Six-Sigma DMAIC

INTRODUCTION
• Sigma abbreviated as standard deviations from the mean
of a data set in other words this is the measurement of
variation, while the word Six-Sigma stands for six standard
deviations from the mean The main basic foundation of
the Six-Sigma program is statistics;. When a process
reaches the Six-Sigma level that process will be very close
to its actual destination , producing a mere 3.4 defects per
million. By using Six Sigma’s statistical and analytical tools
firms can reduce the variation in a system by removing
the root causes of variation therefore increasing the
quality of the process.
 CONT….
• The Six-Sigma DMAIC (Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, and
Control) approach is applied for improving the processes which
are in force and looking for incremental improvement. The Six-
Sigma DMADV (Define, Measure, Analyze, Design, and Verify)
approach is applied for developing new processes or products at
Six-Sigma quality levels (Allen and Kilmann , 2001). It is very
difficult to define Six-Sigma in simple terms because it
encompasses the methodology of problem solving, and focuses on
optimization and cultural change. This methodology accomplishes
our goal by utilizing an extensive set of precise tools, inflexible use
of statistical and advanced mathematical tools, and a well-defined
methodology that produces important results quickly.
 CONT….
• The success of this methodology gives the excellent
direction to the business of an organization which gives
significant momentum that can only lead to
fundamental industrial cultural transformation. Six-
Sigma is the problem solving methodology which helps
us to make the quality improvement in the system of
high order, optimization and cultural change. “Six-Sigma
is a business improvement approach that seeks to find
and eliminate causes of mistakes or defects in business
processes by focusing on process outputs that are of
critical importance to customers” (Snee, 2004).
 CONT….
• Sigma value increases the process performance
in a excellent manner. The Six-Sigma gives the
accuracy of 3.4 defects part per million or yield
of 99.9997% (perfect parts). It gives the world
class quality and accuracy to the extreme
organisation of the world. Following is the table
of comparison of different sigma values at
different defects part per million and capability
of process here (Gupta, 2013).
 Sigma level in terms of DPMO and COPQ

SIGMA DPMO COPQ CAPABILITY

6 Sigma 3.4 <10% of sales

World Class

5 Sigma 230 10 to 15% of sales

4 Sigma 6200 15 to 20% of sales Industry Average

3 Sigma 67000 20 to 30% of sales

Non competitive

2 Sigma 310,000 30 to 40% of sales

DPMO - Defects per Million Opportunities

COPQ - Cost of Poor Quality
 Origin of Six-Sigma
• Six-Sigma methodology was started in a company named “Motorola” by Smith
in the 1980s while he was addressing this company’s continual problems of
meeting customer expectations in a cost-effective manner. The company found
that the large portion of their business and productivity was spent through the
cost of non-quality. This includes not only the 2,600 parts per million losses in
manufacturing, but they lost their business due to defective parts and support of
systems in the field that were unreliable. Motorola’s chairman at the time,
Galvin, decided that to overcome these problems a much more intense effort
was needed. The Engineers of Motorola, Smith, found that the quality level
associated with a measure of Six-Sigma corresponds to a failure rate of two
parts per billion and adopted this as a standard. The program to achieve this
haughty goal was developed at Motorola and coined “Six-Sigma”, which
included many of the systematic and precise tools associated with the Six-
Sigma programs of today. Incidentally, “Six-Sigma” is a federally registered
trademark of Motorola.
Six-Sigma DMAIC approach
Six-Sigma is a
structured approach
for the structured
process improvement
methodology called
DMAIC in combination
with a well-defined set
of tools that are
applied at various
phases of the DMAIC
methodology
The DMAIC refers to the five phase in a Six-Sigma
process improvement project: Define- Measure-
Analyze- Improve- Control . Various tools are used in
these phases of Six-Sigma DMAIC approach.
Phases of DMAIC approach and tools of each phase

