INTRODUCTION

What is Six Sigma?

Six Sigma at many organizations simply means a measure of quality that strives for near
perfection. Six sigma is a disciplined, data-driven approach and methodology for eliminating
defects (driving towards six standard deviations between the mean and the nearest specification
limit) in any process -- from manufacturing to transactional and from product to service.

Historical overview
The particulars of the methodology were first formulated by Bill Smith at Motorola in 1986.Six
Sigma was originally developed as a set of practices designed to improve manufacturing
processes and eliminate defects, but its application was subsequently extended to other types of
business processes as well. In Six Sigma, a defect is defined as anything that could lead to
customer dissatisfaction.

Six Sigma was heavily inspired by six preceding decades of quality improvement methodologies
such as quality control, TQM, and Zero Defects, based on the work of pioneers such as
Shewhart, Deming, Juran, Ishikawa, Taguchi and others. Six Sigma is a registered service mark
and trademark of Motorola, Inc. Motorola has reported over US$17 billion in savings from Six
Sigma as of 2006.

Other early adopters of Six Sigma who achieved well-publicized success include Honeywell and
General Electric, where the method was introduced by Jack Welch. By the late 1990s, about two-
thirds of the Fortune 500 organizations had begun Six Sigma initiatives with the aim of reducing
costs and improving quality.

Six Sigma seeks to identify and remove the causes of defects and errors in manufacturing and
business processes. It uses a set of quality management methods, including statistical methods,
and creates a special infrastructure of people within the organization ("Black Belts" etc.) who are
experts in these methods. Each Six Sigma project carried out within an organization follows a
defined sequence of steps and has quantified financial targets (cost reduction or profit increase).

The term "Six Sigma" is derived from a field of statistics known as process capability
studies. Originally, it referred to the ability of manufacturing processes to produce a very
high proportion of output within specification. Processes that operate with "six sigma
quality" over the short term are assumed to produce long-term defect levels below 3.4 defects
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per million opportunities (DPMO). Six Sigma's implicit goal is to improve all processes to
that level of quality or better.

Why six sigma?

As you see above “what” is six sigma, now in your mind the question must have arise that
why we need six sigma? There are many reasons for having six sigma in business like there
is intense competitive pressures especially from rapid globalization and Greater consumer
demand for high quality products and services, little tolerance for failures of any type and
also Top management (and stockholder) recognition of the high costs of poor quality other
hand the availability and accessibility of large data bases and the increasing ability to

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explore, understand, and use the data etc. to avoid this kind of circumstances from the
business one should accept the six sigma methodology. Following are some of the business
organization who implemented the six sigma philosophy in their business and what are the
benefits they got from this implementation are as follows:

1) Six Sigma at Motorola

Motorola saved $17 Billion from 1986 to 2004, reflecting hundreds of individual successes in
all Motorola business areas including:

➢ Sales and Marketing

➢ Product design
➢ Manufacturing
➢ Customer service
➢ Transactional processes
➢ Supply chain management

1) General Electric: What Is Six Sigma?

In G.E six sigma means, “First, what it is not. It is not a secret society, a slogan, or a
cliché. Six Sigma is a highly disciplined process that helps us focus on developing and
delivering near-perfect products and services”

➢ Saved $750 million by the end of 1998

➢ Cut invoice defects and disputes by 98 percent, speeding payment, and creating
better productivity

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 ➢ Streamlined contract review process, leading to faster completion of deals and
annual savings of $1 million.

1) Honeywell: six sigma plus.

In Honeywell six sigma called as six sigma plus.“It is one of the most potent strategies
ever developed to accelerate improvements in processes, products, and services, and to
radically reduce manufacturing and/or administrative costs and improve quality. It
achieves this by relentlessly focusing on eliminating waste and reducing defects and
variations.

➢ Initiated Six Sigma efforts in 1992 and saved more then $600 million a year by
1999.
➢ Reduced time from design to certification of new projects like aircraft engines
from 42 to 33 months.
➢ Increased market value by a compounded 27% per year through fiscal year 1998.

Reasons to consider Six sigma in business:

• Bigger companies have resources internally who are trained in Six Sigma and also have
'Train the Trainer' programs using which they churn out many more Six Sigma instructors.
Also many bigger companies encourage the employees to learn Six Sigma process by
providing Green Belts/Black Belts as mentors.

• Effectively applying the Six Sigma techniques is difficult compared to actually learning the
techniques in a class.

• Big companies make Six Sigma as part of the Goals for employees and provide incentives for
employees who undergo training and mentor colleagues.

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Many assume that that Six Sigma works for bigger companies only as they produce in
volumes and have thousands of employees. This notion is not true and Six Sigma can be
effectively applied for small businesses and even companies with fewer than 10 employees.

