Going Into a Six Sigma Improvement

Tomorrow, I will be conducting my first interview for my Six Sigma special project. I’ll be interviewing the Six Sigma Team Leader, a Samsung-Certified Black Belt, of Samsung Electro-Mechanics Philippines. I have already e-mailed him the questions and he e-mailed back saying he would prepare for the interview tomorrow.

So today, I read up some more on Six Sigma deployments. Shree Phadnis wrote a very good material in his article, “Six Sigma Deployment,” in isixsigma.com.

According to Phadnis, a good Six Sigma deployment starts with establishing a good infrastructure. This structure, or organizational dashboard, is the organization of the project itself that will go through the DMAIC methodology.

D: Define the Strategic Direction of the organization
M: Set Measures for the strategic objectives of the organization
A: On a continual basis collect data on the measures set and analyse using Six Sigma tools and techniques
I: Identify the opportunities for improvement and convert them to Six Sigma projects for improvement
C: Set up a management control action of continuous reviews on the improvements made on the Six Sigma Projects

The first step into this is identifying the various areas that need improvement. This can be done by determining the gaps using the Approach-Deployment-Results interview. Whatever the Six Sigma team finds out, it will have to share it with top management and the employees. The rationale behind the need for Six Sigma should be shared by everyone in the organization.

Once the areas for improvement are identified, the team will now explore the strategies for growth and customer statisfaction. It will be best to develop a strategy map that will validate the linkages in the organization. The same map can also help link the business processes to the organization’s strategic goals. It is therefore necessary to identify first all the core processes and support processes first. The following perspectives will be helpful:

1. Financial Perspective - shareholders must understand the financial objectives the team should accomplish.

2. Customer Perspective - identify what customer needs should be satisfied to achieve the financial objectives.

3. Internal Perspective - satisfy the shareholders and the customers, in which internal business processes should be improved

4. Learning Perspective - let management understand what the organization needs to learn and innovate to achieve the goals.

The same questions can also be answered through a balanced scorecard. You can view an illustration here.

This deployment process tells us that a Six Sigma deployment does not, and should not, only involve the project teams and management, but also the shareholders and the customers. In other words, everyone that is the reason for the organization’s existence is involved. We’ll see if this is really the case.

Source: Six Sigma Deployment

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Managing Time During Six Sigma Projects

Deploying Six Sigma projects is one exciting time for organizations. This is in fact a critical time. Foremost consideration is putting up a solid infrastructure and give each key person good training. Comprising the infrastructure are the Champions, the Black Belts, and the Green Belts. Remember that leadership and management commitment also plays an important part.

Let’s assume that you have addressed most of the issues and your organization is well on its way to launching and undergoing the Six Sigma project. Another crucial issue is time—long project cycle times. Obviously, if the longer the project runs the more expense is rolled out, too. Just imagine for a project that produces cost savings at a run rate of $30,000 per month leaves $150,000 on the table when it takes nine months versus four months to complete!

A greater impact is on the commitment of management. To drag cycle time of Six Sigma projects will put doubts on management and they would think twice if the project is indeed worth it.

Just so the companies that are undergoing Six Sigma projects, here are some of the common reasons for extending cycle time, and which every organization should avoid.

* Lack of reliable data on the process selected for improvement
* Re-scheduling of team meetings and “toll gate” reviews
* Changes in project scope
* Shifting of management priorities
* Resistance to change

On top of these five reasons is the failure sometimes to get people run the business while the others are working on the Six Sigma project. Management therefore should now how to involve non-belt people in the organization. Involve the people in the frontline to take action.

Rick Tucci recommend faster quick wins and deployment solutions by “leaving the detailed analysis to the Belts and engage the frontline in the heavy lifting of implementation.” Read more…

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Six Sigma Training for Toshiba IP Staff

Toshiba Information Equipment (Philippines), Inc. (TIP) is a fully owned Toshiba facility. Toshiba is a leading manufacturer of servers, desktop, and laptop computers. TIP, which is based in Laguna Technopark, Philippines, is a global supply factory that produces notebooks for all Toshiba sales sites around the world.

Considering the demand for computers these days, the company has a pretty impressive global supply chain management.

The process starts with determining production volume, demand forecast for notebook production by gathering the final production volume from various subsidaries and consolidated in TIP’s Information System. Global procurement of parts and components takes place on a weekly basis. Some parts such as Harddisks and PCBs are manufactured in-house. When all the parts and components are ready, the notebooks are assembled by hand, tested and then boxed up. All freshly-minted notebooks that roll off the assembly lines are shipped to Toshiba America, Canada, Europe, Australia and Asia. You can view the figure, showing the key worldwide supply role that TIP plays in Toshiba’s PC business here.

Obviously, the company is continuously striving to be the world’s No. 1 manufacturer. To walk the talk, its manufacturing process is ISO certified for Quality (ISO 9001:2000) and for Environment Management System (ISO 14001).

Further, its factory floor only has the qualified, experienced technicians and engineering support staff, who are routinely trained and committed to use Six Sigma methodologies.

How they are actually able to reduce manufacturing defects by improving processes makes for yet another interesting study. View its PC manufacturing process here.

Filed under: Six Sigma Organizations

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Six Sigma @ First Sumiden Circuits, Inc.

One of the Philippine-based manufacturing companies that I’m going to study is the First Sumiden Circuits Inc. FSCI is a joint venture among Sumitomo Electric Industries, Inc., First Holdings Corporation, and Sumitomo Corporation. The company is working to be the world’s leading manufacturer of Flexible Printed Circuits. As such, among its corporate values are: customer satisfaction, discipline, teamwork, and continuous improvement.

Aren’t these values echo that of Six Sigma methodology?

Yes. That is because in the First Holdings Group, First Sumiden is at the forefront of Six Sigma implementation. FSCI started implementing Six Sigma in 2001. Several projects later, the company now has realized total savings of US$ 1.48 million.

In 2003, its Six Sigma Core Team received an Award for Operations Management for deploying Six Sigma as a business process. Then in 2004, the company added to its corporate manager, a corporate director and black belt to strengthen its Six Sigma implementation. They have also set new trainings to increase the number of Six Sigma experts. By May of the same year, the corporate director and black belt were invited to present 2 papers and conduct a workshop at the Asian Six Sigma Summit 2005 in Singapore. Six other executives from the group also participated in the Summit.

Realizing the benefits and savings that First Sumiden has been experiencing because of Six Sigma, two other affiliate companies of First Holdings Groups (FHG), the Philec and AEI, have started their Six Sigma journeys. And FHG hopes to have more companies start their own Six Sigma initiatives and enjoy the benefits.

A Six Sigma organization and an awardee at that. First Sumiden will be a very interesting subject to study indeed.

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