Artipot - Free Ezine Articles
 
Home » Business » Management

Six Sigma is the Proven Lean Strategy

By Jacquelyn Donner
Nov 25, 2008
We are in a very competitive business. Six Sigma is the proven strategy which will make it possible for our Company to break through the wall between the average and world-class. The only way to make money is by satisfying needs. Six Sigma is a powerful tool to improve our processes. Many major companies have proven the efficiency of the Six Sigma approach in improving their process capability from the average to world-class.

The Lean Strategy targets the reduction of process variation, hence the output of these processes are better, with a lower probability of defects. Applying this strategy, every one in the organization recognizes the importance of process sigma rating and should continuously strive for improvement.

6 Sigma reinforces the company's culture and confirms its values. Through Six Sigma standards, sigma ratings are representative of the company's real efficiency. The CT Tree will be the prime planning tool to prioritize and improve our processes. Defects per million chances of error and other quality/cost indicators should be commonly used to monitor the evolution of improvement. Lean Sigma Black Belts must be dedicated to help teams to solve problems on a regular basis and the results will be documented and publicized. Our processes will be robust to input variations and Engineering will design for manufacturing.

six-sigma implementation success factors are:
Six Sigma Champions, business metrics, common process metrics, benchmarking with stretch goals, application of the Roadmap, Six Sigma Black Belts, success stories, design of experiments (DOE) and statistical process control (SPC). There needs to be a quality and time focus, design-for-manufacturing methods, quality policy and deployment, quality council and associate membership, empowered high-performance work teams.

At the initial steps of lean our efforts must be coordinated. We have to apply rigorously the Six Sigma Breakthrough Strategy in order to maximize our chance of success as soon as possible. Our first Sigma projects should be successes to further take advantage of the resulting momentum. What we don't know, we don't know! Instead of opinion, we have to take decisions based on reliable facts and with a high degree of confidence. The lean approach is to focus on the vital few which have a real impact on the rolled throughput yield.

Once the full force of the Six Sigma Measurement, Analysis, and Improvement tools have been brought to bear on a process, and it has been re-engineered to achieve a lean level of capability, the process must be put in a state of statistical control. There are a variety of tools used during the Control phase of a Six-Sigma project, and the most important are Control Charts.

Control Charts, in effect a form of Time-Series graph, plot the on-going performance of a process, relative to a performance standard, or control limit which is determined from the process' historical variation. If the performance variable, or response, being controlled, goes outside the control limits, then the process can be said to be out of control, and action should be taken.
About the Author
Please Rate:

Rating:

(Average: Not rated)
Views:67 
Print Article Email Article Reprint Article Comments (0)
More Articles from Management
Top Articles in Management