Demystifying Six Sigma 22/09/2011 Six Sigma is about applying a structured, scientific method to improve any aspect of a business,

organization, process or person. SS engages in disciplined data collection and analysis to determine best ways to meet and guarantee customer needs and satisfaction while minimizing wasted resources and maximising profit in the process. Six Sigma performance is the Statistical term for process that produces 3.4 defects/errors per million of opportunities for defects. SS treats the processes in a business/organization so that they deliver their intended results reliably and consistently. Important characteristics are referred to as CTXs where C Critical T To X Quality, Cost, Time, satisfaction etc whatever the characteristic is linked to eg a Critical-to-Quality characteristic = CTQ All of Six Sigma initiatives begin with one general purpose equation: BREAKTHROUGH EQUATION y = f (x) + e Y:- Desired outcome/result X:- Inputs that are required to create outcome F:- Function, way or process through which input is transformed to outcome E:- presence of error in terms of uncertainty in depending upon the inputs and transformation function to actually create desired outcome.

The characterization, analysis, measurement and control of VARIATIONS and ultimately reduction or elimination of unwanted variation are a central theme to Sigma Six improvements. Six Sigma Personnel: 1. Deployment Leader: Ensures alignment of corporate strategic goals with business unit deployment plans. Selects SS Champions 2. Six Sigma Champion: Responsible for dissemination and successful application of Six Sigma technical know-how. Selects Black, Green and yellow belts. Ensures they are appropriately trained, tasked and deployed. Reports progress against target metrics to deployment leaders and stakeholders. In smaller organisations above 2 roles may be combined and filled by one individual. 3. Core Team: Ensures completeness of deployment throughout the organisation and is made up of cross-functional core leadership team. 4. Black Belt: This is Six Sigma highest level of skills. They are most highly trained experts in Six Sigma complete set of tools and methods and are masters at statistical problem solving. They are extensively trained, typically work full-time on Six Sigma projects, are accomplished with teaching skills and work with and mentor other practitioners. They possess knowledge and skills required to facilitate break-through level

improvements in the most complex of processes. Typically number 1-2% of the organisation. 5. Green Belts: Trained and skilled to solve majority of process problems in organisations. They are typically process owners, process leaders, professional staff, operational specialists, managers and executives with significant degrees of business leadership, statistical and problem-solving skills. Typically number 5-10% of the organisation. 6. Yellow Belts: Six Sigma yellow belts are Everyone Else. Goal of Yellow belts is to think in a data-driven, cause-effect process manner and apply this thinking to their areas of work. DFSS :- Acronym for Design for Six Sigma is an approach for planning, configuring, qualifying and launching products/services/processes/system etc to move quality upstream in an organisation. A six sigma culture starts with a clear understanding of who the customers are and what is required to complete customer satisfaction. How to build a workforce that is totally committed to success of the company. Data systems must be established to measure and monitor customer satisfaction, improvement goals must be set and programs initiated to achieve these goals. In a nutshell Six Sigma culture is completely focused on being result oriented, fuelled by continuous improvement and customer satisfaction. Key Elements of Six Sigma are: Focused on Customer Satisfaction Data Reach out-goals Team based All employees involvement Personal growth Clear definition and understanding of roles

Every Six sigma process is a closed-loop system of interactions where customer satisfaction is clearly understood, measured and continuously improved. Many Six Sigma programs include continuous improvement models like DMAIC model acronym for 1. DEFINE: Affinity diagram may be used to generate a business-case as business bottle necks and pain points are identified, recognized and defined. This is the outcome of an exercise whereby members of the team write their brainstorming ideas on to small individual pieces of paper (sticky notes) which are then arranged into natural logical categories/groupings through an iterative process of refinement. Through this exercise, the output (Y) is defined i.e. what needs to be improved, its associated processes and their location, cost and impact of the problem etc. Note that Project scope is naturally too large when output definition is more than one. 2. MEASURE: This is generally, the most difficult and time consuming phase in the DMAIC methodology. Measurement and statistics are the ultimate source of problem-solving power. The effectiveness of Six Sigma is dependent upon taking accurate and appropriate performance measurements.

