Exactly what is Six Sigma?
It is a method for business process improvement. The main goal of this methodology is to decrease the number of defects to below 3.4 defects per million opportunities in a business process. This Six Sigma methodology can be applied to any type of businesses. Even it can be used on developing new product business.

What was the term Six Sigma stands for?
It’s a term refers to the property of the normal distribution curve in the study of statistics. The sigma symbol is used to identify the standard deviation which is a measure of variability in a data set. If there is a widely variable result in a business then there will be a large number of defects in the business process. Six Sigma methodologies are specially designed to produce low proportion of defects in the business process. For this reason the six sigma methodology has been applied to many businesses and found it successful.

Is Six Sigma methodologies suits for services?
Yes. Six sigma will be suitable for any types of businesses whether it was a manufacturing company or a service providing company. In manufacturing processes the source of the defects will be identified and gives a solution to rectify the defects to meet the customer satisfactions. The same thing goes for services oriented businesses in which the defect can be broadly defined to meets the customer requirements. Six sigma methodologies can help any business to improve.

Is Lean Six Sigma different from regular Six Sigma?
Six sigma methodologies help to identify the defects in a process and Lean helps to optimizing the flow of the process and increase the speed of work. In the past both Lean and Six Sigma were considered as competing methods. But both were proved as the complementary tools for the businesses through which a business can improve quality and efficiency at the same time.

How to implement six sigma in a business?
To get started, the DMAIC method can be considered for the primary Six Sigma or Lean Six sigma. DMAIC means for Defining, Measuring, Analyzing, Improving, and Controlling. Professionals who were trained in specific methods as commonly known as Green Belts, Black Belts and Master Black Belts depending on their mastery levels.

How to implement Six Sigma for new processes?

For any new process, the DMADV method can be considered for the primary Six Sigma or Lean Six Sigma. DMADV means for Define, Measure, Analyse, Design and Verify. Professionals who were trained in specific methods as commonly known as Green Belts, Black Belts and Master Black Belts depending on their mastery levels. The Define and Verify phase would give you an opportunity to re-design and re verify the new processes and implement the one that had the maximum payoff.

 

Is Six Sigma useful for Operations / Manufacturing only?

Six Sigma is applicable in all the domains namely Marketing, HR, Finance, IT and Operations. Also, it is applicable in all the sectors like Telecom, IT, Health Services, Hospitality, etc. As we know that there are processes involved in all the domains and Six Sigma teaches Process improvement, so simply put Six Sigma is applicable in all the domains. The other two key learnings are Problem Solving and Data Driven decision making. Need not be said again, that there are problems involved in all the sectors and Six Sigma helps in giving a structured approach for the same.

Is Six Sigma methodology used only in a few organizations?

 

It is important to remember that while companies like Motorola, GE, Bank of America, etc openly claim that they use Lean Six Sigma. There are thousands who use the same improvement techniques but do not name their improvement initiatives as Lean Six Sigma. If a management professional (in any industry or function) wants to bring improvement in a process, take data driven decision and improve problem-solving, the options available are limited to Lean Six Sigma methods.

 

Hence, though some companies might not claim it openly, Lean Six sigma techniques are being used widely in a large number of organizations.