Determining the essential characetristics of Six Sigma Black Belts

A Six Sigma Black Belt (SSBB) plays the role of a full-time team leader responsible for implementing process improvement projects using the Six Sigma methodology (Define-Measure-Analyse-Improve-Control) within the business to drive up customer satisfaction levels and business productivity. Black Belt projects are typically defined so that they can be completed in less than 6 months, and are generally focused on high-priority business issues and are targeted to add $175,000 to$250,000 to the bottom-line of organisations (Snee, 2004). A fully trained BB will be expected to deliver a minimum of $500,000 to well over$1,000,000 in direct cost savings to the bottom-line of an organisation per year (Harry and Schroeder, 2000). Moreover, a BB is expected to complete between 4 to 6 projects per annum depending on the scope of the project, complexity of the project and availability of data. The BB program of study focuses on an understanding of the Six Sigma philosophy, key principles and concepts, tactics, application of tools and techniques, project management skills, etc. So,why the martial arts terminology? The sole function of a BB is to focus on disciplined problem solving using the DMAIC (Define-Measure-Analyse-Improve-Control) methodology and a specific set of tools and techniques with speed (i.e. project completion in a short period of time). The purpose here is to defeat the enemy – variation in processes which lead to customer dissatisfaction (Brue and Howes, 2006)

Six Sigma vs Lean : some perspectives from leading academics and practitioners

The purpose of this paper is to present the fundamental and critical differences between two of the most powerful methodologies in a process excellence initiative in any organisation. The approach taken was to collate opinions from a number of leading academics and practitioners from five different countries. It was also important to ensure that all participants have a good knowledge and expertise in the field of both Lean and Six Sigma methodologies. Although both methodologies are focused on process and quality improvement, Lean is formalisation and codification of experience and judgement which is not a feature of Six Sigma. Lean emphasises speed and waste, however Six Sigma emphasises variation, defects and process evaluation. The viewpoints expressed in the article are those of a few academics and practitioners. It is important to capture the viewpoints of more academics and practitioners to arrive at sound and valid conclusions. The paper provides an excellent resource for many researchers and for practitioners who are engaged in research and applications of the most two powerful methodologies for achieving and sustaining operational excellence. It is also critical to understand the fundamental differences between these two methodologies

What is the role of academic institutions for the future development of Six Sigma?

This paper aims to present the role that leading engineering and business schools will play for the future development of Six Sigma. This is a viewpoint article and the material presented in this article is based on the author's experience in the field of Six Sigma. The findings of the paper reflect some of the major limitations of Six Sigma and the paper makes an attempt to address the importance of academic institutions to engage in Six Sigma research topics. The points expressed in this paper are based on the author's experience. It is essential to collect data on this topic from a number of leading researchers and practitioners in the field and to set out a research agenda in the future. This paper provides an excellent resource for those people who are currently carrying out research in Six Sigma. Moreover, the paper is equally useful to practitioners to understand the major limitations of this powerful business strategy and the role of academic institutions to address these limitations in the future

Can six sigma be effectively implemented in SMEs?

Six Sigma is a well-established approach that seeks to identify and eliminate defects, mistakes or failures in business processes or systems by focusing on those process performance characteristics that are of critical importance to customers. With more than two decades of successful implementation of Six Sigma methodologies at major corporations, the benefits of Six Sigma are well documented. Although Six Sigma has been implemented with success in many large corporations, there is still less documented evidence of its implementation in smaller organisations. Moreover, in the author's experience as a researcher and quality management consultant, SMEs are still not convinced that Six Sigma can be effectively implemented within SMEs. This article attempts to address this issue – can Six Sigma can be effectively implemented in SMEs? One of the common myths of Six Sigma that has emerged over the last few years is that it is just applicable to large corporations with immense resources and budget. The purpose of this article is to test this myth and to show that a Six Sigma-based business strategy is applicable to all kinds of businesses irrespective of the size and type of industry; manufacturing or service

An application of Six Sigma to reduce waste

Six Sigma has been considered a powerful business strategy that employs a well-structured continuous improvement methodology to reduce process variability and drive out waste within the business processes using effective application of statistical tools and techniques. Although there is a wider acceptance of Six Sigma in many organizations today, there appears to be virtually no in-depth case study of Six Sigma in the existing literature. This involves how the Six Sigma methodology has been used, how Six Sigma tools and techniques have been applied and how the benefits have been generated. This paper presents a case study illustrating the effective use of Six Sigma to reduce waste in a coating process. It describes in detail how the project was selected and how the Six Sigma methodology was applied. It also shows how various tools and techniques within the Six Sigma methodology have been employed to achieve substantial financial benefits

