.

1. Explain what is Six Sigma?

Six Sigma is one of the perfect problem-solving methodology. This process is applied in most of the
organizations and the projects they work in. So, using this process, the organizations can actually
understand the root cause of the problem and also the costs associated to fix the same. So using this six
sigma process, the organization will be able to identify the root cause of the problem and put in
necessary fixes and also try to reduce the cost associated with the same by taking precautions that the
same mistake or error doesn’t happen again.

It is measured based on DPMO factor, i.e. Defect per Million Opportunities.

2. Can you explain DPMO, what its meaning in six sigma world?
Sigma is a statistical measure of variation in a process. We say a process has achieved Six Sigma if the
quality is 3.4 DPMO (Defect per Million opportunities). It’s a problem-solving methodology that can be
applied to a process to eliminate the root cause of defects and costs associated with it.

Figure: Six Sigma

3. Can you explain the different methodologies for execution and design process in Six Sigma?

The focus of Six Sigma is on reducing defects and variations in the processes. DMAIC and DMADV are the
models used in most Six Sigma initiatives. DMADV is a model for designing a process while DMAIC is for
improving the process.

The DMADV model has the below five steps:

o Define: Determine the project goals and the requirements of customers (external and
internal).
o Measure: Assess customer needs and specifications.
o Analyze: Examine process options to meet customer requirements.
o Design: Develop the process to meet customer requirements.
o Verify: Check the design to ensure that it’s meeting customer requirements.

DMAIC model has the below five steps:

o Define: the projects, the goals, and the deliverables to customers (internal and external).
Describe and quantify both the defect and the expected improvement.
o Measure: the current performance of the process. Validate data to make sure it is
credible and set the baselines.
o Analyze: and determine the root cause(s) of the defects. Narrow the causal factors to the
vital few.
o Improve: the process to eliminate defects. Optimize the vital few and their
interrelationships.
o Control: the performance of the process. Lock down the gains.
Figure: Methodology in Six Sigma

Figure: DMAIC and DMADV

 4. What are the different kinds of variations used in Six Sigma?

Variation is the basis of Six Sigma. It defines how much changes are happening in the output of a process.
So if a process is improved then this should reduce variations. In Six Sigma we identify variations in the
process, control them, and reduce or eliminate defects. Now let’s understand how we can measure
variations.

There are four basic ways of measuring variations: Mean, Median, Mode, and Range. Let’s understand
each of these variations in more depth for better analysis.

Figure: Different variations in Six Sigma

Mean: In mean the variations are measured and compared using math’s averaging techniques. For instance,
you can see the below figure which shows two weekly measures of how many computers are manufactured. So
for we have tracked two weeks, one we have named Week 1 and the other Week 2. So to calculate the
variation by using mean we calculate the mean of week1 and week2. You can see from the calculations below
we have got 5.083 for week1 and 2.85 for week2. So we have a variation of 2.23.
Figure: Measuring variations by using Mean

Median: Median value is a mid point in our range of data. Mid point can be found out by finding the difference
between the highest and lowest value then dividing it by two and finally adding the lowest value to it. For
instance, for the below figure in week1 we have 4 as the lowest value and 7 as the highest value. So first we
subtract the lowest value from the highest value, i.e., 7 -4. Then we divide it by two and add the lowest value.
So for week1 the median is 5.5 and for week2 the median is 2.9. So the variation is 5.5 – 2.9.

Figure: Median for calculating variations

Range: Range is nothing but a spread of values for a particular data range. In short it is the difference between
the highest and lowest values in a particular data range. For instance you can see for the recorded computer
data of two weeks, we have found out the range values by subtracting the highest value from the lowest.

Figure: Range for calculating variations

Mode: Mode is nothing but the most occurred values in a data range. For instance in our computer
manufacturing, data range 4 is the most occurred value in Week1 and 3 is the most occurred value in week 2.
So the variation is 1 between these data ranges.

Figure: Mode for calculating variations

5. Can you explain the concept of standard deviation?

The most accurate method of quantifying variation is by using standard deviation. It indicates the degree of
variation in a set of measurements or a process by measuring the average spread of data around the mean.

Note: To understand standard deviation we will be going through a bit of math so please co-operate and keep
your head cool. In the below steps we will go step by step and understand how we can implement standard
deviation.

Below is the formula for Standard Deviation. “σ“ symbol stands for standard deviation. X stands for observed
values; X (with the top bar) is the arithmetic mean and n is the number of observations. The formulae must be
looking complicated but let’s break them up in to steps and understand them better.

