Six Sigma Green Belt - Study Guides

A Brief History of Quality

Index

• Trace the Evolution of Quality

• Evolution of Six- Sigma & its Benefits in relation to other quality improvement
approaches

• Six Sigma Philosophy & Objectives

• DMAIC (Define Measure Analyze Improve & Control) Process

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 1. History of Quality

“Quality is never an accident; it is always the result of high intention, sincere

effort, intelligent direction and skillful execution; it represents the wise choice
of many alternatives “
- William A Foster

• Improving the quality of goods and services offered by a company has been the
single most important factor in increasing profits. Additional benefits include:
◦ Improving customer satisfaction
◦ Building market share
◦ Gaining competitive advantage and sustainability in the market.

• High quality has been the cornerstone of all successful companies – and
successful companies explicitly mention high quality as their most important
strategic goal.

• There has been a lot of theoretical study about how to improve quality. Some
important quality paradigms that we will review in this course include those from
quality gurus like Deming, Juran, Crosby, Ishikawa and Taguchi

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 1.a W Edwards Deming

• Dr. W. Edwards Deming (Oct 1900 – Dec 1993) was born in Sioux City, Iowa, USA. Deming
did his BS in Electrical Engineering and followed that with a Masters Degree and PhD from
Yale University. Deming was instrumental in the rise of Japan as a manufacturing power and
in the invention of theories for “Total Quality Management.” Some important tenets of Deming’s
philosophy:
◦ Use of statistical process control to identify special and common cause variations –
special cause variations are erratic and unpredictable but common cause variations are
inherent in the system. Ultimately, our objective should be to eliminate special cause
variations and decrease common cause variations to improve quality of goods produced.
◦ Quality depends on the policies of management and if management creates appropriate
conditions and motivations for workers to improve quality, it will result in every worker
contributing to a better quality product. His “Theory of Profound Knowledge” talks about
how management should create conditions where every worker contributes towards
quality improvement.
◦ (Proposed) Use of the “Plan  Do  Check  Act” Model to improve quality
• Deming wrote a book called “Out of the Crisis” which set out 14 Management Guidelines which
could be used by US companies to improve quality and compete with Japanese
manufacturing.
• To facilitate Dr. Deming for his contribution to quality, Japanese Union of Scientists and
Engineers (JUSE) has incorporated the “Deming Prize” for significant contributions made to
product quality and statistical quality control.

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 1.b Joseph M. Juran

• Joseph M. Juran (Dec 1904) was born in Romania but emigrated to the US when he was 8
years old. Juran got his BS in Electrical Engineering and subsequently worked in Western
Electric as a Manager.

• Some important tenets of Juran’s philosophy:

◦ Use of Pareto principle (80 – 20 rule) i.e. 80% of quality improvement is possible by
fixing 20% of the problems. This rule helps in separating the vital few from the trivial
many.
◦ Quality from a customer perspective has two aspects : a) more features and b) freedom
from trouble. So, improvement of quality should deliver these two aspects to customers.
◦ Juran wrote a book called “Quality Control Handbook” which provides information to
companies for improving performance through better quality.
◦ Use of “Quality Trilogy Model” – this model uses Quality Planning, Quality Improvement
and Quality Control for improving quality.
◦ Hands-on involvement by management is necessary in the quality effort.

• In 1979, Juran founded the “Juran Institute” which has since become a leading institute for
quality education worldwide and provides quality consultancy to several leading corporate
houses.

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 1.c Philip Crosby

• Philip Crosby (June 1926 – Aug 2001) was born in Wheeling, West Virginia, US.
He worked in the Navy and graduated from the Ohio College of Podiatric Medicine
in Cleveland. However, medicine did not excite him. He became very interested in
quality issues in 1952, after he joined the American Society for Quality Control.
Some important tenets of Philip Crosby’s philosophy:

◦ Quality should be defined as “conformance to requirements” and not a vague

concept about “exceeding customer expectations”.

