Six Sigma: A Step-by-Step Guide

Six Sigma has taken the world by storm. Businesses the world over have been using the technique to optimize their processes and workflows. Six Sigma was introduced by Bill Smith while he worked at Motorola in the late 80s. 

Six Sigma provides businesses with a set of tools that help them improve their performance and product quality resulting in greater customer satisfaction. Let’s try to understand the fundamentals of Six Sigma in greater detail.

The Goal of Six Sigma Practices

Six Sigma aims to reduce the probability of defects occurring in a process. ‘Defects’ refer to errors, poor quality, poor productivity, and the like. 

The term ‘Six Sigma’ refers to sigma, i.e., the standard deviation in a dataset. The objective is to create six sigmas to have very low defect rates, precisely 3.4 errors in a million. In other words, error-free products are produced 99.99966% of the time. While this might appear to be an unrealistic objective, it can be attained with the right tools and approach. Six Sigma provides exactly that framework for businesses to rely on.

Define

The Six Sigma process begins with a manager identifying the business goals and challenges. A process map will be created and customer requirements will be documented in a bid to understand them better.

Measure

Before beginning the optimizations, it is imperative to first study the current state of the processes deployed at various levels. To measure performance, data is collected pertaining to process performance from across touchpoints. It is important to ensure the data acquired is reliable and accurate as this forms the foundation for the next steps.

Analyze

This involves analyzing the data collected in the previous step to identify current challenges and what’s causing them.

Improve

At this stage, solutions are proposed to tackle the problems identified. Managers will implement the new solutions and continue measuring performance. Creative ideas are encouraged to propose ways to overcome challenges.

Control

The Control step involves adding controls to the processes to keep them moving in the right direction. Managers will still continue monitoring the data. The successes will be learned from and applied elsewhere in other processes. 

Shortcomings of Six Sigma

Six Sigma might sometimes become too methodological leaving little room for a flexible and innovative approach. The approach can be a little rigid at times, especially for certain organizations that extensively harness creativity. 

Six Sigma also does not allow for the use of new tools even though they might be useful for the organization. The approach requires strict adherence from across all teams so it usually becomes difficult to introduce new experiments.

In a Nutshell

Six Sigma combines both quantitative and qualitative measures to improve business processes. The goal is to minimize errors or defects as much as possible. This results in improved product quality, reduced costs, and greater customer satisfaction. 

Implementing Six Sigma in practice requires a comprehensive understanding of the issues causing defects and wastes. 

Six Sigma can also be blended with Lean practices, which results in the Lean Six Sigma approach. Lean Six Sigma reduces waste and cuts the cycle time short in addition to reducing errors.