Vishwadeep Khatri

The paper industry is exposed to challenges like increased demands for customized products, customer delivery times and changes in customer schedules. All this has lead to an increased pressure on the prices as well as the margins. Over the years the paper industry is faced with the problem of high energy costs with a lot of energy getting consumed in drying the paper. Six Sigma tools like DOE have been used to reduce the energy costs by identifying, optimizing and controlling the input variables like temperature of the heaters, speed of the fan and the distance of the fan from the paper. Once the best combination of Input variables is attained energy costs can be reduced. Some other examples of Lean Six Sigma application in Paper Industry are: Ensuring timely availability of raw material by improving underlying processes Reducing cost of production Minimizing waste and scrap Improving the overall quality of production Improving the paper machine efficiency and Ensuring effective use of new technology to modernize manufacturing infrastructure.

Food Industry Food Industry is one where it is critical to control quality. Given the huge number of people consuming the food products, even a small defect can assume critical dimensions and can have adverse impacts. Lean Six Sigma, hence, is very appropriate in Food Industry. Infact, the entire Food Supply Chain can benefit from the Six Sigma approach. Some of the examples of Six Sigma Projects in Food Processing and Distribution in this Industry are: Reduction in distribution costs Enhancing reliability of food products delivery Reducing or Preventing wastage in case of perishable items Improving delivery vehicle utilization Improving adherence to schedules at delivery and collection points Reduction in Maintenance costs/produced units Enhancement in Productivity Reduction in machine & plant maintenance cost Reduction in processing machinery downtime Enhancement in quality of packaging If you want to discuss more, please reply to this message post

We have had discussion on this topic earlier on Yahoo Groups. I am pasting the content here to take it further. FOLLOWING TOPIC PASTED FROM YAHOO GROUPS DISCUSSION ORIGINATOR: Vijaya Mair DATE: Thu Sep 4, 2008 Hi one and All, Can any one tell me about using Six Sigma and its tools in Law field or explain the relation of Six Sigma & Law. Thanks - Vijaya ____________ FOLLOWING RESPONSES WERE POSTED TO YAHOO GROUPS I don't believe there is any direct relationship between 6 Sigma and the Law. However 6 Sigma processes could be applied to Law to reduce the chance of errors - especially in the null hypothesis analysis of an error/cause. It is here that we want to minimize the chances of Type - I errors (or Alpha - which would reduce the chances of an innocent being convicted for a crime). My 2 cents worth ... Sent from BlackBerry® on Airtel ___________ Sir, The concept is not about a particular field. The whole thing is centered around defects if any and available random data. Regards Anubhav gupta Sent from BlackBerry® on Airtel _______________ Hello Vijaya, We can use it ina any field, but you need to tell about the scope of work you are engaged with. Based upon that, I can suggest the appoach. Basically, Six sigma can be used to reduce the process variation or the defects in the process. Any process will have either defects or high lead time. We can focus on either, based upon the importance & feasibility. Regards Santosh E ________________ hi Vijaya.. Six sigma can do wonders in law...finding the staistical relations can lead to accurate judgements...and Lean can help mistake proofing in many areas..its very detailed... _____________ HI Vijaya, I can relate Six Sigma to Law field easily in the following directions. May be it is useful to you. But it is really worth doing Six Sigma in the field of Law as it would solve the problems of lakhs and lakhs of people....and Indian Constituency / Pending cases / Pending files can get cleared. Automation can come in the right departments of Law. I am just throwing my thoughts by putting myself in the shoes of a person in the Law & Order. 1. Timeliness in completion of a case 2. Automation in Data Collection / Information 3. Improving Communication within the department. 4. Reducing the man hours in completing one single case thereby others (reducing the utilization time of lawyers) 5. Cost reduction 6. Improving Employee satisfaction (satisfaction of lawyers) 7. Removal of waste (LEAN methodology that can be linked here) 8. Removal of redundancy (again LEAN) 9. Removal of non value added tasks in the Law field and so on....... Thanks and regards, Badhrinath .S __________________ In my opinion if, by the term 'Law field', one is referring to providing legal services to clients (as done by an individual lawyer or a law firm) then Six Sigma can be related like any other service industry. However if one is referring to the entire judicial process, right from the inception of a lawsuit to it's adjudication, then the process becomes too vast, subjective and dependent on a horde of external factors, to be analyzed & controlled by any single set of objective techniques. On the lighter side... I am sure some enthusiasts can easily relate to usage of Six Sigma techniques even in the fields of politics as well. Regards Vishal Shakher _______________ HI Vijaya, Please throw some light on the specific areas of Law where you wanted to do a project or improve i.e. Pain areas. (Also state if it is Private / Public / Govt related stuff). The discussion points / forum gets to generalistic ideas instead of provoking the thought process. i.e. Brainstorming. As Vishal mentioned Law & Order constitutes a lot. We might not even find a Champion to promote especially in Govt./ Public enterprises. The Six Sigma awareness is very less in the industry. Even if we do not get to improve the present situation by LAUNCHING a project, we can still use all the possible TOOLS of Six Sigma and invite a Champion by showing improvements. Hope you have some extent of power to take decisions in a smaller horizon where you can implement the basic things mentioned in my earlier mail... Thanks and regards, Badhrinath. S __________________ Team, If a project on Law & Order has to be done, we need to identify the jurisdiction of the prevailing laws and states. Well, a six sigma project to improve L&O situation means the entire nation has to be involved, right from POLICE, politicians, Bureaucrats, General Public and in some cases the Armed forces. The project would be mammoth in the true sense of the word. The resources required for this would be numerous. If the project is limited to a legal service firm, then it becomes easier and feasible from resources stand point. As a GB project legal firm is better. May be a group of MBB holders need to plan and do the project for L&O improvement in the nation. Regards, Arun. ________________ Hi, I was heading Quality for QuisLex Legal Srvices (LPO) , operating out of Silicon Towers, in Hitech city. I was one of the first ones, to implemenyt six sigma in LPO. I have handled; 1. Contract summarisation, 2. Litigation support, 3. Legal Research, 4. Mergers & Acquisitions. I could use all tools for the legal scenario with ease. We can even calculate sigma value and find out the root causes. Take corrective actions, improve processes like any other processes from service industry. There are no seperate tools for LPOs. Regards, Eunice.

IT Hardware IT hardware Industry has been upwardly mobile over the past decade with quick penetration of products like PCs, Notebooks, Notepads, Laptops in the Industry as well as the households. Growth is again fraught with challenges because as the customer base grows and new competitors emerge there is a dire need for the companies in this sector to innovate, maintain margins and enhance customer satisfaction. The pressure is all the bit more because it is a price sensitive sector. Given this scenario Lean Six Sigma is naturally applicable in the industry as the need is to strengthen, optimize and improve all processes that impact margins, customer satisfaction as well as innovation. Some of the areas of Six Sigma application are: Improving the value perception of Products Reducing the number of defective products Reducing the warranty costs Quick resolution of customer complaints Enhancing Innovation capabilities by improving related Do post your comments to continue this discussion

Media Industry There are number of ways in which Media Industry can benefit from the application of Lean Six Sigma Methodology. Some of the critical success factors in thisindustry are customer satisfaction, revenue and cost/revenue. Keeping and maintaining the loyalty of customers would be the key driving forces in this Industry in the coming future. Some of the examples of possible projects in this Industry are: Maintaining and improving the quality of content inline with customer preferences Increasing revenue/page or revenue/minute through optimal advertising Resolving customer queries timely Time to change customer package as per their request (specifically for satellite TV providers) Continuous Innovations in programming and content by improving the underlying processes.

Oil and Gas Increasing demand for petroleum products has triggered the Oil and Gas industry to embrace more efficient means of Operations. Six Sigma has been applied by companies in Oil and Gas Industry to improve production, increase reliability and reduce costs while running safe operations. Some of the leading companies in this sector that been benefiting from Six Sigma approach are Chevron, Aramco, Texaco, Aera Energy, Baker Petroilite and Halliburton. Amongst Indian companies Reliance Petroleum, ONGC and Indian Oil have adopted Six Sigma in some of their core processes. Some examples of Six Sigma Projects done in Oil and Gas sector are: Improving Oil Production Improving drilling equipment effectiveness and reliability Improving fluid measurement systems Cycle time reduction in core processes Effective implementation of new technologies Improvement in yield from existing technologies Improving safety in offshore oil and gas operations Do post your queries to discuss more.

Hi Shalini, Interesting questions. 1. If you notice carefully - No. of Rejections per day divided by No. of files processed per day SHALL BE SAME AS No. of rejections divided by No. of files. So it remains discrete divided by another discrete. If both these numbers (numerator and denominator) have very few possibile values, the ratio or percentage can take very few possible values. So data should be treated as dicrete. 2. If you are treating number of rejection per day as continuous, you will need to test normality to be able to use any of the tests that assume normality. 3. All continuous data is not normally distributed. All normally distributed data may not be continuous at source. Questions and comments welcome. Regards, VK

Dear Chris, Six Sigma career requires some aptitude and inclination for basic maths to start with. Someone with years of experience need not worry about a formal degree to benefit from Six Sigma. Hope this answers your question. Regards, VK

Dear All, The global leader in logistics - DHL embraced Six Sigma many years ago. http://www.dhl.com/publish/g0/en/services/log_services/solutions/planning/supply.high.html Regards, VK

If we consider electronic durable items, two of the leaders are Samsung and LG. Both these companies started early with Six Sigma and have Six Sigma programs in place. LG - www.thehindubusinessline.com/2001/11/10/stories/0210186g.htm www.sixsigmacompanies.com/archive/lg_electronics.html Samsung - www.thehindubusinessline.com/2003/12/13/stories/2003121301570200.htm www.samsungen.../Activities.jsp Among office equipment makers, Xerox is one of the leaders. www.xerox.com/about-xerox/citizenship/news/lean-six-sigma-quality/enus.html Regards, VK

Not many people are aware that the one of the most potent Six Sigma techniques named as Design of Experiments (covered in detail in our Black Belt training program) was first used in agriculture. In the 1920s, Fisher created the statistical approach to Design of Experiments (DOE), and the data analysis tool - Analysis of Variance (ANOVA), while working at Great Britain's Rothamsted Agricultural Experimental Station. Design of Experiments was first used in a major way outside agriculture in the late 1940s and early 1950s. Today the statistical approach to design of experiments is used in many areas like manufacturing and R&D, sales and marketing, and service. One of the fundamental concepts in Six Sigma is - One should identify the critical controllable input factors and then find the best combination of those for desirable output. In agriculture, the quality and volumes of crop can be influenced by the use of best combination of factors such as crop rotation pattern, spacing between seeds, fertiliser selection etc. There is no better place for implementation of Six Sigma than agriculture, especially in a country like India where agriculture yield contributes handsomely to the nation's GDP Regards, VK

Dear Abbas, You have mentioned that Six Sigma has more role in quality management as per your knowledge. Please note that the concept of quality management has changed rapidly in recent years. Earlier quality department (for operations) and audit department (for finance and accounts) of the company were considered responsible for quality. The recent concept is 'quality at the source' which means operations professionals are responsible for quality of their own processes. Similarly, Finance and Accounts professionals are being made responsible for quality of their processes. This is leading to quality department becoming smaller and smaller while six sigma 'belts' in each functional area are taking charge of 'quality at the source' I am sure you will appreciate that it is better to control quality of inputs at the source (at much lower costs) as compared to inspecting or auditing outputs at the end (leading to high rework and failure costs). This fact relates to the core philosophy of Six Sigma. These days, professionals from HR, finance, R&D, purchase, logistics, marketing, operations and various support services undergo six sigma programs to contribute to 'quality of the source'. Another reason that has led to Six Sigma training among all disciplines is the fact that complex problems need cross functional teams to address them. All such team member to understand Six Sigma concepts and techniques well. Regards, Vishwadeep Khatri Lead Facilitator, Benchmark Six Sigma

Hello Chris, Benchmark Six Sigma is a Exemplar Global (Previously RABQSA) Certified TPECS Provider for the Lean Six Sigma Yellow Belt, Green Belt and Black Belt Competency Units. The certification is accepted worldwide. We have recently had participants from France and Germany, planning their trip in a manner that allows them to go through Green Belt, Black Belt and Lean Management Certification in India in a single trip. We have had a good number of participants coming from Europe, US and Australia and attending this program in India. Some feedbacks can be seen at the the homepage. To view the calendar of courses, please have a look at www.benchmarksixsigma.com/cal.html Regards, Vishwadeep Khatri MBB Trainer, Benchmark Six Sigma.

Dear Thomas, Punit has provided some ideas to reduce DSO. If DSO improves by implementing such ideas, you may benefit immediately. However, this would not be considered a Six Sigma project. In most companies, high DSO is a chronic issue and requires a detailed improvement project that uses data driven techniques. Six Sigma is specifically needed when common sense approaches have already been tried. Six Sigma is of specific use if causes of the problem are unknown and solution is unknown. If you attend Benchmark Six Sigma Green Belt training, there is a case study that focuses on reducing DSO. The case study is DMAIC based. Appropriate output parameter (DSO) is selected initially in DEFINE phase. A team is chosen for the project. Curr net status is assessed in MEASURE phase. Also reliability of data is verified. In the ANALYZE phase, study various factors are considered which could have impact on DSO. These include Order Size Region Billing Errors Customer type ]Product type Invoice categorization Experience of the person doing follow ups for payments These factors are analyzed with the help of data. Graphical, Quantitative and Qualitative tools are used to find which factors are critical ones. IMPROVE phase techniques are used in generating alternative solutions that focus on the identified critical factors and selecting and implementing the best. In CONTROL phase, good controls are put in place to ensure that benefits are sustainable in longer term. Hope this helps. Regards, VK

