TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT

Lean Six Sigma

CIVCM0425 - 4 | ENGR. Vien Carlo M. Amora | SEM 2 2024
improve what the customer sees and
LEAN SIX SIGMA feels
6. Design for Six Sigma: Designing to
Lean Six Sigma is a collaborative meet customer needs and process
methodology that systematically enhances capability
performance by eliminating eight types of
waste (muda) through a team-based SIX SIGMA QUALITY LEVEL
approach. It integrates lean
According to Harry and Schroeder, Six Sigma
manufacturing/lean enterprise principles with
quality entails a transformative approach,
Six Sigma, targeting areas such as time,
characterized by meticulous data collection and
inventory, motion, waiting, overproduction,
rigorous statistical analysis to pinpoint errors and
over-processing, defects, and skills. Originally
devise strategies for their elimination. Sigma, a
developed by Toyota and Motorola,
Greek letter utilized by statisticians, serves as a
respectively, Lean Six Sigma serves as a
measure of variability within a process,
management strategy, combining the
commonly denoting standard deviation—a metric
strengths of lean and Six Sigma to improve
for assessing the dispersion or spread around a
business performance globally.
mean or target value.

INTRODUCTION SIX SIGMA VERSUS THREE SIGMA

Six Sigma, a data-driven approach, is employed In contrast to Six Sigma quality, the Three Sigma
to address intricate business challenges, quality standard of 99.73 percent translates to
typically following the implementation of a lean 2,700 parts per million (PPM) failures, even if we
commitment by the organization. It employs a assume zero drift. For processes with a series of
systematic five-phase methodology—define, steps, the overall yield is the product of the
measure, analyze, improve, and control—to gain yields of the different steps. For example, if we
insights into the variables impacting a process had a simple two-step process where step one
and enhance its optimization. had a yield of 80 per cent and step two had a
Sigma (σ) is a Greek letter representing the yield of 90 per cent, then the overall yield would
standard deviation in statistical terms, be 0.8 × 0.9 = 0.72 = 72 per cent.
particularly used to quantify the variability of a Consider what Three Sigma quality would mean
process. The concept of Six Sigma is rooted in if applied to other processes:
statistics, where a Six Sigma quality level is ● Virtually no modern computer would
associated with 3.4 defects per million function.
opportunities. Beyond a mere defect count, Six ● 4,050 invoices would be sent out
Sigma signifies achieving a standard deviation incorrectly each month by a modest-
six times smaller than the mean. The Six Sigma sized telecommunications company.
methodology offers a comprehensive set of ● 18,900 US savings bonds would be lost
techniques and tools to enhance process every month.
capability and minimize defects. ● 54,000 checks would be lost each night
by a single large bank.
KEY SIX SIGMA CONCEPTS ● 540,000 erroneous call details would be
recorded each day from a regional
At its core, Six Sigma revolves around the
telecommunications company.
following key concepts:
● 10,800,000 healthcare claims would be
1. Critical to quality (CTQ): Attributes
mishandled each year.
most crucial for the customer
● 270,000,000 (270 million) erroneous
2. Defect: Failing to deliver what the
credit card transactions would be
customer wants
recorded each year in the United
3. Process capability: What one’s
States.
process can deliver
Motorola, the originator of Six Sigma, had to
4. Variation: What the customer sees and
adopt it for reasons of pure survival. It was being
feels
consistently beaten in the competitive
5. Stable operations: Ensuring
marketplace by foreign firms that were able to
consistent, predictable processes to
produce higher quality products at a lower cost.

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TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT
Lean Six Sigma
CIVCM0425 - 4 | ENGR. Vien Carlo M. Amora | SEM 2 2024
In the mid-1980s, the top management under the
leadership of the CEO, Bob Galvin, decided to
take quality seriously. He started the company
on the quality path known as Six Sigma and
became a global icon due to his efforts.
SHIFT AND ITS ROLE
Six Sigma is a methodology that aims to improve
the quality of processes by minimizing defects SHIFTED PROCESSES
and variations. Thus, it suggests that the It is difficult in a real process environment to
distribution of output for a stable, normally control a process in a manner that the mean
distributed process (voice of the process) should exactly hits the nominal target mean. Therefore,
occupy no more than half of the tolerance a shift in the process has to be allowed for.
allowed by the specification limits set by the Motorola’s Six Sigma quality level allows an off-
customer's requirements (voice of the customer). centering of the process up to 1.5 Sigma.
UNSHIFTED PROCESSES THREE SIGMA PROCESS WITH A 1.5 SIGMA
If the LSL and the USL are placed symmetrically SHIFT IN THE MEAN
around the mean value and the mean of process Figure 3 shows the same scenario as Figure 1,
variable equals the (desired) nominal or mean but the process mean shifts by 1.5 standard
value, the process is called a centered process deviations (the process average is shifted up or
or an unshifted process. down by 1.5 standard deviations [or 1.5 days]
THREE SIGMA PROCESS WITH 0.0 SHIFT IN from 7 days to 5.5 days or 8.5 days) over time.
THE MEAN
Figure 1 shows the “voice of the process” for an
accounting function with an average of seven
days, a standard deviation of one day and a
stable normal distribution. It also shows a
nominal value of seven days, a lower
specification limit of four days and an upper
specification limit of ten days.

