Vishwadeep Khatri

Dear Abhishek, As you might be aware, Six Sigma is not about organisational certification. Six Sigma is a methodology for business improvement. A small media shop can benefit well by focusing on key processes and reducing defects. Common defect examples here are - errors in copy, graphic or any content element; erroneous placement or delay in placement of ads, delay in response. Hope this helps. More questions are welcome. Regards, VK

Dear Munish, Five years experience brings an opportunity for you to measure, analyze and improve processes which you know so well. There is no reason why you should not learn starting with the Benchmark Six Sigma Green Belt. Here is a survey link (responses filled by training participants in a currently live survey) to help you understand career benefits. http://app.sgizmo.com/reports/45875/165131/6YQ0L5TMXYSK76S207L3K471A6H1MW/?ts=1261485978 Regards, VK.

Dear Deepak, You may like to study a book on Balanced Scorecard to learn about generation of KPIs and Metrics for an organization. Regards, VK

Dear Sandeep, The possible projects for your situation relate to increasing profitability in rental tools business. The above can be supported by the following Correctness of equipment specifications and tool data tracking. Designing the right inventory mix through data analysis. Improved inventory utilization through better marketing (example - showcasing tangible benefits due to use of tools proposed to the clients.) Repairs, billing and inventory improvements Hope this helps. Regards, VK

Dear Rahul, Six Sigma is very useful for Chartered Accountants and financial analysts for following two reasons: Being an integral part of Six Sigma projects carried out by anyone in the organization (by guiding them in terms of which metrics really cam bring financial benefits and which one do not matter much) Restructuring financial processes in the company for better results. Benchmark Six Sigma courses are recognized within India and internationally. I am currently on an International assignment conducting the same courses that we run regularly in India. One such program starts tomorrow at Delhi with a good cross functional participation. To know more, you may call at 1800 102 3003. Regards, Vk

We are currently involved in assignments with one of the Pubic Sector Oil Companies. If you provide details of the services that your company provides, I shall try answering your question. Regards, VK

Dear Vasundhra, Maturity level 5 means that the organization has demonstrated that it has statistically managed processes. It also means that the company has successfully demonstrated compliance to requirements. However, Six Sigma has a different set of objectives to realize. When Six Sigma projects are identified and approved at a senior level, these relate to business improvement objectives rather than compliance objectives. So when a Black Belt starts on a Six Sigma project, he or she is aware of the following: Just as there is a higher reward, there is some risk involved in a Six Sigma project. Ideally, a Six Sigma project is a problem/ opportunity area for which cause and solutions are unknown at the project approval stage The Black Belt is aware that on completion of the project, he is supposed to demonstrate sustenance of improved process through the control phase even as the process is managed by the process owner after his exit from the project. It may be appropriate to say that statistical techniques like control charts, hypothesis tests, regression are used in CMMI compliance. Six Sigma provides more rigor and competence to a Black Belt in utilizing such techniques and much more advanced techniques like multiple regression, nonparametric tests of various kinds, QFD, Design of Experiments which are rarely used by CMMI practitioners. CMMI and Six Sigma are complimentary in nature. You can study lot more on this subject by going through a SEI (Software Engineering Institute) publication named "CMMI and Six Sigma: Partners in Process Improvement" Each project has business benefit linkage and progressive success in such projects can propel the person to a leadership position soon. Regards, VK

Dear Ketan, I understand your situation. I have been associated with various companies where design change was not in control of the manufacturing unit. Two of the recent examples of our such clients are - Indomie noodles manufactured in various parts of the world (under license) have to follow the designs provided by Indofood (world's largest instant noodle brand). Suzlon Wind Energy - The design of wind mills cannot be altered by any manufacturing unit unless design change is approved by R& D center. However, this does not stop these companies to carry out improvement projects in several key areas. Some examples of DMADV projects for Indomie licensed manufacturers are - Operations - Designing a maintenance plan so as to increase the OEE (overall equipment efficiency) of manufacturing lines. Logistics - Designing innovative logistic designs to minimize logistics costs. Sales - Devising plan for the right pack sizes based on voice of customers (distributors and dealers) Advertising - Devising most appropriate media mix to maximize direct response from advertising. Finance and accounts - Devising new processes to eliminating errors in invoicing. Marketing - Creating the optimum marketing mix for the promotion of Indomie brand in Nigeria. Similarly, Six Sigma DMAIC projects are feasible in each area. Manufacturing - Reducing machine downtime. Logistics - Reducing losses and wastage in transportation. Packaging - Reducing variations in packaging. Manufacturing - Reducing weight variations in noodles packs. Promotions - Improving the effectiveness of sales campaigns I can list scores of powerful projects in wind energy company like Suzlon in a similar manner. To summarize, I have two points to make. We need to understand that limitations of design change exist even in wholly owned units of the parent company as a change in formulation (for example, coke) is not feasible in those units as well. There are very large number of projects that link well with business benefits even in licensed units. Idea generation for projects just needs some understanding of Six Sigma and a brainstorming session. Hope this helps. Regards, VK

