...Master Thesis Software Engineering Thesis no: MSE-2008-21 November 2008 Applying Six Sigma in Software Companies for Process Improvement Adnan Rafiq Khan Long Zhang School of Engineering Blekinge Institute of Technology Box 520 SE – 372 25 Ronneby Sweden This thesis is submitted to the School of Engineering at Blekinge Institute of Technology in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Software Engineering. The thesis is equivalent to 2*20 weeks of full time studies. Contact Information: Author(s): Adnan Rafiq Khan Address: Folkparksvagen 1905, 37240 Ronneby, Sweden. E-mail: adnanrafiqkhan@gmail.com Long Zhang Address: Villa Flora 951, 37236 Ronneby, Sweden. E-mail: zhl10154@gmail.com University advisor(s): Conny Johansson (Head of Department, Department of Systems and Software Engineering) School of Engineering Blekinge Institute of Technology Box 520 SE – 372 25 Ronneby Sweden Internet Phone Fax : www.bth.se/tek : +46 457 38 50 00 : + 46 457 271 25 ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENT First of all we thank our supervisor, Conny Johansson, for continuously providing the support, encouragement and motivation during the thesis. His advices, suggestions and feedbacks were really helpful and made this effort an enjoyable one. We are thankful to our faculty reviewer Dr. Robert Feldt. His feedbacks and comments were very useful to design this thesis. We would like to thanks Mr. Kai Xiao, a student at BTH, for introducing...
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...archive of this journal is available at www.emeraldinsight.com/0954-478X.htm TQM 19,1 6 Dynamics of organizational learning and continuous improvement in six sigma implementation Taina Savolainen Department of Business and Economics, University of Joensuu, Joensuu, Finland, and Arto Haikonen Genworth Financial, Helsinki, Finland Abstract Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the dynamics of organizational learning and continuous improvement (CI) in the context six sigma implementation in business organizations operating in multicultural environments. Design/methodology/approach – A specific research question is: does learning mechanisms and continuous improvement practices support each other and how, and what type of learning can be identified in the improvement of business processes. The question is linked to one of the fundamental issues currently discussed in the field of organizational learning; how do organizations get “from here to there”, in other words, what is the dynamics of the processes of learning and how progressive learning is achieved. A case study of a few Finnish companies is made and a procedural implementation model is applied. Findings – The findings suggest that the learning process is characterized by measurement, detection and correction of errors, and cost reduction. In six sigma implementation, learning is a single-loop type of learning. It is an incremental change process which reminds a technical variant of the learning organization...
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...1 Case study On Six Sigma at Wipro Technologies: Thrust on Quality Abstract: Six Sigma at Wipro Technologies: Thrust on Quality Wipro Technologies is a global services provider delivering technology-driven business solutions that meet the strategic objectives of clients. Wipro has 40+ ‘Centers of Excellence’ that create solutions around specific needs of industries. Wipro delivers unmatched business value to customers through a combination of process excellence, quality frameworks and service delivery innovation. Wipro is the World's first CMMi Level 5 certified software services company and the first outside USA to receive the IEEE Software Process Award. Wipro has one of the most mature Six Sigma programs in the industry ensuring that 91% of the projects are completed on schedule, much above the industry average of 55%. Six Sigma provides the tools for continuous improvement on existing processes thereby helping sustain the SEI-CMM Level 5 and CMMi certifications. This case focuses on the initiatives taken by Wipro Technologies to implement the Six Sigma Quality tool to achieve sustained strategic business results. It explores the implementation procedure at Wipro Technologies and the benefits reaped by the company on account of adopting Six Sigma. The case also throws light on the recent developments in the Six Sigma concept including Wipro’s Six Sigma Skill base and consulting experience and explains how the company intends to build its expertise and...
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...Six Sigma is a revolutionary business process geared toward dramatically reducing organizational inefficiencies that trans- lates into bottom-line profitability. It started in the 1980s at Motorola; then, organizations such as GE, Allied Signal, and Seagate worked with the initiative during the 1990s and made it the most successful business initiative of the era. Key to the Six Sigma methodology of the 1990s is a five- step process—Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, and Control (DMAIC). By systematically applying these steps (with the appropriate tools), practitioners of this approach have been able to save substantial dollars. The basis of Six Sigma is measuring a process in terms of defects. The statistical concept of six sigma means our processes are working nearly perfectly, delivering only 3.4 defects per million opportunities (DPMO). Sigma (the Greek letter σ) is a statistical term that measures standard deviation. In the context of management, it’s used to measure defects in the outputs of a process and show how far the process deviates from perfection. A one-sigma process produces 691462.5 defects per million opportunities, which translates to a percentage of satisfactory outputs of only 30.854%. That’s obviously really poor perform- ance. If we have processes functioning at a three sigma level, this means we’re producing 66807.2 errors per million. Figure 1-1. DPMO at sigma levels nities, delivering 93.319% satisfactory outputs...
