Six Sigma

Six Sigma is a rigorous system to improve the performance of a process, this system is customer-oriented and is based on data to understand the stability or change in processes and their capacity.

Six Sigma has the Universal DMAIC methodology for troubleshooting and also a universal system performance objective of obtaining 3.4 defects per million opportunities.

Definitions

To understand the language used in Six Sigma, we must understand the following ideas:

• CTQ - Critical To Quality: is a critical feature or performance for a product or service.
• Defect: a feature that does not meet even one of the CTQ 's specified.
• Opportunity: a significant and measurable parameter of the process that can result in a client requirement unsatisfied.

Key Concepts

Some key concepts to understand the system are:

• To produce a quality improvement or cost reduction we need to focus on prevention.
• Companies typically produce between 5% and 15% scrap (waste) or rework.
• Inspection is effective in 70% or 80%, allowing 20% to 30% of defective product to reach the customer.
• The complexity of a process and improvement opportunities are directly correlated.
• y=f(x) is a function of how well we understand and control key business processes.

y=f(x) can be applied as a function to understand the results of a process, being "y" the dependent outcome, "x" an independent aspect of the process. For example, an independent variable may be the location of our customers, something we can not change (that would be the variable "x") and the outcome of this variable may be delays in shipments of goods, delivery failures, etc. (Variable "y") which is dependent of the definitions in the system.

The tool DMAIC (Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, Control) serves to Define the problem, Measure and identify the CTQ 's, Analyze the information and verify the causes of problem in the process, Improve or optimize the existing process and Control the future state after the modification of a process.

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