TABLE OF CONTENTS The most important phase is Improve because this phase focuses on reducing the amount of variation found in a process. Reduction of variability is the solution to many processes problems (e.g., in a manufacturing process). Although some reengineering programs promote the concept of tearing down the functional silos and rebuilding process groups from scratch, other businesses believe that they should start where they are organizationally and build on current successes and modify current processes. These businesses strongly rely on the interwoven concepts of defect reduction, which encourage employees to rely more on each other and cycle time reduction, which eliminates unnecessary, non-value-adding and waste steps from processes.
Yet, Six Sigma requires more than a financial investment. Businesses must have a plan, the required resources, the commitment of everyone, especially business leaders, and uncompromising metrics. Along with these elements, businesses must also set aggressive goals for a defined path and hold people accountable (both internal and external). Commonly utilized goals and commitments include having:
A totally satisfied customer
A commitment to a common language throughout the business
A commitment to common and uniform quality measurement techniques throughout the business
Improvement goals based on uniform metrics
Goal-directed incentives for both employees and management
Common training material on "why," "how," and "when" to achieve a goal
No one set of procedures can be used when following Six Sigma methodology. Every business is different and must consider its strengths and weaknesses and then leverage them accordingly.
Typically, a quantitative understanding of customer...