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...Control Charts and Introduction to Six Sigma Session 12: Control Charts and Introduction to Six Sigma concepts Control Charts and Introduction to Six Sigma Control Charts - Topics of Discussion – – – – – Control Chart History Control Limits Individuals and Moving Range Charts X-bar and R Charts Subgrouping Control Charts and Introduction to Six Sigma Typical Process Metrics • • • • • • • • • Cycle times Lead times Productivity Schedule variance Budget variance Employee satisfaction Customer satisfaction Safety incidents System users (# hits) • • • • • • • • • Days sales outstanding Customer service calls Request for quotes Proposal development Attrition/retention Bid win rate Transactional defects Sales orders Revenue dollars What are some metrics associated with your projects? What are some metrics associated with your projects? Control Charts and Introduction to Six Sigma Control Charts – “While every process displays Variation, some processes display controlled variation, while other processes display uncontrolled variation” (Walter Shewhart). – Controlled Variation is characterised by a stable and consistent pattern of variation over time. Associated with Common Causes. – Process A shows controlled variation. X-Bar Chart for Process A X-Bar Chart for Process A UCL=77.20 UCL=77.20 75 X a C a fo P ce B -B r h rt r ro ss 8 0 U L 7 .2 C= 7 7 Sample Mean 7 0 X= 0 8 7 .9 L L 6 .7 C= 4 0 6 0 5 0 Special Causes 0 5 1...
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...Case study On Six Sigma at Wipro Technologies: Thrust on Quality Wipro Technologies is a global services provider delivering technology-driven business solutions that meet the strategic objectives of clients. Wipro has 40+ ‘Centers of Excellence’ that create solutions around specific needs of industries. Wipro delivers unmatched business value to customers through a combination of process excellence, quality frameworks and service delivery innovation. Wipro is the World's first CMMi Level 5 certified software services company and the first outside USA to receive the IEEE Software Process Award. Wipro has one of the most mature Six Sigma programs in the industry ensuring that 91% of the projects are completed on schedule, much above the industry average of 55%. Six Sigma provides the tools for continuous improvement on existing processes thereby helping sustain the SEI-CMM Level 5 and CMMi certifications. This case focuses on the initiatives taken by Wipro Technologies to implement the Six Sigma Quality tool to achieve sustained strategic business results. It explores the implementation procedure at Wipro Technologies and the benefits reaped by the company on account of adopting Six Sigma. The case also throws light on the recent developments in the Six Sigma concept including Wipro’s Six Sigma Skill base and consulting experience and explains how the company intends to build its expertise and experience '' to bring continuous process improvement to the organization. ...
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...history of Six-Sigma The roots of Six Sigma as a measurement standard go back to Carl Frederick Gauss (1777-1885) who introduced the concept of normal curve. Six Sigma as a measurement standard in product variation can be traced back to the 1920´s when Walter Shewhart showed that three sigma, from the mean is the point where a process requires correction. As history would seem to have it, the beginnings of Six Sigma really come from 1979 when an exasperated Motorola executive named Art Sundry said, at a meeting, “The real problem at Motorola is that our quality stinks!”. Apparently, this statement led to series of activities that in turn led to the discovery of the crucial correlation between higher quality and lower development costs in manufacturing products of all kinds. The problem was that the common thought was that quality initiatives simply cost too much money. What Motorola realized is that if these initiatives were done right, improving quality would actually reduce costs. Motorola decided to take the approach that high quality products should actually cost less to produce. Motorola reasoned that the highest quality producer should be the lowest cost producer. THEORETICAL ANALYSIS OF THE CONCEPT OF SIX-SIGMA What is Six-Sigma Six-Sigma has at least three different meanings depending upon the context; there is not one answer to what is Six-Sigma. The first answer to what is Six-Sigma is that it is a management philosophy. Six-Sigma is a customer...
