About the Speaker
Mr. Aniruddha Bhalchandra Viladkar conducted this session on Lean Six Sigma. He has a professional education in CLSSBB and is a certified six sigma black belt from KPMG. He has a work experience of 37 years and has achieved several milestones. Also, he has 15 years of experience in various industries. He is currently working as a professional trainer and facilitator since 1999.
Mr. Aniruddha is active in the field of Lean Management & Quality Management. He has implemented Lean Manufacturing practices for Mahindra & Mahindra’s supplier cluster at Haridwar, Uttarakhand, India. He was also trainer and facilitator for an LSI having turnover around 2000 Cr. For MSA and SPC PAN India for their Nasik, Pune and Chennai plants. He has also provided training and Gemba sessions regarding these subjects for the same plants.He has also provided ISO 9000 guidance / consultancy in the field of mechanical industry, plastic, rubber, finance/banks, hospitals. He has conducted freelance internal audits for large scale organizations for TS 16949.
Coming to the education of Mr. Aniruddha, he has completed Bachelor of Science in Physics from Mumbai University later he completed Master of Science in Physics and then he completed Diploma in Electronics and Radio Engineering from St. Xavier’s Technical Institute, Mahim, Mumbai.
Six Sigma
- The roots of Six Sigma as a measurement standard can be traced back to Carl Friedrich Gauss (1777-1855) who introduced the concept of the 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. Many measurement standards (Cpk, Zero Defects, etc.) later came on the scene but credit for coining the term “Six Sigma” goes to a Motorola engineer named Bill Smith.
- Six Sigma is a set of management tools and techniques designed to improve business by reducing the likelihood of error. It is a data-driven approach that uses a statistical methodology for eliminating defects. When organizations implement Six Sigma as a program or initiative, it often appears that they only have added, in an unstructured fashion, a few new tools to their toolbox through training classes.
- One extension of this approach is to apply the tools as needed to assigned projects. It’s important to note, however, that the selection, management, and execution of projects are not typically an integral part of the organization. The distinction between Six Sigma and lean has blurred, with the term "lean Six Sigma" being used more and more often because process improvement requires aspects of both approaches to attain positive results.
- Lean Manufacturing: -
- The concept of Lean begins with Toyota Production Systems. In 1913, Henry Ford propounded the flow of production by experimenting with interchanging and movement of different parts to achieve standardization of work. However, there was a limitation to the Ford’s system that it lacked variety and was applied to only one specification.
- Toyota inspired from the Ford’s flow of production concept and invented the Toyota Production System. The premise of this new system is to change the focus from the use and utilization of individual machines to the workflow from the total process. The Toyota Product system aims at reducing the cost of production, enhancing the quality of products, and increasing the throughput times so that the dynamic customer needs are met.
- This coined the term Lean manufacturing which refers to the application of Lean practices, principles, and tools to the development and manufacture of physical products. Many manufacturers are using Lean manufacturing principles to eliminate waste, optimize processes, cut costs, boost innovation, and reduce time to market in a fast-paced, volatile, ever-changing global marketplace.
- The phrase “Lean manufacturing” is synonymous with removing waste – and eliminating waste is certainly a key element of any Lean practice. But the goal of practicing Lean manufacturing isn’t simply to eliminate waste – it’s to sustainably deliver value to the customer.
- “4P” Model of Lean: -
- Philosophy - Companies must first determine their essential purpose. For some companies, profit may be the driving motivation, while others may exist for philanthropic purposes. Water and wastewater utilities provide an essential service to customers. Besides the general purpose of the organization, a company must also determine its philosophical drivers. These can include core values, mission, and vision.
- Process - Once purpose has been determined, a company must determine the process by which it reaches its customer and produces the product, whatever that product may be. Simply put, process refers to the way in which a business operates in relation to its customer and its internal operations. Most of the key principles of Lean thinking can be applied during the process step. Unfortunately, it is also the step at which many businesses become stuck if they lose focus or lack cooperation from employees or management.
- People - People refers not only to those for whom the product or service is created, but also the people within the organization who create the product or service. In other words, people are customers and employees, as well as some consultants and suppliers. Developing employees, growing leaders, improving management, and showing respect at all levels are important facets of this critical step.
