MBA Journal Six Sigma Education Resources

Defining Defects, Units, and Opportunities

There are lots of business strategies that are overwhelming the world of business. Some tried a few and given up resulting to either using their own methods or ended up losing the business because of too much bad decisions. How do you choose the right strategy? Simple, Look for evidences. One of the most successful strategies around is the Six Sigma, this strategy was introduced by Motorola Inc., which is now a successful company, A direct proof that Six Sigma really did a great job.

Where the idea did came from?

The very concept of six Sigma was born on 1970s at Motorola. The concept was brought by the criticism of the recent senior executive Art Sudry because of Motorola’s bad quality. It was inspired by the quality improvement methodologies such as quality control, total quality management and zero defects. These methodologies brought serious escalations to how these three could be achieved. The term came from a field of statistics known as process capability studies. The strategy was first used mainly by Motorola but later on was used by Honeywell, General electric and fortune 500. Today, there are now seminars and workshops that are conducted to teach six sigma to other manufacturing companies to lessee their costs when it comes to defect items.

How does it work?

Unless you’ve had much training like anybody does, you won’t get every procedure intended for those who attend their workshop. Six Sigma actually follows two methodologies inspired by Deming which is known as the Plan-Do-Check-Act-Recycle. These methodologies are composed of two acronyms both with 5 letters: the DMAIC and the DMADV. Here is more elaborate explanation:

DMAIC – stands for:

• Define the problem
• Measure key aspects and collect important data
• Analyze the data and look for cause and effect relationships
• Improvise the current process using the latest data analyzed
• Control the future states of the production. Prevent defects by making sure that your goals are fixed.

DMADV which is also known as DFSS (Design for Six sigma) stands for:

• Define goals that are consistent with the market’s demands
• Measure and identify CTQ (Critical to quality)
• Analyze to develop new design alternatives
• Design Details, optimize and plan for verification
• Verify the design, set up pilot plans, implement production process and you are now ready to start your innovated production.

This strategy has been known for years and there are actual trainings that consider this plan and actually making It known over the years. As more and more people is trusting this very same strategy, more businesses are more likely to bloom as they continually accept wrong decisions and turns and are now heading for the right path.