◦ Plan for “Zero Defects” – anything less is not acceptable.

◦ Measurement of quality is the cost of non-conformance.

• In 1979, Philip Crosby founded the “Philip Crosby Associates” which taught
management the importance of “Zero Defects” quality and the necessity of
creating processes which do things right the first time.

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 1.d Kaoru Ishikawa

• Kaoru Ishikawa (1915 – April 1989) was born in Japan. He graduated in 1939 from Tokyo
University with a major in chemistry. He was one of the pioneers of Quality Circle in Japan in
the 1960’s. He was also the recipient of the Deming Prize and the Nihon Kezai Press Prize.
Some important tenets of Ishikawa’s philosophy:
◦ Use of cause and effect diagrams (also referred to as Ishikawa or Fishbone diagrams)
to systematically list all the causes that can be attributed to an effect (or problem).
◦ Expansion of Deming’s Plan-Do-Check-Act Model.
◦ Quality improvement is always a continuous process and can be taken a step further.
◦ Importance of using quality tools like control chart, run chart, histogram, scatter
diagram, Pareto diagram and flow chart.
◦ Important for all the employees of the organization to contribute towards better
quality.(Importance of the contribution of all the employees of the organization towards
better quality.)

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 1.e Genichi Taguchi

• Genichi Taguchi was born in January of 1924 in Takamachi, Japan and studied technical
engineering at Kiryu College. After the Second World War, Japanese companies had limited
resources and were perceived as providing low quality goods. In the era where good quality
was considered expensive, Taguchi revolutionized the concept of improving the quality of
goods produced while simultaneously reducing costs. He is considered by many as
instrumental in the emergence of Japan as a manufacturing power. Some important tenets of
Taguchi’s doctrine:

◦ Manufacturing processes are impacted by external disturbance i.e. noise which impacts
the quality of goods produced. Noise should be minimized wherever possible but some
noise (e.g. bad weather) cannot be avoided. Systems should have “robustness” i.e.
ability to function satisfactorily in spite of the noise and external disturbance.
◦ Concept of “Quality Loss Function” is used to quantify decrease in the perceived value
of the goods by the customer once the quality decreases.
◦ Use of “Design of Experiments” – a concept which we will study later in the Six Sigma
course.

• Taguchi was a recipient of the Deming Prize. He also received the “Indigo Ribbon” from the
Japanese Emperor for his contribution to Japanese quality and industry.

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 2. Evolution of Six Sigma – difference from
other traditional Quality Methods
• The origins of Six Sigma can be traced back to Johann Carl Frederick Guass,(1777 -1855) a
legendary German mathematician and physicist. In 1818, he started working on the normal
distribution which forms the basis of Six Sigma philosophy.
• The person who first coined the term “Six Sigma” was Bill Cohen, an engineer with Motorola.
Later, in 1986, Bill Smith, a senior scientist at Motorola, standardized the way in which defects
are measured using Six Sigma. Instead of measuring defects in thousands of opportunities,
Six Sigma provided the ability to measure defects in millions of opportunities – thereby
providing significant improvement in quality.
• Since that time, several companies including Motorola, Citibank, General Electric, Allied Signal
etc. have achieved dramatic success by using Six Sigma methodology for improving quality
and reducing costs (for example, Motorola has documented $ 16 billion in savings because of
its Six Sigma efforts).
• There are several factors that make Six Sigma a more effective quality tool when compared
with other traditional quality techniques namely:
◦ Comprehensive
◦ Project based approach
◦ Cohesive process based approach
◦ Quantitative approach
◦ Commitment from all levels of organization

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 2.a Comprehensive

• Six Sigma is a very comprehensive methodology, which includes the best

practices from other traditional quality techniques. The Six Sigma DMAIC
Methodology looks at the whole project life-cycle including Define, Measure,
Analyze, Improve and Control with well-defined tools and methodology at each
stage (we will be learning more about the Six Sigma Methodology at a later stage
in the course).

• It links directly to business goals and customer expectations.