- Performance - Performance is the final step of the Lean approach and is in line with the perfection principle. A company must assess any improvement in its ability to deliver its product or service and identify any additional gaps. Lean implementation typically goes through many trials and iterations before truly successful performance is achieved. Again, it is critical to remember that Lean is a continuous process that requires vigilance and ongoing effort from an organization.
Goals Of Lean Manufacturing:
The goal of lean manufacturing is to incorporate
- Less human effort – Focusing more on automation rather than manual work is an efficient way to improve manufacturing. The robot manipulators are nowadays used in to achieve this. The lesser the human effort quicker is the process.
- Less inventory – The aim here is to keep minimum inventory in a company though this is not the case generally seen in a manufacturing unit. Keeping the inventory in limit will lead to less wastage of products.
- Less time to develop products – A company should have a better R&D department to develop the product more quickly and efficiently. Also, the company management structure will play an important role in development time.
- Less space – If the company premises occupy a larger part of land, than the plant layout must be varied accordingly. A company with large area say with warehouse and production unit a little far away from each other would lead in overall delay in delivering and storing the finished products.
Keeping in mind the above 4 goals the following are some conditions that are to be followed to achieve an ideal lean manufacturing process:
- Zero breakdowns.
- Zero defects.
- Zero delays.
- Zero inventory.
- Zero accidents.
- Zero paper.
- Wastages of Lean
Lean thinking aims to remove wastes from work processes. Waste is any action or step in a process that does not add value to the customer. In other words, waste is any process that the customer does not want to pay for. The original seven waste (Muda) were developed by Taiichi Ohno, the Chief Engineer at Toyota, as part of the Toyota Production System (TPS).
The seven wastes are Transportation, Inventory, Motion, Waiting, Overproduction, Overprocessing and Defects. They are often referred to by the acronym ‘TIMWOOD’. These wastes increased to 9 in the modern lean thinking namely:
- Transportation - Waste in transportation includes movement of people, tools, inventory, equipment, or products further than necessary. Excessive movement of materials can lead to product damage and defects. Additionally, excessive movement of people and equipment can lead to unnecessary work, greater wear and tear, and exhaustion.
- Inventory - Often it is difficult to think about excess inventory as waste. In accounting, inventory is seen as an asset and oftentimes suppliers give discount for bulk purchases. But having more inventory than necessary to sustain a steady flow of work can lead to problems including product defects or damage materials, greater
lead time in the production process, an inefficient allocation of capital, and problems being hidden away in the inventory.
- Motion - The waste in motion includes any unnecessary movement of people, equipment, or machinery. This includes walking, lifting, reaching, bending, stretching, and moving. Tasks that require excessive motion should be redesigned to enhance the work of personnel and increase the health and safety levels.
- Waiting - The waste of waiting includes: 1) people waiting on material or equipment and 2) idle equipment. Waiting time is often caused by unevenness in the production stations and can result in excess inventory and overproduction.
- Over Production- Overproduction occurs when manufacturing a product or an element of the product before it is being asked for or required. It may be tempting to produce as many products as possible when there is idle worker or equipment time.
- Over Processing - Over-processing refers to doing more work, adding more components, or having more steps in a product or service than what is required by the customer. In manufacturing this could include using a higher precision equipment than necessary, using components with capacities beyond what is required, running more analysis than needed, over-engineering a solution, adjusting a component after it has already been installed, and having more functionalities in a product than needed.
- Defects - Defects occurs when the product is not fit for use. This typically results in either reworking or scrapping the product. Both results are wasteful as they add additional costs to the operations without delivering any value to the customer.
- Underutilized People - This waste occurs when organizations separate the role of management from employees. In some organizations, management’s responsibility is planning, organizing, controlling, and innovating the production process. The employee’s role is to simply follow orders and execute the work as planned. By not engaging the frontline worker’s knowledge and expertise, it is difficult to improve processes.
- Behavior – People’s behavior plays an important role in manufacturing process. As a company is made from its people. A person who is at manager post and is least interested in his/her job will create a chain of communication gaps across the departments, this could lead to cause of the above factors.
