INTRODUCTION

Decision Making With Six Sigma

The Six Sigma method lets organizations identify problems, validate assumptions, brainstorm solutions, and plan for implementation to avoid unintended consequences. By applying tools such as statistical analysis and process mapping to problems and solutions, teams can visualize and predict outcomes with a high-level of accuracy, letting leadership make decisions with less financial risk.

Defining 6 sigma

Six Sigma as a methodology for process improvement involves a vast library of tools and knowledge. At the most basic definition, 6s is a statistical representation for what many experts call a “perfect” process. Technically, in a Six Sigma process, there are only 3.4 defects per million opportunities. In percentages, that means 99.99966 percent of the products from a Six Sigma process are without defect. At just one sigma level below—5s, or 99.97 percent accuracy--processes experience 233 errors per million opportunities. In simpler terms, there are going to be many more unsatisfied customers.

Lean Concepts

The core idea behind lean is maximizing customer value while minimizing waste. The five principle of lean are 1) Eliminate waste, 2) Build quality, 3) Create knowledge, 4) Deliver fast, and 5) Pursing perfection.

Waste costs money because it is unnecessary time, labor, or material in the process. Generally, waste is something that is used in the process that isn’t required for a satisfactory outcome.

The Seven Muda's or Seven Waste's

1. Overproduction

Overproduction means a product, part, or service was produced too fast, at the wrong time, or in too much quantity for the process. Overproduction is most often associated with tangible outcomes from a process, though these outcomes don’t have to be final, or “end products” of said processes.

2. Correction

Correction, or rework, can occur in any type of process. Manufacturing processes cull out defective parts and products; sometimes materials are reworked for a better outcome and sometimes they are scrapped—also a form of waste.

3. Inventory

Inventory waste can occur when items are purchased or created before they are needed in a manufacturing or service process. Inventory can also occur in work queues, digital data queues, or even email inboxes. If you receive 300 emails a day and you are only handling 30 of them on a regular basis, you have a process problem with your communications.

4. Motion

Motion has to do with how employees themselves move during a process. This type of waste is often relevant to people-powered processes in manufacturing, warehousing, shipping, delivery, or industrial fields, but waste of motion can even crop up in processes that are computerized. extra motion that stems from a poor layout of work, or movement that occurs when an employee leaves an area and has to return one or more times because he or she forgot something.

5. Conveyance

Motion has to do with how employees themselves move during a process. This type of waste is often relevant to people-powered processes in manufacturing, warehousing, shipping, delivery, or industrial fields, but waste of motion can even crop up in processes that are computerized. extra motion that stems from a poor layout of work, or movement that occurs when an employee leaves an area and has to return one or more times because he or she forgot something.

6. Conveyance

Conveyance can relate to physical movement of items or digital movement of data or workflow. Email strings, which are present in many work environments, often present muda of digital conveyance. A CEO might email a director with a request for data. The director emails a manager, who emails a supervisor, who emails a subject-matter-expert. The SME delivers the information to her supervisor, and the emails work their way back up the chain. The same request and information was conveyed multiple times when it only may have needed to be conveyed once. This allows for many opportunities for error.

7. Over-Processing

Over-processing occurs when an employee or process inputs more resources into a product or service than is valued by the customer. over-processing often occurs in healthcare administrative offices during the insurance verification process. Insurance verification occurs when a healthcare provider’s office attempts to verify that a person is covered by insurance for the services that are about to be rendered. Depending on the type of insurance coverage and the office’s policies, a staff member either checks benefits via a computer program or calls the insurance company.

8. Waiting

Waiting refers to any idle time in a process, whether that idle time is for machinery or people. In other words, an employee or machine is working below capacity or is not working at all due to waiting on inputs from another part of the process. Waiting occurs when steps in the process are not properly coordinated, when processes are unreliable, when work is batched too large, during rework, and during long changeovers between staff or machines.

5'S for effective and efficient workshop

This is also a part of Lean approach to organizing a workspace, so that by making a process more effective and efficient, 5S relies on visual cues and a clean work area to enhance efficiencies, reduce accidents, and standardize workflows to reduce defects. The method is based on five steps:

1. Sort

During the sort phase, all items or materials in a workspace are reviewed, removing unneeded items and keeping necessary resources. Consider the copy room in an office: over the years, supplies, tools, and machinery have piled up. When going through the room, teams might decide that the stapler and Scotch tape stay; people still need to staple pages or access tape. The old paper cutter isn’t necessary for the team, since no one ever performs paper-cutting duties. However, someone notes that the team in shipping and warehousing has to manually cut pages down sometimes, so the paper cutter is relocated to that department. The team decides to toss a bin of miscellaneous loose paper and an old fax machine because a new copy machine includes fax capability. By eliminating obstacles and unnecessary items, costs, time, and employee frustration are also removed.

2. Straighten

Once excess is removed from the work area, teams must provide a streamlined and easy-to-use location for everything necessary to the workspace. During the straighten phase, every item, tool, or material is given a home. To facilitate ongoing organization, the location of resources should be labeled clearly. The idea is to create a workspace that anyone could use: if someone from another area comes to your copy room, it should only take a few seconds to locate the right size paper. Employees in a factory should be able to move from station to station, finding equipment and tools with ease. The goal is to provide the visual controls that allow for common-sense operation. Labeling a shelf for letter-sized paper, arranging sockets in size order in a drawer labeled sockets, or parking the forklift in a marked area of factory floor when not in use are all good examples.

3. Shine

The goal is to shine the work space by cleaning it, maintaining equipment, and returning items to the proper place after use. In a computerized environment, the shine phase can be accomplished by naming files in a manner that makes them easy to locate, keeping folder structures intact, and deleting or archiving files that are no longer necessary.

4. Standardize

The standardize phase is used to maintain the progress achieved in all previous phases. By keeping high standards of orderliness in place, the benefits of the 5S methodology can be long-term. The stress and speed of a daily workday can make it hard to keep up with the 5S standards. If everyone is committed to working together, the benefits can be ongoing.

5. Sustain

5S only works if everyone on the team or within the organization commits to the process. Employees must follow the rules that are set up for standardizing and sustaining the organization. Otherwise, the team enters a cycle of cleaning up after a period of failing to keep up with the standards of 5S.