What is Six Sigma?
Six Sigma is an organizational cycle that measures the highest quality of work. It aims to maintain a highly effective and efficient production and administration system which includes operations, purchasing, human resources, and customer services. Six Sigma gauges efficiency and excellence in every process which applies a data-driven approach and methodology in removing errors and defects to solve a problem.
This article will briefly discuss (1) Importance of Six Sigma in the workplace; (2) How to achieve Six Sigma certification; and (3) technology to assist in Six Sigma implementation.
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Importance of Six Sigma in the Workplace
Six Sigma has been widely used in different industries. It helps organizations to implement process improvement and techniques to achieve the following:
• Eliminate waste
Waste is anything that is irrelevant to your organization. Eliminating wastes can simplify your process to achieve consistency in delivering products or services. Six Sigma focuses on needs and demand to achieve efficiency and improve production timeline.
For example:
In a manufacturing site, all employees start their work at 7:00 am. Team B is idle while waiting for team A to finish their process before starting their task. Team B’s idle time is an example of waste.
• Reduce errors and defects
Reducing errors and defects are the primary concern of six sigma. To achieve 100% of quality, facilities and equipment should be maintained regularly to ensure they are operational to prevent recurring issues. This also includes identifying human and process errors to address areas for improvement.
For example:
In the manufacturing industry, quality assurance teams should do the final checks of finished products to identify defect or damages before it went out for delivery.
• Streamline processes
Six Sigma helps to document all aspects including employee profile, production processes, problems identified, effective solutions, and implementation of corrective actions. It helps to eliminate unwanted costs and the repetition of work.
For example:
In an organization, proper task allocation should depend on the role of an employee. It should be based on employees' skills, training acquired, and level of knowledge.
How to Achieve Six Sigma Certification for your Workplace
Six Sigma highlights the statistical analysis of process improvements for your organization and is facilitated by six sigma professionals. The following methods are essential to help your organization prepare for Six Sigma certification:
Use DMAIC methodology
The DMAIC methodology is an in-depth process that Defines a problem, Measure its performance, Analyze the root cause of existing defects, Improves the identified process, and Controls the future performance. DMAIC is the most widely used methodology in Six Sigma which helps to improve, optimize and stabilize business processes and designs.
Integrate Lean
A lean approach is an effective way to reduce waste which includes defects, overproduction, low-quality products, and unproductive processes. It promotes work standardization and streamlines production processes. There are effective tools such as 5s, kaizen, and FMEA that can be used to eliminate defects.
Utilize Technology
Preparing for Six Sigma certification is not easy. It involves a lot of documentation, analysis, and recordkeeping which is burdensome for six sigma practitioners. Using a pen and paper to collect data and reinput everything on a computer is a repetitive process and time-consuming. A mobile inspection app like iAuditor can help you track process improvement and identify waste and defects easily. With iAuditor you can:
- ✓ Create visual reports by capturing damages and defects using a handheld device.
- ✓ Easily implement and monitor continuous improvement efforts.
- ✓ Immediately assign corrective actions to other teams for urgent issues.
- ✓ Receive real-time status updates and share reports to members of your organization.
- ✓ Save online reports using iAuditor’s unlimited cloud storage and access data anytime, anywhere.
Try iAuditor Six Sigma DMAIC Template for Free
Top 7 Six Sigma Templates
A DMAIC template is used by Six Sigma practitioners to perform the DMAIC (Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, Control) methodology as a root-cause analysis to help identify process improvements. This template has been built to perform the following:
- Define the project goals and list customer deliverables;
- Measure the current performance of the process to quantify the problem;
- Analyze until the root cause has been identified;
- Improve the design, system, and/or process with assessed and re-evaluated solutions; and
- Control and monitor the system in place.
This SIPOC template is used by officers in charge to have a visual overview of the business processes. It’s a step by step solution that summarizes all the elements (Suppliers, Inputs, Process, Outputs, and Customer) to analyze business processes, all the in's and out’s, and ways to improve them.
This kaizen report template is used to monitor continuous improvement in the workplace. It is used to identify the root cause of the problem (including 8 wastes) and optimize the business process for global competitiveness.
This 5S Audit Checklist is used by area supervisors to ensure that 5S (Seiri (Sort), Seiton (Systematize), Seiso (Shining), Seiketsu (Standardizing), and Shitsuke (Sustaining)) principles and set standards are being followed and implemented by workers.
This FMEA template aims to identify potential failures in business processes and mitigate adverse effects on customers. It is used by process improvement teams to determine Risk Priority Number (RPN) of the mechanism of failure.
This 8 wastes checklist is used by area supervisors to identify and eliminate any of the 8 wastes (defects, overproduction, waiting, non-utilized talent, transportation, inventory, motion, and extra-processing) in the workplace.
This A3 report template is used by managers to identify and resolve problems in a business setting. It helps to eradicate issues, inefficiencies, and ambiguities in business operations in order to maximize productivity.
