Performance Leadership
in Meeting
Customer Requirements
by Doing
the Right Things
Right
The First Time
1
Is this Total Quality or Six Sigma
?
The answer is
BOTH
.
Six Sigma provides a structured approach to Total Quality.
In 1988, Motorola and the Westinghouse Commercial Nuclear Fuel Division
(WCNFD)
won the first Baldrige National Quality Awards. Both Motorola and
Westinghouse
had undertaken major quality improvement programs in the
early 1980's.
Motorola used Six Sigma quality and Cycle Time reduction as the foundations
of
its Continuous Improvement program. The goal was Total Customer
Satisfaction
(TCS). In the late-1970's, Westinghouse began using Cycle
Time reduction to
dramatically reduce its investment in inventory. In
the early 1980's, WCNFD
also focused on improving process yield
(fundamentally a Six Sigma approach).
These similar Continuous Quality
Improvement (CQI) programs paid huge
dividends. Motorola achieved a
dominant market position in pagers and cell
phones and WCNFD did so in
nuclear fuel.
Today, we see many corporations -- most notably GE --
adopting
similar
quantitative quality improvement programs to achieve
significant
bottom line
results. Strong management leadership and
support has been as
vital in these successes as the
quality
improvement techniques themselves
-- Bob Galvin at Motorola,
Mead
D'Amore at WCNFD, and Jack Welch at
GE.
In 1985, Bill Smith at Motorola demonstrated a correlation between how
often
a
product was repaired during manufacture and its life in the
field.
Defect
levels in the parts per million (ppm) rather than in
parts per
hundred (%) were
needed to improve the reliability of
semiconductors
and
electronic products in order to compete with the
Japanese. Hence, the
development of the Motorola Six Sigma quality
program
with its landmark
quality level of 3 ppm defects.
Six Sigma was intended to improve the quality of processes that are
already
under control -- major special causes of process problems have
been removed.
The output of these process usually follows a Normal
distribution with the
process capability defined as ± 3 sigma.
The process mean will vary each time a process is executed using
different
equipment, different personnel, different materials, etc. The
observed
variation in the process mean was ± 1.5 sigma. Motorola
decided a design
tolerance (specification width) of ± 6 sigma was
needed so that there will
be only 3.4 ppm defects -- measurements outside
the design tolerance. This was
defined as Six Sigma quality.
A more quantitative version of Deming's PDCA (Plan-Do-Check-Act)
Process
Improvement methodology was developed to implement this
statistical approach --
it is commonly referred to as MAIC.
-
Measure
-
Analyze
-
Improve
-
Control
Key product-process performance variables are measured, analyzed, improved,
and
controlled using statistical methods. The simple "statistical"
quality
tools that
were popularized in the Total Quality era are
reinforced with
Design of Experiments
(DOE) and more sophisticated
Statistical Process
Control techniques.
Process sigma is the primary unit of measure. It is determined from
an
analysis of the number of defects observed in a process. Performance
is
compared to the Best-In-Class sigma for that process to determine
whether the
process needs to be improved or the product / service needs to
be re-designed.
When improvement is necessary, Design of Experiments (DOE)
are used to
determine which product or process parameters are most
important and specific
parameter values that will give the best
performance. SPC is used to
continually monitor product and process
performance.
Similar to the problem-solving models where an initial step to define
the
problem was frequently added, some practitioners prefer to precede
MAIC with a
Define step. They feel that selecting and defining the right
process is
critical. Effort can easily be wasted working on poorly
selected, ill-defined
processes -- as illustrated by many TQM
failures.
TQM is an overall business (quality) improvement system. It
encompasses
leadership, strategic planning, and human resources as well as
Process
Improvement -- as seen in the Baldrige Award Framework below.
The previously described Six Sigma Process Improvement methodology would
be
covered in criteria 3, 4, and especially 6 -- Customer and Market
Focus,
Information and Analysis, and Process Management respectively. The
Baldrige
criteria does not prescribe the use of a specific quality
improvement
methodology such as Six Sigma. A business can select or
develop its own
process, but it must show that results are obtained.
The Baldrige criteria does assess whether all personnel are enabled
to
contribute effectively through work teams and individually. TQM
provided a big
impetus to problem-solving teams, quality improvement teams
(QITs), and
cross-functional teams. Companies generally trained teams to
use simple
statistical quality tools in solving problems. These teams
have been very
effective in developing and implementing consensus-based
solutions to
productivity and quality issues.
