Tag: Six Sigma

DMAIC Guidelines

Question

Are there general guidelines or target durations for each phase of DMAIC?

Knowing that we have fruit salad in our portfolio – apples, oranges, grapes, melons, plus 10 more – are there recommendations on how to generate meaningful guidelines for duration where trying to categorize a project may have a considerable number of characteristics and be quite different?

Answer

DMAIC process

Duration is a good metric but in the operational definition you need to add a complexity component.  You are seeing what happens when it is not added.  I have defined complexity as the number of groups/departments that need to be engaged in the project.  A simple example is when IT gets involved, there may be some additional time lags that need to be added so they can do their due diligence.  Likewise if you have a project that involves finance or legal, it will add time to the project.  Organization wide projects take more time than departmental ones so when scoping a project, consider how much longer it will take with more groups needed to be involved.  This may help in your estimates and tracking.

As for general guidelines for DMAIC, what I have told executives and belt candidates is that Define should take about 3 weeks, Measure about 8 -12 weeks (depending on how good your data is).  Analyze 3-4 weeks, depending on complexity and that you have data flowing consistently.  Improve 3-4 weeks depending how quickly you can get the improvement in place, training completed, and process stabilized. Control is generally 4 weeks, just to make sure that everything is running as expected and you can show the magnitude of the improvement.

These are mine but it all depends on the Measure phase and getting the baseline well defined and data flowing.  That is the most critical phase in DMAIC and shortcuts there will impact the project.

I hope this helps.

Jim Bossert

Sr Performance Improvement Specialist
JPS Hospital
Fort Worth, TX

For more on this topic, please visit ASQ’s website.

Six Sigma Black Belt

Chef, Six Sigma Black Belt

Question

I am currently an Executive Chef working that has been taking online classes for Green & Black Belt Six Sigma.  I am about halfway through my Black Belt classes and would like to pursue my certifications.  However, my company does not have a Six Sigma department and seem to be getting no where on working on a Six Sigma project so I could qualify for the Black Belt certification.  Do you have any advice or guidance that could help.

Answer

This is not an uncommon issue with a number of people.  What he should look into is to work as a volunteer at some non-profit organization on a Black Belt improvement project.  These organizations are always looking for help and this is a win-win for both him and the organization.  He will need to talk to them about what Six Sigma is and the type of project he is interested in doing.

Another possibility is to look at his place of work and if there is a part of the job that has to be done but no one likes doing it. If it is a process, then he could follow the DMAIC process and show improvement.  This could also serve as BB project if he can show the time savings was greater than 50%.

Jim

Jim Bossert
SVP Process Design Manger, Process Optimization
Bank of America
ASQ Fellow, CQE, CQA, CMQ/OE, CSSBB, CSSMBB
Fort Worth, TX

For more on this topic, please visit ASQ’s website.

Six Sigma Case Studies

Suppliers, supplier management

Q: I would like to browse through detailed Six Sigma Case Studies. I do not mind making a payment for detailed case studies in the fields of manufacturing, services and software.
Kindly direct me to the requisite links please.

A: Thank you for contacting ASQ.  I received your request for case studies on Six Sigma in the fields of manufacturing, services, and software.

“Six Sigma is an organization-wide approach used to achieve breakthrough improvements tied to significant bottom-line results. Unlike previous TQM approaches, Six Sigma specifies exactly how the organization’s managers s hould set up and lead the effort. Key features are the use of data and statistical analysis, highly trained project leaders known as Black Belts and Green Belts, project selection based on estimated bottom-line results, and the dramatic goal of reducing errors to about three per million opportunities” (taken from The Quality Toolbox, 2nd ed. by Nancy R. Tague)

ASQ has around 300 Six Sigma case studies available online.

A host of additional Six Sigma content is also available.

Quality in Radical Innovation

Employees, Training, Working, Learning, Duties, Tasks, DFSS, Innovation

Question

Design for Six Sigma (DFSS) involves the discovery, development, and understanding of critical to quality areas and fosters innovation. However, studies have shown that using focus groups, interviews, and etc., based on current users only bring forth ideas relative to incremental innovation, as the only knowledge that most customers have is of current products. But we know that the greatest potential for return is in radical innovation.

My question is: what useful tools are there for determining critical to quality areas of radical innovation products, or products that are new to market where customers have little to no knowledge of?

Answer

These are great questions that are not easy to answer as posed.

