What are six sigma and dmaic

Originally designed and used by Motorola, the Six Sigma concept has transcended the company that gave rise to it, becoming a new administrative philosophy with wide worldwide dissemination, on which a number of elements have been developed, beyond what its original creators thought. (concept belt, green, black etc.). Six Sigma is a parameter whose main basis is the standard deviation and its focus is to reduce the variation and / or defects in what we do.

The main approach can be found when we consider the variation of a process, with a fluctuation between plus 6 sigma and Minus 6 sigma from the average value, the probability that it will go outside the specified value is 3.4 parts per million. The magnitude of this value will be shown below.

The Six Sigma value serves as a common comparison parameter between the same or different companies and even between the same departments of a company, as different as purchases, accounts receivable, maintenance, engineering, production, human resources, etc. It is a philosophy that seeks to obtain better results (products, services), through robust processes that allow reducing defects and errors. It could be considered as a methodology (Logical and / or disciplined) of steps, through proven tools for solving problems.

Why do we need Six Sigma?

The Six Sigma concept helps to know and understand the processes, in such a way that they can be modified to the point of reducing the waste generated in them. This will be reflected in the reduction of the costs of doing things, while ensuring that the price of products or services are competitive, not by reducing profits or reducing the costs of doing things well, but of eliminating costs associated with errors or waste.

What is the focus of Six Sigma as a philosophy of quality?

The Six Sigma philosophy seeks to offer better products or services, in an increasingly faster way and at a lower cost, by reducing the variation of any of our processes. Although it has been difficult for many people to understand, one of the great teachings of Dr. Deming was to look for the control of variation of the processes which is measured by means of the standard deviation. Dr Deming used to say: "the enemy of any process is variation, so that is where we must concentrate the effort towards continuous improvement", but above all because "Variation is the enemy of customer satisfaction".

The Power of Six Sigma.

The Six Sigma concept provides a common measurement, as well as common goals, while instilling a common vision and above all promoting teamwork. Additionally, it combines aggressive objectives with a method and a set of tools, which are applied throughout the entire life cycle of the process or service: There is a high correlation between the improvement of the cycle time and the reduction of defects and costs. Many companies use the Six Sigma concept to establish a bargaining parameter during Customer - Internal Provider negotiation processes.

There have been two philosophies about quality, the first of which we would call the ancient philosophy, was based on complying with the specifications or requirements of the client, a precursor of this was Crosby, with his theory that "Quality is Free" and the new philosophy which preaches that quality losses are based on deviation from the goal or objective according to the requirements or specifications. This means that any product or service deviated from the center or goal does not meet the quality standard, the latter is the basis for the Six Sigma concept.

DMAIC

In the process of introducing Six Sigma, one of the most widely applied concepts is a series of steps known by its acronym DMAIC, which seeks to establish the source or origin of the variation. The D stands for Define, the M is Measure, the A is Analyze, the I corresponds to the English word Improve, which is equivalent to Improve and the C is Control. We could consider it as a modification of the Deming Cycle for Continuous Improvement of Plan, Do, Check and Act.

When using the steps mentioned above, it is convenient for the purpose of facilitating its application to answer each of the following questions:

D (Define)

What processes exist in your area? Which activities (processes) are you responsible for? Who or who are the owners of these processes? Which people interact in the process, directly and indirectly? Who could be part of of a team to change the process? Do you currently have process information? What kind of information do you have? Which processes have the highest priority for improvement? How did you define or come to that conclusion?

M (Measure)

Do you know who your customers are? Do you know the needs of your customers? Do you know what is critical for your customer, derived from your process? How does the process develop? What are the steps? What type of steps does the process make up? ? What are the process measurement parameters and how do they relate to customer needs? Why are those parameters? How do you get the information? How accurate or precise is your measurement system?

A (Analyze)

What are the customer's specifications for their measurement parameters, and how is the current process performing against those parameters? Show the data. What are your process improvement objectives? How did you define them? What are possible sources of process variation? Show which and what they are. Which of these sources of variation do you control and which ones do you not? Of the sources of variation you control How do you control them and what is the method of documenting them? Do you monitor the sources of variation that you do not control? How?

I (Improve)

Are the sources of variation dependent on a supplier? If so, what are they? Who is the provider? and What are you doing to monitor and / or control them? What relationship is there between measurement parameters and critical variables? Do critical variables interact? How did you define it? Show the data. What adjustments to the variables are necessary to optimize the process? How did you define them? Show the data.

C (Control)

For the fitted variables, how accurate or precise is your measurement system? How did you define it? Show the data. How much has the process improved after the changes? How do you define it? Show the data. How do you make the changes stick? How do you monitor processes? How much time or money have you saved with the changes? How are you documenting it? Show the data

Through the series of reflections above, it will allow you to establish your attitude towards the variations and the measures that are being taken or should be taken to resolve or eliminate them. To better understand the magnitude of the difference between the different Six Sigma values, in different aspects let's look at the following comparisons:

Sigmas	Area	Orthography	Weather	Money	Distance
one	Floor area in an average factory	170 misspelled words per page in a book	31 1/4 per century	$ 317.4 million of debt per million of assets	From here to the moon
two	Floor area of a large market	25 misspelled words per page in a book	4.5 years per century	$ 45.7 million of debt per billion of assets	1 1/2 times around the world
3	Floor area of a small shop	1.5 misspelled words per pages of a book	3.5 month per century	$ 2.7 million of debt per billion of assets	From the west coast to the east coast of the USA
4	Living room floor area of a house	1 misspelled word for every 30 pages of a book	2.5 days per century	$ 83,000 of debt per billion of assets	45 minute ride on the peripheral
5	Base area of a telephone	1 misspelled word in a set of encyclopedias	30 minutes per century	$ 570 of debt per billion of assets	A trip to the gas station
6	Size of a typical diamond	1 misspelled word in all the books in a small library	6 seconds per century	$ 2 of debt per billion of assets	4 steps in any direction
7	Point of a sewing needle	1 single misspelled word in all books in several large libraries.	A blink in a century	3/10 of a penny of debt per billion of assets	3 mm (more or less the distance we could throw a refrigerator