Define Phase
Goal: In Define phase the problem in terms of customer requirements,
the purpose of project, scope and process background for both internal
and external customers. The various tools which are used in this phase
are Quality Function Deployment, Benchmarking, Process Mapping,
Critical To Tree and Gantt Charts are given below
 Define Phase Cont….
• Quality Function Deployment
Quality Function Deployment (QFD) is used to translate customer
requirements to engineering specification. It is applied in early stages of
the design phase, so that the customer wants are incorporated into the final
product.
• Benchmarking
Benchmarking is the process of comparing one's business processes
and performance metrics to industry bests or best practices from other
industries. Dimensions typically measured are quality, time and cost.
Process Mapping
Process Mapping is a structural analysis of a process flow (such as an
order-to-delivery cycle), by distinguishing how work is actually done from
how it should be done, and what functions a system should perform from
how the system is built to perform those functions.
 Define Phase Cont….
• Critical To Tree
Critical to Tree (CTT) is a diagram-based tool that helps to develop and
deliver high quality products and services. These are used to translate
broad customer needs into specific, actionable, measurable performance
requirements. Critical-to-quality tree is used to decompose
broad customer requirements into more easily quantified requirements.
• Gantt charts
A Gantt chart is a type of bar chart, developed by Henry Gantt in the
1910s, that illustrates a project schedule. Gantt charts illustrate the start
and finish dates of the terminal elements and summary elements of
a project. Terminal elements and summary elements comprise the work
breakdown structure of the project. Some Gantt charts also show the
dependency (i.e. precedence network) relationships between activities.
 Measure Phase

• Goal: Measure phase identifies the defects in the products, gather valid
baseline information about the process and establish improvements. In
order to determine the root cause of defects, focusing the data gather
from current process for improvement tools used in measure phase are
Pareto Charts, Cause and Effect Diagrams, Scatter Diagrams, FMEA, Affinity
Diagram.
• Pareto charts
The Pareto Chart is named after Vilfredo Pareto, a 19th century economist
who postulated that a large share of wealth is owned by a small
percentage of the population. These charts are based on the Pareto
Principle which states that 80 percent of the problems come from 20
percent of the causes. Pareto charts are extremely useful because they
can be used to identify those factors that have the greatest cumulative
effect on the system, and thus screen out the less significant factors in an
analysis. Ideally, this allows the user to focus attention on a few important
factors in a process
 Measure Phase Cont….
• Cause and Effect Diagrams
The Cause & Effect (CE) diagram, also sometimes called the
‘fishbone’ diagram, is a tool for discovering all the possible
causes for a particular effect. The effect being examined is
normally some troublesome aspect of product or service
quality, such as 'a machined part not to specification',
'delivery times varying too widely', 'excessive number of bugs
in software under development', and so on, but the effect
may also relate to internal processes such as 'high rate of
team failures'.
 Measure Phase Cont….
• Scatter diagrams
A Scatter Diagram is a tool for analyzing relationships between two
variables. One variable is plotted on the horizontal axis and the other is
plotted on the vertical axis. The pattern of their intersecting points can
graphically show relationship patterns. Most often a scatter diagram is used
to prove or disprove cause-and-effect relationships.
• Failure Mode and Effect Analysis (FMEA)
Implemented within the Six-Sigma methodology, FMEA, or Failure Modes
and Effects Analysis, further identifies and evaluates defects which could
potentially result in reducing quality of a product.  , FMEA is used to
discover and prioritize aspects of the process that demand improvement
and also to statistically analyze the success of a pre emptive solution
 Measure Phase Cont….
• Affinity Diagram
• Affinity diagram is a graphic tool designed to help organize
loose, unstructured ideas generated
in brainstorming or problem solving meetings. In this method,
disparate but related ideas (collected in an idea
generation session) are grouped (on cards or sheets of paper)
into meaningful categories called affinity sets. These
categories tie different concepts together with one underlying
theme, clarify the issues, and provide a structure for
a systematic search for one or more solutions.
 Analyze Phase
• Goal: Analyze phase examines the data collected in order to
generate a prioritized list of source of variation. This phase
identifies the root causes of problems and confirms them from data
analysis. The various tools used for this phase are Correlation,
Graphical Data Analysis ANOVA and Sampling Plan.
• Correlation
Correlation has a significant place in Six-Sigma. Correlation
measures relation between two or more variables. It investigates
the relationship between two quantitative and continuous variables.
If the value of one variable increases when the value of the other
also increases, they are said to be positively correlated. If the value
of one variable decreases when the value of other variable is
increasing, it is said to be negatively correlated
 Analyze Phase Cont….
• Graphical Data Analysis
• Graphical analysis converts raw data into a visual picture of the data. This
visual representation of the data facilitates many different analysis
including (a) detecting patterns and trends in data
(b) prioritization of projects (c) comparing the performances of two or
more processes (d) detecting relationships between parameters or
(d) confirming impact of a change to a process.
• Analysis of Variance (ANOVA)
• The reason for doing an ANOVA is to see if there is any difference
between groups on some variable. For example, you might have data on
student performance in non-assessed tutorial exercises as well as their final
grading.
 Analyze Phase Cont….
• Sampling plan
• A sampling plan is a detailed outline of which
measurements will be taken at what times, on which
material, in which manner, and by whom. Sampling
plan should be designed in such a way that the
resulting data will contain a representative sample of
the parameters of interest and allow for all questions,
as stated in the goals, to be answered.
 Improve Phase

