Six Sigma Yellow Belt – Part I

Index

 Evolution of Six Sigma

 What is Six Sigma?

 Goals of Six Sigma

 Six Sigma Approach

 Why do organizations adopt Six Sigma?

 Six Sigma –Mathematical Interpretation

 Roles in Six Sigma Organization

 Key Stakeholders

 DMAIC Methodology

Evolution of Six Sigma

 The concept of Six Sigma evolved progressively over a period of two

decades in step with the concerns of the organizations worldwide for

quality, value-creation and customer delight. The phases of this

evolution can be identified as being concurrent with emphasis on some

of the critical business parameters. The timelines can be approximately

summarized as follows:

1980

1990

2000

What is Six Sigma?

 Six Sigma is a data driven, customer focused, and result oriented

methodology which uses statistical tools and techniques to

systematically eliminate the defects and inefficiencies to improve

processes.

 Six Sigma methodology has the following characteristics:

• Customer centric

• Process focused

• Data driven/ factual

• Breakthrough performance gains

• Structured improvement deployment

• Validation through key business results

Goals of Six Sigma

 Reduction in variation

 Elimination of defects



Improvement in yield

 Enhancement in customer satisfaction

 Strengthening of the bottom line

 Example: GE’s Medical System division (GEMS) used Six Sigma design

techniques to create a breakthrough in medical scanning technology. Patients

can now get a full body scan in half a minute, versus three minutes or more with

previous technology. Hospitals can increase their usage of the equipment and

achieve a lower cost per scan, as well.

Six Sigma Approach

 Six Sigma approach is to find out the root causes of the problem,

symbolically represented by Y = F(X).

 Here, Y represents the problem occurring due to cause (s) X.

Why do Organizations Adopt Six

Sigma?

 Organizations embrace the Six Sigma way as this methodology

systematically and measurably enhances the value of the organizations

by making them competitive, quality-conscious, customer-centric, and

forward-looking. Some of the benefits that the organizations derive from

the Six Sigma initiatives are:

• Waste prevention

• Defect reduction

• Cycle time reduction

• Cost savings

• Market share improvement

Six Sigma – Mathematical Interpretation

 Sigma, represented by the Greek alphabet ‘σ’, stands for standard deviation

from the ‘mean’. ‘Six Sigma’ represents six standard deviations from the

mean*.

• USL - Upper specification limit for a

performance standard. Any deviation above

this is a defect.

• LSL – Lower specification limit for a

performance standard. Any deviation below

this is a defect.

• Target – Ideally, this will be the middle

point between USL and LSL.

+ 6σ

LSL

USL

Mean: It is the simple average of data.

Details will be provided in our Six Sigma Black

Standard deviation: It is a measure of variability of data.

Belt and Green Belt course.

Six Sigma – Mathematical Interpretation

 Process standard deviation (σ) should be so minimal that the process

performance should be able to scale up to 12σ (6 Sigma each on either

side of the origin on the X-axis) within the customer specification limits*.

Details will be provided in our Six Sigma Black Belt and Green Belt course.

Six Sigma – Mathematical Interpretation

Sigma

Level

Defect %

Resultant Situation for different industries

6.6807%

0.6210%

0.0233%

7 hrs of no power supply/month

15 minutes of unsafe drinking water/month

500 in-correct surgical operations/week

20,000 in-correct medical prescriptions/year

1 wrong landing of airplane/month

200 of mails lost/day

1 minute of unsafe drinking water supply every seven month

1 hour of no power supply once in 34 years

0.00034%

1.7 in-correct surgical operations/week

68 in-correct medical prescriptions/year

10 mails lost/month

Please note: As the sigma level increases, the defect percentage decreases, which improves the

efficiency of the process.

Roles in Six Sigma Organization

Executive Leadership

Champion

Master Black Belt

Black Belt

Green Belt

Project Team

Team Member

Roles in Six Sigma Organization

 Executive Leadership - Executive Leadership includes project

sponsors and process owners. They create the Six Sigma vision for an

organization. They are responsible for ensuring that everyone in the

organization understands the vision and all work with unity of purpose to

realize it.

 Champions - Champions are selected by Executive Leadership or

Senior Champions. They organize and direct the initiation, deployment,

and implementation of Six Sigma throughout the organization. They

ensure that Six Sigma is properly implemented in all the business

activities of the organization. Champions can be either Deployment

Champions or Project Champions.

Roles in Six Sigma

 Master Black Belts - Master Black Belts are in-house experts selected

by Champions. They manage project selection and human resource

training with the help of Champions. They train Black Belts and Green

Belts in Six Sigma implementation.

 Black Belts - Black Belts are those who apply the tools and techniques

and knowledge of Six Sigma principles to a given project of an

organization. They are responsible for accomplishing the tasks

entrusted to them by Champions and Executive leadership. They

dedicate all of their work hours on Six Sigma implementation.

Roles in Six Sigma

 Green Belts - The Green Belts are those employees of an organization

who implement Six Sigma while discharging their other assigned duties.

Green Belts have fewer Six Sigma responsibilities compared to Black

Belts and Master Black Belts. They dedicate only a part of their work

hours on Six Sigma implementation.

 Project Team - They are the employees who work on the Six Sigma

project. It includes the Project Manager as well. Project team members

need not be a Green Belt or Black Belt.

Key Stakeholders

 Customers – they are very important stakeholder whose requirements

have to be considered.

