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What is Six Sigma?

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Six sigma is an effective problem solving methodology for improving organisational performance, with a focus on:
  • Reducing variability
  • Reducing the number of mistakes that occur down to practically zero
  • Improving performance in the eyes of the customer
  • Reducing costs
  • Measurement and metrics are central to the Six Sigma methodology
  • Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s) must be established
Lean and Six Sigma are thought by many to be conflicting strategies, but this is false and they are in fact complementary.

Six sigma

  • Aims to reduce variation in order to deliver high quality services
  • Recognises opportunities defined by customers
  • Aims to eliminate errors/defects as defined by the customer
  • Uses data to aid decision making
  • Uses a powerful set of statistical & quality tools within an effective framework for problem solving
  • Provides a prescriptive cultural infrastructure effective in obtaining long-term results
  • Projects result in customer satisfaction and/or cost savings

Lean

  • Aims to maximise service/process speed
  • Uses tools to analyse flow & delay times in a process
  • Distinguishes between “value-added” and “non-value-added” work and aims to eliminate the root causes of “non-value-added” activities
  • Provides a mechanism for quantifying & eliminating the cost of complexity
Organisations cannot focus on just speed (Lean) or just quality (Six Sigma) Lean Six Sigma is a good strategy. The two strategies reinforce each other. The Six Sigma approach is ideal for researchers from all disciplines as it provides a structured methodology to problem solving using the recognised DMAIC approach first developed by Motorola. Many successful organisations across the world have since adopted the strategy A Six Sigma Green Belt training certificate will be extremely useful for a researcher moving forward to start work within an organisation as it demonstrates that they are trained in this key process improvement methodology that is recognised worldwide to improve competitiveness and efficiency.
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further point

Submitted by Fouweather on September 9, 2008 - 11:47.
An additional point to consider is that if you ever want your predictions (for example all factors at their lower levels or all factors at their upper levels) to have equal levels of precision the design must be rotatable. Tony

orthogonal v rotatability

Submitted by Fouweather on September 9, 2008 - 11:43.
Hello Helge an orthogonal design is one where the terms in the fitted model are not correlated with the other terms and hence the parameter estimates are also uncorrelated. In a rotatable design, the variance is a function of the distance from the centre of the design. So for a rotatable design the prediction variance is the same at all points that are the same distance from the design centre. Hope this helps? tony

Improve stage - Design of Experiment

Submitted by H. Henning on September 9, 2008 - 09:57.
During the Improve Stage, the Design of Experiment is set up. Often it is written in literature that the designed plan should be orthogonal and that rotatability should be given. Unfortunately, the advantage of these two characteristics are not immediately apparent. I am wondering if somebody might give a short explanation of these features in the DoE setup. Best regards Helge

six sigma and related courses at newcaste

Submitted by Fouweather on July 23, 2008 - 09:16.
The dates for the next lean six sigma courses to be held in Newcastle are just announced. All I*PROMS partners can send any researchers from within their institution on the course, which will be funded via an Exchange of Researchers bid (giving 800 euros travel + 150 Euros per day expenses per researcher - total 1400 Euros for each of the 4 days of the Green Belt Course) Lean Six Sigma - Green Belt Define & Measure stages November 3rd-6th Analyse, Improve & Control stages December 8th-11th Lean Six Sigma - Black Belt Define December 1st-4th Measure January 12th-15th Analyse February 16th-19th Improve March 23rd-26th Control April20th-23rd Design of Experiments (for researchers) 30th July - 1st August Kansei Engineering (for researchers) 11th & 12th November

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