Several six sigma good projects in Insurance companies (core operations) have been in the following lines. Reducing the insurance approval process time. Reducing errors in insurance approval process. Reducing errors in insurance claim processing. Reducing unpredictability (variation) in claim processing time. Reducing rework in steps involved in insurance policy issuance process. The above objectives have resulted in successful DMAIC as well as DMADV projects. If we start with the business dashboard of a large insurance company, it is feasible to identify hundreds of valid Six Sigma projects in a single day. Regards, VK

Dear Santhosh, Please note that your LCL may not be necessarily Zero. If it is not zero, it means that if you get defects less than LCL, it indicates one of the two things. Unreliable data. If data is ok, it indicates a special (good) cause. You may like to investigate and learn what has improved. I think you should be concerned about reasons of all surprise elements (pleasant or unpleasant). Regards, VK

Hi Rohit, To keep it simple, the key differences are as follows. TQM did not have a structured methodology while Six Sigma has road maps like DMAIC and DMADV. Six Sigma has an entire management system designed to support it. This includes the infrastructure of training - Master Black Belts at senior most level providing training and guidance to Black Belts who mentor Green Belts. TQM was a loosely held set of techniques with little top management support as business benefits from TQM assignements were not considered mandatory. Six Sigma projects need to have a clear business case and a charter to justify the effort and cost for each project. TQM was focused at mainly at Design, Operations and Quality, while Six Sigma projects are taken up by professionals from all functions including sales, finance, systems and HR. Regards, VK

Hello Ravi, This is a complex subject which is made easy in our training programs. The first question is why do you need to do hypothesis testing? Which hypothesis are you trying to test? Once you respond, I may be able to take this discussion further. Regards, VK

I agree with Shalini

Dear Dr. Suhasini, If you put the same data in Minitab and check out with BOX PLOT, it shows that all points beyond row number 723 (that is 724 to 729) are outliers. The BOX PLOT in Minitab shows outliers as stars. They can be identified with the help of "brush" tool in Minitab. Your inferences about outliers are correct in the excel sheet Regards, VK

Hi Taru, Six Sigma improvement projects can be identified for each of the critical control points if you are following Food Safety Standards as per HACCP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points). The simplest project objective can be " To eliminate food safety related incidents as reported in internal audits and guest feedback/complaints" More specific objectives may be suitable for Green Belt projects. These may be undertaken in purchase processes, storage processes, in kitchen and in food service, catering and restaurant related processes. Regards, VK

Dear Dr. Suhasini, I am still unclear about correlation coefficient value that you mentioned. R^2 is not great and you may be able to comment that the values do not have a strong correlation. If you provide the original data, I shall be able to use a non parametric test (due to non normality). By the way which software are you using for these analyses?

Dear Dr. Suhasini, Kindly note the following As both sets of data are continuous and one to one comparison is meaningful, correlation coefficient should be high (close to plus 1) to show that the instruments are comparable. As reported in your data, correlation coefficient is greater than 0.95. This shows strong positive correlation and proves that the instruments are comparable The above check seems to be sufficient. However, if you wish to use t-test, you need to verify that the data is normal. POC data is not normally distributed (pvalue = 0.001). This means that t-test should not be used for comparison of means. If the data had been normally distributed, your inferences from t-test would have been "THERE IS NO SIGNIFICANT DIFFERENCE IN POPULATION AVERAGES OF Hb REPORTED". However, this would not have shown the sample wise (one to one) comparison for Hb results POC vs lab instrument. (I have assumed that the 254 values of POC and Lab carry one to one comparative data for same sample in each row) This means it is better to use correlation here. I have answered your queries based on my understanding of the situation. Please feel free to pose more questions if your doubts are not fully addressed. Best Regards, VK

Six Sigma cannot be used to hide the truth. Cannot do much about poor leadership. Have a look at the video above!