• Since the Six Sigma Methodology is so comprehensive and very well defined, it
can be used by

◦ Companies across different business areas including Manufacturing,

Finance, Technology, Construction, Engineering etc.
◦ Companies of different sizes – big, medium or even small companies with
less than 30 employees

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 2.b Project Based Approach

• Unlike traditional quality techniques, Six Sigma explicitly uses concepts of project
management, and so enjoys several benefits of a project i.e. every Six Sigma
project has a defined start date and end date, and a pre-defined project charter
with goals, objectives and deliverables.

• Project planning tools like project plan, Gantt charts, PERT, planning trees etc are
used for managing the project and require proper knowledge of different project
management knowledge areas:
◦ Project integration management
◦ Project scope management
◦ Project time management
◦ Project cost management
◦ Project quality management
◦ Project human resource management
◦ Project communication management
◦ Project risk management
◦ Project procurement management

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 2.c Cohesive Process Based Approach

• Detailed process maps created during the initial stages of a Six Sigma project
provide an overview of complex processes in an organization, identify
relationships and interdependencies between the processes and facilitate
identification of problems.

• A Finance department is involved in estimation and validation of project financials

and cost benefits from the project.

• Six Sigma methodology can evaluate different aspects within an organization

including people, equipment, environment, materials etc. and identify the projects
which can provide maximum benefits to the organization.

• Cohesive process based approach helps in getting a holistic view of the

organization and identifying potential problem areas – Six Sigma projects can then
be used to fix the problems identified.

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 2.d Quantitative Approach

• Since several traditional quality improvement approaches did not use rigorous
quantitative methods, it was very difficult to measure the cost and benefits of those
quality initiatives. By using rigorous quantitative and statistical techniques, Six
Sigma provides mathematical analysis to determine which project offers the
maximum benefit at the least cost i.e. all Six Sigma projects have measurable and
quantifiable goals and associated costs.

• Following the quantitative Six Sigma concepts also helps to ensure that

◦ The project goals align with the organizational goals

◦ There are long-term benefits from the Six Sigma project.

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 2.e Commitment from all Levels
of the Organization
• Six Sigma formalizes an organizational structure for Six Sigma projects and ensures
commitment from all levels of the organization to achieve the quality goals. All the
stakeholders – customers, senior management, project team members and other employees
have a vested interest in the successful implementation of Six Sigma projects.

◦ Executive Management (also referred to as Deployment Champions) is responsible for

sponsorship of the project and allows for commitment of organizational resources to the
Six Sigma project.
◦ Master Black Belts and Black Belts act as consultants and experts in Six Sigma. They
are also responsible for providing guidance and coaching to others in the organization
about Six Sigma philosophy.
◦ Six Sigma Green Belts serve as a liaison between the Black Belts and the project team.
They perform the operations required for the Six Sigma project and work with the project
team to ensure that appropriate deliverables are met.
◦ The project team works in executing the actual work of the project through guidance
provided from by Six Sigma Green Belts and Six Sigma Black Belts.
◦ Subject Matter Experts in different fields (e.g. Finance, Human Resources etc.) may be
involved in providing expertise wherever required.

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 2.e Commitment from all Levels of the
Organization (continued)
• Proper training and motivation is provided to all the people involved in the Six
Sigma project to ensure successful project implementation.

• Having a well-defined organization structure helps in creating a feeling of “shared

ownership and responsibility” which can be critical in successful project
implementation. More importantly, with well defined project hierarchy and pre-
defined roles and responsibilities, all Six Sigma stakeholders know their tasks and
work towards successful project implementation.

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 3. Defining Six Sigma – Philosophy
and Objectives
• Literally, Six Sigma refers to decreasing the number of defects to 3.4 defects per
million opportunities (i.e. success rate of 99.9997%). It attacks variation in
processes, minimizing defects and waste, and thereby improving bottom-line.

