Lean Six Sigma in Corporate Sector
Lean Six Sigma is quickly gaining popularity among Defense and civilian agencies. It started as a tool for improving manufacturing in car factories. Now it has morphed into a symbol of corporate efficiency. In the recent years, Lean Six Sigma has turned into the latest government catchphrase for eliminating waste and reducing errors.
It is believed that in the next two to five years, there will be a significant increased push in the civilian agencies to adopt these approaches. Lean Six Sigma can help identify waste through its systematic way of looking at problem areas such as defects and wait times. Most organizations implementing Lean Six Sigma focus on training leaders with the expectation of getting them on board before launching a broader initiative. To know more about Lean Six Sigma in business world, read my previous article titled “Lean Six Sigma”.
Steps for Implementing Six Sigma
There are several steps for the implementation of Six Sigma in an organization. These steps include:
• Understanding the commitment of top leadership
• Access to current information on customer requirements
• A process management system to measure current performance and identify where you need to make improvements
• Employing Black Belts and Green Belts to design and improve processes and to assist process owners
• Allowing management involvement and review to reinforce process management, improvement and design
• Adopting effective communication strategy to ensure that Six Sigma methods are implemented throughout the organization.
Read my previous post titled “Applying Lean Manufacturing to Six Sigma” to know more on Six Sigma and Lean Manufacturing.
DMAIC and DMADV in Six Sigma
DMAIC in Six Sigma is used to improve a process. DMAIC is the acronym for the following:
• Define the project, process and voice of the customer
• Measure the current process performance
• Analyze to determine and verify the root cause of the focused problem
• Improve by implementing counter-measures that address the root causes
• Control to maintain the gains.
DMADV is used to design a process, product or services. DMADV is the acronym for the following:
• Define the project
• Measure and determine customer needs
• Analyze the design options to select one that best meets customer needs
• Design the detailed processes
• Verify the design performance
• This systematic design methodology can build processes that will reliably meet customer expectations.
Read my previous post titled “The Robust Nature of Six Sigma” to know more about the characteristics of Six Sigma.
Developing E-Learning With Six Sigma
If your company is planning to launch Six Sigma, you must understand what benefits can Six Sigma bring to your organization. The highly skilled and highly paid black belt professionals bring the projects into control, train green belts and put extra amount of input into corporate culture change.
Training and development are the most challenging parts of Six Sigma initiatives. However, black belt professionals efficiently handle those operations. You can maximize your benefits by adopting E-Learning development along with your Six Sigma initiatives. You must keep the following points in mind before going for E-Learning development:
• True cost of your E-Learning Development
• Critical Requirements of your E-Learning customers
• Critical business imperatives that need to be addressed with the E-Learning
• Articulation of your E-Learning vision
Read our previous post titled “Six Sigma in Business Process Management” to know more information on Six Sigma in businesses.
Identifying Six Sigma Steps
Organizations can make huge profit, if they learn to think in terms of Lean. Lean is based on the philosophy of eliminating waste. Lean shortens the time between the customer order and shipment. There are several steps that provide a strong foundation for any organization that wants to incorporate Lean into its operations. These steps are:
• Value
• Value Stream
• Flow
• Pull
• Perfection
• Replication
Lean thinking can be started by giving due consideration to value, which is customer’s ultimate requirement. The value of any products or services is defined by customer needs and not by any non-value added activity. Hence, customer is always prepared to pay for the operations that transform the product in a meaningful way.
Read my previous post titled “Why Six Sigma Has Become the Most Powerful Improvement Tool?” to know more about Six Sigma.
Quality Companion 2 for Six Sigma Professionals
Minitab Inc. has announced the release of Quality Companion 2 process improvement software. It has been designed specifically to help Six Sigma professionals manage and execute their projects. The new product complements the company’s flagship product, Minitab Statistical Software. Six Sigma professionals rely on this software to tackle the sophisticated statistical data analysis at the heart of every Six Sigma project.
Quality Companion 2 simplifies many other challenges involved in quality improvement. It helps teams plan, execute, document and report on their projects. The software brings together all the elements critical to Six Sigma success. You can read our previous post titled “Six Sigma in Small Businesses” to know more about Six Sigma methods.
What Is Involved In Six Sigma Certification?
Recently, I had written a post titled “What Is Six Sigma Certification?” that focused on Six Sigma certification. Today, I will discuss what exactly is involved in a Six Sigma certification. Six Sigma certification requires learning the appropriate subject matter to pass a written proficiency test and displaying competency in a hands-on environment. The materials can be purchased from almost any Six Sigma training and consulting company. It always comes bundled with classroom training. Usually, you or your company will purchase a training session that has different bodies of knowledge and durations for each Six Sigma level.
The different levels of Six Sigma certifications include Green Belt, Black Belt and Master Black Belt. The written proficiency test may be given by the training company or the business hiring the training company. Companies that have been conducting in-house training for years can create and administer their own written proficiency tests. When you clear Six Sigma training, you will have to complete one or two quality projects and display competency in applying the concepts learned in the classroom training.
Lean Six Sigma Summit 2006
The Lean Six Sigma Summit 2006 will be held in the Grand Hyatt Hotel, Singapore on 29 and 30 August 2006. This leading industry event will bring together senior-level executives and directors from a variety of targeted industries. They will come from manufacturing, financial services & insurance, government ministries and other sectors. The event promises to be the leading forum for an in-depth analysis of issues pertinent to the field.
The summit will include Lean Leadership Panel Discussion and highly interactive workshops. In this event, you will get a chance to get practical examples from companies that have integrated Lean and Six Sigma for their organizations. In an older post titled “The Robust Nature of Six Sigma”, I had provided useful information on Six Sigma.
Six Sigma in Hospital & Healthcare Management
Six Sigma methodologies can change the face of modern hospitals and healthcare delivery systems. Privatization and competition in healthcare sector are forcing healthcare organizations to look for new ways and means for improving their processes. They look for improving quality of the hospital’s products and services, thus reducing patient dissatisfaction. It has been noticed that healthcare sector has become more complex. Hence, the scope for error is more.
To reduce the errors and to move towards perfection, most of the corporate hospitals are now functioning at Three Sigma or Four Sigma quality levels. There is a desperate need to break the traditional boundaries that separate physicians, hospital administrators, pharmacists, technicians and nurses by shifting away from the traditional culture. Six Sigma methodologies can help achieve this objective and can change the face of modern hospital and healthcare delivery system. Our old post titled “Why Six Sigma Has Become the Most Powerful Improvement Tool?” will give you more information on Six Sigma.
Free Lean Six Sigma Training Government and Military Personnel
Six Sigma training has succeeded in earning a good name in corporate sector. Now it is all set to make its strong presence in the government and military. Kingsrealm LLC has released a complete Lean Six Sigma Green Belt Certifiable training course available at no cost to all the US Government, DoD and Military personnel. The company has voluntarily decided to help the staffs that form a core part of the country’s support base.
Kingsrealm simplified its strategic Six Sigma methods and procedures so that everyone can get equal benfits from the training. The training is available online with minimal registration requirements. You can register for free training on the company’s website. You can read on of our older posts titled “Army gets high payback because of Lean Six Sigma” to know more about Six Sigma training in the US military.