Six sigma and Quality management glossary:

What Is Six Sigma:

"Sigma" is a statistical term that measures how far a given process deviates from perfection. The central idea behind Six Sigma is that if you can measure how many "defects" you have in a process, you can systematically figure out how to eliminate them and get as close to "zero defects" as possible. Six Sigma is a highly disciplined process that helps us focus on developing and delivering near-perfect products and services.

To achieve Six Sigma Quality, a process must produce no more than 3.4 defects per million opportunities. An "opportunity" is defined as a chance for nonconformance, or not meeting the required specifications. This means we need to be nearly flawless in executing our key processes.

According to many business development and quality improvement experts, At present Six Sigma is the most popular management methodology in history. Six Sigma is certainly a very big industry in its own right, and Six Sigma is now an enormous 'brand' in the world of corporate development. Six Sigma began in 1986 as a statistically-based method to reduce variation in electronic manufacturing processes in Motorola Inc. in the USA. Today, twenty-something years on, Six Sigma is used as an all-encompassing business performance methodology, all over the world, in organizations. while Six Sigma has become a very widely used 'generic' term,the name Six Sigma is actually a registered trademark of Motorola Inc.

Six Sigma at three different levels:

• As a metric
• As a methodology
• As a management system

Six Sigma as a Metric: 

The term "Sigma" is often used as a scale for levels of 'goodness' or quality. Using this scale, 'Six Sigma' equates to 3.4 defects per one million opportunities (DPMO). Therefore, Six Sigma started as a defect reduction effort in manufacturing and was then applied to other business processes for the same purpose.

Six Sigma as a Methodology: 

Six Sigma is a business improvement methodology that focuses an organization on:

• Understanding and managing customer requirements
• Aligning key business processes to achieve those requirements
• Utilizing rigorous data analysis to minimize variation in those processes
• Driving rapid and sustainable improvement to business processes.." 

The fundamental objective of the Six Sigma methodology is the implementation of a measurement-based strategy that focuses on process improvement and variation reduction through the application of Six Sigma improvement projects.

 This is accomplished through the use of two Six Sigma sub-methodologies:

·         DMAIC

·         DMADV.

DMAIC:  The Six Sigma DMAIC process is an improvement system for existing processes falling below specification and looking for incremental improvement.

      DMAIC is commonly used by Six Sigma project teams and is an acronym for:

• Define opportunity
• Measure performance
• Analyze opportunity
• Improve performance
• Control performance.." 

DMADV:

 The Six Sigma DMADV process (define, measure, analyze, design, verify) is an improvement system used to develop new processes or products at Six Sigma quality levels. It can also be employed if a current process requires more than just incremental improvement. Both Six Sigma processes are executed by Six Sigma Green Belts and Six Sigma Black Belts, and are overseen by Six Sigma Master Black Belts.

Six Sigma Management System:

The Six Sigma Management System drives clarity around the business strategy and the metrics that most reflect success with that strategy. It provides the framework to prioritize resources for projects that will improve the metrics, and it leverages leaders who will manage the efforts for rapid, sustainable, and improved business results.."

When practiced as a management system, Six Sigma is a high performance system for executing business strategy. Six Sigma is a top-down solution to help organizations:

• Align their business strategy to critical improvement efforts
• Mobilize teams to attack high impact projects
• Accelerate improved business results
• Govern efforts to ensure improvements are sustained.

Six Sigma DMAIC and DMAICT process elements

• D - Define opportunity
• M - Measure performance
• A - Analyse opportunity
• I - Improve performance
• C - Control performance, and optionally:
• T - Transfer best practice (to spread the learning to other areas of the organization)

One to Six sigma conversion table:

'Long Term Yield' (basically the percentage of successful outputs or operations) %	Defects Per Million Opportunities (DPMO)	'Processs Sigma'
99.99966	3.4	6
99.98	233	5
99.4	6,210	4
93.3	66,807	3
69.1	308,538	2
30.9	691,462	1

Perhaps the most objective way of looking at Six Sigma is to recognise that the Six Sigma methodology essentially provides a framework, and importantly a strongly branded corporate initiative, for an organization to:

• train its people to focus on key performance areas
• understand where the organization wants to go (its strategy, related to its market-place)
• understand the services that the organization's customers need most
• understand and better organize main business processes that deliver these customer requirements
• measure (in considerable detail) and improve the effectiveness of these processes.

Master Black Belt - A highly qualified Six Sigma practitioner, typically concerned with overseeing Six Sigma activities from an organizational perspective.

Black Belt - A specific Six Sigma term to describe a team leader and one who has achieved accredited 'Black Belt' qualification via an appropriate training course.

Green Belt - A Six Sigma team member who has received Green Belt training and who works part-time on Six Sigma projects under the guidance of a Black belt team leader.

Process mapping - diagrammatical representation of how processes work, as could be used and developed in team meetings on a flip-chart, or other media, to enable teams to understand processes, participants, and where and how improvements might be made.

Production planning - generic term describing the over-arching methodology used in managing the supply process from receipt (or forecast) of customer requirements through to delivery notes and invoicing. Production planning therefore includes:

• interpretation of customer orders/requirements
• works orders
• schedules and computer programs/ implications
• parts, stocks and materials
• machinery, plant, equipment availability and allocation
• people and teams
• quality and other targets - setting and monitoring
• stock and purchasing monitoring and records
• order processing, administration and accounting
• necessary inter-departmental liaison (e.g., sales, export, etc)