Six Sigma is a method that was initially developed to ensure efficient production in the electronic manufacturing process.However, this strategy was extended to other businesses to remove defects and ensure that the products meet the customer specifications.
It is a business management strategy whose aim is to ensure maximum quality by reducing the cost. This means that organizations employing this strategy saves a lot of money and makes hefty profits. It identifies and removes defects which are errors in the process and also minimizing inconsistency in manufacturing and business.
It uses worth management methods including numerical methods. It generates a unique infrastructure of people within the institute who are experts in these methods. These special people are given names such as black belts and green belts. A Six Sigma process ensures that 99.99966% of products produced are defect-free. Motorola is one of the companies which have enjoyed the full benefits of this strategy.
The trained experts carry out calculations within the organizations production process in order to determine the number of defects and try to eliminate them. The methods to be used in arriving to these calculations vary from organization to organization explaining why Six Sigma varies so widely and why it will continue to evolve. These defects are anything outside the customer specification.
There are two sub-methodologies namely DMAIC which improves the existing processes falling below the requirement and looking up for incremental development and DMADV which is an improvement scheme used to increase new processes or yields that meet customer standards and that are defect free. Both these processes are carried out by the trained personnel in the organization that is the black and the green belts.
Today it is being employed across an array of industries such as banking, insurance, construction, and many others to deliver a world-class piece, consistency, and value to the final customer. Sigma is a sign of standard deviation that measures the divergence of a sample from the population mean. Each sigma you go away from the average, failure becomes more and more unlikely.
This measuring of deviations, definition of failures and other activities eventually lead to product excellence. This methodology provides an important skeleton for organizations to coach its people to focus on key presentation areas. It also helps it to comprehend its strategy connected to its marketplace that is where it is heading. It helps it to understand the services and products that its customers need most, how to better systematize main business activities that convey customer stipulation.
This method is more appropriate to large organizations, those with more than 500 employees. This is due both to the infrastructure black belts that the method has need of and also to the fact that outsized organizations present more chances for the varieties of Six Sigma is well-matched to bring about. Importance of using this strategy in an organization are numerous. One is that it allows the organization to realize its full potential in that it makes consistent improvements in product quality until the business processes are optimized.
As soon as a targeted quality level is reached, the organization sets a new one and starts working on other levels of quality. It also helps in increasing customer satisfaction and building loyalties. Once customers are satisfied by your products they will ensure constant flow of income even during a recession in the industry. Six Sigma should therefore be adopted by all industries aiming at maximizing their profits and reducing costs.