A common question is - If my company is not using Six Sigma, how shall the knowledge and skills help me? My Response usually is - If your company has not been using Six Sigma in the past, it may provide you some "unfair advantage" over others. You get the ability to get better results than others by utilizing Six Sigma techniques in your own process/function/department/business unit. Six Sigma provides you sound concepts and powerful thought patterns that make other people listen when you speak. With Six Sigma, you also learn how to talk a business language that is appreciated by senior management. You may also be able to start with a small successful improvement and move on to bigger and bigger assignments in the company like one of our participant.Click on the link http://forum.benchmarksixsigma.com/blog/4/entry-32-participant-interview-dr-j-pattanaik-manager-operations-health-hiway/ to read his experiences. Questions and comments are welcome.

This is one of my favorite topics. Many people have been telling me that NOT ALL of the world's most respected companies use Six Sigma. So how is it that they are successful? Is Six Sigma really a key driver of success? Is it indispensable? My response goes like this - As you may be aware - Six Sigma is a Metric (measure of capability of a process) Methodology (like DMAIC, DMADV etc.) Management System Philosophy Set of techniques - Utilizing appropriate concepts and tools from a set of management techniques that constitute a world of Management Wisdom. I agree that a few of the World's most respected companies do not use Six Sigma as a Metric, Methodology, Philosophy or Management System. How about the use of appropriate Management Techniques? Which one out of the most respected companies do not use the techniques such as these mentioned below. SPC (statistical process control) FMEA (Risk Management technique) Experimental Design Test of hypotheses Cause and effect analysis Pareto's Analysis If you go and talk to people at Nokia or Toyota, they may say that they do not use Six Sigma but definitely use these management techniques. In fact they use many more of the techniques that are commonly covered in Benchmark Six Sigma programs. For a moment, let us consider Six Sigma training program as one that helps you learn world best, tried and tested management techniques. There is no respectable and successful company that does not use such techniques in their pursuit of process and business excellence. Does it really matter if they call it something else? Or if they do not follow the classical Six Sigma model of doing projects? Benchmark Six Sigma programs offer you such techniques in an unmatched capsule. It is many times more than your money's worth to learn the business and process wisdom offered by these techniques. It is also worthwhile to understand the Six Sigma methodology, philosophy and the management system as most companies are actually working towards using Six Sigma in its entirety. Questions and comments welcome.

Hello Niroop, Six Sigma as a Management System takes care of knowledge management aspects quite well. Six Sigma projects are primarily carried out through two popular methodologies DMAIC and DFSS (or DMADV). In each methodology, the objective is to put a capable process in place. While carrying out such projects following things happen. The process measures are finalized. Measurement systems are put in place. The current capability of the process is assessed. Analysis and Verification is carried out to know - Which inputs/ paramaters impact the process output significantly. Change is brought in the inputs to realize an impact in output. Most importantly these stages are documented in a systematic fashion. Documentation available on each critical organizational process (be it operational, HR, marketing, financial or developmental) leads to an excellent organizational knowledge repository. This knowledge base can lead to replication of learning, accelerated learning and crucial inputs for pressing issues.

Dear Kapil, Please fill up the enquiry form for training by clicking on the following link http://www.benchmarksixsigma.com/individualform Regards, VK

Dear Shalini, Accuracy and Precision as terms are mostly used in Measurement System Analysis, where we want accuracy and precision at the same time. If multiple measurements are taken for the same item, the readings should not have much variation (precise) and the average should be as close to true value as possible (accurate). Have a look at explanation on Wiki - click here Regards, VK

The examination is a multiple choice test which is entirely based on course content and delivery. Most participants have not used any study guides for passing the exam. The training material and the exercises and discussions during the training are sufficient. People have scored up to 96% in the exams. Recent Green Belt batches have had a median score of 86%. There is a sample test paper provided on first day of the training.