SIX SIGMA PROCESS WITH A 1.5 SIGMA

SHIFT IN THE MEAN
Figure 4 shows the same scenario as Figure 3,
but the process average shifts by 1.5 standard
deviations (the process average is shifted up or
down by 1.5 standard deviations [or 0.75 days =
1.5 × 0.5 days] from 7.0 days to 6.25 days or
7.75 days) over time.
SIX SIGMA PROCESS WITH 0.0 SHIFT IN THE
MEAN
Figure 2 shows the same scenario as Figure 1
except the “voice of the process” only takes half
the distance between the specification limits.
The process mean remains the same as in
Figure 1, but the process standard deviation has
been reduced to one half-day through
application of the DMAIC model.

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TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT
Lean Six Sigma
CIVCM0425 - 4 | ENGR. Vien Carlo M. Amora | SEM 2 2024

DEFECTS PER MILLION OPPORTUNITIES SIX SIGMA STRATEGY

PER MILLION OPPORTUNITIES
Six Sigma stands out as one of the most
To achieve Six Sigma quality, a process must effective methodologies for driving
limit defects to no more than 3.4 per million improvements globally. What sets it apart are its
opportunities, with respect to the following terms emphasis on measurement, rigorous training,
below: process-centricity, and stakeholder involvement,
● A defect is any aspect of a product or distinguishing it from other quality
service failing to meet customer methodologies.
specifications, resulting in In essence, Six Sigma serves as a business
dissatisfaction or functional/physical strategy and a philosophy, advocating for
requirement shortcomings. The term working smarter rather than harder. Its precision
"customer" encompasses both internal levels, such as One Sigma with 68.27%, Two
and external recipients. Sigma with 95.45%, and Three Sigma with
● Opportunities represent the total 99.73%, demonstrate a substantial leap in
chances per unit for defects to arise, accuracy with Six Sigma achieving an
each being independent, measurable, impressive 99.9997%. This difference became
observable, and directly related to evident when comparing 99.73% to 99.9997%,
critical-to-quality (CTQ) aspects. The illustrating the substantial impact on outcomes,
count of opportunities indicates the such as reducing lost items from 66,738 to 3.4
complexity of a product or service. A per million articles of mail.
"unit" is quantifiable by customers,
manifesting as a physical entity or IMPLEMENTING SIX SIGMA
having specific start and stop points in Six Sigma is a stringent and highly efficient
services. implementation of well-established quality
Defects per million opportunities per million principles and techniques. A company's
opportunities (DPMO), or also known as performance is assessed based on the sigma
nonconformities per million opportunities level of its business processes. Traditionally,
(NPMO), is a Six Sigma metric used in quality businesses considered Three or Four Sigma
management. It quantifies the ratio of defects in performance levels acceptable, even though
a sample to the total number of defect these processes resulted in 6,200 to 67,000
opportunities, multiplied by 1 million, thus, it can problems per million opportunities. The Six
be calculated as: Sigma standard of 3.4 problems per million
opportunities reflects the rising customer
expectations and the increased complexity of
modern products and processes.
Two common approaches to explaining how Six
Sigma works are the Define, Measure, Analyze,
Improve, and Control (DMAIC) and Define,
Measure, Analyze, Design, and Verify
(DMADV) methodologies. DMADV and DMAIC
share similarities, but they are distinct and
cannot be interchangeable.
DEFINE, MEASURE, ANALYZE, IMPROVE,
AND CONTROL (DMAIC)
DMAIC, which stands for Define, Measure,
Analyze, Improve, and Control, represents a
data-driven improvement cycle utilized to
enhance, optimize, and stabilize business
processes and designs. This improvement cycle
serves as the fundamental tool driving Six Sigma
projects.

