Vishwadeep Khatri

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.

Dear All, As far as job assignments for freshers are concerned, there are cases of freshers joining in a Six Sigma role as their first job in Automotive companies, Consulting, Banking, Hospitals primarily due to Six Sigma competence. Some of them have agreed to share their experience in interviews. You shall be able to find some in interviews at http://forum.benchmarksixsigma.com/blogs/ Regards, VK

Dear All, It is very important to keep HIGH SIGMA LEVEL distinguished from SIX SIGMA APPLICATION. Many companies have reached wonderful performance levels because they have a good process in place with some mistake proofing and visual controls. They applied these concepts as plain common sense warrants their use. My question was "Is Mumbai Dabbawalas performance a good application example of Six Sigma?" If we pay attention to the term "application example for Six Sigma", the answer should be "NO". I agree that we may use it as an example for application of Lean concepts (or for providing example for high Sigma Level or low DPMO) Lot of people have been referring Dabbawalas as a great example for Six Sigma, which is misleading. The best examples for Six Sigma should be companies who use DMAIC or DFSS rigorously to progressively achieve performance excellence through customer and business focus projects using appropriate techniques. Some people even refer to Dabbawalas as "Six Sigma Certified". Please note that no company gets the tag of "Six Sigma certified" Thanks to all for contributing in this discussion. Amol, Rohit, Karthik, Ravindra, Renu, Imraan have highlighted the high SIGMA LEVEL appropriately and mentioned that process can be considered beyond Six Sigma. However, Rahul, Anees, Reddy, Venkatesh and Arup have appropriately highlighted that we should not consider this as SIX SIGMA APPLICATION (and that this was not a conscious effort with the methodology) By mentioning this, we do not wish to take away the credit for what they achieved. May they achieve greater success! and let us hope that they really use Six Sigma some day. Best Regards, VK

Hi Shalini, Accurate means average same as targeted value. Precise means low variation A broadband connection that has OK speed on an average but large variation can be taken as an example for "ACCURATE BUT NOT PRECISE" Regards, VK

VOC - Voice of Customer - The expectations, complaints, feedbacks of an internal or external customer. VOC is the driving force of many Six Sigma projects. QMS - Quality Management System - ISO 9001 is the most used QMS standard. When a company designs its quality management system, it needs to suitably include elements of QMS. These include the creation of processes that shall meet requirements of clients. One way of designing the QMS is through the implementation of ISO 9001:2008.

Dear All, Let us have a discussion on this one. One of the most publicized examples of Six Sigma in India is the Mumbai Dubbawallas. Do you think it is a good application example for Six Sigma? Why/ Why not? VK

My views are as follows. I presume the discussion is about 2 sample t test where we are trying to test the significance of difference in mean length of stem due to change in fertilizer. Alpha value (significance level) is something we fix before testing a hypothesis. So, I do not think we should be interested in checking the analysis results with different alpha values after the test. However, the question is valid for academic interest. Continuing with the point 2 above, we would have fixed an alpha value of 5% if we are willing to accept a 5% probability of rejecting a true null hypothesis (this means maximum 5% chances of concluding that the height of stems are different when they actually are same). If we wish to accept a lower risk in such a conclusion, we may have chosen a smaller alpha of 1%. How much risk we are willing to accept is based on our own assessment of seriousness of impact of error. Sample Size calculation should be done with predetermined alpha value. If I use Minitab for sample size calculation for the same example, (by clicking on options I can change the alpha value. Alpha 0.05 gives me a sample size of 23. Alpha value of 0.01 gives me a sample size of 32. I have assumed a standard deviation of 2 and a power value of 0.9. I agree with Kiran - We like to run sufficient simulations to cover sample size in situations where real data cannot be generated. As we gather more knowledge (with Chandrayaan - I for example), our simulations become more realistic with better assumptions and facts. Regards, VK

Hello Vikas, Process Capability covered in detail in Six Sigma Body of Knowledge, while it does not carry much coverage in Lean Management Body of Knowledge. However, Toyota Production Systems (from where "Lean" emerged) do cover these concepts in "another way". Regards, VK