Dr: Ayyoub Alsawalhah
Abstract:
Background:
Six Sigma is a structured, data-driven methodology for eliminating defects and reducing variability in any process; be it manufacturing, transactional, product or service. Although its roots are in manufacturing, Six Sigma principles have been applied to improve quality, reduce costs and increase customer satisfaction in many industries. This paper outlines the historical development of Six Sigma, explains the key principles and methodologies (DMAIC and DMADV), describes the organizational structure of Six Sigma, and discusses the change from a statistical quality control tool to a complete business improvement methodology.
Methods:
This paper presents a literature review about the Six Sigma methodology, noting milestones in its history, the role of industries that pioneered Six Sigma, and the foundations of Lean. This paper includes many primary research articles, review articles, and other recent articles that provide greater insight into Six Sigma, its defined methods, critical success factors for implementation, and its future direction in the era of digital transformation.
Results:
he paper traces the history of Six Sigma beginning with its development at Motorola in the 1980s as a response to the organization’s pressing need for dramatic improvements in quality. It then focuses on three key evolutionary points in its path to popularity, including major strategic deployments by General Electric and how it made it popular, and made it relevant in terms of financial ramifications for enterprises. The authors outline the evolution of Six Sigma through three °generations” starting with simply eliminating defects, to delivering “value” enterprise-wide value. The authors provide a detail discussion of DMAIC and DMADV methodologies, and the tools associated with each. Importance of Lean thinking and Lean Six Sigma as a new development was discussed with an aim to address process variation and waste. The author identified several critical success factors for sustaining results including leadership commitment and implementing cultural change.
Conclusion:
The historical evolution from a Six Sigma life cycle framework supports the value of Six Sigma as a holistic methodology that has wide-ranging applications for achieving operational excellence. Having begun as a set of statistical processes it is now a strategic imperative with shared goals across the organization. Gordon and Gaster (2011) indicate that Six Sigma projects produce improvements that are more measureable than previous quality improvement frameworks (TQM), and that the data standard used in Six Sigma is considered higher than previous frameworks. Future education and developments will see more integration between Six Sigma and digital technologies such as Industry 4.0, and subsequent developments in the area of advanced data analytics. Six Sigma continues to provide a relevant methodology with strong potential for creating value and improving the way organizations focus on the need for improvement.