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TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT
Lean Six Sigma
CIVCM0425 - 4 | ENGR. Vien Carlo M. Amora | SEM 2 2024
Define the goals of the improvement activity. At
the highest tier, the objectives encompass
strategic goals of the organization, such as
achieving a greater return on investment (ROI)
or capturing a larger market share.
Measure the existing system. Create metrics
that are both valid and reliable to monitor the
progress toward the goals identified in the
preceding step
Analyze the system to discover methods for
closing the disparity between the current
performance of the system or process and the
intended objective.
Improve the system. Demonstrate creativity in
discovering novel approaches to enhance
efficiency, reduce costs, or expedite processes.
Control the new system. Permanently integrate
the enhanced system by adjusting compensation
and incentive structures, policies, procedures,
MRP, budgets, operating instructions, and other
management systems.

DEFINE, MEASURE, ANALYZE, DESIGN,

AND VERIFY (DMADV)

At times, an organization may decide to launch a

new product or service to grab a new business

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TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT
Lean Six Sigma
CIVCM0425 - 4 | ENGR. Vien Carlo M. Amora | SEM 2 2024
opportunity offered by the environment. In all ● Networking with other Master Black
such situations, the last two steps in the DMAIC, Belts.
namely, “improve” and “control” have to be BLACK BELT
replaced by “design” and “verify” so that it The certified Six Sigma Black Belt is a
becomes DMADV. The design of new processes professional who can explain Six Sigma
or redesign of existing processes using DMADV philosophies and principles including supporting
is known as “Design for Six Sigma” (DFSS) or systems and tools. A Black Belt should
“Six Sigma Design” (SSD). demonstrate team leadership, understand team
Thus, the very essence of Six Sigma lies in the dynamics and assign roles and responsibilities to
following four factors: team members.
1. Proper definition and scope of
GREEN BELT
engineering or management problems.
2. Conversion of an engineering or Six Sigma Green Belts are project leaders
management problem into a statistical capable of forming and facilitating Six Sigma
problem. teams and managing Six Sigma projects from
3. Seeking a statistical solution to this concept to completion. Green Belt training
problem. consists of five days of classroom training and is
4. Conversion of the statistical solution conducted in conjunction with Six Sigma
into business or engineering solutions projects. Training
YELLOW BELT
SIX SIGMA TRAINING PROGRAMMES Six Sigma Yellow Belt is an introductory training
Six Sigma involves changing major business in the fundamentals of Six Sigma. Yellow Belt
value streams that cut across organizational certification provides an overall insight to the
barriers. It is the means by which the techniques of Six Sigma, its metrics, and basic
organization’s strategic goals are to be achieved. improvement methodologies. A Yellow Belt must
Six Sigma must be implemented from the top- know how to integrate Six Sigma methodologies
down. for the improvement of production and
transactional systems to better meet customer
CHAMPION ANS SPONSORS expectations and bottom-line objectives of the
Six Sigma champions are high-level individuals organization.
who understand Six Sigma and are committed to
its success by removing the roadblocks on the IMPLEMENTATION OF SIX SIGMA
path. Champions must be proficient in four other
areas—business and operations interface, The goal of Six Sigma is to achieve fewer than
project selection, pace mediation and result 3.4 defects per million opportunities by training
implementation. internal leaders to apply established techniques.
Six Sigma has been adopted by organizations of
MASTER BLACK BELT all sizes and types. The following is a step-by-
The certified Master Black Belts are experts step approach for implementing Six Sigma.
responsible for the strategic deployment of Six Step 1: Successful performance improvement
Sigma within an organization. They promote and must begin with senior leadership.
support improvement activities in all business Step 2: Define the project scope and goals
areas of their organization as well as at the based on customer feedback and needs.
suppliers and customers ends. Their main Step 3: Analyze the system to identify defects
responsibilities include: and problems
● Providing mentoring and support to Step 4: Improve the system by finding ways to
Black Belts, Green Belts, and Six do things faster, cheaper or better.
Sigma teams to use the improvement Step 5: Control the new process by modifying
tools appropriate to a specific problem. systems and measuring processes to continue to
● Helping to develop and deploy achieve results.
organizational metrics and dashboards.
● Developing, maintaining and revising
the Six Sigma curriculum, delivering
classroom training and serving as
liaison with external agencies in the
delivery of Six Sigma training.