Lean Manufacturing Tools: -
There are numerous lean manufacturing tools available for use in your company. They combine to make a comprehensive whole that can be applied as Lean within your organization. These tools are most successful when used together, although several can be utilized on their own to solve specific problems in your organization. Below some tools are well described.
The Five S
- 5s is defined as an approach that produces a clean, uncluttered, safe, and well-organized workplace to reduce waste and maximize productivity.
- It is intended to aid in the creation of a high-quality work environment, both physically and mentally. The 5S principle can be applied to any workspace that is conducive to visual control and lean production.
| Japanese | Translated | English | Definition |
| Seiri | organize | sort | Eliminate whatever is not needed by separating needed tools, parts, and instructions from unneeded materials. |
| Seiton | orderliness | set in order | Organize whatever remains by neatly arranging and identifying parts and tools for ease of use. |
| Seiso | cleanliness | shine | Clean the work area by conducting a cleanup campaign. |
| Seiketsu | standardize | standardize | Schedule regular cleaning and maintenance by conducting seiri, seiton, and seiso daily. |
| Shitsuke | discipline | sustain | Make 5S a way of life by forming the habit of always following the first four S’s. |
Visual Controls -
- In lean management, the state of nearly every process should be apparent. In lean management, visual controls and the processes that surround them symbolise the nervous system.
- Visual controls focus attention on the process and stimulate improvements. The goal of visual controls in lean management is to focus on the process and make comparing expected vs. actual performance simple.
- These comparisons identify instances where the process is not working as planned and areas where change may be required.
Standard Operating procedures or SOP's –
- Are a set of wellwritten instructions outlining the processes or duties required to execute a job, operation, or operate a piece of machinery or plant.
- The instructions must be written in such a way that all operators and personnel required to accomplish the task can read and understand them.
- The following features are included in standard operating procedures:
- The department and area where the task is performed.
- The person who wrote the SOP and the specifics of his/her job title.
- The person who authorized or checked the SOP.
- As much as feasible, pictures or illustrations should be used in the SOP.
- Any OH&S information must also be included in the SOP.
Just In Time’s-
- The essential premise of time relates to the concept of producing products only as they are required to eliminate all sort of waste in the manufacturing process.
- When coupled with lean manufacturing methods, the overall system boosts the manufacturer's profit.
- Increase operational efficiency
- Improve product quality
- Lower manufacturing and inventory costs
- Allow for speedier delivery
Kanban –
- It is an inventory organization in manufacturing that uses visual cues to move goods through various phases of the manufacturing process.
- It is a lean manufacturing tool that aims to prevent inventory buildup by starting production immediately to refill empty reserves.
- Kanban is a “pull” method, which means it reacts to demand rather than predicting it. Only when old inventory is "pulled" out of stock is new inventory created.
Cellular manufacturing –
- Cellular manufacturing is a layout in which machines are grouped based on the process needs for a group of similar items (component families) that require similar processing.
- Cells are the name given to these groups. As a result, a cellular layout is an equipment architecture that is set up to facilitate cellular production.
- Group technology is a mechanism for grouping processes into cells (GT). Parts with similar design features (size, form, and function) and similar process characteristics are identified using group technology.
Value stream mapping –
- It is defined as a lean-management method for examining the present state and developing a future state for the process that takes a product or service from concept to consumer while minimizing waste.
- Simply put, it allows you to analyze the steps in the process that takes your product from start to finish to find ways to reduce waste and make the process as lean as possible.
- Reducing waste and keeping your process as lean as feasible boosts efficiency and production while also making waste easier to identify. Value stream mapping is a component of the Six Sigma lean approach.
Poka Yoke or Mistake Proofing –
- Humans make mistakes, and these errors might result in defective products. Poka-Yoke, often known as mistake-proofing, is a method of avoiding common human errors at work. Shigeo Shingo, one of Toyota's IE engineers, first proposed the concept in the 1960.
- Poka-Yoke mechanisms are used to remove errors by effectively making mistakes in a specific procedure impossible. And they can be utilized anywhere.
SMED (Single-Minute Exchange of Die) –
- SMED is a system that drastically reduces the time required to conduct equipment changes.
