Introduction of Six Sigma
Globalization and instant access to information, products
and services have changed the way our customers conduct business — old business models no
longer work. Today’s competitive environment leaves no room for error. We must delight our
customers and relentlessly look for new ways to exceed their expectations. This is why Six Sigma
Quality has become a part of our culture.
First, what it is not. It is not a secret society, a slogan
or a cliché. Six Sigma is a highly disciplined process that helps us focus on developing and
delivering near-perfect products and services. Why ”Sigma“? The word is a statistical term
that measures how far a given process deviates from perfection. The central idea behind
Six Sigma is that if you can measure how many “defects” you have in a process, you can
systematically figure out how to eliminate them and get as close to “zero defects” as
possible. Six Sigma has changed the DNA of GE — it is
now the way we work — in everything we do and in every product we design
GE’s Evolution Towards Quality
GE began moving towards a focus on quality in the late ‘80s.
Work-Out®, the start of our journey, opened our culture to ideas from everyone,
everywhere, decimated the bureaucracy and made boundary less behavior a
reflexive, natural part of our culture, thereby creating the learning
environment that led to Six Sigma. Now, Six Sigma, in turn, is embedding quality
thinking — process thinking — across every level and in every operation of our Company
around the globe.
Work-Out® in the 1980s defined how we behave. Today, Six
Sigma is defining how we work and has set the stage for making our customers
feel Six Sigma.
Key Elements of Quality...Customer,
Process and Employee
There are three key elements of
quality: customer, process and employee. Everything we do to remain a
world-class quality company focuses on these three essential elements.
...the
Customer
1.
Delighting Customers
Customers are the center of GE’s
universe: they define quality. They expect performance, reliability,
competitive prices, on-time delivery, service, clear and correct transaction
processing and more. In every attribute that influences customer perception, we
know that just being good is not enough. Delighting our customers is a
necessity. Because if we don’t do it, someone else will!
...the
Process
2.
Outside-In Thinking
Quality requires us to look at our
business from the customer’s perspective, not ours. In other words, we must
look at our processes from the outside-in. By understanding the transaction lifecycle
from the customer’s needs and processes, we can discover what they are seeing
and feeling. With this knowledge, we can identify areas where we can add significant
value or improvement
from
their perspective.
...the
Employee
3. Leadership
Commitment
People create results. Involving all
employees is essential to GE’s quality approach. GE is committed to providing
opportunities and incentives for employees to focus their talents and energies
on satisfying customers.
All GE employees are trained in the
strategy, statistical tools and techniques of Six Sigma quality. Training
courses are offered at various levels:
Ø
Quality Overview Seminars: basic Six Sigma
awareness.
Ø
Team Training: basic tool introduction to
equip employees to participate on Six Sigma teams.
Ø
Master Black Belt, Black Belt and Green Belt
Training: in-depth quality training that includes high-level statistical tools,
basic quality control tools, Change Acceleration Process and Flow technology
tools.
Ø
Design for Six Sigma (DFSS) Training: prepares
teams for the use of statistical tools to design it right the first time.
Quality is the responsibility of every
employee. Every employee must be involved, motivated
and knowledgeable if we are to
succeed.
The Six Sigma Strategy
To achieve Six Sigma quality, a
process must produce no more than 3.4 defects per million opportunities. An “opportunity”
is defined as a chance for nonconformance, or not meeting the required
specifications. This means we need to be nearly flawless in executing our key
processes. Six Sigma is a vision we strive toward and a philosophy that is part
of our business culture.
Key
Concepts of Six Sigma
At its core, Six Sigma revolves around
a few key concepts.
Critical
to Quality: Attributes most important to the customer
Defect: Failing
to deliver what the customer wants
Process
Capability: What your process can deliver
Variation: What the
customer sees and feels
Stable
Operations: Ensuring consistent, predictable processes to improve what the
customer sees and feels
Design
for Six Sigma: Designing to meet customer needs and process capability
Our Customers Feel the Variance, Not
the Mean
Often, our inside-out view of the
business is based on average or mean-based measures of our recent past.
Customers don’t judge us on averages, they feel the variance in each
transaction, each product we ship. Six Sigma focuses first on reducing process
variation and then on improving the process capability.
Customers value consistent,
predictable business processes that deliver world-class levels of quality. This
is what Six Sigma strives to produce.
