Question

Why might a Six-Sigma methodology fail? List 3 reasons.

Define and explain (in a bullet or 2) each letter of DMAIC in 6-Sigma.

Answer 1

Answer 1.

Six-Sigma: Six-sigma is a technology or system that is used to process improvement in the organization. Six-sigma is one of the most used technology to improve business processes effectively and efficiently.

Six-sigma refers to technologies and systems to improve the output of the processes by reducing defects, wastage, identifying the root causes of errors, and minimize impact variabilities in business processes.

SIx-Sigma is one of the well known and important approaches for manufacturing and business processes. But sometime Six-Sigma methodology might fail. The reasons behind the failure of Six-Sigma are explained below:

a. Lack of management support: Management support at each level of the organization is important and essential for the success of Six-Sixma technology. But due to lack of support, time, and resources by the senior leadership and other leadership teams from all level of the organization could help in failing the six-sigma system in the organization. Initially, when the six-sigma process starts, the leadership team would have positive intentions of support and help but when in the middle of the process, the support from the leadership team could be missed due to several other reasons.

b. The inappropriate process chosen: The lean six-sigma is an step by step methodology that should be followed with full attention and expert guidance. When any process is missing or in case of inappropriate process chosen, the six-sigma concept could le lead to failure. Expert guidance is very essential to make the six-sigma method effective and efficient in the organization.

c. Insufficient training: The role of an expert or professional team is very important to successful implementation and get the correct output by this method. But sometimes it happens that the team members are not sufficiently trained to handle their tasks properly. Many times they feel confused about their job role in the six-sigma technique. Many times they don't have time to practice what they have learned in training. Training should be given properly and everyone should have practiced the methods and steps on real projects.

Answer 2.

DMAIC: DMAIC is a process improvement method of Six-Sigma that is used to improve the business and manufacturing process. It is a problem-solving approach of Six-Sigma that helps in improving the process with unknown errors and causes. It is a data-driven quality improvement strategy used in many organizations around the world.

DMAIC is a five-step method that is explained by Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, and control, we will understand each term in below points:

a. Define: This is the first step and used to define the goals and objectives of the six-sigma method that would be used in the organization to achieve required outcomes from different processes.

In this process, the six-sigma team prepares the project charter and high-level map of the processes and steps to be followed during six-sigma process implementation. The team will make sure that they have all the resources in line and they are aligned with the objective of the organization.

b. Measure: In this step, the team is responsible to collect enough data for the project improvement. This will measure the process that would be targeted for improvement. This process is all about gathering the data of the current process and the improvement would be measured.

c. Analyze: In this step, the six-sigma expert would analyze the data and will find where the organization is not meeting with the performance at different levels. What are the opportunities available to improve that process with what kind of resources?

In the process, the cause of defects, errors would be analyzed where the expert finds too many variations. In this process, the gap between current performance and the required performance would be identified.

d. Improve: This step is used to define the solution map to improve the process that has variations in it.

In this process, different solution plans would be defined and find out which plan is better to solve the issues in the process.

e. Control: In this process, the team will make sure that the new improvement in the process has been implemented and define the prevention to revert back to the old process by the organization.

The team will formulate, document and implementation all required steps with the final developments in the process.