand and optimize the desired results. 3. Process focus, management, and improvement Managing and improving processes is the key to success. Mastering processes is the way to build a competitive edge in delivering value to the customer. This requires a proactive management team that will define ambitious goals and review them often. 4. Collaboration without boundaries Breaking down barriers and encouraging teamwork up, down, and across organizational lines promotes an understanding of the end users' needs and of the flow of work through a process or supply chain. This creates an attitude committed to benefiting all parties. 5. Drive for perfection; tolerance for failure To attain Six Sigma, an organization must be willing to launch new ideas and approaches that, of course, involve some risk. This requires constantly reaching for perfection while accepting and managing occasional setbacks. Six Sigma's benefit lies in is its ability to bring together these five critical elements into a logical management process.

Six Sigma Versatility

Six Sigma is a versatile tool that can be used to improve any process within an organization while developing best practices. It can be applied to any aspect of a business such as:
Manufacturing Improve on-time-delivery; Reduce cycle time for hiring and training new employees;

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Improve sales forecasting ability; Reduce quality or delivery problems with suppliers; Improve logistics; Improve quality of customer service; etc.

Focus on Causes of Variation

One of the key strengths of Six Sigma is that it is a process improvement methodology that is based on science and statistics. For example, production is always seemingly under pressure to meet deadlines and employees are forced to initiate fixes that deal with reoccurring issues. The resulting pressure usually leads to decisions based on limited information or gut feelings. The end result is a series of band aid solutions to reoccurring variances in production that have never been addressed properly and continue to periodically produce defective products. To ensure that decisions are made properly to deal with underlying variance; Six Sigma uses statistics to justify changes. From the Six Sigma view, a process is normally represented in terms of Y=f(Xs), in which the Outputs (Y) are determined by some Input variables (Xs). Initially we ask What are the possible causes (Xs) that may influence the outcome Y? Once we believe we have a list of potential Xs we start collecting and analyzing data using Six Sigma testing tools. When able to isolate which X(s) have the greatest impact on the output we initiate controls. The benefits become immediately apparent: We gain greater knowledge about the process so we can now begin to predict outcomes based on critical inputs. The focus then shifts towards identifying and controlling the causes rather than checking the outcomes.

Primary Goal of Six Sigma: Process Improvement

Six Sigma primary goals are to improve the process. It looks at decreasing underlying variation instead of short term fixes to problems. Companies must identify variations and not create temporary solutions that amount to non value added activities. When it is time to address these questions a new measurement system (metrics) must be developed to collect data and to analyze it statistically. These statistical results then raise new questions about the sources of quality problems relating to its products, services, and processes. The cycle of process improvement continues. Six Sigma uses the DMAIC process, which is an acronym for Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, and Control. DMAIC defines projects goals and deliverables to meet customers expectations, obtains a baseline of the performance of the process, determines the root cause (s) of the defects, develops steps for the elimination or reduction of defects and controls the performance of the process.

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Define (D)
The purpose of the Define phase is to clearly identify the problem, the requirements of the project and the objectives of the project. The objectives of the project should focus on critical issues which are aligned with the companys business strategy and the customers requirements. The Define phase includes:
define customer requirements, termed voice of the customer (VOC) as it relates to the project. translation of the VOC customer requirements into Critical-to-Quality (CTQ) characteristics; develop defect definitions as precisely as possible; perform a baseline study (a general measure of the level of performance before the improvement project commences); create a team charter and Champion; map the process estimate the financial impact of the problem; and obtain senior management approval of the project

Key questions:
What matters to the customers? What Defect are we trying to reduce? By how much? By when? What is the current Cost of defects? Who will be in the project team? Who will support us to implement this project?

Tools:
Project Charter - this document is intended to clearly describe problems, defect definitions, team information and deliverables for a proposed project and to obtain agreement from key stakeholders. Trend Chart - to see (visually) the trend of defect occurrence over a period of time. Pareto Chart - to see (visually) how critical each input is in contributing negatively or positively to total output or defects. Process Flow Chart - to understand how the current process functions and the flow of steps in current process.