GE’s Commitment to Quality
GE’s success with Six Sigma has
exceeded our most optimistic predictions. Across the Company, GE associates embrace
Six Sigma’s customer-focused, data-driven philosophy and apply it to everything
we do. We are building on these successes by sharing best practices across all
of our businesses, putting the full power of GE behind our quest for better,
faster customer solutions.
Glossary of Terms and Definitions
Quality
Approaches and Models
DFSS – (Design for Six Sigma) is a systematic methodology utilizing tools, training and measurements to enable us to design products and processes that meet customer expectations and can be produced at Six Sigma quality levels. DMAIC – (Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve and Control) is a process for continued improvement. It is systematic, scientific and fact based. This closed-loop process eliminates unproductive steps, often focuses on new measurements, and applies technology for improvement. Six Sigma – A vision of quality which equates with only 3.4 defects per million opportunities for each product or service transaction. Strives for perfection. |
Quality
Terms
Black Belt – Leaders of team responsible for measuring, analyzing, improving and controlling key processes that influence customer satisfaction and/or productivity growth. Black Belts are full-time positions. Control – The state of stability, normal variation and predictability. Process of regulating and guiding operations and processes using quantitative data. CTQ: Critical to Quality (Critical “Y”) – Element of a process or practice which has a direct impact on its perceived quality. Customer Needs, Expectations – Needs, as defined by customers, which meet their basic requirements and standards. |
Quality
Tools
Associates are exposed to various tools and terms related to quality. Below are just a few of them. Control Chart – Monitors variance in a process over time and alerts the business to unexpected variance which may cause defects. Defect Measurement – Accounting for the number or frequency of defects that cause lapses in product or service quality. Pareto Diagram – Focuses on efforts or the problems that have the greatest potential for improvement by showing relative frequency and/or size in a descending bar graph. Based on the proven Pareto principle: 20% of the sources cause 80% of any problems. Process Mapping – Illustrated description of how things get done, which enables participants to visualize an entire process and identify areas of strength and weaknesses. It helps reduce cycle time and defects while recognizing the value of individual contributions. Root Cause Analysis – Study of original reason for nonconformance with a process. When the root cause is removed or corrected, the nonconformance will be eliminated. Statistical Process Control – The application of statistical methods to analyze data, study and monitor process |
Defects –
Sources of customer irritation. Defects are costly to both customers and to
manufacturers or service providers. Eliminating defects provides cost
benefits.
Green Belt – Similar to Black Belt but not a full-time position. Master Black Belt – First and foremost teachers. They also review and mentor Black Belts. Selection criteria for Master Black Belts are quantitative skills and the ability to teach and mentor. Master Black Belts are full-time positions. Variance – A change in a process or business practice that may alter its expected outcome. |
Origin of Six Sigma
·
Motorola
in 1980’s
·
Original
statistics and formulae: Bill Smith, a senior engineer & Scientist at
Motorola in 80’s supported by the CEO Bob Galvin
·
Jack
Germaine, quality director for implementing Six Sigma throughout Motorola and
around the world
Impact of Six Sigma
·
GEMS: Six Sigma designs produced a
ten-fold increase in the life of CT scanner x-ray tubes, increasing the uptime
of these machines and level of patient care
·
The term “Sigma” is used
to designate the distribution or spread about the mean (average) of any process
or procedure.
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·
For
a business process, the sigma capability is a metric that indicates how
well that process is performing.
Classical view on Quality 99%
Good(3.8 Sigma)
|
The Six Sigma view of Quality
99.99966% Good(6 Sigma)
|
20,000 lost articles of mail per hour
|
Seven articles lost per hour
|
Unsafe drinking water for almost 15 minutes each day
|
One unsafe minute every seven months
|
5,000 incorrect surgical operations per week
|
1.7 incorrect operations per week
|
Two short or long landings at most major airports each day
|
One short or long landing every five years
|
600 new policies/month delivered with errors
|
1 new policy delivered with errors every 5 months
|
180,000 lost calls each year
|
61 lost calls each year
|
No electricity for almost seven hours each month
|
One hour without electricity every 34 years
|
Six Sigma’s Problem
Solving Approach
Five Phase DMAIC
Methodology
Six Sigma Jargon
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