Winning customer loyalty in an automotive company through Six Sigma: a case study

Six Sigma is a disciplined approach to improving product, process and service quality. Since its inception at Motorola in the mid 1980s Six Sigma has evolved significantly and continues to expand to improve process performance, enhance business profitability and increase customer satisfaction. This paper presents an extensive literature review based on the experiences of both academics and practitioners on Six Sigma, followed by the application of the Define, Measure, Analyse, Improve, Control (DMAIC) problem-solving methodology to identify the parameters causing casting defects and to control these parameters. The results of the study are based on the application of tools and techniques in the DMAIC methodology, i.e. Pareto Analysis, Measurement System Analysis, Regression Analysis and Design of Experiment. The results of the study show that the application of the Six Sigma methodology reduced casting defects and increased the process capability of the process from 0.49 to 1.28. The application of DMAIC has resulted in a significant financial impact (over U.S. $110 000 per annum) on the bottom-line of the company

Implementation of a lean six sigma approach in the manufacturing sector: a systematic literature review

Lean Six Sigma is a continuous improvement methodology that aims to reduce production costs, improve organisational capability, and maximise the value for shareholders. This paper aims to explore the most common themes within LSS in the manufacturing sector, and to identify any gaps in those themes which may be preventing users from getting the most benefit from their LSS strategy. This paper also identifies the gaps in current literature and develops a research agenda for future research into Lean Six Sigma themes. The following research is based on a Systematic Literature Review of 33 papers which were published on LSS in the top journals in the field and other specialist journals, from 2000 to 2012. There are important themes cited in this paper which are; Critical Success Factors, benefits, motivation factors, limitations and impeding factors. However, there are many gaps and limitations that need to be covered in future research

Statistical process control implementation in the food industry: A systematic review and implications for future research

This study is to illustrate a systematic review application in investigating common issues emerging from Statistical Process Control (SPC) implementation in the food industry. A total of 34 journal articles were rigorously selected from four databases and reviewed. The most common themes emerge in SPC implementation in the food industry is the benefits while the remaining themes are motivation, barriers and critical success factors (CSF). This review found that the evidence of SPC implementation in the food industry is beneficial; however, a lack of both awareness and guidelines relating to SPC implementation in the food industry has resulted in a slow adoption. This systematic review concluded that there is a crucial need for further research into the SPC deployment aspect addressing how to deploy SPC in the food industry in a systematic manner

Reducing employees' turnover in transactional services : a Lean Six Sigma case study

The case study aims to illustrate the application of Lean Six Sigma into the human resource (HR) function of a service industry corporation. The study draws on process information and primary data from a real project. The study describes improvements in the HR management attributable to Lean Six Sigma: decrease of employees' voluntary turnover and increase in employees' satisfaction. Although being extremely successful in the last two decades in the manufacturing sector, the application of Lean Six Sigma to the service industry in general, and HR management in particular, has been a controversial topic: this study illustrates how its application can reduce employees' voluntary turnover rate and increase their satisfaction, hence increasing the return on investment of human capital

Electronic adverse incident reporting in hospitals

The purpose of this study was to assess attitudes toward and use of an electronic adverse incident reporting system in all four hospitals in one NHS Scotland Health Board area. A questionnaire was used to assess Medical Consultants', Managers', and Nurses' attitudes and perceptions about electronic adverse incident reporting. Actual adverse incident reporting data were also analysed. The main findings from this study are that Consultants, Managers, and Nurses all had positive attitudes about responsibility for reporting adverse incidents. All respondents indicated that the design of and information collected by the electronic adverse incident reporting system (DATIX) was adequate but Consultants had more negative attitudes and perceptions than Managers and Nurses about DATIX. All respondents expressed negative attitudes about the amount and type of feedback they receive from reporting, and Consultants expressed more negative attitudes about how DATIX is managed than Managers and Nurses. Analysis of adverse incident reporting data found that the proportion of Consultants using DATIX to report incidents was significantly lower than that of Managers and Nurses. The findings suggest that there are no additional barriers to incident reporting associated with the use of a bespoke electronic adverse incident reporting system as compared to other types of systems. Although an electronic adverse incident reporting system may be able to increase incident reporting and facilitate organisational learning by making it easier to report incidents and analyse incident reporting data, strong leadership within hospitals / healthcare professions (or healthcare subcultures) is still required in order to promote and sustain incident reporting to improve patient safety