Levels of six sigma performance

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Near Perfection

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Six sigma levels:

Six sigma levels can be explained with the help of long term DPMO i.e.,
defects per million opportunities values. To reach the six sigma level we first have to start
from one sigma level. As per the above chart, we can see that by implementing one sigma the
DPMO value is 6, 90, 000 and the efficiency achieved is ‘31%’. Similarly, implementing two
sigma will take the efficiency level to ‘69%’ and the defects per million would be 3,08,000.
So as we increase the sigma levels the efficiency rate will go no increasing and the defects
per million will go on decreasing. And then by applying five sigma we reach efficiency rate
of 99.977%.

Finally, when six sigma is reached there are only about 3.4 defects per million
and the efficiency rate is 99.9997% that is near to perfection. Thus we can say that no
organization can implement six sigma directly. They have to go through all sigma levels and
finally reach six sigma to remove the defects and thus reach perfection. It is thus a step by
step process.

Six sigma Case study

Mr. Ramakrishna was a very efficient men working in MNC. All the supervisors
and managers in the company had a very positive outlook towards him. He used to do all his
work up to date and there was no doubt in his talent and efficiency. But one thing that was
not letting his career flourish was that he was late for his work almost for all the days of the
week.

Then Mr. Ramakrishna learnt about six sigma being implemented in his company. He knew
that it is way to near perfection step by step. So he thought of implementing six sigma in his
real life, so that he could be on time to office everyday. He knew that this was the way to
improve and flourish further. So he first kept the target of arriving on time any how for at

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 least 2 days in a week. When he became successful in doing so he increased the two days of
the week to three days and later four days and so on.

Then after seeing his progress he got the results and the change was that he was finally late
only for one to two days in the past month.

This made his employer think about his efficiency and promotion. He found that Mr.
Ramakrishna was very much a dedicated employee and so he must be a posted to a higher
office. Thus implementing six sigma in his day to day life really helped Mr. Ramakrishna.

Six sigma Methods

Six Sigma has two key methods: DMAIC and DMADV. DMAIC is used to improve an existing
business process; DMADV is used to create new product or process designs.

DMAIC

The basic method consists of the following five steps:

Define: It design goals that are consistent with customer demands, enterprise strategy and
identify the projects that are measurable. Also it defines that by including the demands of the
customer & content of the internal process helps to develop the team charter and define the
process map.

Measure: It measure and identify CTQs (characteristics that are Critical To Quality),
product capabilities, production process capability, and risks also define performance

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 standards. To Measure current level of quality into Sigma. It precisely pinpoints the area
causing problems and Identify all potential causes for such problems.

Analyze: It develop and design alternatives, create a high-level design and evaluate design
capability to select the best design. It also helps to establish process capability, define
performance objectives & identify variation sources.

There are some types for tool analysis i.e.

1) Process mapping
2) Failure mode & effect analysis
3) Statistical test
4) Design of experiment
5) Control charts
6) Quality function Deployment (QFD)

Improve: It optimizes the process based upon data analysis using techniques like Design of
experiments. It helps to discover variable relationships among causes and effects also
establish operating tolerances and pursue a method to resolve & eliminate ultimate problems.

Control: It ensure that any deviations from target are corrected before they result in defects.
It set up’s pilot runs to establish process capability, move on to production, set up control
mechanisms and continuously monitor the process.

DMADV

The basic method consists of the following five steps: in which first three steps are same as
above method i.e define, measure and analyze. DMADV is also known as DFSS, an abbreviation
of "Design For Six Sigma".

Define: design goals that are consistent with customer demands and the enterprise strategy.
In this it also identify the projects that are measurable and also define that by including the

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 demands of the customer & content of the internal process.it also helps to develop the team
charter and define the process map.

Measure: It measures identify CTQs (characteristics that are Critical To Quality), product
capabilities, production process capability, and risks also define performance standards. To
Measure current level of quality into Sigma. It precisely pinpoints the area causing problems
and Identify all potential causes for such problems.

Analyze: It develop and design alternatives, create a high-level design and evaluate design
capability to select the best design. It also helps to establish process capability, define
performance objectives & identify variation sources.

There are some types for tool analysis i.e.

1) Process mapping

2) Failure mode & effect analysis

3) Statistical test

4) Design of experiment

5) Control charts

6) Quality function Deployment (QFD)

Design: Its name suggest that it design the new product, Optimize the design, plan for design
verification and this phase may require simulations. service or process. It use predictive
models, prototypes etc. to validate the design concept’s effectiveness in meeting goals.

Verify: verify the design, set up pilot runs, implement the production process and hand it
over to the process owners.

