Role of Six Sigma in the Corporates

We all have heard about six sigma in some point of our life. Today, it becomes a commonly used term in the business space. It was first introduced in 1986 in Motorola company by engineer Bill Smith.

What is Six Sigma?

Six sigma can be understood as a synonym of perfection. It is used for improving processes through a set of tools and techniques. Six Sigma is considered to be bringing around 99.99966% accuracy in the process in which it is applied.

It is used in improving manufacturing process by identifying and removing the causes of defects.

One of the early adopters of six sigma were companies like General Electric and Honeywell. In 1998, the CEO of GE announced $350 million of savings to the company due to six sigma. It then became an important factor of the spread of six sigma model in the companies.

After that, In the late 1990s, around 66% of the fortune 500 companies had begun adopting six sigma to reduce overall costs and improving quality.

Key Objective of Six Sigma

The main objective behind applying six sigma is mainly the cost saving. Other than that, also it helps in many aspects which are:

• Overall Business Improvement as it helps in identifying and correcting the problems as and when they occur. It helps in reducing anything that slows down productivity and thus leads to overall business improvements.
• Helps in reducing the number of defective products in the production line. It helps in reducing the productions and repairs cost substantially.
• It helps in faster productionand the company which success in delivering the end product faster to their customer also successes in the market. It mainly helps in food related industries.
• Six sigma is also used for improving the customer experiences with the company. All the above objectives if achieved leads to the greater customer experience and will result in increase in business of the company.

General Six Sigma Methodology

There is no one shot six sigma model which can be applied everywhere to achieve the desired results. However, there is some general methodology which governs the six sigma process which can be understood as below:

• Define

First the company needs to properly define its ongoing processes for any segment. The process needs to properly break down in steps which are being done on ground level. Detailed notes to be made for the same.

• Measure

The current process needs to be measured in terms of gap where improvement can be done and where there are non-value added process exists which can be deleted.

• Analyse

The data measured in the previous step needs to be analysed in terms of deep root cause analysis. Meaning from the data measured to be extracted. The analysed results should be form as a basis to decide the tangible activities to be implemented by the team members.

• Improve

The activities and plans derived in the previous stage should be used to solve the root cause of the problem. A formal plan action to be executed in the structured manner in a predefined time limit.

• Control

Once the plan is executed for solving the root cause, it should be converted into the standard operating procedure and shall be regularly monitored by the organisation. It should be further noted that all of the above steps can be repeated to keep improving the processes of the organisation.

Some Common Six Sigma Techniques are:

• Brainstorming
• Root cause analysis
• Voice of the customer
• The 5S System (Sort > Set in order > Shine > Standardise > Sustain)
• Kaizen (Continuous improvement)
• Benchmarking
• Poka-Yoke (Mistake proofing)
• Value Stream Mapping

Six Sigma is a part of core strategic planning of the business which can help in growing the business altogether to a new level. In today’s era all the top companies are adopting it and it is proving to be the worth it.