Stephen R. Covey

To apply Six Sigma to your business and produce the best results, you need to understand what Six Sigma is, the principles of Six Sigma, and the DMAIC problem-solving method. The correct tools and use of the Six Sigma scale and methods will keep your data dependable and reusable.What is Six Sigma?Generally, Six Sigma is a set of techniques and tools that help businesses improve their processes.

A cause-and-effect matrix — sometimes called a C&E matrix for short — helps you discover which factors affect the outcomes of your Six Sigma initiative. It provides a way of mapping out how value is transmitted from the input factors of your system (the Xs) to the process or product outputs (the Ys). With these relationships visible and quantified, you can readily discover the most-influential factors contributing to value.

Six Sigma benefits are derived from a series of projects that require managing: big projects, little projects, projects within a single department, projects that cross departments, projects inside companies, and projects that even cross company boundaries. The skills and tools required to manage a Six Sigma project are similar to those required to manage other types of projects; you need to leverage technology for managing the complexity of people, change, and information.

Mistake-proofing, or Poka-Yoke (pronounced POH-kuh YOH-kay) as it’s known in Japan, is an action you take in Six Sigma to remove or significantly lower the opportunity for an error or to make the error so obvious that allowing it to reach the customer is almost impossible. Poka-Yoke is one of the simplest tools to master; it’s very consistent with the fundamental aims and philosophy of Six Sigma, and it has wide applicability in manufacturing, engineering, and transactional processes.

Generally, Six Sigma is a problem-solving methodology that helps enhance business and organizational operations. It can also be defined in a number of other ways: A quality level of 3.4 defects per million opportunities A rate of improvement of 70 percent or better A data-driven, problem-solving methodo

Six Sigma is based on a handful of basic principles, and these principles create the entire Six Sigma arrangement. Here are Six Sigma’s fundamental principles: Y=f(X) + ε: All outcomes and results (theY) are determined by inputs (theXs) with some degree of uncertainty (å). To change or improve results (the Y), you have to focus on the inputs (theXs), modify them, and control them.

FMEA can be very valuable for identifying failure modes in a Six Sigma Initiative. After scoring the severity of the possible effects, your cross-functional FMEA team brainstorms potential causes of the identified failure mode. Think of causes for the failure mode, not for the effect. In the pizza example, you need to think of causes for why the phone is answered on or after the fifth ring, not causes for why a customer hangs up or why a customer becomes disgruntled.

Failure mode effects analysis (FMEA) is a tool you can use in Six Sigma to quantify and prioritize risk within a process, product, or system and then track actions to mitigate that risk. It’s valuable as a method for identifying and prioritizing which critical few factors you must address to improve the process in your DMAIC project.

Having the right tools and knowing how to apply them to your Six Sigma projects will help you produce accurate, acceptable, and reusable outcomes. Here’s an overview of the Six Sigma landscape: