Premium Essay

Six Sigma Case

In: Business and Management

Submitted By tynclt
Words 1017
Pages 5
|I. SHORT CYCLE PROCESS |
| |Name |Position |
|Who: |W.James McNerney |Former CEO of 3M |
| |George Buckley |Current CEO of 3M |
|Facts |
|What: |McNerney implemented Six Sigma approach to process and business improvement companywide: for existing process- the five step |
| |DMAIC Model; for new product development- Design for Six Sigma; laid off 8000 workers (11% of the workforce); slashed capital |
| |expenditures |
| |Buckley continued Six Sigma in manufacturing and administrative areas but reduced in R&D; invested more in R&D and new |
| |manufacturing plants |
|Why: |McNerney: |
| |Decrease production defects and increase efficiency;

Similar Documents

Premium Essay

Six Sigma - Bg Red Cases

...Principles And Practices of Six sigma Project Defect Reduction in offer release for BG red cases Mahindra Satyam-SHR-2011 Presented by- Vandana Halaharivi PavanKumar Yanamadala Defect Reduction in offer release for BG red cases Abstract : Offers are released to candidates who had earlier worked in black listed companies were joining satyam. A detailed analysis was undertaken and after the causal analysis the team decided to create a list of black listed companies. This list would be used by the recruiter while recruiting any candidate and also would be used by the offer desk before generating offer for any candidate. In this way the team was successful in ensuring that candidates from the black listed companies cannot join satyam. Business problem: BG check process in satyam would help us to identify the candidates who are joining satyam from blacklisted companies. This would be done only after the candidates get recruited and join satyam. Upon finding that the candidate has joined from the black listed company satyam representative terminate the new joinee. This leads to unnecessary time consumption, legal issues and more work load. Statistical Problem: Data has shown that the sigma value is currently at 4.2. There are close to 25+ associates recruited from the black listed companies. Statistical Solution: Root Causes are: 1) Offer desk has no provision to check the companies list 2) Recruiters don’t carry the list of blacklisted companies 3) Blacklisted...

Words: 746 - Pages: 3

Premium Essay

Case Study on Six Sigma at Wipro Technologies: Thrust on Quality

...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. ...

Words: 2613 - Pages: 11

Premium Essay

Six Sigma Case Study

...Six Sigma is defined as having less than3.4 defects per million opportunities or a success rate of99.9997%. Six Sigma is a systematic data driven approach using the define, measure, analysis, improve and control (DMAIC) Antony & Banuelas (2002) & Banuelas Coronado & Anotony (2002) presented the key ingredients for the effective, introduction & implementation of Six Sigma.* Cultural Change* Training* Management commitment & involvement* Organizational Infrastructure* Linking Six Sigma to human resource * Linking six sigma to business strategy As in HR Dept Six Sigma can assist in identifying areas that have an impact on the external customer. They may concentrate on such aspects as leadership selection & training, enabling employees to focus on decreasing the non-value added time. It must identify high potential employees, here them as Black Belt & move then back into the organization as part of their rotation, and leadership training. Some of the other recent trends that are being observed are as...

Words: 868 - Pages: 4

Premium Essay

Positioning

...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...

Words: 32055 - Pages: 129

Premium Essay

Six Sigma at Wipro

...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...

Words: 3598 - Pages: 15

Premium Essay

Six Sigma

...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...

Words: 5954 - Pages: 24

Free Essay

Six Sigma

...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...

Words: 13809 - Pages: 56

Premium Essay

Quality Management of Aqua-Fun

...Quality Management Of Aqua-Fun ----Case 1 in Chapter 6 Team 4: Yudan Ding Wenqian Xu Xianjing Zhu Yukun Chen SCHM2301 Prof. Omar Elwakil 10/08/2013 Quality Management of Aqua-Fun 1. Cost of Quality Analysis A focus on quality management demands that the total cost and benefits of quality performance be first understood by everyone in the company. In order to successfully launch a companywide Six Sigma, the first step is to dig out all relative cost categories that associated with managing quality and quality failures. The marketing research and other similar costs categories should all be included in the Cost of Quality (CoQ) analysis. 1.1 Identification of Cost Categories Based on Roberta’s current CoQ analysis, there are 18 cost categories with question marks that she either did not have data for or wasn’t sure about including. For the prevention costs, Roberta is having problem with the costs of marketing research, customer/user perception surveys/clinics, supplier quality planning, supplier quality planning, quality program planning and reporting, and other prevention costs. As mentioned earlier in the case, Roberta wasn’t sure how the marketing manager would feel about including marketing research as a category in the CoQ because it seems that marketing research as well as the customer perception surveys have no direct relation with preventing product defects. In fact, the fast development and introduction of new product is a key factor that differentiates...