- The SMED system's essence is to transfer as many changeover procedures as feasible to "external" (done while the equipment is running), while simplifying and streamlining the remaining steps.
- The term "Single-Minute Exchange of Die" refers to the goal of lowering changeover times to "single" digits (i.e., less than 10 minutes).
Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) –
- It is a method of maintaining equipment that attempts to establish a flawless manufacturing process by boosting productivity, efficiency, and safety.
- TPM aims for three things: zero unplanned failures, zero product defects, and zero accidents.
- These objectives are advanced by applying eight "pillars" aimed at establishing reliability in the manufacturing process to maximize productivity.
Kaizen –
- Kaizen, or quick improvement processes, is sometimes regarded as the "building block" of all lean production approaches.
- Kaizen focuses on reducing waste, increasing productivity, and achieving persistent continuous improvement in an organization's specific activities and processes. Kaizen, or continuous improvement, is at the heart of lean production. This ideology holds that little, incremental adjustments implemented on a regular basis and sustained over time result in big advances.
- The kaizen strategy tries to bring together employees from all functions and levels of the business to solve a problem or improve a process.
Features: -
Improving Processes –
- Six Sigma is a methodology that equips businesses with tools to increase the capability of their business processes.
- This improvement in performance and decrease in process variation contributes to defect reduction and improvements in profits, employee morale, and product or service quality.
- The Six Sigma Methodology is divided into five data-driven stages: Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, and Control (DMAIC).
Lowering Defects –
- Six Sigma is a systematic, data-driven approach to process improvement that focuses on minimizing waste and faults or errors.
- The defect is the most important metric in Six Sigma. Variation is what causes flaws.
- The defect rate, sigma level, process efficiency, and process capability are all Six Sigma metrics (measurements) used to count faults.
- Many experts believe that the time has arrived to apply industry-wide standards to histological practice. Six Sigma provides a variety of methods to assist the histology laboratory in standardizing, increasing efficiency, and reducing errors.
- Root cause analysis (RCA), Failure mode effect analysis (FMEA), and the use of standardization of operating procedures (SOP"s) are some specific Six Sigma tools that can help histology laboratories identify error prone steps and process inefficiencies.
- These tools will all help histology laboratories reduce variation and errors.
Reducing process variability –
- Six Sigma is a continuous effort to reduce process and product variation using a defined data-driven project methodology.
- When the two approaches are combined, they promote continuous improvement, laying the groundwork for a concept that is the foundation of all effective quality management systems and any firm that wants to grow and progress in the future.
- The Six Sigma standard for identifying variation in a process, analyzing the root cause, prioritizing the most advantageous technique to remove a given variation, and testing the repair is the DMAIC methodology.
- The tools you would employ would be determined on the type of variation and the situation. Typically, we observe either a "data door" or a "process door" and employ the relevant strategies.
Increasing customer satisfaction –
- The Six Sigma strategy aims to improve business operations by reducing errors and increasing quality.
The pioneers had tremendous success by taking a customer-oriented approach to process optimization that was divided into four key components. The four major steps are as follows:
- Measuring what makes a customer happy.
- Determination of the gap between customer needs and the current performance level of the organization.
- Analyzing the reasons for such gaps.
- Developing measures to close such gaps.
- Customer satisfaction is important to Lean Six Sigma. One of the first things a project team performs is to determine how quality concerns affect the client. The team then determines which crucial elements the process may require to improve customer satisfaction.
- Connecting process improvement and customer satisfaction helps ensure that employing Six Sigma concepts results in consumers who provide repeat business and spread positive word of mouth.
These elements have the potential to significantly enhance sales and profitability. A customer focused Six Sigma methodology assists enterprises in the following ways:
- Eliminate mistakes
- Enhance product quality
- Innovate products
Increased profits –
- When Six Sigma training assists employees in producing items with fewer flaws, the company has more high-quality products to sell for a profit. Higher product quality reduces inspection and rework costs, as well as wastage of raw materials and labor.
- Producing high-quality goods to fulfil rising demand provides businesses more pricing power, which leads to increased income and profitability.
- Lean Six Sigma reduces variation and waste, allowing operations to function more efficiently.
