Unit IV Operations Research Case Study Six Sigma 3M Tran Thi Diem

Running head: CASE STUDY – SIX SIGMA AT 3M, INC.
Unit IV - Case Study
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Tran Thi Diem (ID 285725)
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Columbia Southern University
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CASE STUDY – SIX SIGMA AT 3M, INC. 2
Introduction
Six Sigma is a tool for quality and process improvement. It designs the process
improvement reduce the number of defects in products and business processes. Companies apply
Six Sigma practices engaged in analysis and plan development to bring about change. In case
study of Six Sigma at 3M, Six Sigma was successfully used in a business.
3M is a global company, the company’s strategy is focus on quantity of product and do
not care about the cost factor. In order to improve quality for satisfy customer better,
improvement production processes, increase sales and energize an organization. From 2001,
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under control of James McNerney, he put the Six Sigma methodology into the backbone of 3M.
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Six Sigma was applied for making major repairs a four-year in order to improve manufacturing
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and production processes rs e
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As case study mention, 3M approach to Six
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Sigma including two difference improvement

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models DMAIC and DFSS. The systematic method
for process improvement uses the five steps defined

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by the acronym DMAIC (Define, Measure,

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Analyze, Improve and Control). In another

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methods, DFSS is the step-by-step method for

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designing and developing new products and
services.
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First of all, the benefit of Six Sigma is increase sales and increase cash flow. As shown in
Exhibit 1, the sales continued to increase from 2001 to 2006. It had 2005 sale of 21 billion
dollars and 22% profit grew at an average. In addition, from eliminating waste to improving
productivity, this methodology grew revenue faster than ever and continues to lead innovative
technologies
In addition, benefits of Six Sigma also includes generating greater return and driving time
out of development and commercialization. Six Sigma tools help company to reduce new
product development time as well as the business cycle of company. With this, the company
creates competitive advantage for business and generating more income for investors.
Another benefit of Six Sigma is also including quality improvement and customer
satisfaction through the reduced variability, efficient productivity and processes acceleration, and
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single management system. The big benefit is improvement in customer satisfaction and cost
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reduction. The designs of the new projects were according to the customers’ requirements, to
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provide a better service to their customers and bring satisfying to customers. All the demand of
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customer has service better and faster through 3M Acceleration. With this, the company
increases customer loyalty and become more competitive products and services
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Finally, employees feel excited about their work through learning new process and
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developing leadership skills.
Financial investment for Six Sigma including training program of 100 key Six Sigma
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projects for senior executive and middle managers at the beginning of project. The cost for use of
various tools like Quality function deployment and Computer simulations is required in Six
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Sigma and salary of full time appointed black belt in Six Sigma. The team leaders and
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management of the process selected for Six Sigma are held accountable for the result. After four
years of implementation, more than 30,000 salaried employees at 3M have been trained in Six
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Sigma processes and methodologies, and more than 11,000 Six Sigma projects have been
initiated or closed.
In addition, the cost of job placement for employees who is participants of Six Sigma
project (in full time or part time). And the company needs to job reallocation for employees
participation in project.
The high potential risk in this project is in choosing people, roadmap and tools. Six
Sigma training is very important to every employee because it requires a detailed understanding
of the process for its success. The selection of projects, people and tools for Six Sigma is very
important. Choosing the wrong people to do the project is also risky for the company, the
incompetent or the people not the same perspective can result in failure in that project, it efforts
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of waste of time and money. In addition, Six Sigma is a process for quality improvement and
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reducing defect product. However, the company also has some risk in selection of target market
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and potential customers. If there are some fail, the result into high risk taking release of the
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product. In order to get satisfactory result of this project, the company has to expenses a lot of
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money and time. If the company miscalculated the time and cost will lead to projects being
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stopped on the way.
The training cost for this project is very high. If the employees leave employment after
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trained, this is loss to the company. The organization change due to the application of Six Sigma
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may impact to culture of the company. Loyal employees may leave because they are not ease to
adapt with new structures.

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Before improving a specific process, management should make a strategic choice of
process. Senior management should choose critical processes that are needed to implement the
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strategy of the firm. The process selection is based on the development of the company and cost
saving.
Team leader and management should follow hold process and evaluate the effectiveness
of the project after a period of implementation. Financial department should have a record for
monitoring the cost and profitability during the implementation of Six Sigma. Base on that, the
company management are tracked of cost savings and defect reduction.
As case study mention, the company’s targets to drive process improvement across in
firm in order to increase sale, get customer satisfaction, reduce cost and strengthen management
development. Therefore, all functions of the company should including in the Six Sigma
initiative in order to achieve of the company target. The expectation golds of the company is
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common approach with common goals, Institutes a common language, Develops transferable
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skills, Most effective way to increase and accelerate company’s business performance and
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customer quality. The project stared with the top of leadership and all employees of the company.
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First of all, finance department holds an important role in tracking the result of cost
saving, cost of project and result of increase sales and profits. Base on this, the company can
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evaluate the success of Six Sigma project. The second, Sale and Marketing department is in
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charge for market demand, getting customer’s requirements and design products. Operation
department is in charge in translation the customer’s requirement in to product specifications.