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...and more recently to a newer approach – the lean manufacturing. In mass production, large quantities of the product were produced and the focus was more on quantity than quality. But with the increase in competition and the gradual saturation of the market the need to develop a new paradigm that focuses more on the process i.e., improved quality, delivery and cost performance has emerged. This has led to the introduction of Lean Manufacturing which focuses on waste elimination and creation of flow within an organization. In the words of Shigeo Shingo “The most dangerous kind of waste is the waste we do not recognize.” Lean and six-sigma are methodologies backed by powerful tools that help in improving quality and productivity thereby improving overall profitability and competitiveness. The lean philosophy was initially pioneered by Toyota manufacturing company and aims at various methods of eliminating waste and improving the process flow. Six Sigma on the other hand, focuses on reducing variation using problem solving and statistical tools. It was first implemented in the Motorola Company as a safety margin for product performance. SIX SIGMA Six Sigma is a continuous improvement strategy that focuses on minimizing defects and variation and aims at achieving 3.4 defects per million in productions, design and process flow. Six Sigma minimizes variation in the process flow, thereby improving customer satisfaction. Benefits of implementing Six Sigma methodology are as follows: ...
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... 6 SIGMA In 2001, Caterpillar launched its 6 Sigma program to drive change to achieve the company’s long-term strategic goals (Caterpillar uses 6 Sigma to identify its Six Sigma initiatives). This 6 Sigma process was, and continues to be, extremely successful. Some of the results include first-year benefits that exceeded implementation cost and achievement of the revenue goal two years earlier than planned. We’ll briefly discuss Six Sigma in general, describe Caterpillar, and show the entrenchment of 6 Sigma within the company’s strategic planning process. April 2010 I S T R AT E G I C F I N A N C E 25 C OVE R S TO R Y What Is Six Sigma? Six Sigma is a total quality management (TQM) technique pioneered by and applied to Motorola processes in the 1980s by Bill Smith, a Motorola engineer who became known as “the father of Six Sigma.” Since then, other companies, such as Bank of America, Honeywell International, Raytheon, and General Electric, have taken these learned processes and expanded them. Even though many people have reservations about the potential savings from Six Sigma, a story by Charles Waxer (“Six Sigma Costs and Savings: The financial benefits of implementing Six Sigma at your company can be Significant,” www.isixsigma.com/index.php?option=com_k2&view= item&id=1228<emid=187) reports that GE saved more than $12 billion over five years, Honeywell saved $800 million, and Motorola saved $15 billion over 11 years. Each company takes the Six Sigma process...
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...Johnson & Johnson Quality Management System Debbie Marshall GM588 Sunnid7296@comcast.net February 19, 2012 Introduction Johnson & Johnson (J & J) is a global pharmaceutical, medical device and home care product manufacturer that was founded in 1886. Johnson & Johnson has over 250 subsidiary companies operating in over 57 countries employing approximately 116,000 people. They sell varying products in over 175 countries worldwide and pharmaceutical sales alone for 2008 were approx. $24 billion. These products include various well known household brands such as Tylenol, Motrin, Band Aid, Johnson’s baby products, various health and beauty products. Johnson & Johnson has always been known for their diversification, with separate divisions for consumer health & personal care product including women’s, baby, and oral as well as nutritional and over the counter products. The medical device and diagnostics division focuses on various surgical products, diabetes care, sports medicine, cardiovascular and diagnostics. The Pharma division has a variety of areas that they represent including: cardiovascular, immunology, oncology, pain management, gastrointestinal and many others. Unfortunately, in the last few years Johnson & Johnson has been plagued by numerous recall and quality control issues within their McNeil division. These quality issues range from bottle design, dropper leakage to metal shavings appearing in products such as Sudafed,...
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...Thinking Critically: BENEFITS OF CRITICAL THINKING Thinking Critically: BENEFITS OF CRITICAL THINKING Danelle Neal South University BENEFITS OF CRITICAL THINKING Abstract This paper explores the benefits of thinking critically in the academic or educational setting, professional workplace, and everyday life. Each was examined to showcase the benefits of critical thinking. Research found that applying Six Sigmas, 5 “Whys” and Critical thinking together, business professionals are able to effectively examine and evaluate participants thoughts, sharing’s and ideas to collectively establish working principles. Six Sigma and the “5 Whys” is an approach used by mangers to conduct “root cause analysis” in business process...
