A Brief Overview Of The Six Sigma Management Philosophy

Six Sigma is a management philosophy originally created by Bill Smith of Motorola, USA in 1986. It is often denoted by the symbol 6σ. The objective of this strategy is to improve the quality of the productivity of a process by pinpointing and eliminating the causes of flaws or shortcomings and curtailing variability in manufacturing and business processes. By using a set of management approaches and especially the statistical methods, it aims to engender a special framework of personnel in an organization who can lend their expertise to these methods. The final objective of the Six Sigma approach is to reduce costs and increase profits.

The by now famous term of "Six Sigma" has its origins in the manufacturing process lexicon. In the manufacturing industry, a process is given a 6σ rating if it has perfected production processes to deliver 99.99966% of defect-free products. By applying it to all aspects of a business, Six Sigma asserts that every process can be converted into a computable and determinate data thereby giving manufacturers unprecedented levels of control over the quality of output.

Central to the Six Sigma concept is its emphasis on team work and combined effort which is demonstrated in the dedication and commitment from personnel at all levels. Amidst its professionals, there are various ranks which are denoted by "belts", very similar to the ones designated in Eastern martial arts. Hence, there are "Green belts" which is the lowest rank of the Six Sigma professionals and implementation is the key role played by them in their departments. They work under the guidance of the "Black Belts" who concentrate mainly on execution of projects. The next rank is the "Master Black belts" whose responsibility is to implement the method in the entire company. The ultimate rank is the "Champion" who oversees all aspects of the process in the entire enterprise.

Six Sigma projects follow two methodologies influenced by Deming's PDCA. The DMAIC (standing for Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve and Control) is used for projects which contribute to improving an existing business process. The DMEDI (Define, Measure, Explore, Develop and Implement) is used for projects whose goal is to create new product or process designs. A common misconception about 6σ is that it is most beneficial only when used in a manufacturing setup. It can be practically applied to any process within a business from communication to sales and purchases. As the statistical method is widely used in this management strategy, it is easy to fix any problem at any point in time by making necessary adjustments, indicated by the statistics, to the process without disturbing other key elements. Many Financial benefits accrue as a part of Six Sigma application. These include Cost reduction and profit increase, current revenue increments and creation of additional revenue, faster return on investments and easier risk management. Increase in employee satisfaction due to reduction in workload and improvements in work flow, elimination of non-value adding services and activities and growth in team work are some of the operational benefits of Six Sigma projects.


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Casey Trillbar is the editor of SixSigmaTrainingGuide.com, which is a website aimed at supplying articles, information and resources to people considering undergoing Six Sigma Certification. http://www.sixsigmatrainingguide.com