Variation diminishes ability to consistently produce quality products, meet schedule and stay under budget. Types of Variations: 1. Common-Cause Variation: This is natural and can not be eliminated but can be reduced. Also termed Short-Term variation which is measured by taking the differences between any two sequential measurements of a critical characteristic. R1 = |X1 X2 Entitlement is the level of variation that is naturally built into a process. This is acceptable level of variation you can expect from a process under the best conditions:- Just another name for common-cause or short time variation. 2. Special-Cause Variation: These are specific issues/causes that can be identified and resolved. Six Sigma works on reducing Special-Cause variations first to prevent cause creep out of tolerable allowance level thereby making entire process more predictable and stable. In Six Sigma terms Leverage is the ability to apply the few critical inputs (Xs) that have the greatest impact on desired output (Y). 3. ANALYZE: 4. IMPROVE: 5. CONTROL: In most instances an initial step RECOGNIZE comes before Define and the end procedure is REALIZE. Continuous improvement cycles are premised on fact that quality is improved by eliminating the causes of poor quality. Thus isolating root cause of poor quality through use of stratification techniques and subsequently improving upon these will lead to improved quality. Continuous improvement cycle sequence flow: Data => Information => Actions => Results

SEVEN TOOLS OF CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT 1. Pareto Diagram: A graph of rank-order defect data used to prioritize continuous improvement projects and team activities. 2. Fishbone Diagram: A framework used to identify potential root causes leading to poor quality. 3. Check Sheet: Form designed to collect data. 4. Histogram: A graph of variable data showing a pictorial view of distribution of data around a desired target value. 5. Stratification: Method used to identify and narrow down causes of poor quality or defect to specific source i.e. individual, machine, department etc

6. Scatter diagrams 7. Charting: Graph used for tracking effectiveness of improvement programs. Six Sigma Steps 1. Create operational statement and metrics This is a concise statement of what needs to be/will be improved. At this stage, problem and objective statements are developed. 2. Measure performance and define the Improvement Teams: This enables determination of the few vital factors that influence process behaviour through the use of statistics to describe performance in terms of numbers and measurements. Distribution: Is a Statistical term used to describe relative likelihood of observing values for a variable factor using three different measures of distribution location mean, median and mode. Mode: This is the value most frequently observed and its associated with the highest peak of a distribution. Mean: This is the most common measure of central tendency widely called average. Median: This is the point along the scale measure where half the data/value is below and half are above. This method is particular used when collected data contains extreme data points well outside the range of other data in other words outliers From above, its simply not good enough to collect performance measurement data, there is the need to quantify how widely or narrowly dispersed the data are around their central location. The easiest way to measure spread of data is range which is the difference between the largest and smallest observed data value. Capability: Describes how well process (vital characteristics) performs in matching Customer expectations. RUMBA:is used in Six Sigma to evaluate appropriateness of any specification as explained below Reasonable Understandable Measurable Believable Attainable 3. 4. Six Sigma continuous improvement program requires prioritizing improvement actions and establishing improvement team to deal with predominate reasons for customer dissatisfaction. Alignment shifts from allocating team members to problems to allocating problems to teams. Ideal tool for usage is PARETO Diagram. This is a bar chart that displays reasons for defects and number of defects for each reason or category based on principle that 80% of defects can be attributed to 20% of causes. 5. Identify potential causes: Flowcharting is the best method to achieve this. There are two basic flowcharting types, Linear and interdepartmental

both of this will reveal the AS IS state of the enterprise. This enables improvement team to reengineer the system to Should Be state. Linear Flowcharting is generally used where there is only a single department involved in the producing the service or product. Inter-Departmental flowcharting is used where two or more departments are involved in producing the product or service. Alternative method of identifying and generating list of potential root causes is FISHBONE Diagram. Operational statement forms the head of the fish while Materials Manpower Methods and Machine Make up the four major bones 6. Investigation and Root cause Identification: This requires a major ACTION PLAN with 4 main components; WHAT is to be done WHO is it assigned to WHEN is completion schedule Actual completion date STATUS of action items As investigation into root causes progress CHECK SHEET is used to collect Data while stratification, histograms and scatter diagrams are used to analyze data. Stratification looks for differences in the sources of variation observed in the output of an operation. Histograms are used exclusively to display variable data. Above 2 study causes of poor performance at individual operation or process step level. Scatter Diagrams study specific effect one input variable will have on output of a process step or operation. 7. Make improvement permanent 8. Demonstrate improvement Six Sigma symbols/signs and meaning 1. 2. 3. performance => Standard Deviation => Mean => Sigma Score: This can be applied to the of anything that has a specification and defect rate.

Six Sigma teaches that data and measurement are the starting point of continuous improvement and development. Repeatability and Reproducibility (R&R) capture all measurement systems precision in other words how good the measurement system is. SS offers extremely powerful tools to aid improvement efforts, chief amongst which is Experimentation. SS approach is to first design an experiment, carry it out and follow up with analysis to uncover previously hidden knowledge.