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...Introduction: If we speak about this subject before 15 – 20 years back, the subject would be very unique and most of the people will have no understanding about this. But today, Quality tools understanding and importance has grown among people and organizations. There are many tools that are used among the organizations that are classified as follows: 1. Cause Analysis Tools: includes Fishbone, Pareto, and Scattered Diagram. 2. Evaluation and Decision Making Tool: Decision Matrix, Multivoting. 3. Process Analysis Tool: includes Flow chart, Failure Mode Effects Analysis, Mistake-proofing and Spaghetti Diagram. 4. Data Collection and Analysis Tools: box and whisker plot, check sheet, control chart, Design of experiments, Histogram, Scatter Diagram, Stratification, and Survey. 5. Idea Creation Tools: Affinity Diagram, Benchmarking, Brainstorming, Nominal Group Technique. 6. Project Planning and Implementation Tool: Gantt Chart, Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) Cycle or Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) Cycle. 7. Seven New Management and Planning Tools: Affinity Diagram, Relations Diagram, Tree Diagram, Matrix Diagram, Matrix Data Analysis, Arrow Diagram, Process Decision Program Chart. Quality tools & techniques use statistical knowledge to accumulate data and analyze them. It serves diverse range of medical, computing, industrial, telecommunications and defense. These tools drive improvement throughout the organization. Employee has to at all levels has to master the fundamental...
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...Q.1 Welch become ceo in april 1981 the us economy was in ancesion high interest rates and a strong dollar exaggerated thee problem resulting in countries highest unemployment rates . he introduced some cooperate initiatives which become known as GE’S operating system every 2 years welch implement a new initiative focused on improving particular aspect of company wide performance the initiatives include workout boundry less organization globalization and six sigma. Welch and Baughman had sketched out a major change initiative they called “Work-Out”—a process designed to get unnecessary bureaucratic work out of the system while providing a forum in which employees and their bosses could work out new ways of dealing with each other. . Groups of 40 to 100 employees were invited to share views about their business and how it might be improved. The three-day sessions usually began with a talk by the unit boss, who presented a challenge and a broad agenda. Then, the boss was asked to leave, allowing employees aided by facilitators to list their problems, debate solutions, and prepare presentations. On the final day, the bosses returned and were asked to listen to their employees’ analyses and recommendations. . The rules of the process required managers to make instant, on-the spot decisions about each proposal, in front of everyone to 80% of proposals. Moving beyond the earlier initiatives aimed at strengthening GE’s individual businesses, Welch began to focus on creating what...
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...Sigma Significance of Six Sigma By Suhasini Pratapagiri Stratford University INTRODUCTION: WHAT IS SIX SIGMA? Six Sigma is a highly disciplined process that helps a company focus on developing and delivering near perfect products and services. Six Sigma at many organizations simply means a measure of quality that strives for near perfection. Six Sigma is a disciplined, data-driven approach and methodology for eliminating defects (driving toward six standard deviations between the mean and the nearest specification limit) in any process – from manufacturing to transactional and from product to service. The fundamental objective of the Six Sigma methodology is the implementation of a measurement-based strategy that focuses on process improvement and variation reduction through the application of Six Sigma improvement projects. This is accomplished through the use of two Six Sigma sub-methodologies: DMAIC and DMADV. The Six Sigma DMAIC process (define, measure, analyze, improve, control) is an improvement system for existing processes falling below specification and looking for incremental improvement. The Six Sigma DMADV process (define, measure, analyze, design, verify) is an improvement system used to develop new processes or products at Six Sigma quality levels. It can also be employed if a current process requires more than just incremental improvement. Both Six Sigma processes are executed by Six Sigma Green Belts and Six Sigma Black Belts, and are overseen...
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...LSS lean Six Sigma Abstract Purpose – Although research has been undertaken on the implementation of lean within various industries, the many tools and techniques that form the “tool box”, and its integration with Six Sigma (mainly through case studies and action research), there has been little written on the journey towards the integration of the two approaches. This paper aims to examine the integration of lean principles with Six Sigma methodology as a coherent approach to continuous improvement, and provides a conceptual model for their successful integration. Design/methodology/approach – Desk research and a literature review of each separate approach is provided, followed by a view of the literature of the integrated approach. Findings – No standard framework for lean Six Sigma or its implementation exists. A systematic approach needs to be adopted, which optimises systems as a whole, focusing the right strategies in the correct places. Originality/value – This paper contributes to knowledge by providing an insight into the evolution of the lean Six Sigma paradigm. It is suggested that a clear integration of the two approaches must be achieved, with sufficient scientific underpinning. Keywords Lean production, Six sigma Paper type Literature review 1. Introduction The Toyota Production System (TPS) provided the basis for what is now known as lean thinking, as popularised by Womack and Jones (1996). The development of this approach to manufacturing began shortly after...
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