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The third, customer service department is in charge in customer complaint handing and handling
customer calls. In finally, Human resource department is most important in select right people to
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involve in working project.

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Upper management selects the strategic processes for improvement and assign senior
executive to perform the project as the “Champion”. In addition, the senior executive should be
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held accountable to support the Six Sigma initiative. At once, the senior executive follows the
result of project and in charge on training to middle managers and going with a list of 100 key
projects. The middle managers hold the roles as the Black Belts who was assigned full time
project and responsibility on development this project. In addition, the Black Belts is assigned to
train and support their staffs.
Selecting right people is the most
important for project. The aim of people selection
is to achieve person-job fit. This means matching
the knowledge, skills, abilities, and other
competencies that are required for performing the
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job (based on project’s requirement). Of course,
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candidates might be right for a job, but wrong for
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the organization. Therefore, company should
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select right people with the right skills will perform better for project. It is important because it’s
costly to training and successful of project.

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Six Sigma improves for all across function of the firm. Therefore, this is excellent
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opening for developing leadership skills for upper and middle management of company. And on
this occasion, there is also giving the opportunity to employees who join this project for
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improving knowledge. However, the company also takes responsibility for risk management to
reduce and prevent employees leaving after trained. In order to have a sustainable development
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of human resources during the project implementation and to continue to succeed after the
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project launching, the human resource department need to develop a rational policy. They can
create awards to acknowledge to good teams. This is good opportunity for senior executive and
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middle management to review skills and abilities of their employees and promote employee’s
ability. The Black Belts and team members are successfully executed to receive good salary and
promotions.
Finally, Human resources for deploying project shall include senior executive and middle
managers who are smart and motivated commitment to work thoroughly this project. At the same
time, the project organization chart should design and assigning right people to take
responsibility of project.
Some people believes that the innovation is creative and groundbreaking. As case study
mention, 3M history had a good culture in innovation, this is a strong point of the firm. With a
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good ability of R&D department, the company becomes a leader company in industry. Six Sigma
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is a repetitive process, it had been criticized to stifle creativity and it would mean less
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opportunity for innovation
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Six Sigma is only focus on process to o improve productivity, cost saving, increase sales,
satisfy customers better and other procedural tasks but Six Sigma is not enought with respect to
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the future. The proof is that 3M expanded Lead Six Sigma in 2004, Lean is used to eliminate
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nonvalue added activities from process. The project focus on improving the speed of the process,
prevents the built up of inventory and reduces lead time. 3M had been aware that Six Sigma was
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not enough for future so they had implemented Lean Six Sigma into their management system.
In addition, society is growing, the demand of customers is increasing and there are more
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and more competitors in the market. There may have a better toots to replace Six Sigma in order
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to adapt with actual market. In currently, the Six Sigma is very successful in 3M, but in the
future it will not be enough if the environment will be constantly changing. Six Sigma is an
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excellent tool to improve the organization performs but there are not applicable in some tasks.
Therefore, 3M should apply Six Sigma in parallel with other tools in order to keep the
company’s culture and leave room for creativity and innovation.
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References
Schroeder, R. & Goldstein, S. M. (2018). Operations management in the supply chain:
Decisions and cases (7th ed.) New York, NY: McGraw-Hill
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Running head: CASE STUDY – SIX SIGMA AT 3M, INC.

Unit IV - Case Study

3M is a global company, the company’s strategy is focus on quantity of product and do

Sigma including two difference improvement

models DMAIC and DFSS. The systematic method

for process improvement uses the five steps defined

by the acronym DMAIC (Define, Measure,

Analyze, Improve and Control). In another

methods, DFSS is the step-by-step method for

designing and developing new products and

developing leadership skills.

stopped on the way.

adapt with new structures.

Before improving a specific process, management should make a strategic choice of

company management are tracked of cost savings and defect reduction.

department is in charge in translation the customer’s requirement in to product specifications.

involve in working project.

train and support their staffs.

Selecting right people is the most

important for project. The aim of people selection

is to achieve person-job fit. This means matching

the knowledge, skills, abilities, and other

competencies that are required for performing the

costly to training and successful of project.

company’s culture and leave room for creativity and innovation.

Schroeder, R. & Goldstein, S. M. (2018). Operations management in the supply chain:

Decisions and cases (7th ed.) New York, NY: McGraw-Hill

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