Figure: Standard deviation formulae

The first step is to calculate the mean. This can be calculated by adding all the observed values and dividing that
by the number of observed values.
Figure: Step 1 Standard Deviation

The second step is to subtract the average from each observation, square them, and then sum them. Because
we square them we will not get negative values. The below figure indicates the same in a very detail manner.

Figure: Step 2 Standard deviation

In the third step we divide the same with the number of observations, as shown the figure.
Figure: Step 3 Standard deviation

In the final step we take the square root which gives the standard deviation.

Figure: Step 4 standard deviation

6. Can you explain the concept of fish bone/ Ishikawa diagram?

Fish bone or Ishikawa diagram is one of the important concept which can help you list down your root cause of
the problem.
Inputs to conduct a fish bone diagram comes from a discussion and brain storming with people who were
involved in the project. The below figure shows how the structure of the Ishikawa diagram is. Below is a sample
fish bone diagram. The main bone is the problem which we need to address and to know what caused the failure.
For instance the below fish bone is constructed to know what caused the project failure. To know this cause we
have taken four main bones as input: Finance, Process, People, and Tools. For instance, on the people front,
there are many resignations, this was caused because there was no job satisfaction - this was caused because
the project was a maintenance project. In the same way causes are analyzed on the Tools front also. In tools -
No tools were used in the project - because no resource had enough knowledge about the same - this
happened because of a lack of planning. In the process front, the process was adhoc - this was because of tight
deadlines - this was caused because marketing people over promised and did not negotiate properly with the
end customer.

Now once the diagram is drawn the end bones of the fish bone signify the main cause of the project failure.
From the below diagram, here’s a list:

No training was provided for the resources regarding tools.

Marketing people over promised with customer which leads to tight deadlines.

Resources resigned because it’s a maintenance project.

Figure: Fish bone / Ishikawa diagram

7. What is Pareto principle?

Pareto principle, also paraphrased as 80/20 principle, is a simple and effective problem tackling way in
management. It says that 20% of your problems lead to the other 80 % of problems. So rather than
concentrating on the 80% of problems if you concentrate on 20% of problems you can save a lot of
trouble. So, in Pareto you analyze the problems and only concentrate on 20% of your vital problems.

8. What is QFD? Why it is important?

Quality Function Deployment is a customer-driven process for planning products and services in Define
stage. It starts with the voice of the customer, which becomes the basis for setting requirements. Quality
Function Deployment provides documentation for the decision-making process.
QFD helps you to:
Translate customer requirements into specific offering specifications
Prioritize possible offering specifications and make trade-off decisions based on weighted customer
requirements and ranked competitive assessment

The QFD technique is based on the analysis of the clients’ requirements, which normally are expressed in
qualitative terms, such as: “easy to use”, “safe”, “comfortable” or “luxurious”. To develop a service, it is
necessary to “translate” these fuzzy requirements into quantitative service design requirements; QFD
makes this translation possible. Quality Function Deployment is also a system for design of a product or
service based on customer demands, a system that moves methodically from customer requirements to
specifications for the product or service. QFD involves the entire company in the design and control
activity. Finally, QFD provides documentation for the decision-making process
9. What is Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA)?
Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA) is a structured approach to discovering potential failures that
may exist within the design of a product or process

FMEA is not a substitute for good engineering. Rather, it enhances good engineering by applying the
knowledge and experience of a Cross Functional Team (CFT) to review the design progress of a product
or process by assessing its risk of failure.

There are two broad categories of FMEA,

• Design FMEA (DFMEA)
Design FMEA (DFMEA) explores the possibility of product malfunctions, reduced product life,
and safety and regulatory concerns derived from:

o Material Properties
o Geometry
o Tolerances
o Interfaces with other components and/or systems
o Engineering Noise: environments, user profile, degradation, systems interactions
• Process FMEA (PFMEA)
Process FMEA (PFMEA) discovers failure that impacts product quality, reduced reliability of
the process, customer dissatisfaction, and safety or environmental hazards derived from:

o Human Factors
o Methods followed while processing
o Materials used
o Machines utilized
o Measurement systems impact on acceptance
o Environment Factors on process performance
10. What is X-bar and range chart?
 An X-bar and R (range) chart is a pair of control charts used with processes that have a subgroup size of
two or more. The standard chart for variables data, X-bar and R charts help determine if a process is
stable and predictable. The X-bar chart shows how the mean or average changes over time and the R
chart shows how the range of the subgroups changes over time. It is also used to monitor the effects of
process improvement theories.

11. What are the different levels available in Six sigma?

Six sigma is nothing but a process improvement methodology where the root cause of the errors are
identified and ultimately helps in improving the overall process. So when it comes to Six sigma level, one
has to check with DPMO score. If the accuracy of the process gets to a level where it has only 3.4 defects
per million opportunities.