Measure (M)
The purpose of the Measure phase is to fully understand the current performance by identifying how to best measure current performance and to start measuring it. The measurements used should be useful and relevant to identifying and measuring the source of variation. This phase includes:
identify the specific performance requirements of relevant Critical-to-Quality (CTQ) characteristics;

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map relevant processes with identified Inputs and Outputs so that at each process step, the relevant Outputs and all the potential Inputs (X) that might impact each Output are connected to each other; generate list of potential measurements analyze measurement system capability and establish process capability baseline; identify where errors in measurements can occur; start measuring the inputs, processes and outputs and collecting the data; validate that the problem exists based on the measurements; refine the problem or objective (from the Analysis phase)

Key questions:
What is the Process? How does it function? Which Outputs affect CTQs most? Which Inputs affect Outputs (CTQs) most? Is our ability to measure/detect sufficient? How is our current process performing? What is the best that the process was designed to do?

Tools
Fishbone Diagram to demonstrate the relationships between inputs and outputs Process Mapping - to understand the current processes and enable the team to define the hidden causes of waste. Cause & Effect Matrix - to quantify how significant each input is for causing variation of outputs. preliminary Failure Mode & Effect Analysis (FMEA) - using this in the Measure phase helps to identify and implement obvious fixes in order to reduce defects and save costs as soon as possible. Gauge Repeatability & Reproducibility (GR&R) - used to analyze the variation of components of measurement systems so minimize any unreliability in the measurement systems.

Analyze (A)
In the Analyze phase, the measurements collected in the Measure phase are analyzed so that hypotheses about the root causes of variations in the measurements can be generated and the hypothesis subsequently validated. It is at this stage that practical business problems are turned into statistical problems and analyzed as statistical problems. This includes:
generate hypotheses about possible root causes of variation and potential critical Inputs (Xs); identify the vital few root causes and critical inputs that have the most significant impact; and validate these hypotheses by performing Multivariate analysis.

Key questions:
Which Inputs actually affect our CTQs most (based on actual data)? By how much?

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Do combinations of variables affect outputs? If an input is changed, does the output really change in the desired way? How many observations are required to draw conclusions? What is the level of confidence?

Tools:
Five Whys - use this tool to understand the root causes of defects in a process or product, and to penetrate through incorrect assumptions about causes. Tests for normality (Descriptive Statistics, Histograms) this is used to determine if the collected data is normal or abnormal so as to be properly analyzed by other tools. Correlation/Regression Analysis - to identify the relationship between process inputs and outputs or the correlation between two different sets of variables. Analysis of Variances (ANOVA) - this is an inferential statistical technique designed to test for significance of the differences among two or more sample means. FMEA (Failure Mode and Effect Analysis) - applying this tool on current processes enables identification of sufficient improvement actions to prevent defects from occurring. Hypothesis testing methods - these are series of tests in order to identify sources of variability using historical or current data and to provide objective solutions to questions which are traditionally answered subjectively.

Improve (I) The Improve phase focuses on developing ideas to remove root causes of variation, testing and standardizing those solutions. This involves:
identify ways to remove causes of variation; verify critical Inputs; discover relationships between variables; establish operating tolerances which are the upper and lower specification limits (the engineering or customer requirement) of a process for judging acceptability of a particular characteristic, and if strictly followed will result in defect-free products or services; optimize critical Inputs or reconfigure the relevant process.

Key questions:
Once we know for sure which inputs most affect our outputs, how do we control them? How many trials do we need to run to find and confirm the optimal setting/procedure of these key inputs? Who should the old process be improved and what is the new process? How much have Defects Per Millions Opportunities (DPMO) decreased?

Tools:
Process Mapping - this tool helps to represent the new process subsequent to the improvements.

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Process Capability Analysis (CPK) - in order to test the capability of process after improvement actions have been implemented to ensure we have obtained a real improvement in preventing defects. DOE (Design of Experiment) - This is a planned set of tests to define the optimum settings to obtain the desired output and validate improvements.

Control (C)
The Control phase aims to establish standard measures to maintain performance and to correct problems as needed, including problems with the measurement system. This includes:
validate measurement systems; verify process long-term capability; implement process control with control plan to ensure that the same problems dont reoccur by continually monitoring the processes that create the products or services.

Key questions:
Once defects have been reduced, how do we ensure that the improvement is sustained? What systems need to be in place to check that the improved procedures stay implemented? What do we set up to keep it going even when things change? How can improvements be shared with other relevant people in the company?

