Lean 6 Sigma

Quality and quality control have attracted the attention of many industrialists during the last few decades. The success of many manufacturing and servicing industries has been linked directly or indirectly to the quality of the products and services provided. A widely quoted example is the development of Japanese products during the last 20 to 30 years. It was, at one time, being branded as a nation that produced cheap and shoddy products but that image has rapidly been changed to its present highly acclaimed status of an industrialised nation noted for its high quality products. The success story lies in the manufacture of quality products and, more importantly, through strict quality control the products are manufactured
at far less cost than its competitors. 

But what is quality? And, what is quality control ?

What is Quality?

Different people may have different views on what quality is. To many, quality typically connotes the meaning of pleasant visual appearance, dimensional accuracy, good performance including long service life, good surface finish and reliability. 

The Japanese Industrial Standards defined quality as: 

A characteristic property to be the object of valuation for determining whether or not an article or service is satisfying its purpose.

Based on the above definition, quality can be summarised as:  Satisfaction of customers’ needs 
 Suitability for intended use  Performance according to specification 
 
As different categories of consumers may have different levels of satisfaction, quality in this instance could be translated to the different grade or standard of products that a manufacturer can produce. For instance, if you are talking about automobiles, it denotes the difference between a luxury car and a popular automobile. The customer group that the product was targeted at is different from the very beginning. 

The different levels of satisfaction will mean different costs to meet the specifications. Therefore, manufacturers should be concerned with the consistency in meeting these specifications. Quality in this sense means conformity to a prescribed standard or specification. In this instance, quality has to do with the difference in how well a product is made and targeted for the same purpose. Poor quality simply means a deviation from the prescribed standard or specification. As efforts to conform incur costs, a compromise should be made to achieve an optimum level of conformance.
Summarising from the above, quality is defined by the customers’ needs. Manufacturers must be able to translate the customers’ needs into a set of precise specifications and manufacture according to the prescribed standard. In addition, it is normal to expect that customers’ expectations are not always static. With technological developments, competitions and new designs, customers constantly expect improvements in quality. This means the manufacturers will have to constantly upgrade their quality levels. 
DEFINITIONS OF QUALITY

-Quality Products are those that:  Satisfy customers’ expectations 
-Meet a well defined need, use or purpose 
-Comply with applicable standards and specifications 
-Comply with statutory and other requirements of society 
-Are available at competitive prices 
-Are provided at a cost which will yield profit 

[Read the rest of this entry...]

8D Problem Solving Introduction
 
The 8d problem solving is about teams working together to resolve problems, using a structured 8D problem solving process to help focus on facts not opinion. So far, so good! Let’s get into some more detail - the 8D explained…. 

8D Problem Solving Method

8D Problem Solving Discipline 1 – Build The Team
Assemble a small team of people with the right mix of skills, experience and authority to resolve the problem and implement solutions. Ensure these people have the time and inclination to work towards the common goal. Get your people “on board” by using team building tools such as ice-breakers and team activities in 8D Problem Solving.

8D Problem Solving Discipline 2 – Describe the Problem
How can you fix it if you don’t know what’s broken? The more clearly you describe the problem, the more likely you are to resolve it. Be specific and quantify the problem where possible. Clarify what, when, where and how much e.g. what is the impact to customers? Consider using checklists from professional 8d problem solving suppliers to stimulate and open up your thinking.

8D Problem Solving Discipline 3 – Corrective action 
What “sticking plaster” can you use until you figure out what’s really causing the problem? Implement a temporary fix and monitor and measure the impact to ensure it’s not making things worse. Remember to keep going, as a sticking plaster will never cure a broken leg!

8D Problem Solving Discipline 4 – Eliminate Root Cause
There will be many suspects causing the problem, but usually only one culprit. The key is figuring out which one. This is where it can get a bit numerically challenging, as statistical tools are often used to get a deep understanding of what is going on in a process.

[Read the rest of this entry...]

How to fit 6 Sigma into Your Corporate Culture

They may wonder why this method will prove better than similar attempts that have been tried in the past.
Getting 6 Sigma embraced within your corporate culture is important, and having employees come alongside will make the job of the Belts a lot easier.

Without their support, belts can quickly become disheartened.

The scepticism that can be found with the announcement of 6 Sigma implementation is not limited to employees alone.
Top management is often wary of claims that 6 Sigma can radically increase the bottom line of a company; it is hard to believe that a company can save $200,000 per 6 sigma project.

It is even harder to comprehend the savings as the worth of these projects are calculated over a decade, and begin to run into the billions of dollars.

Often management has trouble believing that 6 Sigma is any different than other failures reduction strategy, or that it will fit in with their corporate mission. Another objection is the cost of black belts and the expertise that they bring to the implementation process.

Well, the only way to address these issues is to have a cultural makeover from the top down. It is imperative that management wholeheartedly embraces 6 Sigma and every procedure that will serve to indoctrinate its strategies within the businesses.

6 Sigma it’s a strategy that is designed and proven to work regardless of industry or corporate.

Here are some ways you can “sell” 6 Sigma to employees and management alike.

• Results will be visible as milestones. First management will notice financial gains, then employee satisfaction, and finally satisfied customers. These changes are measured by the conventionally perceptible barometer and will generally satisfy even the most cynical skeptics.
• Begin by assessing the corporate culture before deployment of 6 Sigma strategies. Understanding where everyone is coming from will help you measure results afterwards.
• Accept that with time, people will become used to the changes. It’s likely that most people will forget they were ever leery about the businesses in the first place, as things begin to go well for the corporate.