Below, is the list of defects per million which are catered towards a single level:

Sigma Performance Levels – One to Six Sigma

Sigma Level Defects Per Million Opportunities (DPMO)

1 690,000

2 308,537

3 66,807

4 6,210

5 233

6 3.4
12. When was Six Sigma was developed and who was the inventor?

So the six sigma process was developed by Motorola to make sure that their products are measured in
terms of highest quality and the year it was invented in 1986.

13. What is the difference between load test and performance testing?

The difference between load testing and performance testing is as follows:

Load Testing:

o Load testing is nothing but a testing process where the load limit is beyond the client has
required for. This would help us understand whether the application can handle a certain limit.
o Load testing is about how well the application or the program is behaving and how many
concurrent users are able to login to the application without any problem.

Performance Testing:

o Performance testing is all about having more stress on the system checks and also the overall
application and system performance during the stress conditions. In a sense, performance
testing is nothing but a superset of the load test.
o Performance testing includes the load testing and as well as the stress testing.

14. Explain what is meant by Lean Six Sigma?

Lean six sigma is nothing but a methodology which involves the entire team effort to bring them in the
change in terms of performance improvement by identifying the waste and the variance reduction. So in
conjunction with the lean six sigma process and eliminates 8 different kinds of wastes, they are as
follows:
 To Remember: DOWNTIME

1. Defects – Products or services that are out of specification that require resources to correct.
2. Overproduction – Producing too much of a product before it is ready to be sold.
3. Waiting – Waiting for the previous step in the process to complete.
4. Non-Utilized Talent – Employees that are not effectively engaged in the process
5. Transportation – Transporting items or information that is not required to perform the process
from one location to another.
6. Inventory – Inventory or information that is sitting idle (not being processed).
7. Motion – People, information or equipment making unnecessary motion due to workspace
layout, ergonomic issues or searching for misplaced items.
8. Extra Processing – Performing any activity that is not necessary to produce a functioning product
or service.

Well, these are few areas where the process flow can be improvised and get maximum benefits by
optimizing the entire process flow.

15. What are the benefits of six sigma process to the organization and for the individual practicing it?

The benefits of six sigma process are as follows:

o Helps the organization to reduce to a level where they can eliminate the errors
o Works towards improving the business processes
o Works towards betterment of Quality Assurance
o This process can be applied throughout the business environments, applicable for all the
markets
 o Makes sure that it comes under compliance
o Quality assurance and quality management

16. What is the main difference between lean and six sigma?

The main difference between lean and six sigma is that lean methodology focuses on waste reduction
within a process flow. Whereas, six sigma process focuses mainly on variation analysis and variance
reduction.

17. What are the three key elements for six sigma process improvement?

The three key elements for six sigma process improvement are as follows:

1. Customers: They are the sole owners of the entire process outcome so we need to define all possible
metrics so that the attributes like on-time delivery, customer satisfaction, pricing, service and
transaction processing activities should be crystal clear. It is very important and one has to make sure
that all are dealt.

2. Process: This is the critical aspect of the Six Sigma process implementation. For any customer, they
would look for a quality product. So as six sigma process implementers we need to take due care to
understand this process from the customer’s perspective.

3. Employees: Finally the last thing to have a successful six sigma process implementation is to include
all the employees of the organization and provide them an opportunity to grow their skill set.

18. What is Top-down approach in six sigma process?

 The top-down approach is one of the processes within Six Sigma implementation. So usually this type of
approach is in line with the business strategy and the customer needs. But it has one of the major
disadvantages is that the scope is very broad and at the same time it is difficult to be executed in a
specified amount of time. As per the industry standards, the six sigma projects are executed and
completed in the time span of 3 to 6 months.

19. How to develop a SIPOC process map?

SIPOC stands for Suppliers Input Process Output Customers.

A process can be defined as a series of consecutive steps and activities that are executed in a timely
manner to get a definite output.
The SIPOC process map is very important for identifying the following elements:
1. How the current processes are operating
2. How the processes are modified and improved
3. How the improvement is carried out or implemented with the next phases of DMAIC

20. What are the three steps for Root cause analysis?
The three steps for Root cause analysis is:

• The Open step: This is the initial step where all the team members are gathered together and do a
brainstorming session on all possible scenarios.
• The Narrow step: During this phase, all the possible explanations and scenarios are narrowed down
to an extent considering our current sigma performance.
• The close step: During this phase, the project team will validate all the narrowed down list of
explanations for the current sigma performance.
21. What does DFSS stand for in six sigma process?