Design of Experiments (DOE) As opposed to Observational studies, control is set for the values Xs (input) take on with objective to reveal, quantify and confirm underlying Y = f(XX) relationship in a process or system. Key elements of efficient and consistently successful SS experiments follow a progressive and iterative approach which include following: Plan out experiment before conducting it Explore the effect of more than one input variable at a time. Minimize number of required runs in the experiment Replicate key experiment conditions to assess variation Account for known and unknown factors not directly included in experiment. Common type of experiment in SS:- 2k Factorial Experiment Steps: 1. Select the experiment factors by identifying the input variables Xs which should be potential contributors to the output Y. Ideal number to choose is between 2 5 input variables. 2. Set the factor levels bearing in mind that all 2k factorial experiments use only two levels for each input factor i.e. high and low values that bounds the scope of the experiment. 3. Experimental codes and design matrix by deciding 2k number of unique runs where k is the number of variables eg 2 raised to power 3 = 2 x 2 x2 = 8 runs. Control Phase Objective of this phase is to establish measurement points for the critical Xs (inputs) and other significant parameters of the process to assure that the CTQs (Critical-to-Quality) are predictable and meet establishes requirements. The most effective form of process control is sometimes refreerd to as A Type1 Corrective Action :- This is control applied that eliminates error condition from ever occurring. Second most effective is Type-2 corrective action :- This detects when an error occurs and stops the process or shut down equipment so defect is not propagated. Six Sigma emphasizes Control phase through implementing two aspects to a control plan: Process Management Summary: objective is to enable visibility, review and action for all critical process outputs in an organisation. Process Control plan: objective is to create systematic feedback loops and actions to assure process inherent, automatic control. Statistical Process Control (SPC): Involves use of statistical techniques to monitor and control variation in processes. Primary SPC tool is Control Chart which is a graphical tracking of a process input or output over time. These tracked measurements are visually compared to decision limits calculated from probabilities of the process actual performance. The different types of control chart are grouped into 2 major categories: - Continuous data control charts - Attribute data control charts SIX SIGMA Practitioner Tools: These fall into two primary types:

Process optimization tools: Enables design, simulation and optimization of processes Statistical analysis tools: Enables practitioners to analyze data collected either from real-world performance of a product or process or as the output of a simulation or experiment.

A. Process optimization tools

1. SIPOC: Suppliers-Inputs-Process-Output-Controls This tool enables building the first controlled and organized view of work process and sets the foundation for applying the breakthrough DMAIC strategy. SIPOC software tools like iGrafx, SigmaFlow and process modelling tools helps to capture, organize and display following: Steps - Identify candidate process for mapping and define scope and boundary points. - Identify outputs - Define by name, title or organizational entity the recipients of the outputs - Define the customer requirements - Define the inputs to the process - Identify the sources (suppliers) of the inputs 2. CT Trees This is a tool that helps identify and characterize the influencers on specific outcomes. Most CT trees begin with the output of the SIPOC, customer satisfaction at the top and other are subordinate. E.g Critical-to-quality, critical-to-delivery, Critical-to-cost etc. 3. Cause and Effect Matrix (C&E Matrix) Cause and effect helps the Six sigma practitioner to identify and prioritize relationships between several inputs and the resulting outcomes. A variation of this is the Fishbone Diagram. 4. Failure Mode Effects Analysis (FMEA) This is key to reducing or eliminating the risk of failures by providing a structured approach to identifying the potential ways a product or process can fail, how readily can failure be detected and the effects of this. Furthermore, FMEA enables controlled planning, design and prioritization of actions to be taken to reduce failure risk. Analysis phase of FMEA is the process of determining probabilities and ranking the results and one of the primary indicators is the Risk Priority Number. (RPN) = severity rating X probability rating X detection rating The outcome of FMEA leads to examination of fundamental designs, funnel reports, control plans and data collection plans. Iterative running of FMEA will reduce failure risk profile ti acceptable tolerance level. 5. Capability-Complexity Analysis (CCA) 6. Funnel Reports: This helps to filter through the trivial many, extract the critical few and manage these. Sources of information for funnel report come primarily from the CT trees, C&E matrices and FMEAs.

7. Plans - Data collection plan - Control plan - Audit plan

B. Statistical Analysis Tools

These are tools used traditionally by Six Sigma Green and Black Belts. 1. Plots and Charts: Most commonly used include - Histogram - Dot plot - Pareto chart - Scatter plot - Matrix plot 2. Time Machine 3. Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) Common statistical analysis software tools include - Minitab - JMP - Excel Process optimization software tools include - BPA - BPM - Traxion :- process management - iGrafx - SigmaFlow - Varyx