The core values and concepts of the Malcolm Baldrige Total Quality Awards
are
-
Customer-Driven Quality
-
Strong Leadership
-
Continuous Improvement
-
Employee Participation (Teamwork)
-
Fast Response
-
Design Quality
-
Management by Fact (measures)
-
Partnerships
-
Measurable Results
Customer requirements, design quality, measures, and continuous improvement
are
key elements of Six Sigma Process Improvement.
Many Total Quality improvement efforts did not achieve their objectives
because
there was a lack of commitment to the specific improvement actions
and to their
effective implementation. Six Sigma, as a system, overcomes
that weakness by
-
focusing on the common commitment to meeting customer requirements,
-
developing a consensus set of improvement actions,
-
prioritizing those actions, and
-
establishing measures that assure accountability in implementation.
Many companies today are achieving dramatic results with a company-wide
Six
Sigma Improvement System based on the previously described Six Sigma
Process
Improvement methodology -- MAIC. Large numbers of technical
personnel are
trained as "black belts" to lead teams in applying the
statistically-based
methodology. Most black belt training programs focus
heavily on
these
advanced statistical techniques.
High level executives are appointed as "champions" to drive the Six
Sigma
Program within their segment of the company. Master Black Belts
coach black
belts and coordinate Six Sigma projects. Some companies
provide basic process
improvement training to Six Sigma project team
members and refer to them as
"green belts." Black belts and / or teams
are assigned process improvement
projects with specific performance
improvement goals.
To reduce the workload on their key personnel, to lessen the need for
extensive
training, and to minimize costs, small organizations (and some
large ones, too)
obtain external facilitation and statistical methods
support.
Kaplan's Balanced Score Card (Harvard Business School) lends support to the
importance of approaching business in a total systems manner such as TQM or Six
Sigma in the broad sense. Employee skills are the base of Kaplan's business
model. Employees work to improve quality and reduce cycle time (improve
processes) so that deliveries can be made on-time. This creates customer
loyalty which in turn generates profits for the company (Return on Capital
Employed). Kaplan suggests using measures of employee skills, process quality,
process cycle time, and on-time performance to monitor business performance in
addition to the usual financial measures (which lag performance).
The four-phase Brecker Six Sigma Improvement Methodology incorporates elements
of
Value Analysis (VA), Quality Function Deployment (QFD), and QS9000
(ISO900-2000
is now similar) into the Six Sigma Improvement System to
provide better results
with less effort and cost.
Implementation can be undertaken at 3 levels
-
Process (Phase 3)
-
Product Line / Plant (Phases 2-3)
-
Business (Phases 1-3).
Organizations can pilot this methodology at the product line / plant level
(Phases 2-3)
before committing to company wide implementation and
training. Traditional Six Sigma training addresses Phase 3.
Phase 1: Key problem areas are identified and quantified.
Senior personnel analyze customer, financial, operational, and quality data
to
identify improvement opportunities and quantify possible improvements.
An Activity-Based Costing approach is frequently taken.
Improvement
goals are aligned with strategic business objectives. This is
akin to
DMAIC at the business level with the Critical to Quality (CTQ)
and
Critical to Business (CTB) parameters being passed down from Phase 1
to Phase 3
(similar to QFD or Hoshin planning).
Phase 2: Potential product / process improvement solutions
are
quantified.
Product line / plant teams use value analysis style workshops to develop
and
evaluate specific product / service and process improvements needed to
meet
quality, productivity, and cost objectives. Lean thinking, Six
Sigma, and
other quality and productivity concepts are considered.
Phase 3: Multi-functional teams improve key processes.
Multi-functional teams analyze products and processes in depth and
develop
detailed implementation plans for improvements. Lean thinking,
Six Sigma, Kaizen, and
other quality and productivity tools are used as
appropriate.
Phase 4: Improvements are implemented and monitored.
Strong management support is essential in making significant and
lasting
improvements. Decision-making needs to be crisp. Follow-up needs
to be
relentless. Improvement goals and the implementation schedule must
be met to
achieve the projected returns.
Focus!
Focus!
Focus!
The Brecker Six Sigma Improvement System insures that management and
workers
are working on the "right" problems and that quality and financial
goals are
met or surpassed.
1
Westinghouse definition of Total Quality (1985).
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