In order for the deployment to be successful in 6 Sigma, it must be embraced within the corporate culture. Using the strategies above can decrease resistance and give 6 Sigma deployment a good head start towards success.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Lean Six Sigma Consultants - Are you good at Marketing Yourself (0058299.netsolhost.com)
• Six Startup CEOs On Their Company Culture, Boiled Down to One Word (xconomy.com)
• Why Do We Measure? (WWW.BUSINESS901.COM)
• 2006 Lean & Six Sigma Talent Demand Study | Lean & Six Sigma Job and Career Trends (slideshare.net)
• Best Practices using Lean Six Sigma (business901.com)
• Management fads: A behavioral explanation (professorbainbridge.com)

THE CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT CULTURE:

Integrating Lean 6 Sigma into an Organization

The change required for achieving breakthrough profit performance!

 
Businesses exist fundamentally to earn profits. Shareholders, stakeholders, directors and management engage in a business activity to meet these goals – results, revenue, growth and return of invested capital.

Now, can an initiative such as 6 Sigma and Lean Sigma Thinking or commonly know today as Lean 6 Sigma be incorporated into an organization to achieve the goals stated above for businesses. 

Can these initiatives that have shown great successes in the world of manufacturing, such as Motorola and Toyota, since the early 1980’s and in the world of finance, service and transactions, such as GE Capital and Xerox, since the mid 1990’s, be made into a success in the world of Information and Communication Technology?
What is Lean 6 Sigma?

Lean Sigma and 6 Sigma, the combination become Lean 6 Sigma, you could call it the next generation of 6 Sigma and whether some like it or not it was only a matter of time and pure logic before it occurred. The new name derives from two very essential components in business process and improvement. “Lean” the business’s internal needs on process management- reduction of waste and “6 Sigma” the calculation of least defects - the customer’s needs.

Both are the voices of two distinct business success characteristics: VOC -The Voice of the Customer - Quality(6 Sigma).
VOB - The Voice of the Business - Speed(Lean sigma).

However, to make it work there is a third voice which is hardly recognised: VOE - The Voice of the Employee - Culture (Fusion). And as many of us have found out you can have the best process improvement system on the planet but if the employees who use it, don’t buy into it - then what’s the point?

The fusion of Lean Sigma and 6 Sigma is required because:

  • Lean Sigma can not bring a processes under statistical control.
  • 6 Sigma alone cannot dramatically improve process speed or reduce invested capital.

Lean 6 Sigma, is hence a Lean 6 sigma methodology driven by the need to change, to continuously improve to processes, to meet the goals of the management and shareholders though a single most important element – Voice of the Employee or simply, Culture.

[Read the rest of this entry...]

FMEA   
 
Introduction of FMEA (Failure mode and effect analysis)
 
FMEA is a preventative method used to identify potential ways in which a product or
process might not meet expectations. FMEA also aims to determine the effects of potential failures on the performance of the product/service or system. The process of ranking failure modes and causes may also be used to indicate where engineering effort should be concentrated to reduce failure occurrence.

Classifying the results of an FMEA in order of seriousness determines how critical the potential problems are.

According to Muhleman et al(1988), the primary objective of an FMEA is to determine the features of a service or product design and production/operations, which are critical to the various modes of failure. FMEA is most suitably applied at the design stage of a product or service to identify and eliminate failure causes. The technique draws all essential experience and information from design, marketing, production, purchasing and distribution to pinpoint the critical nature of potential problems and suggest action, which will assist in their prevention via FMEA.

According to Muhleman et al(1988) the core elements of FMEA are:
 

[Read the rest of this entry...]

What is Lean 6 Sigma  ?
   
6 Sigma, originally developed by Motorola, is a improvement methodology to systematically improve processes by eliminating defects in manufacturing processes. Defects are defined as unacceptable deviation from the target performance measure or specification. The objective of 6 Sigma is to deliver high performance, reliability, and value to the end customer.

The pioneering of 6 Sigma methodology was defined as a metric for measuring defects and improving quality, and a 6 sigma methodology to reduce defect levels below 3.4 Defects Per(one)Million Opportunities(DPMO). Alternatively, 6 Sigma was a methodology of controlling a process to the point of plus or minus,

6 sigma in standard deviations from a centerline in a process control spectrum. Today, 6 Sigma has now grown beyond defect control.
 
   
 
Lean, originally developed by the Toyota Production System, focuses on eliminating the seven critical waste commonly observed in a process environment. These are wastes in:

  • Transportation
  • Inventory
  • Motion
  • Waiting time
  • Over-production
  • Processing Itself
  • Defective Product(Scrap in manufactured products or any type of business)

Lean is basically all about getting the right things, to the right place, at the right time, in the right quantity while minimising waste and being flexible and open to change.

Lean 6 Sigma, the combination of 6 Sigma and Lean Sigma, you could call it the next generation of 6 Sigma and whether some like it or not it was only a matter of time and pure logic before it occurred.

The new name derives from two very essential components in improvement. “Lean” the prcesses on internal needs - reduction of waste and “6 Sigma” the calculation of least defects-the customer’s needs.

[Read the rest of this entry...]