- Organizations that use Six Sigma principles can sell, create, and deliver more high-quality products and services while using less resources – the definition of improved performance.
Quality (Q) and Productivity(P): -
Quality-
- To have a better understanding of the relationship between production and quality, Let's start by defining each term.
Productivity-
- It is defined as the relationship between the quantity of outputs and the quantity of inputs required to generate a product. In other words, management evaluates productivity by comparing the quantity of a product produced to the quantity of raw materials and labor required to manufacture a product.
- Productivity is deemed high when less raw materials and labor are used to generate more of a product. Examine the Chicken Valley Poultry Company, a major producer of chicken goods.
Chicken Valley Poultry Company manufactures chicken nuggets in its facilities. Management will look at a few factors to assess whether the plant has high productivity rates:
- The number of raw materials used to manufacture the nuggets, such as chicken, eggs, breadcrumbs, and food additives.
- The amount of time and labor involved in running the machinery and production lines to process and package the nuggets.
- The number of chicken nuggets made in a given time period, such as every hour.
Variation
Term variation comes in a picture when the result or conclusion is not in the favor of customers’ expectations. As we know the goal within six sigma, the goal within Six Sigma is to be aware of those fluctuations, what causes them to occur and to create a consistent process that delivers what the customer expects nearly all the time.
Identifying Sigma Level: -
- Six Sigma defines variations in very specific meanings which have different implications for process performance. When it comes to the identification of sigma level two factors that played major roles are Control limit and the Specification limit.
- Control limits are the limits of variation that is expected from a process is said to be in statistical control. The term control term basically deals with further two more terms like UCL and LCL, where UCL basically stands for Upper Control Limit however, LCL stands for Lower Control Limit.
- The UCL or upper control limit and LCL or lower control limit are limits set by your process based on the actual amount of variation of your process. The UCL can be calculated on the basis of summation of mean and three times the std. deviation however the LCL is difference of the mean and three times the std. deviation.
- The specification limit basically plays a vital role in identifying the sigma level as it directly deals with the expectation of customer’s value. Just like control limits, specification limits also consist of two terms USL which stands for Upper Specification Limit and LSL which stands for Lower Specification Limit.
- The USL or upper specification limit and LSL or lower specification limit are limits set by your customers’ requirements. This is the variation that they will accept from your process.
Chart Wise explanation: -
Target is the required value or characteristic as given by customer. USL and LSL are the tolerances specified, decided by the designer, customer. UCL and LCL are process tolerances or limits, decided by the process.
Possible cases: -
- If control limit happens to be in specification limit, then the design of the particular product is considered to be fit and as per the expectations.
- If control limit happens to be close to USL or LSL, in this case our functioning is on the edge of specification limit.
- When control limit is greater than specification limit, we can come to the conclusion that some part of the functioning is working outside the range and it will give defects.
Aim: -
- Region beyond USL and LSL are rejection zone, where we can say that process is producing products with defects.
- Producing all the products well within the range of USL and LSL or nearer to the target value we can assure that process working fine and able to produce products with more precise accurate value.
The Difference: -
| Control Limit | Specification Limit | |
| 1.Voice of process | 1.Voice of customer | |
| 2.Calculated from Data | 2.Defined by customer | |
| 3.Displayed on Control charts | 3.Displayed on Histograms | |
| 4.Applied to subgroups | 4.Applied to items |
Lean & Six Sigma
Lean manufacturing is a systematic way of eliminating waste and creating flow in the production process, while Six Sigma is a set of techniques that strive to greatly reduce the rate of defects. Six Sigma and Lean systems have the same goal. They both seek to eliminate waste and create the most efficient system possible, but they take different approaches towards achieving this goal. In simplest terms, the main difference between Lean and Six Sigma is that they identify the root cause of waste differently
| Lean | Six Sigma | |
| 1. It eliminates wastes and reduces non-value adding activities. | 1. It reduces variations in the process. | |
| 2. It speeds up the operations while maintaining quality. | 2. It ensures you have a defect free process. | |
| 3. It brings in profits to the company. | 3. It also brings in profits to the company. | |
| 4. It helps to achieve higher levels of customer satisfaction | 4. It changes the culture of the company |
How Six Sigma Works: -
Variation Sources are Identified
- So, there are different types of variation Planned variation and Unplanned Variation. The Planned variation is like a process improvement strategy while Unplanned variation, however, is nearly always bad. Two types of variation concern a Six Sigma team are
- Common cause variation – All processes have common cause variation. This variation, also known as noise, is a normal part of any process. It demonstrates the true capability of a process.
