What Makes Six Sigma Initiative Work?
Posted by: meikah | 21 July 2008 | 8:52 pm
I stumbled upon an interesting article on ezineseeker that says that Six Sigma is more than just number crunching. It is data-driven alright and analysis laden, but what makes it really work?
The article says it well.
…those who know Six Sigma have learned enough to be wary of excessive “number crunching” that does not lead to performance improvement. It is not the measurements or the reports that create solutions; it is the Six Sigma team itself. Once a problem’s root causes are determined in the analysis phase of a Six Sigma project, the team works together to find creative new improvement solutions. The data is used and relied upon—it is the measurements of the realities you face! Yet it is smart measurement and smart analysis of the data—and above all the smart creation of new improvement solutions and their implementation—that create real change.
Six Sigma is more than a data-capturing, number-crunching process. It is a philosophy and a methodology; it is a way of looking at business and a way of doing business processes. Six Sigma provides a structured data-driven methodology with tools and techniques by application of which companies can measure the baseline performance of their processes and determine the root causes of variations, as well as improve their processes to meet and exceed the desired performance levels. Six Sigma is a technique to introduce controlled thinking into a continuous change management method. It is a desire to constantly improve a product or service offered.
So for the naysayers out there, perhaps you need to reexamine and refocus your quality improvement strategies.
Filed under: Six Sigma Organizations, Team Dynamics, Six Sigma
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Mentor Graphics Uses Design For Six Sigma
Posted by: meikah | 21 July 2008 | 7:53 pm
TradingMarkets reports:
Mentor Graphics, a supplier of electronic design automation systems, has announced that its virtual prototyping tool, SystemVision, will support Design for Six Sigma methodologies to achieve cost-effective design innovation by a model-driven development process.
The development process for a product made up of a complex blend of hardware and software, analog and digital signals, sensors and actuators, and a mix of disciplines, such as electrical, mechanical, or hydraulic, is difficult to manage efficiently. At the same time, using physical prototyping to optimize the design for manufacturability becomes prohibitively expensive, cumbersome, and time consuming.
Design for Six Sigma (DFSS) methodologies combined with model-driven development can result in order-of-magnitude improvements in both productivity and quality when virtual prototyping, automated data collection, and statistical analyses are used to guide the model-driven development process.
Filed under: Benefits and Savings, Six Sigma Organizations, Deployment, DFSS, Six Sigma
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GE: From Six Sigma to Lean Six Sigma
Posted by: meikah | 20 July 2008 | 9:10 pm
At GE, at the helm of their Six Sigma initiative is their CIO, Gary Reiner. Since GE’s massive Six Sigma initiative in 1996, Mr. Reiner has been at the forefront of GE’s Six Sigma deployment, and oversees the company’s $55 billion of annual sourcing.
The company started with Six Sigma, and it’s interesting to know that GE’s Six Sigma has morphed into Lean Six Sigma. In an interview with Geoff Colvin, senior editor at large for Fortune Magazine, Reiner shares some of his thoughts and plans for the Lean Six Sigma initiative at GE.
Here are some snippets.
What does Jeff Immelt want from you?
Three things. My responsibilities are information technology, Lean Six Sigma, and sourcing.You’ve been in charge of GE’s Six Sigma initiative since it started, in 1996. Are you still getting value out of it?
We’ve been aggressively trying to migrate away from talking about tools and instead to talking about outcomes. Six Sigma is a tool. It is a wonderful tool, but it is a tool. What we’re talking more about as a company is outcomes, and the two outcomes we really want are product reliability and customer responsiveness.So we start with that and work our way back to what tools are needed to make that happen. For product reliability, the Six Sigma tools are sensational. On the responsiveness side, it’s often less about using Six Sigma and more about getting the right people in the room to map out how long it takes for us to do something in front of customers and, using mostly common sense, take out those things that get in the way of meeting our customer needs responsibly.
For example?
In our GE Money business we offer private-label finance to retailers. We are the financing behind jewelry stores and pharmacies and the like. Sad to say, it was taking 63 days from when a retailer contacted us saying it wanted to consider using us as a private-label financier until it could conduct the first transaction with our financing. No one had calculated this before we went on this journey.We did a number of what we call lean workouts, where we get everybody in the room to map out the process, and they got it down from 63 days to one day. The leader of that business was able to go out and have as his marketing campaign, “Enroll today. Transact tomorrow.” When we did that, sales doubled. And there are 30 examples of that throughout the company.
No wonder GE has been successful in their Six Sigma initiatives. They have understood the role of Six Sigma or Lean Six Sigma, which is a tool, in their process improvement, and work around that premise. They have a goal, which is product reliability and customer responsiveness, and they have focused their Six Sigma initiative with that end goal in mind.
It’s always about a goal and a focus.
Update:
GE: The Heat on Immelt
Filed under: Manufacturing, Lean Six Sigma, Six Sigma Organizations, Deployment, GE, Technology, Six Sigma
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Can’t Six Sigma Save GM?
Posted by: meikah | 17 July 2008 | 2:27 am
General Motors (GM) was the company to beat: innovative, efficient, successful! Its growth and success was perhaps unprecedented.
About five years ago, an article on BNET shares how Six Sigma is driving quality at GM, and is enjoying great benefits and savings. Because of DFSS and Six Sigma, GM had increased vehicle quality while lowering costs and improving its products’ reliability and durability.
Fast forward to 2008, GM is set to sell assets, borrow money, and cut jobs to raise up to $15 billion. The company has been having huge problems for years now, and a silver lining is not in the offing.
It’s sad to hear successful companies going downhill. My question now is can’t Six Sigma save GM? Can’t they do a DMAIC?
Update:
GM Cuts: Time to Panic? Depends Who You Ask
Filed under: Manufacturing, Six Sigma, Brand Strategy, GM
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Lean Six Sigma and Process Analytical Technology (PAT)
Posted by: meikah | 17 July 2008 | 12:38 am
According to the iSixSigma article:
PAT is a scientific program designed to reduce risk and is, essentially, about improving processes for effectiveness and efficiency in the pharmaceutical industry. PAT consists of four basic components:
- Process understanding
- Risk-reduction-based approach
- Regulatory strategy to accommodate innovation
- Real-time release
From the definition alone, it’s quite obvious that it is a perfect fit with Lean Six Sigma. Because like PAT, Lean Six Sigma:
- breaks down processes to make them more manageable
- works toward streamlining processes to reduce waste or risk
- encourages and supports innovation
- improves processes to achieve efficiency
Care to add to the list of reasons?