One of the dilemmas I’ve seen with companies building radical innovation without enough knowledge to identify the important quality aspects is that the company is often under intense pressure to get to market. In some cases, the innovation presents clear aspects that have to be controlled to create an acceptable product. In some cases, the issues are unknown.

I do not agree the work within a group only reflects the knowledge already present. One of the best tools in these situations is carefully crafted questions posed to those most familiar with the new technology. Given my personal bias, I would ask: “What will fail? Why?” and then ask about material, process, and feature performance variation. Focusing on the failure mechanisms and variation will often lead the team to uncover those aspects of the product that require well crafted specifications and monitoring.

Not a fancy tool, just a question or two. Yet, the focus is on what will cause the innovation to not meet the customer’s expectations. What could go wrong? Make it visible, talked about, and examined. Creating a safe atmosphere (no blame or personal attacks) to explore failure permits those most vested in making the product work examine the boundaries and paths that lead to failure.

Once the process of safely examining failures starts, a range of tools assist with the refinement and prioritization. Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA) and Highly Accelerated Life Testing (HALT), provide means to further discover areas to explore the paths to failure. I mention creating a safe environment first, because using FMEA and HALT when someone’s reputation or status is threatened generally leads to these tools being very ineffective.

One more thought on a safe environment for the exploration of failures. Focus on the process, materials and interaction with customers and their environment. “How can we make this better, more resilient, more robust, etc.?” Not, “Why did you design it this way?” or, “This appears to be a design mistake.” All involved have the same goal to create a quality product or service, yet there may be a lot unknown related to those conditions that lead to product failure. An open and honest exploration to discover the margins and product weaknesses is most effective in a safe environment for those concerned. And, by the way, this includes vendors, contractors, suppliers, and all those involved with the supply chain, development and manufacturing processes.

Fred Schenkelberg
Voting member of U.S. TAG to ISO/TC 56
Voting member of U.S. TAG to ISO/TC 69
Reliability Engineering and Management Consultant
FMS Reliability
fmsreliability.com

For more on this topic, please visit ASQ’s website.

Six Sigma Standard

DMAIC process

Q: How are the new ISO 13053-1:2011 Quantitative methods in process improvement – Six Sigma – Part 1: DMAIC methodology, and ISO 13053-2:2011 Quantitative methods in process improvement – Six Sigma – Part 2: Tools and techniques standards to be used?

Is it for certifying Green and Black Belts, or what?  Are there plans for “registering companies” to the standard?  Thanks in advance for your response.

A: The scope of ISO 13053-1:2011 is to “recommend the preferred or best practice for each of the stages of the DMAIC methodology used during the execution of a Six Sigma project. It also recommends how Six Sigma projects should be managed and the roles of personnel involved in such projects. It is applicable to organizations using manufacturing processes as well as service and transactional processes.”

Similarly, the scope of ISO 13053-2:2011 is to “describe the tools and techniques to be used at each phase in the DMAIC approach illustrating them through fact sheets.”

There is no plan at this point to develop documents that have for intent, or scope, to certify Six Sigma Belts or to register companies to the standard.

Michele Boulanger
U.S. TAG to ISO/TC 69 Chair, SC7 Expert

For more on this topic, please visit ASQ’s website.

Design for Six Sigma

Control chart, data, analysis

Q: I am preparing a short training session for my company on the topic of Design for Six Sigma.  I am interested in looking at some examples of how other companies or organizations have used DFSS.  Is it possible to get case studies from ASQ on this topic?

A: Thank you for contacting ASQ and the Quality Information Center.  Design for Six Sigma (DFSS) can be defined as “robust design that is consistent with the applicable manufacturing processes to assure a fully capable process that will deliver quality products” (from The Quality Improvement Glossary by Donald L. Siebels).

For DFSS case studies, please visit ASQ’s website.

Lean Six Sigma

Reporting, best practices, non-compliance reporting

Q: Can you explain what Lean Six Sigma is to me?  I’ve heard of both lean and Six Sigma as individual concepts, but I’m not quite sure I understand the term Lean Six Sigma.

A: The following concise definition is taken from the book The Certified Six Sigma Black Belt Handbook, 3rd ed. by T.M. Kubiak and Donald W. Benbow (ASQ Quality Press, 2016): “Lean-Six Sigma is a fact-based, data-driven philosophy of improvement that values defect prevention over defect detection. It drives customer satisfaction and bottom-line results by reducing variation, waste, and cycle time, while promoting the use of work standardization and flow, thereby creating a competitive advantage. It applies anywhere variation and waste exist, and every employee should be involved.”

For more information on this topic, visit ASQ’s website.