Six Sigma

Six Sigma is the hot buzzword for continuous improvement and money saving opportunities for companies. GE Corp, Ford, Allied Signal and Honeywell are proponents of the Six Sigma concept and have reduced their cost in the billions of dollars. Most companies believe that Six Sigma is out of their league. We present the view that any company can pursue Six Sigma tools to reduce costs and improve customer satisfaction. The structure of a Six Sigma organization is based on team(s) problem solving methodology. Employees taking training to become Six Sigma Black Belts. They in turn train others to become Six Sigma Green Belts or team leaders. Green belts train team members in Six Sigma Tools. The approach is to break down the problem by Defining, Measuring, Analyzing, Improving, and Controlling (DMAIC) the problem. Upper management becomes involved as Champions and Sponsors of Problem Solving Teams. Black Belts manage projects with cost savings in the $150,000 to $250,000 range. These areas have been targeted through Problem Solving Tools, Root Cause Analysis and SPC. Six Sigma tools look at things differently with the goal of customer satisfaction. The daylong training sends people home asking questions about their process. They ask, how they can save themselves that kind of money. Green Belts become Black Belts after a certain number of projects, Black Belts become Master Black Belts after a certain number of projects or attainment of a level of savings, say $750,000.