 Employees – they are the people involved in the six sigma initiative in

the organization.

 Suppliers - they are people who provide inputs to the process.

 End users – they are people who actually use the product or service.

End users can also be customers.

DMAIC Overview

 DMAIC is a data-driven Six Sigma methodology for improving existing

products and processes.

 The DMAIC process should be used when an existing product or

process requires improvement to meet or exceed the customer’s

requirements. This initiative should be consistent with the business

goals of the organization.

 Companies using DMAIC Methodology: GE, Motorola, etc.

• GE – Reduces invoice defects and disputes by 98%, speeds up

payment, and creates better productivity.

DMAIC Overview

 D – DEFINE the problem

 M – MEASURE the outcome (Y) to determine the current process

performance (baseline) and validate the measurement system

 A – ANALYZE, identify X’s (root causes of the defects, variation

sources)



I – IMPROVE the process by eliminating the defects

 C – Control X’s for sustained performance

Define*

Inputs

Tools

Outputs

 Need for Six

 Organization

 Project Charter

Sigma project

hierarchy

 Established

 Executive

 High level process

metrics

Management

Sponsorship

maps

 Problem

 High level Pareto

Statement

 Core team

charts

 Roles and

identified

 Idea generation

Responsibilities

and categorization

tools

*The Inputs, Tools and Outputs are covered in more detail in our Six Sigma Green Belt and Black Belt course.

Measure*

Inputs

Tools

Outputs

 Project Charter

 Data Collection Tools

 Well-defined

 Roles and

and Techniques

Processes

Responsibilities

 Detailed process

 Baseline Process

 Problem Statement

maps

Capabilities

 Stakeholder

 Cause and Effect

 Process parameters

Requirements

Diagrams

affecting CTQ

 Established metrics

 Flowcharts

 Cost of Poor Quality

 Brainstorming

 Statistical

Distributions

 Probability

 Gauge R&R study

(COPQ)

 Measurement

Systems

*The Inputs, Tools and Outputs are covered in more detail in our Six Sigma Green Belt and Black Belt course.

Analyze*

Inputs

Tools

Outputs

 Well-defined

 Failure Mode and

 Important causes of

Processes

Effects Analysis

defects

 Baseline Process

 Data Analysis

 Performance gaps

Capabilities

 Hypothesis Testing

 Special and common

 Process parameters

affecting CTQ

 Cost of Poor Quality

(COPQ)

 Measurement

Systems

causes of variation

 Costs and benefits of

proposed solutions

 Points of Failure

*The Inputs, Tools and Outputs are covered in more detail in our Six Sigma Green Belt and Black Belt course.

Improve*

Inputs

Tools

Outputs

 Important causes of

 Solutions Design

 Costs and Benefits

defects

Matrix

of different solutions

 Performance gaps

 Design of

 Process Capability of

 Special and common

Experiments

proposed solutions

causes of variation

 Taguchi Robustness

 Selection of solutions

 Costs and benefits of

concepts

for implementation

proposed solutions

 Response Surface

 Implementation Plan

 Points of Failure

Methodology

*The Inputs, Tools and Outputs are covered in more detail in our Six Sigma Green Belt and Black Belt course.

Control*

Inputs

Tools

Outputs

 Costs and Benefits

 Data Collection

 Implemented

of different solutions

Methodology

Solutions

 Process Capability of

 Control Chart

 Revised

proposed solutions

 5S

 Selection of solutions

 Kaizen

Measurement

Systems

for implementation

 Kanban

 Control Plans for

 Implementation Plan

 Total Productive

Sustaining Benefits

Maintenance

 Improved Process

 Cycle Time

Reduction

 Measurement

System Reanalysis

Capabilities

 Lessons Learned

*The Inputs, Tools and Outputs are covered in more detail in our Six Sigma Green Belt and Black Belt course.

Define Phase

 The Define Phase is used to identify the areas of improvement and

define goals for the improvement activity and ensures that resources are

in place for the improvement project.

 The Define Phase will focus on a customer requirement and identify

project CTQ’s (Critical to quality). A CTQ is a product or service

characteristic that satisfies a customer requirement or process

requirement

Measure Phase

 The Measure Phase evaluates the process to determine the current

process performance, that is, the baseline.



It uses exploratory and descriptive data analysis to help in

understanding the data. The Measure phase allows you to understand

the present condition of the process before you attempt to identify

improvements. The inputs to the measure phase are the outputs of the

Define phase

Analyze Phase

 The Analyze phase is used to identify few vital causes from a list of

potential causes obtained from the Measure phase, actually affecting

project outcome using six sigma methodologies. The data collected in

the Measure phase are examined to determine a prioritized list of the

sources of variation.

Improve Phase

 The improve phase of Six Sigma is used to improve the system to do

things better, cheaper or more rapidly by finding optimum solution for Y,

implement the new approach and validate using statistical methods. The

main objective of the improve phase is to improve the process by

eliminating defects.

Control Phase

 The control phase of Six Sigma is used to develop and implement

process control plan to ensure sustenance of the improved process. The

major activities in the control phase are to validate measurement

system, verify process improvement and develop control mechanism.

So far we have identified the best settings for each of the vital ‘X’. The

key now is to ensure that the X’s don’t fluctuate away from the targeted

setting. Process control is an important tool to ensure that the Six Sigma

project delivers lasting benefits.