The Six Sigma system acts as process management or movement, which provides ways for creating, monitoring, and improving processes in an organization. A result of this process management is system alignment, where you begin to determine the Xs and the Ys in your process. The Xs are indicators of change or performance, while the Ys are the measures of the performance of the business.
The formula is Y=f(X) or Y is a function of X. This means that changes or variables in the inputs or processes of the system determine the final product.
The Y can mean a strategic goal, a customer requirement, or profits. While the X can refer to essential actions to achieve strategic goals, the quality of work done, or the key influences on customer satisfaction.
How then do you measure your Xs and Ys?
Initially, you need to understand the concept of Sigma (s). Sigma is a symbol used in statistics to represent “standard deviation” of a population. A standard deviation is an indicator or the amount of “variation” or inconsistency in any group of items or processes. Variations therefore help Management assess the real performance of the business and its processes.
In Six Sigma, these variations are also called defects. A defect therefore “is any instance or event in which the product or process fails to meet a customer requirement.” In other words, Six Sigma reduces or narrows variation, or standard deviation, to answer the demand of customer or satisfy him.
The following are some issues you need to address to satisfy your customers:
1. Establish the so-called “critical to quality characteristics,” or CTQs. This is also known as “key results” or “Ys of the process” or specification limits.
2. Design a metric to count the defects.
3. Calculate the “yield” or percentage of items without defects.
4. Determine the Sigma level using a conversion table. Sigma levels of performance are often expressed in “Defects per Million Opportunities” or DPMO.
Aside from these issues, you keep in mind the following strategies:
1.Process improvement is a strategy of developing focused solutions to eliminate the root causes of the problems of a business performance. It is also referred to as continuous improvement, incremental improvement, or Kaizen (Japanese term for continuous improvement).
2. Process design/redesign aims to build a better business. Redesigning involves replacing a process, or a piece of a process, with a new one. Six Sigma Design uses Six Sigma principles to create new goods and services patterned after customer needs.
3. Process management creating infrastructure for Six Sigma Leadership that facilitates processes. These processes are the flow of work that provides value to customers and shareholders.
As a final tip, to achieve maximum process improvement, you must create a Six Sigma improvement model. The model is a five-phase improvement cycle: Define-Measure-Analyze-Improve-Control (DMAIC). This model is grounded in the original PDCA cycle designed by W. Edwards Deming. The Plan-Do-Check-Act describes the basic logic of data-based process improvement.
