Measurement, Analysis and Documentation
Why do (and should) organizations use
these concepts to move up the pyramid and toward quality improvement?
Why is it necessary to measure, analyze and document processes ¡§C and,
if needed, make those desired changes? Why drive toward perfection, and
what does it mean in real terms?
If your current process capability runs
at 1 Sigma, then that effectively means you have two defects (unusable
products) out of every 3 parts. That means 67% of your costs simply
become waste, with no return on your investment. At 2 Sigma, quality
improves with 1 out of 3 parts as defects. But that still has an error
rate of 33%. Not until 3 and then 4 Sigma levels will you see dramatic
improvements. Put in these terms, you quickly see how such errors keep
you from realizing a greater potential.
Transactions, Multiple Steps and Tolerance
Organizations most effectively utilize
Six Sigma methodology in two situations. One, if a business works with a
very high volume of transactions per year, then they can not tolerate
low sigma levels. For example, a 99% effective rate for 1 billion
transactions per year still yields 10 million defects. In any industry,
that is not acceptable.
Another situation that calls for Six
Sigma methodology is when an organization (i.e. manufacturing) has
processes with multiple steps. Here total error rate is critical. For
example, the effective rate is 99% for each step; however, that does NOT
give the total error rate as 1%. You must take the 99% for the first
step and multiply it by 99% for the second step, the third step, and so
on. With a great number of steps, your total effective rate could
significantly decrease. So, to avoid high volatility, this organization
can not tolerate low sigma levels.
Organizations can also determine error
rate by effectively reversing the typical process of Six Sigma. You can
calculate the mean and variance in your process to define the error
rate. This tells you where you are currently on the Six Sigma curve. For
example, if your calculation tells you that you're on a 1 or 2 sigma
level, then this is an area in need of improvement. This gives you an
opportunity to look at the data more carefully, take the mean and
variance of each step of the process, and determine in which step the
process is having problems. Or it could tell if you there are many steps
causing the problems and, thus, the cumulative increase in error rate.
Processes, Procedures and Control
Organizations use the Six Sigma
methodology, because you can't get any higher than 2 Sigma (tribal or
basic knowledge) without putting strong processes and procedures in
place. And without strong processes and procedures, you can not move
toward higher quality and system optimization ¡§C toward perfection. Are
you really satisfied with 67% of your product
Problems, Resources and Results
lost as waste? Are you satisfied with such high variability in your
system?
If needed, you can change your process
to reduce or eliminate this variability or error. Six Sigma methodology
tells you when to take action to solve a problem. It moves an
organization to consistently meet the requirements and minimize the
resources used in its management system. And it creates the desired
results for which the system was designed.
Project Management Tutorials:
Project Management Templates
Here are some Project Management templates you can get
on our partner's site.
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The Change
Management Kit provides the documentation required to
control changes to the scope, deliverables and resources within
the project. The Change Request template allows staff to raise a
change request within the project. |
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The
Project Planning Kit provides you with all of the
project management templates, documents and forms required to
plan a project by helping you to schedule time, cost and
resources. |
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The
Quality Management Kit includes a suite of templates
used to assure and control the quality of deliverables within a
project. |
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Project
Initiation Kit
Start a new project by documenting a business case, undertaking
a feasibility study, defining the project scope, recruiting key
staff and locating them within a project office. |
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Project
Execution Kit
Manage time, cost, quality, change, risks and issues during the
execution of your project, as well as supplier procurement and
customer acceptance. |
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Project
Closure Kit
Helps close your project by handing over deliverables and
documentation to the customer, terminating supplier contracts
and releasing resources back to the business. |
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