Tools:
Control Plans -t his is a single document or set of documents that documents the actions, including schedules and responsibilities that are needed to control the key process inputs variables at the optimal settings. Operating Flow Chart(s) with Control Points - this is a single chart or series of charts that visually display the new operating processes. Statistical Process Control (SPC) charts - these are charts that help to track processes by plotting data over time between lower and upper specification limits with a center line. Check Sheets - this tool enables systematic recording and compilation of data from historical sources, or observations as they happen, so that patterns and trends can be clearly detected and shown.

How does a Business Benefit from Six Sigma?

What is the final selling point of Six Sigma that excites business professionals? Why embrace Six Sigma other than to gain knowledge and lower variation in their business or manufacturing process? Here are a few key points that make Six Sigma attractive to business professional everywhere 1. Clear Value Proposition and Return on Investment Six Sigma is characterized by an unwavering focus on business return on investment. By lowering defects a manufacturer lowers materials waste, lower inventory stockpile and inefficient use of labor. This results in lowering the cost of a product and increasing the profit margin.

QualityPromoter | International A Six Sigma project can stimulate increased operating margins while at the same time increase the value businesses provide to their customers. A product that consistently meets customer satisfaction means a reduction in cancellation orders and increasing revenues for the company. In addition it lowers the cost of attracting new clients by decreasing the expenses of sales and marketing as a percent of total revenue. In addition it frees up Senior and Middle Management time to focus on value added activities. 2. Top commitment and accountability Six Sigma starts at the top. The leadership and management of an organization must actively commit to the Six Sigma initiative, by setting performance goals and developing tactical implementation plans. Management team members must be personally accountable for achieving the performance improvement goals they set for their organization and business units. 3. Customer Focus Six Sigma is driven by the concerns of the customer by meeting their satisfaction. No operational, process and business improvements can occur without a definitive understanding of who the customers are and what they need, want and willing to buy. 4. Connect business metrics Six Sigma focuses on business financials and measurable operational improvements. To support this, the Six Sigma management system must include performance measures that are readily accessible and visible to everyone whose actions or decisions determine performance levels and operational quality. 5. Process orientation Six Sigma improves the performance of processes, in how those processes effectively and efficiently transform material and other inputs into the desired product. To improve performances Six Sigma includes the design, characterization, optimization and validation of processes. A theme of many Six Sigma projects is to eliminate the "Hidden Factory," those activities associated with scrap, rework and rejects. By the gaining knowledge of a process from Six Sigma a company can predict problems before they happen and can resolve them quickly allowing for greater ease of expansion. 6. Project Focus Six Sigma is a tool by which processes and systems are characterized and optimized. The program leadership identifies opportunities for improvement projects and assigns Six Sigma specialists to address them. 7. Complete Culture Change Often Six Sigma often begins with outside consultants providing methods, tools and training, but over time, the knowledge is internalized and applied within the organization. The ultimate goal is for everyone in the organization to have a working ability to understand customer requirements,

QualityPromoter | International collect data, map processes, measure performance, identify threats and opportunities, analyze inputs and out puts and make continuous improvements. Therefore, with Six Sigma, the companys corporate culture shifts to one that includes a systematic approach to problem solving and a pro-active attitude among employees rather than allowing complacency to set in. The goal of 3.4 defects per million defect opportunities best illustrate this.

Key Roles Associated with Six Sigma Implementation

Six Sigma processes are carried out by professionals which are distinguished based on a ranking system listed below.

Champion
The Champion establishes the roles and basic makeup of the Six Sigma implementation. Champions select projects and allocate the necessary resources. They review progress and offer assistance in quantifying efforts. The Champion also keeps the project moving and in harmony, shares best practices, both within the organization and with suppliers and customers, if applicable, and applies lessons learned. The Champion provides guidance to teams on the direction of their efforts. Just as the members of a baseball team have assigned roles, so do employees taking part in a Six Sigma implementation. Taking on one of these roles is exciting and challenging. Each role requires a lot of energy and effort, but the rewards in any process improvement endeavor are many.

Master Black Belts

Master Black Belts are hands on experts who teach and mentor Black, Green, and Yellow Belts and who often own the Six Sigma training curricula and Six Sigmas knowledge content for their organizations.

Black Belts
Black Belts are the most highly trained experts in the complete set of Six Sigma methods and tools. They are highly respected for possessing the knowledge and skill required to facilitate breakthrough-level improvements in the most complex processes.