Dear Mohd Elzubair, There are thousands of professional trained by Benchmark Six Sigma who did not have a project when they attended their first training. There are two levels in a Green Belt program. The first one is getting qualified (on the basis of training and globally recognised examination). The second level relates to carrying out a real life project and getting a project completion certificate. Benchmark Six Sigma programs provide support for the first Green Belt project carried out by a participant within three years of training. You can definitely consider Green Belt through training and examination to enhance your career prospects. Regards, VK

Hello Farooq, The useful of Six Sigma can be understood in several ways. 1. Benefits to an individual in career progress 2. Benefits to organizations in enhancing business results 3. Benefits to individual in enhancing leadership and process improvement capabilities. If you wish to see how individuals have benefited, click here Regards, VK

Dear Shahir, Box plot explanation can be seen by clicking here. Warm Regards, VK

Dear Anish, Discrete data should be treated a discrete. Division of one discrete value with another discrete value can make it a ratio or a percentage, but it cannot be treated as continuous data. in your case, it is best to work with raw data as discrete data

SJ has explained this in detail. Two more lines to summarise - In a two sided specification limit, Cpk multiplied by three is the smaller of the two sigma levels (sigma level upper and sigma level lower) In the example above Cpk = 1 and Cpk multiplied by three is Sigma Leval (Upper).

The main idea is that losses do not start suddenly at specification limit, They gradually increase as you move away from the target. This can be visualised for a broadband connection (or for a manufactured car with compnents which do not meet the target - shall have a break down on the road probably in few months of driving if not immediately and may damage some other components or balance as well). His concept was we should try to be as close to target as feasible. On the lighter side, losses do happen just beyond specification limit when you have penalty's defined by client based on the spec limits. However, if you see the bigger picture with the end user perspective (for both sided spec limits) the more you match your promise and his expectation, the better it is for everyone in the longer run. Here is Taguchi Loss Function explained with a visual. In this visual you can note that as the variation reduces, loss reduces. http://elsmar.com/Taguchi.html

Hello Shantanu, Interesting questions there. It would have been interesting to view responses from members. Today, one participant mentioned to me that he is waiting for answers to these questions. I am sure there are many others who want to see answers. It may be a good idea for you to respond to these and then we can have more discussions on responses. Regards, VK

Can you please mention your problem statement? Once your problem and objective is clear, it shall be easier to visualise the best measurement in your case. Regards, VK

Dear Anish, Let me try and understand your objective. It seems you want to calculate the sigma level of the process. To answer your question on normality, this data is not expected to follow normality as this is defectives data and not continuous data. If you highlight the specific analysis that you wish to carry out, it shall be easier for me to answer your question. Regards, VK

Dear Dr. Emam and Uttara Joshi, The Six Sigma schedule can be seen at www.benchmarksixsigma.com/cal.html The benefits in Healthcare are too many to list in a small post. To give you an idea, I can provide you some examples. 1. Patients and Relatives Satisfaction - One area where hospitals have benefited a lot is in cutting down non value adding time (wait times) for patients. For a patient, the best hospital (assuming everything else is same) is one which does not make him/her wait too much. Patient wait times range from less than 10 minutes (in Max Healthcare) to several hours (in AIIMS). Is the difference because of the fact that AIIMS serves masses and Max is for the rich? Partly, yes. But the other fact is that AIIMS has not made conscious efforts with Six Sigma to cut wait time for patients. When wait times are cut short - more patients can be treated, there shall be less chaos and confusion, Doctors can work with better peace of mind and less irate patients, timely re- visits shall be more (which so important to ensure completion of treatment many a times). I am sure you may be aware about patients at AIIMS waiting for their turn for surgery without food for entire day and being told to come back next day. If administrators could look at the processes at AIIMS and find ways of involving staff in improvement projects using Six Sigma, wonders can happen. The Good can be made Better. 2. Efficiency in Healthcare and Success - Whether we look at healthcare as a business or as a social objective, the success is highly dependent on efficiency being high, waste being minimised, faster turn around time for treatments and surgery (without adversely affecting quality), Doctor's professional needs being met well, patient treatment and care being the best feasible. Each of the above can be converted into a Six Sigma improvement project with tangible benefits to hospital. Six Sigma provides management techniques and soft skills on "HOW TO" bring about these changes in a scientific way. Last month I conducted a green belt training for a batch for about 25 participants in Hyderabad where 80% participants were from Healthcare and Pharma sector. You can join the program with confidence that you shall realise significant practical learning for healthcare sector and shall derive very good value for money and time invested.

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