Six sigma certification

From the word certification, it is clear that Certification usually refers to the qualification or the
ability of a person in a specified field or a job. Same as six sigma certification is a designation

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owned by a person to ensure that he/ she is capable and qualified for the performance of the job.
Under six sigma certification, it indicates the confirmation of a person's ability in performing
specific competencies. Six sigma certification differs from other type of certifications in the
sense, that other types of quality certifications ensure a person's capability in the performance of
unlimited process improvement. But in the case of six sigma certification it ensures an
individual's capability with respect to specified competencies

Six sigma certification give importance in giving training to the appropriate subject matter,
through written proficiency test. This training provides with the displaying competency in the
hands of the person. Six Sigma Certification is given by the training and consulting company,
who is conducting the training. The tests can be given even by the companies hiring the training
programs. The tests may differ according to the training company's proficiency. Companies
performing training for years have created and administrated written proficiency tests of their
own.

Once the certification training is completed, one must complete one or two quality projects. This
is the time for the trainees to display the competency in applying the concepts learned. This part
of the training differs according to the companies, and hence the quality projects are the fuzziest
and the undefined part of the six sigma certification.

Under six sigma certification comes three types of certifications. They are:

Green belt certification

Black belt certification

Master black belt certification

Apart from this certification there are yellow certification and lean certification. The word belt
refers to the level six sigma projects to be performed. Business leaders processing six sigma
through the projects are known as the champions. They are trained according to the six sigma
methodology which aims at the selection of the projects that are related with business goals.
These champions are to select and monitor six sigma project leaders, who are called the "belts".
Six sigma certification requires both projects and training

Each belt is given different colors for the purpose their six sigma success identification. Each
color represents each responsibility. This is because the aim of six sigma is not only the
production of defect free projects and products, but also the fast implementation of the projects

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with out time waste. This is able when the work is divided into several parts. More over each
color indicates each quality or level of skills. This identification could help the project leaders to
find out the apt person for assigning the different tasks. Each color is having different task
responsibilities and skills to perform. Therefore the color will also help the project leader to find
out the skills and the responsibilities of the person assigned to the work.

CSSGB- Six Sigma Green Belt Certification

Here the six sigma green belt operators are given training to operate in the support or under the
supervision of a six sigma black belt. Through this certification the person is trained to analyze
and solve quality problems. This results in the quality improvement projects. The person, who
had undergone the six sigma green belt certification, has at least three years of work experience
in demonstrating the knowledge of six sigma tools and processes.

CSSBB- Six Sigma Black Belt Certification

The candidate who had undergone six sigma black belt certification is a professional who is
capable in the explanation of six sigma philosophies and the principles. His knowledge also
includes the supporting systems and the tools. This certification also deals with the training of
the candidate in developing the demonstrating of the team leadership, understanding team
dynamics and assigning team member roles and responsibilities. A six sigma black belt will be
well versed will all the aspects of the DMAIC model in accordance with the six sigma principles.
These professionals have basic knowledge of lean enterprise concepts. They are capable in
identifying non-value added elements and activities. They are also capable in the use of specific
tools

Master Black Belt Certification

The professionals who had undergone the master black belt certification are considered as a six
sigma quality experts and they are responsible for the strategic implementations within an
organization. The training is given for the improvement of the responsibilities of a master black
belt, which includes training and mentoring of black belts and the green belts. Moreover the
responsibilities or the duties of a master black belt extend to the range of helping the both belts in
prioritizing, selecting and charting high impact projects.

Maintaining the integrity of the six sigma measurements, improvements and developing, revising
six sigma training materials, qualifying or teaching the other six sigma facilitators about the

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methodologies, tools and applications in all functional areas of a company are some of the other
responsibilities of a person who has completed master black belt certification.

Yellow Belt Certification

Six Sigma Yellow Belt certification provides with the attendees an overall insight to the use age
of the six sigma techniques. This is to meet the customer's expectations and the objectives of the
organization from the bottom, to its best. The certification helps the trainees to receive an idea
about the introduction to the process management and the basic tools of six sigma. Strong
understanding of the processes, enabling each individual to provide meaningful assistance is the
other characteristics of the six sigma yellow belt certification. The aim of this certification is the
achievement of the organizations overall objectives.

Lean Six Sigma Certification

Lean six sigma certification provides the professionals with both techniques of service and
manufacturing in industries. Along with this lean certification makes an individual attain the
following requirements:

➢ Focusing how to move fast in order to accomplish the objectives within the industry.

➢ Involves in business enterprise, identifies and eliminates the activities which do not provide

values to the product or to the service given to the customer.

➢ Awareness of the lean and six sigma methodology help the business enterprise in attaining a

stable improvement.

➢ The improvement will start from the bottom level and will be having a fast accomplishment.

➢ Identifying the potential areas, deciding the improvements, meeting the customer

expectation and the business results are other fields in which the trainees concentrate.