Green Belts
The Six Sigma Green Belt is trained and skilled to solve the majority of process problems in both transactional and manufacturing environments. Green Belts are process leaders, process owners, professional staff, operational specialists, managers and executives who have a significant degree of business, leadership, statistical and problem solving skills.

Yellow Belts
The Six Sigma Yellow Belt is everyone else. They are staff members, administrators, operations personnel, project team members, or anyone else - technical or non-technical. Nearly anyone

QualityPromoter | International can identify measurement scales, define critical process factors, collect some data, characterize a process, make easy improvements and cultivate opportunities. But these arguments contradict the purpose of Six Sigma. Six Sigma is designed to address variation, reduce the number of defects and standardize the manufacturing process. Essentially, uncover the Hidden Factory. This achieved by gaining knowledge of the process, manipulating the critical variables and instituting controls. Throughout the exercise of reducing the variation you are optimizing the process.

How does a company implement Six Sigma?

In an effort to expose the Hidden Factory, a company must address a series of basic questions:
Does the companys leadership understand and completely behind implementing Six Sigma? Is the company open and ready to change? Is the company hungry to learn? Is the company willing to commit resources, including people and money, to implement this initiative?

The answers to the above questions will directly impact whether or not a Six Sigma program will be successful. Implementation of Six Sigma represents a long term commitment. The success of Six Sigma projects depends substantially on the level of commitment by the senior management

What does it take for a successful implementation of Six Sigma?

It depends on several key factors including proper training and development of internal resources, and selection and appropriate utilization of outside resources. It will also include proper project selection, resource and management time requirements, relevant knowledge/experience, fair evaluation of results and cost/benefit analysis of the in-house vs. outsourcing options. If senior management is ready to implement a Six Sigma program it must first assess its current ability and need for external assistance. The following guidelines may be of interest. 1. Proper Training and Development of Internal Resources Dependence on external resources is not healthyfinancially or strategically. Rather, the external help should be utilized on an as-needed basis for very specific reasons. As a guideline, the rationale for external assistance can fall under two high- level categories. These are:
a) Assistance in training of internal resources

For successful of a Six Sigma program, it is crucial that internal knowledge and competence are first developed then continually retained. In aid in your decision on who should be trained, consider the candidates interest level, current position and background on basic statistical tools

QualityPromoter | International (or willingness to learn). It would also be beneficial that these individuals possess the knowledge of the business as well as the respect from his/her peers. As a basic rule of thumb, a black belt should deliver approximately $1M in savings or in cost-avoidance each year.
b) External Assistance in delivering bottom- line results

If the management lacks either the knowledge or the experience of running Six Sigma programs, seek external help. In doing so, resist the temptation of letting the external resources taking control of your program. It is essential that you take the lead in defining the objectives and setting the success criteria. This must be completed prior to considering asking external resources deliver specific results. The external assistance requires this information to decide which tools and techniques are best suited for the company.
c) Resource and Management Time Requirements

Six Sigma can only work if Senior Management dedicates enough budget and resources to get it off the ground properly. Senior Management must be committed to success of Six Sigma. 2. Avoid distractions. Distractions can come in many flavors. Typical list of distractions include:
Customer complaints Corrective Action Preventative Action Supplier quality problems and/or inadequate process capability; Potential major contract manufacturing decisions Compliance issues

Instead, view Six Sigma initiative as a means to effectively resolve these issues. People keep making the common mistake of believing that the Six Sigma program is yet another thing to worry about in addition to the urgent items. But Six Sigma was designed to address urgent matters such as those listed above. The management also needs to devote some time on its own to learn the basics of Six Sigma. Management does not need to know how to perform DOE and ANOVA but, at a minimum, it should be familiar with the key terms and be aware of the overall approach. 3. Relevant Knowledge and Experience There is no single, official Six Sigma training program or consistent requirements for green, black and master black belts. There are several organizations that certify people, but are not all the same. Make sure the consultants and training organizations that you are dealing with are knowledgeable. 4. Selecting Six Sigma Projects When considering taking on a Six Sigma program senior management should focus on customer satisfaction impact and critical to business success in terms of faster or larger financial return (higher revenues, lower cost, etc.). But when doing so the company should carefully

QualityPromoter | International consider the expected impact of the project as well as if there may be easier ways of solving the problem, other than a Six Sigma project. 5. Fair Evaluation of Results If there is ever a doubt whether a program was a success or not, chances are that it wasnt. Success, when it comes to bottom line improvements, should not be an entirely subjective thing. A true Six Sigma success should transform the biggest doubters into enthusiastic believers.