• Six Sigma philosophy strives towards perfection. The scope of Six Sigma includes
tools and techniques for careful definition, analysis and measurement of business
processes to improve process capability. It relies greatly on statistical techniques
to measure and quantify success. A lot of emphasis is also put on controlling
existing processes to ensure that the processes do not deteriorate over time.

• Six Sigma is a comprehensive quality methodology that can be used to clearly

understand an organization’s business processes and customer needs, and either
redesign the business processes or provide/ make incremental process
improvements as desired.

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 3.a Defining Six Sigma – Philosophy and
Objectives
Some highlights of Six-Sigma:

• Six Sigma is a business philosophy and top management driven.

• Six-Sigma is a problem solving methodology

• Six-Sigma is a metric to measure quality and process reliability.

• Six-Sigma focuses on both customer and bottom line.

• Six-Sigma is a highly quantitative approach to fixing quality problems.

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 3.b Defining Six Sigma – Philosophy
and Objectives

As the Six-Sigma score

improves, the variation in
Six Sigma Defects per million Okay the processes reduce
Score Opportunities Percentage drastically, thereby
increasing the reliability of
2 308537 69.15% the system, which reduces
the need for rework.
3 66807 93.32%
The reduction in amount of
4 6210 99.38% rework reduces cycle time
and improves customer
satisfaction.
5 233 99.98%

6 3.4 99.99966%

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 4. Overview of Six Sigma DMAIC Process

• Six Sigma is a very comprehensive methodology, which includes the best

practices from other traditional quality techniques.

• The Six Sigma DMAIC Methodology looks at the whole Six Sigma project life-cycle
with well-defined tools and methodology at each stage.

• DMAIC methodology lays down tactical steps to achieve Six Sigma quality.

• The different phases of the DMAIC Methodology are as follows:

◦ Define
◦ Measure
◦ Analyze
◦ Improve
◦ Control

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 4.a Define

Inputs Tools Outputs

• Need for Six • Organization • Project

Sigma project hierarchy Charter
• Executive • High level • Established
Management process maps metrics
Sponsorship • High level • Problem
• Core team Pareto charts Statement
identified • Idea • Roles and
generation and Responsibilitie
categorization s
tools

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 4.b Measure

Inputs Tools Outputs

• Project Charter • Data Collection Tools • Well-defined

• Roles and and Techniques Processes
Responsibilities • Measurement scales • Baseline Process
• Problem Statement • Validation techniques Capabilities
• Stakeholder • Statistical • Process parameters
Requirements Distributions affecting Critical to
• Established metrics • Data Mining Quality (CTQ)
• Run charts • Cost of Poor Quality
(COPQ)
• Detailed process
maps and process • Measurement
charts Systems
• Stakeholder tools
• Process Costs

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 4.c Analyze
Inputs Tools Outputs

• Well-defined • Ishikawa Diagrams • Important causes of

Processes • Failure Mode and defects
• Baseline Process Effects Analysis • Special and common
Capabilities • Hypothesis Testing causes of variation
• Process parameters • Process capability • Defects Per Million
affecting CTQ study opportunities
• Cost of Poor Quality (DPMO) and Sigma
(COPQ) level
• Measurement
Systems

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 4.d Improve

Inputs Tools Outputs

• Important causes of • Return on • Cost/Benefit for

defects Investment (ROI) different solutions
• Special and common • Solution Design • Selection of solutions
causes of variation Matrix for implementation
• DPMO and Sigma • Design of • Implementation Plan
level Experiments
• Taguchi Robustness
concepts
• Response Surface
Methodology
• Project planning and
management tools
• Prototypes

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 4.e Control
Inputs Tools Outputs

• Cost/Benefit for • Control Plan • Implemented

different solutions • Statistical Process solutions
• Selection of solutions control • Revised
for implementation • Lean Enterprise Measurement
• Implementation Plan • 5S System
• Kaizen • Control Plan for
sustaining benefits
• Kanban
• Improved Process
• Total Productive Capability
Maintenance
• Lessons Learned
• Measurement
system reanalysis

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