• Goal: Improve phase identifies and quantifies the key process variables and
determine acceptable limits to reduce the number of defects in the process.
Develop the solution of problems in the process by implementing the different
tools like Response Surface Methodology, Kaizen, Taguchi's Experiments and
Design of Experiments.

• Response Surface Methodology

Response surface methodology (RSM) is a collection of mathematical and
statistical techniques for empirical model building. By careful design of
experiments, the objective is to optimize a response (output variable) which is
influenced by several independent variables (input variables). An experiment is
a series of tests, called runs, in which changes are made in the input variables in
order to identify the reasons for changes in the output response.
 Improve Phase Cont…
• Kaizen
• Kaizen is a system of continuous improvement in quality, technology,
processes, company culture, productivity, safety and leadership. Kaizen is
a system that involves every employee - from upper management to the
cleaning crew. Everyone is encouraged to come up with small
improvement suggestions on a regular basis. This is not a once a month or
once a year activity. It is continuous and is a daily process, the purpose of
which goes beyond simple productivity improvement. It is also a process
that, when done correctly, humanizes the workplace, eliminates overly
hard work and teaches people how to perform experiments on their
work using the scientific method and how to learn to spot and eliminate
waste in business processes. In all, the process suggests a humanized
approach to workers and to increasing productivity.
 Improve Phase Cont…
• Taguchi's Experiments
Taguchi methods are statistical methods developed by Genichi Taguchi to
improve the quality of manufactured goods, and more recently also applied
to engineering, biotechnology, marketing and advertising.
• Design of Experiments
Design of Experiments (DOE) techniques enables designers to determine
simultaneously the individual and interactive effects of many factors that
could affect the output results in any design. DOE also provides a full
insight of interaction between design elements
 Control Phase

• Goal: Control phase emphasizes in determining process capabilities

and implementing various process controls to make sure that the
modified process stay within acceptable limits. Using data, evolution
of solution of problems and future plan and also maintain the
standardized procedure. Different tools used in control phase are
Control Charts, Check Lists, Audit Schedules, Process Capability re-
assessment and Standard Operating Procedure.
• Control Charts
The Six-Sigma control chart is an effective tool of
statistical process and also popularly known as process behavior
chart. Control chart indicates whether the process being monitored
is currently under control or not. A control chart is a significant tool
applied to monitor and improve quality.
 Control Phase Cont…
• Check Lists
Using charts, made in the form of checklists, in audit ensures that
nothing is left to chance. A checklist, which is exhaustive, is prepared
during the launch of the project. There will be multiple checklists for
each process and activity which can be used methodically to assess the
processes involved in the project.
• Audit Schedules
The Six-Sigma audit process is similar to the assessment process
employed during the deployment stage because only qualitative checks
are conducted during the audit. The audit process involves the use of
questionnaires and checklists that allow auditors to assess the existing
status of business processes, which is then compared with
predetermined standards or desired results.
 Control Phase Cont…
• Process capability re-assessment
In process improvement efforts, the process capability index or process capability
re-assessment is a statistical measure of process capability: the ability of a
process to produce output within specification limits. The concept of process
capability only holds meaning for processes that are in a state of statistical control.
Process capability indices measure how much "natural variation" a process
experiences relative to its specification limits and allows different processes to be
compared with respect to how well an organization controls them.
• Standard Operating Procedure
A Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) is a set of written instructions that
document a routine activity that is to be followed by members of an organization.
Standard Operating Procedures are essential parts of good quality systems. Sound
and well-written SOPs should enhance consistency and reduce human error.
Sometimes standard operating procedures are referred to as work instructions.
THANKS