An Overview of the Six Sigma Process
The Six Sigma process is a continuous business improvement method used to increase profits while reducing defects in products and services offered at the same time. It uses various resources to achieve goals as it proceeds, and has a sequence of activities with a defined beginning and an expected end result.
There are five basic steps in the Six Sigma process and they are represented by the acronym, DMAIC. DMAIC stands for Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, and Control. A Six Sigma team made of different levels of trained and certified individuals moves through these steps by meeting specific objectives and will sometimes go through them repeatedly in other to identify the cause of a problem and eliminate it.
Here is the Six Sigma DMAIC process explained.
Step One – Define: Here, the team identifies a particular project that needs improvement based on the customer’s needs and business’ objectives. The problems need to be defined in other to find a solution. The more effort devoted to solving a problem, the more the chance of succeeding at your defined goals.
Step Two – Measure: Critical measures are needed to evaluate success of the project are determined and selected. In this process, they are often referred to as ‘metrics’. This step deals with understanding and quantifying the reality at hand, and tools like collecting, mapping, and validating data are used. Priorities are set and checked to look for things that could possibly go wrong in advance, and once reasons to fail are ascertained, preventive action plans are put into place. The Six Sigma Process as a whole relies heavily on the use of statistics and this is demonstrated in this step!
Step Three – Analyze: Data analysis is used to determine the cause of a problem and what needs to be done to fix it. This is usually handled by the Black Belt members through identification of non-profitable aspects called non value-added activities within this Methodology. The breakthroughs will always come through careful problem analysis. Through Six Sigma Training, team members and professionals learn valuable tools that uncover tough solutions. They also learn how and when to use which tools to the best of their abilities.
Step Four – Improve: This is also known as the solution stage after the problem has been analyzed. A solution is offered to remove the root cause of the problem that is causing the defects in the products or services offered by the business. Sometimes, despite best efforts, the solution discovered by the team does not fix the problem. During the improve step, the team will go back through and rework until a true solution is found. The team ascertains the consequences of lack of improvement and this sometimes involves experimentation to finally get it right. This may also involve going back through some of the DMAIC steps in order to achieve the goals that were determined in the beginning of the Six Sigma Project.
Step Five – Control: Control has to do with managing the entire process once it has been perfected in order to retain success. The difficulty level of this particular step depends on how well the team did in the previous steps. The entire project is reviewed to make sure every objective has been met. When all the plans are checked and achieved, then a particular project can be called a success and the team can move onto the next project, as the Six Sigma Methodology is an ongoing task that saves and makes money for many companies.
As the team goes through the steps, they are also able to identify things that may cause future problems and eliminate them, or make note of them for the next Project on the list, depending how pressing a problem they come across. A single project can identify different opportunities that are not in the team’s scope but they must remember to stay on course and not get distracted. At the end of the day, a successful process will bring less waste, higher customer satisfaction, increased market share, lower costs, and increased profits.
The Six Sigma process is employed and used by many organizations in many different industries such as insurance, supply chains, project management, customer support, etc. The tools and techniques are similar in any industry, as this is a method that is proven to work for any existing business that is not performing adequately or meeting customer specifications.