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 Six Sigma Belts and the Colors
The use of different belts and the colors:

According to six sigma the word belt refers to the level or the position, of a person in an
organization at the time of performing a work or at the time of implementation of a project.
Several personalities take part at the time of the implementation of a work, so as to meet and
make sure that the project is launched with zero defects and is able to meet the customer
satisfaction. Hence results in sustaining the quality and profit of the company or the organization.

Each belt is given different colors for the purpose their six sigma success identification. Each
color represents each responsibility. This is because the aim of six sigma is not only the
production of defect free projects and products, but also the fast implementation of the projects
with out time waste. This is able when the work is divided into several parts. More over each
color indicates each quality or level of skills. This identification could help the project leaders to
find out the apt person for assigning the different tasks. Each color is having different task
responsibilities and skills to perform. Therefore the color will also help the project leader to find
out the skills and the responsibilities of the person assigned to the work.

The 3 major levels of belts and colors are

Green belt

Black belt

Master black belt

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 How to Implement Six Sigma?
Six Sigma was introduced by Motorola in the 1980s to set standards for the way defects are
counted. It is a statistical measure and business strategy. The goal of Six Sigma is to achieve
fewer than 3.4 defects per million opportunities by training internal leaders to apply established
techniques. Six sigma has been adopted by all sizes and types of organizations.

Following are some steps of implementing six sigma:

Step1
Commit to the project. Make sure all top-level management is on board and that financial and
managerial resources are available. Establish policies and guidelines and hold training
programs for employees.

Step2
Define the project scope and goals based on customer feedback and needs. Inspiration for six
sigma projects can come from surveys, studies or existing projects. Set goals for the whole
organization or for a specific level of the organization that needs improvement.

Step3
Measure the defects in the current system and performance. Use statistical data analysis.

Step4
Analyze the system to identify defects and problems. Identify the possible causes of
problems. Explore possible solutions and assess their possible effect on the organization.

Step5
Improve the system by finding ways to do things faster, cheaper or better. Use management
and planning tools to put the improvement projects into place. Test the improvement with
statistical data.

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Step6
Control the new process by modifying systems and measuring processes to continue to
achieve results. Use customer feedback and statistical tools. State what was done to improve
performance. Document methods to recognize and solve future problems.

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 What is six sigma metrics?
Six sigma metrics are the different types of measurements used in six sigma methodology, in
order to measure the success of the company's product quality. It doesn't means, the simple
collection and calculation of the data and defects are enough for the attainment of the success. In
order to get the right measurement through the use of six sigma metrics, a successful business
should apply these metrics in the right context in a innovative ways so as to solve the customer's
critics to the quality of the products. Therefore there are certain steps and six sigma metrics, in
six sigma methodology to be applied for the defect-free products.

Different types of Six Sigma Metrics:

The two major types of six sigma metrics are : Classical measures of Six Sigma metrics and
Typical Six Sigma Measures.

Classical Six Sigma Measures: Under which the measurement of the quality of timeliness,
accuracy, ease of doing business and cost are taken into consideration. Classical six sigma
measurement gives important to improve the quality of the above said aspects for the
organization's six sigma measurement framework.

Typical Six Sigma Measures: other six sigma measures come under the typical six sigma
measurement. other types of six sigma measurement are rolled-throughput-yield, DPMO, six
sigma tailor and critical-to –quality (CTQ).

CONCLUSION
The primary goal of Six Sigma is to improve customer satisfaction, and thereby
profitability, by reducing and eliminating defects. Defects may be related to any aspect of
customer satisfaction: high product quality, schedule adherence, cost minimization.

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A true Six Sigma organization produces not only excellent product but also maintains
highly efficient production and administrative systems that work effectively with the
company's other service processes.

Thus the primary factor in the successful implementation of a six sigma project is to have
the necessary resources, the support and leadership of top management.

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 BIBLIOGRAPHY

WEBSITES:

http://www.sixsigma.in/six-sigma-methodology.html

http://www.sixsigma.in/six-sigma-certification-in-india.html

http://www.onesixsigma.com/tools_resources/belts/belt.php. (Accessed on 30th

Jan, 2009)

GE website http://www.ge.com (Accessed on 20th Feb, 2009)

Motorola website http://www.motorola.com &

http://www.motorola.com/content/0,,3079,00.html. (Accessed on 02nd Feb,
2009)

BOOKS:

Dedhia, N.S. (2005), “Six Sigma Basics”, Total Quality Management, page no.
567-574

Harry, M., and Crawford. D. (2005), “Six Sigma – The next generation”,
Machine Design, February Issue, page no. 126-132

Thawani, S. (2004), “Six Sigma – Strategy for organizational excellence”,

Total Quality Management, page no. 655-664

Lucas, J.M. (2002), “The essential Six-Sigma”, Quality Progress, January,

Page no. 27-31

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