Words: 1656 - Pages: 7

Premium Essay

The Application of Six Sigma in Service Industry

...The Application of Six Sigma in Service Industry Executive Summary: Six Sigma, or called 6σ, is the standard deviation in statistics, using for showing the dispersion of data. The extension of the meaning is that, in general, an enterprise’ products’ defective rate is approximately 3 to 4 sigma, which stands for 6210 to 66800 defects out of one million finished products. These many defects are probably not ideal so that if corporations continuously improve their quality to reach 6sigma level, it will be close to perfect performance then reaching the requirements of customers. All in all, 6sigma represents that in one million products, there are only 3.4 defects. In fact, the concept of Six Sigma, as quality control concept, was initially introduced by Bill Smith from Motorola; His goal is to decline the defects of products and production process, increasing product quality. However, Sig Sigma theory really became popular after the practice of GE (General Electric). Jack Welch in 1990s summarized the successful experience of TQM (Total Quality Management) as well as refined the skills of process management and most effective method to make Six Sigma become a managerial model of improving corporation’s performance and competency. This method has been proved to be very effective after the application in many multi-national corporations such as Dell, GE, Motorola, HP, and etc. With the accumulation of practice experience, Six Sigma Theory has been derived to a management philosophy...

Words: 1137 - Pages: 5

Premium Essay

Significance of Six Sigma

...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...

Words: 2638 - Pages: 11

Premium Essay

Lean and Six Sigma

...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: a. Better knowledge of products and processes b. Defect reduction c. Focus on communication and teamwork d. Improved customer Satisfaction e....

Words: 1466 - Pages: 6

Premium Essay

Abc Hospital

...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...

Words: 3917 - Pages: 16

Premium Essay

Root Cause

...Root Cause Analysis Why do we bother (Andersen, 2000) Fool me once, DIRTFT, steady continual improvement Root Cause Analysis (RCA) is the central theme of 6 sigma activities. RCA identifies the real problem so the problem can be solved one time and not repeat for that same cause. That over the long haul your time is spent most efficiently and each problem that occurs will be unique. As you solve the root causes of problems the amount of problems will decrease for any given system and that system will become more efficient and cheaper as RCA is performed Standards mandate it (Persse, 2006) ISO9001 - ISO17025 - CMMI In addition to making good business sense various standards mandate its use. In ISO9001 the sections on corrective and preventative action require an effective solution to problems. RCA is a proven effective method of problem solving. ISO17025 specifically calls for RCA and CMMI also requires an effective problem solving system. What it isn’t (Robitaille, The Corrective action handbook, 2002) It is not containment – like 8D It is not remedial – not a rework RCA does not deal with immediate problem containment as in step D3 of the 8D discipline. Similarly, a rework procedure does not address the root cause. Finding a root cause may take some time and both a containment action and/or a rework must be implemented while the search for the root cause occurs. DO NOT stop when you get a containment action deployed. When it may not work so well (Okes, 2009) Technology...

Words: 1651 - Pages: 7

Premium Essay

Layout

...SIX SIGMA BASICS Six Sigma * is a set of techniques and tools for process improvement developed by Motorola in 1986. Jack Welch made it central to his business strategy at General Electric in 1995. Today, it is used in many industrial sectors. * seeks to improve the quality of process outputs by identifying and removing the causes of defects (errors) and minimizing variability in manufacturing and business processes. It uses a set of quality management methods, including statistical methods, and creates a special infrastructure of people within the organization ("Champions", "Black Belts", "Green Belts", "Yellow Belts", etc.) who are experts in these methods. Each Six Sigma project carried out within an organization follows a defined sequence of steps and has quantified value targets, for example: reduce process cycle time, reduce pollution, reduce costs, increase customer satisfaction, and increase profits. These are also core to principles of Total Quality Management (TQM) as described by Peter Drucker and Tom Peters (particularly in his book "In Search of Excellence" in which he refers to the Motorola six sigma principles). * The term is originated from terminology associated with manufacturing, specifically terms associated with statistical modeling of manufacturing processes. The maturity of a manufacturing process can be described by a sigma rating indicating its yield or the percentage of defect-free products it creates. A six sigma process is one in which...

Words: 3200 - Pages: 13

Premium Essay

Lean Six Sigma

...Lean Six Sigma Experience in Companies Narek Danoyan Contents 1.1 Lean Six Sigma in Xerox . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.2 Lean Six Sigma in Caterpillar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.3 Lean Six Sigma in General Electric . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.4 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.5 Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 4 5 6 7 1 2 CHAPTER 1. LEAN SIX SIGMA EXPERIENCE IN COMPANIES Abstract: During the recent years the Lean Six Sigma improvement methodology has found its wide usage in different high-profit companies. Among such companies are General Electric, Raytheon, Caterpillar, ITT, Solectron, etc. The following article provides information on the Lean Six Sigma implemtations in three such companies, namely Xerox, Caterpillar and General Electric. 1.1 Lean Six Sigma in Xerox Xerox company profile Industry: document services, digital imaging, computer peripherals Number of employees: 133,200(2010) Total assets: US$ 24 billion Prior improvement methodologies used in Xerox and reasons for switching to LSS. Though the earlier approaches assisted Xerox in improving business processes, Xerox had some deficiencies and the results were limited in scope. In 2002 company decided to adopt the integration of Six Sigma and Lean Manufacturing, which in a short time helped to achieve significant improvements[2]. Figure 1.1: Xerox LSS Framework[2] 1.1. LEAN SIX SIGMA IN...

Words: 1380 - Pages: 6