1. The focus of organization changes from problem solver to problem avoider.
2. Now, data is not merely a collection of facts, rather it is much well structured and in the form of Pareto charts, histograms or some surveys from customers of organization.
3. The concept of Process starts gaining importance. Everyone in the organization starts getting more involved in the processes. Employees become more aware of the processes they work in.
4. Lots of improvement teams are seen and employee participate more in such teams.
5. Employees take self-initiatives to make improvements rather than complaining about the things.

PIDOV

As DMAIC is to Six Sigma, PIDOV is to DFSS. PIDOV is Plan, Identify, Design, Optimize and Validate. A very brief description is being given here for the introduction purpose. More details will be available in forthcoming relevant articles.

Plan

Planning is to enable the team to succeed in the project by mapping all important steps.

Identify

Here Voice of Customer(VOC) is taken into account to select the best concepts for product.

Design

This phase refers to building a thorough knowledge base about the product and all of its processes.

Optimize

This phase refers to achieving a balance of quality, cost and time to market the product.

Validate

This is the last phase and refers to demonstrating with the data collected that the Voice of Customer has been heard and customer’s expectations have been met.

The source of DFSS ideas presented here is from the book”Design For Six Sigma” By Greg Brue.

Here are some of the qualities seen in organizations committing to Six Sigma:

1. Employees are given lots of trainings.
2. They are encouraged to open up their creativity.
3. Innovation is encouraged.
4. They are given goals with time lines to complete.
5. Employees are encouraged to carry out experiments, explore and mistakes.
6. Satisfied employees look for new goal within existing organization rather than looking for new jobs.
7. Employees are helped to reach out to their full potentials through proper guidance.

Three Components Required To Move To Six Sigma Culture

According to Alan Larson in the book “Demystifying Six Sigma” when some organization is adopting to Six Sigma culture the main three components for required change are:

1. Leadership
2. Participation
3. Training

Leadership

The leaders and managers transition from existing micromanagement culture to participative leadership. The leaders now learn and apply new skills. At the same time they think of customer satisfaction, continuous improvement. They help fellow employees and subordinates to grow and transition.

Participation

Participation of employees is very important part of transition to Six Sigma Culture. Employees are encouraged to participate in the transition process. When the employees are learning new skills and behaviors, they are helped fully by the superiors to help in transition process.

Training

Trainings are must for the employees participating in leadership program for Six Sigma. The are trained on new skills and behaviors. The organization allocate special budgets and times for trainings of employees. This ensures that the employees are adapting to the changes. This also ensures that the employees are gaining and applying new skills in the transition process.

All of the above components help employees to move from unfamiliarity of new skills and behaviors to mastery of knowledge and skills.

Information Flow Diagrams

The teams selected in Six Sigma organizations find consistent approaches which can be repeated again and again when a problem arises. The problems are also referred to as concerns and opportunities. For this purpose information flow diagrams and their knowledge helps a lot.

The major components¹ of information flow diagrams are:

1. Sensory Inputs
2. Recognition
3. Evaluation
4. Response

Six Sigma Problem Solving Steps

The following are the steps¹ to solve problems according to Six Sigma.

1. Think about all phases of problem.
2. Select the subareas of problem to be solved.
3. Think of all possible data which can help in problem solving process.
4. Select the data sources.
5. Think of all of the possibilities which can contribute to problem.
6. Think of which ideas can lead to the solution of the problem.
7. List all of the possible ways with which we can test our solutions.
8. Select the best ways to carryout testing.
9. Finally decide about the final answer.

Six Sigma The Road To Continual Improvement

Six Sigma concepts lead organizations to process optimization. The following are some of the areas where improvement¹ is expected:

1. Eliminate the waste of waiting
2. Minimize inventory
3. Eliminate overproduction
4. Eliminate correction (repair)
5. Minimize material movement
6. Eliminate wasted processing
7. Utilize the best-known method
8. Simplify the process
9. Optimize the system
10. Improve flexibility
11. Provide consistent direction
12. Focus on the process
13. Reduce variation
14. Improve uptime
15. Improve understanding
16. Reduce cost
17. Improve quality
18. Eliminate bottlenecks or constraints
    
    

¹“Six Sigma and Beyond: Problem Solving and Basic Mathematics” By D. H. Stamatis

In Control phase the improved system is institutionalized by various activities like modifying compensation and incentive systems, policies etc. The processes are standardized and statistical tools are used to measure the stability of the new system.

In his book “The Six Sigma Handbook”, Thomas Pyzdek provides some ways to keep the system up and running. The ways are listed as below:

1. Policy changes
2. New standards
3. Modify procedures
4. Modify quality appraisal and audit criteria
5. Update prices and contract bid models
6. Change engineering drawings
7. Change manufacturing planning
8. Revise accounting systems
9. Revise budgets
10. Revise manpower forecasts
11. Modify training
12. Change information systems

There are some tools to help in the control phase. These are listed below for help in control phase of the DMAIC process:

1. Project planning
2. Brainstorming.
3. Force-field diagram
4. Process decision program chart
5. Failure mode and effect analysis

1. Project Management
2. Risk Assessment
3. Process Simulation
4. Design of Experiments
5. Robust Design Concepts
6. Process Optimization

The major steps followed are¹:

1. Generating Solutions
2. Selecting Solutions
3. Creating Future Process Maps²

Generating Solutions

Solutions are designed based upon the root causes of the problems in processes which cause variations. The major aims of these solution is to optimize the process.

Selecting Solutions

Out of the generated solutions, few or more solutions are chosen based on various criteria. The ultimate aim of providing solutions is process optimization. Detailed study of the process during Define, Measurement and Analysis phases acts as a guide to selection of the solutions. Various experiments are conducted. While implementing the solutions, Sigma is recalculated and then solutions are prioritized. This process is conducted till the goals of Six Sigma in the process is reached or nearly reached.