Managing Six Sigma projects

The company first assigns a Champion to lead a Six Sigma project and define the roles and responsibilities of relevant parties involved . The Champion is responsible for conducting project reviews on the projects effectiveness. As a result of the Champion has the authority to solve cross functional problems and assign needed resources. The Champion along with senior management is responsible for conducting regular Six Sigma training to reinforce the initiative throughout the company. It is also important to communicate progress to executive leadership and those involved in the projects. When a Six Sigma project is underway it is important to implement effective control plans including such documents as Process Maps, C&E Matrix, FMEA, Control Plan Summary and approved procedure changes to ensure that improvements are maintained Finally, the finance department involvement is critical. There are present at the very beginning of a Six Sigma project to monitor and ensure cost saving are being tracked for each Six Sigma project and is reflected on the bottom line. The project baseline and claimed improvements must be strictly verified by a finance team. . Improvements are converted into dollar amount savings whenever possible and deducted if any cost arises due to the project.

Sustaining Six Sigma

Implementing and managing a Six Sigma project is limited by how can a company sustain a Six Sigma program and ensure that its employees are executing the program objectives? Here are a few suggestions. 1. Make the Process Simple Allow employees the opportunity to contribute ideas and put them into action. 2. Allow for Employee Innovation Allow Employees and to challenge the status quo. Allow employees to be innovative and provide managers the tools to manage risk. 3. Motivate Employees with Faster Management Decision-Making Managers must be ready to make well informed decisions quickly.

QualityPromoter | International 4. Process must be Speedy To keep the employees motivated and interested the employees must experience the results quickly. Finally, a company must be continually committed to Six Sigma to reap long term benefits. Experts in the field as Greg Brue8, suggest doing the following:
Set up your database for lessons learned. Develop your ongoing project list that registers both projected and actual savings. Establish your ongoing communication plan, both externally and internally. Grow your black belt and green belt populations. Create compensation plans and progression plans for a full two years. Develop a common metric and reporting/review system that evaluates and updates the status of all projects monthly.

In the second year, you need to do the following:

Engage your key suppliers in the Six Sigma methodology. Build Six Sigma goals into company-wide strategic plans. Host quarterly reviews with senior management. Host certification events that reward and recognize black belt achievements. Develop compensation/incentive plans that include not just black belts and team members, but also upper management, to ensure continued support. Get each black belt to work on four to six projects a year. Create a "pull" system for the Six Sigma initiative; publicize the benefits so widely that you turn away potential black belt candidates because your classes are consistently full. Determine the next year's goals in the number of black belts, green belts, master black belts, project selection, and savings projections.

Required Capabilities for Six Sigma Success

Optimism, energy, enthusiasm, and anticipation are all characteristics of a healthy work environment. But you will need to add perspective, open-mindedness, and flexibility to successfully participate in Six Sigma. To effectively contribute to a Six Sigma organization you need to maintain a focused perspective, make fact-based decisions, and work toward continual improvement.

Maintain a focused perspective.

When participating in Six Sigma process improvements, you need to maintain a focused perspective on the customer. To stay focused, you need to be able to see the process you are trying to improve from beginning to end, whether that process is taking a hotel reservation or resolving a delivery problem. You also need an awareness of your customers' requirements and what your competitors are doing. Finally, you need to be able to use the entire process and your

QualityPromoter | International customers' needs as a basis for making decisions that work for the customer and the entire organization.

Make fact-based decisions.

Another key to successfully engaging in Sigma Six is to make fact-based decisions. To make fact-based decisions, you need to gather relevant data and analyze it carefully. Don't stop gathering data too soon and jump to a conclusion, and don't assume you know what your customers want without asking them. Before making any decision, do your homework. To objectively conclude which is the best decision, you must first gather sufficient data.

Work toward continual improvement.

In addition to fact-based decisions, Six Sigma also relies on a program of continual improvement. Obviously, changes should not be made solely for the sake of change. However, any change that truly benefits an organization should be embraced. Maintaining a focused perspective, making fact-based decisions, and working toward continual improvement are three of the most crucial aspects of Six Sigma process improvement. Developing these capabilities will help you to successfully participate in the Six Sigma initiative at your organization.