DFSS stands for Define for Six Sigma.

This process is involved in designing or redesigning the service or a product from scratch. One of the
cases where the project is following DMAIC methodology, it goes into DFSS project because of the
designing related tasks.

22. So how does the cost of six sigma implementation is estimated by the organizations?

The cost of six sigma implementation is estimated by the organization in different ways and few of the
popular ones are listed below:

1. The cost associated with six sigma implementation can be paid out from the direct payroll of the
company and identify the individuals who were involved in this process full time and paid accordingly

2. This is an indirect payroll policy where the individuals are identified and payout based on the activities
like data gathering, measurements, and discussions with the product owners etc.

3. This is purely a consultative approach, where the consultants will be paid based on the number of
hours they have to spend to train and mentor the team

4. This is completely a different approach towards six sigma process. The payout can happen based on
the process improvisation.
23. What is the Kano Model?

The Kano Model is an insightful way of understanding and categorizing 5 types of Customer Requirements
(or potential features) for new products and services.

The main purpose of the Kano Model is:

• To communicate 5 universal categories of customer requirements that all product and service
developers need to be aware of in order to remain competitive.
• To show how each of these 5 universal categories can influence satisfaction and dissatisfaction.
• To show how 2 of the categories add value and 2 of the categories detract from value, and 1 of
the categories creates new value.
• To help organizations understand their customer needs better than their customers understand
their own needs.
• To provide a mechanism to help organizations understand and classify all potential customer
requirements or features into these 5 categories so they can prioritize development efforts on
the things that most influence satisfaction and loyalty. This is done by the Kano Survey, or
sometimes called a Kano Analysis.
24. What is Poka Yoke?

Poka Yoke or Mistake proofing is a simple technique, & often inexpensive device that prevents defects
from being made or highlights a defect so that it is not passed to the next operation.

25. What is Kaizen?

Kaizen is an approach to creating continuous improvement based on the idea that small, ongoing
positive changes can reap major improvements. Typically, it is based on cooperation and commitment
and stands in contrast to approaches that use radical changes or top-down edicts to achieve
transformation. Kaizen is core to lean manufacturing, or The Toyota Way.

It was developed in the manufacturing sector to lower defects, eliminate waste, boost productivity,
encourage worker purpose and accountability, and promote innovation.

26. What is Value stream mapping?

Value stream mapping provides a visual representation of the flow of materials and information
throughout the organization. It helps to identify, demonstrate, reduce waste and finally create effective
flow through all the processes in the manufacturing organization.

Value stream mapping constitutes all the value added as well as non- added values required to make the
product. It consists of the process flows starting from the raw materials to make the product finally
available in the hands of the customers.

27. What Does Value Stream Mapping Do?

Value stream mapping is used to:

 • Graphically illustrate the flows of materials and information in a process. It displays the
interaction between multiple organizational functions- both manufacturing as well as ancillary
functions.
• Pinpoint the problem areas, inefficiencies, defects, bottlenecks more efficiently as it integrates
and maps the information flows, material flows along with the sequence of tasks. It even shows
the cycle- times and lag- times between different tasks.
• Involves all the stakeholders in each stage of the process and hence, it becomes easy to develop
and implement countermeasures to facilitate cultural change in the organization. It provides a
proper presentation of all the limiting factors.
• Continuous improvement is facilitated since the direction can be focused on lean transformation
teams, front line supervision and upper management.
28. What is Process Capability?
Process capability index (Cpk) is a statistical tool, to measure the ability of a process to produce output
within customer’s specification limits. In simple words, it measures producer’s capability to produce a
product within customer’s tolerance range. Cpk is used to estimate how close you are to a given target
and how consistent you are to around your average performance. Cpk gives you the best-case scenario
for the existing process. It can also estimate future process performance, assuming performance is
consistent over time.

Cpk is a standard index to state the capability of one process, the higher the Cpk value the better the
process is. For instance, Machine 1 has a Cpk of 1.7 and machine 2 has a Cpk of 1.1. From the Cpk value,
one can derive that Machine 1 is better than 2. Since Cpk uses specification limits and parts variation

(sigma), we can also arrive at the yield processed and losses from the machine.

Cp the Cp index is calculated using specification limits and the standard deviation only. This index
Indicates, in general, whether the process is capable of producing products to specifications. No
information on the ability of the process to adhere to the target value is included in this index.

CpK
This Cpk index is calculated using specification limits, the standard deviation, and the mean. The index
indicates whether the process is capable of producing within specification and is also an indicator of the
ability of the process to adhere to the target specification.