Creating Future Process Maps

Once the solutions are selected, the other plans come in picture so that future process maps can be produced. The following are the steps taken to create future process maps:

1. Listing best practices in the process area.
2. Standardizing best practices.

¹The ideas in this book are presented with the help of the book: “Six Sigma For Everyone” written by: George Eckes.

²The Six Sigma Project Planner By Thomas Pyzdek.

Three Steps in Analysis Phase¹

The three major steps are:

1. Data Analysis
2. Process Analysis
3. Root Cause Analysis

Data Analysis

This step is the analysis of the data collected during measurement phase of DMAIC process. Now how the data will be analyzed depends upon the type of data collected. Mainly two types of data is there discrete and continuous. So analysis methods are also different. These are listed below:

Discrete Data Analysis

1. Pareto Analysis.
2. Pie Charts.

Continuous Data Analysis

1. Frequency Distribution Check Sheets.
2. Run Charts.

Process Analysis

The process analysis step is related with quantifying the current process. Various steps are taken during this phase. The major aim is to find out the areas producing variation from desired results and hence improving upon the effeciency of the process. This analysis is listed as below:

1. Mapping of subprocess under the main process. This helps to picturize the process.
2. To list any steps which are listed in the process but don’t add any value to the process.
3. Where in the process, the problems are found.

Root Cause Analysis²

Whatever problems are found in the process analysis, have some root cause. In this step we try to find out the root cause of the problems in the process. The root cause analysis has main three steps:

Open Step

During this step all the ideas are brainstormed and collected but no evaluation of the ideas is done yet. Full team participates in the process.

Narrow Step

During this step the ideas collected are evaluated. Then problem of sigma is narrowed down to the specific reasons and rest of the ideas are eliminated.

Close Step

During this last step the ideas are validated and noted for further analysis and experimentation.

¹The content help has been taken from the book “The Six Sigma Handbook” by “THOMAS PYZDEK”.

²The ideas in this book are presented with the help of the book: “Six Sigma For Everyone” written by: George Eckes.

Measurement

Measurement is quantifying anything into numbers. So when anything is expressed in number then we say that we have measured that thing. This helps to relate the objects to other objects in comparitive terms. For example if we note the time taken for a particular process to completethen we say that we have measured the completion time of the process. After that we can compare the process to other similar processes and relate as well in terms of time taken for completion.

According to Harington¹ the measurement scales are of four types:

Nominal

Nominal values are presence or absence of some attributes. Like success or failure.

Ordinal

The ordinal values are comparitives. Like one process is longer than other one.

Interval

Interval is the difference between two points of measurements. Examples are time, weighing scale etc.

Ratio

Two quantities in relation to each other. Mathematical operations can be applied on these. For example length, time and weight.

Properties of Measurement

In order that the measured data is useful for the process improvement, it should be reliable and valid.

Reliability of Data

The data is reliable if we can reproduce the same data with the same methods again and again, even if taken from different sources. The lesser the bias from the same value, more the reliability.

Validity of Data

The data is said to be valid if our are of interest is covered sufficiently so that area of interest is represented fully.

Steps in Measurement

There are main two steps in data measurement related with a process:

1. Data collection plan.
2. Implementation of Data Collection Plan.

Data Collection Plan^2,3

The data collection plan has various subparts. These are listed below:

1. What to measure.
2. Type of measurement.
3. Type of Data.
4. Operational Definitions.
5. Targets/Specifications.
6. Data Collection Forms.
7. Sampling.

Implementation of Data Collection Plan

The data is collected as per previous step and then it’s used to calculate the baseline sigma. Baseline Sigma is the number of defects per million. In other terms deviation(variation) is measured from mean value.

¹The content help has been taken from the book “The Six Sigma Handbook” by “THOMAS PYZDEK”.

²The ideas in this book are presented with the help of the book: “Six Sigma For Everyone” written by: George Eckes.

³The Six Sigma Project Planner By Thomas Pyzdek.

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The objectives of define step are:

1. To prepare project teams
2. To create charter
3. To determine the needs of customers.
4. To create a high-level map of the current process.

While preparing the project charter the following are included:

Mission statement: This defines why the project is being done.

The problem statement: This defines the problem very clearly and concisely.

Goals and scope of Project: What we want out of the project. What the team should strive for in the project.

Milestones: Where should the team be in DMAIC process and when. This helps to keep everyone on the track and toes.

Determining the needs of customers

All projects are based on customers. So, on the basis of input from customers also called Voice of Customers, process improvement targets are defined.

Creating High-Level Map of Current Process

The current process is mapped to a physical picture. This helps everyone understand the process in clear details.The process map includes:

1. process name
2. start and stop points
3. customers of process
4. inputs to process
5. outputs of process
6. suppliers of process etc.

Tools used during Define stage

Several tools are available in Six Sigma for use during define stage. Some of the tools are listed below:

1. Check Sheets
2. Pareto Analysis
3. Cause and Effect Diagrams
4. 7M Tools for Quality Management
5. Data Mining

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An introduction to Six Sigma. This video shows Q-Skills Six Sigma module. It provides a basic understanding of Six Sigma.
It is designed for training people of any skill level from any industry. Existing clients include Microsoft, Florida Power & Light, GE, Kodak and hundreds of others.
The Six Sigma module allows training large numbers of people at low cost. It suits companies with a good understanding of quality improvement who want to avoid Six Sigmas well known flaws.
This module as well as a module covering Lean, may be selected to be included in the training from the Q-Skills administrator’s menu.