- Special cause variation – This variation is not normal to the process. It is the result of exceptions in the process environment.
Comprehensive Root Cause Analysis done
- Root Cause Analysis (RCA) is a comprehensive term encompassing a collection of problem-solving methods used to identify the real cause of a non-conformance or quality problem. Root Cause Analysis is the process of defining, understanding and solving a problem. The root cause has also been described as an underlying or fundamental cause of a non-conformance, defect or failure.
- Root Cause Analysis (RCA) is usually a step in a larger problem-solving exercise. There are multiple tools that may be used during a Root Cause Analysis.
- Some of them can sometimes be completed by one person, but in most cases a Cross Functional Team (CFT) approach will reap the greatest benefits and increase chances of reaching the true “root cause”.
- There are also several problem-solving methods that use Root Cause Analysis within their problem-solving process, such as Eight Disciplines of Problem Solving (8D), Six Sigma / DMAIC, or Kaizen etc.
Reasons for variations eliminated / reduced
- In a process improvement project, special causes of variation should be the first target. Eliminating special causes of variation brings the process into a state of control and exposes the sources of common cause variation.
- On the other hand, variation due to gage has factors like accuracy, repeatability, stability, and linearity attached to it. The next step is then to reduce common cause variation.
Quality Products / Services Delivered
- Whenever we are reducing the variation, we are improving the quality automatically. Also, no process is completely perfect.
- There are always slight deviations and variations in any process the more you achieve the perfect status in your process your quality or services delivered gets improved.
Cost of Quality reduced / Price increased
- Whenever there are no variations, no defects, no rejections, no wastages and therefore cost of quality improves like anything.
Difference between Sigma Quality: -
Three sigma is used for a state of a process and 6 sigma constitutes a methodology. The most noticeable difference is that Three Sigma has a higher tolerance for defects in comparison to Six Sigma. More specifically, Three Sigma expects an error rate 66.8K errors per million. This translates to 93.3% accuracy expectation while Six Sigma expects a maximum of 3.4 errors per million. The higher the sigma level the fewer defects the process creates. Six sigma performance is a long term (future) process that creates a level of 3.4 defects per million opportunities (DPMO). A six-sigma level of performance has 3.4 defects per million opportunities (3.4 DPMO). 3 Sigma: 66.8K errors per million (93.3% accuracy). 6 Sigma: 3.4 errors per million (99.99966% accuracy). Walter Shewhart considered Three Sigma as the demarcation point that divides the ordinary from the extraordinary; the predictable from the unpredictable. Most companies would consider a Three Sigma performance as unacceptable.
3 Sigma Example
- One sigma or one standard deviation plotted above or below the average value on that normal distribution curve would define a region that includes 68 percent of all the data points. Two sigma is above or below would include about 95 percent of the data.
- Three sigma would include 99.7 percent. The three-sigma value is determined by calculating the standard deviation (a complex and tedious calculation on its own) of a series of five breaks.
- Then multiply that value by three (hence three-sigma) and finally subtract that product from the average of the entire series.
6 Sigma example
- Six Sigma is a disciplined, statistical-based, data-driven approach and continuous improvement methodology for eliminating defects in a product, process or service.
- Once the current performance of the process is measured, the goal is to continually improve the sigma level striving towards 6 sigma.
- The objective of Six Sigma quality is to reduce process output variation so that on a long-term basis, which is the customer's aggregate experience with our process over time, this will result in no more than 3.4 defect parts per million (PPM) opportunities (or 3.4 defects per million opportunities – DPMO).
- In Six Sigma, a defect is a failure of a product or process. Defects are a major part of the Six Sigma program because they point to a problem that needs to be solved. In Six Sigma, the goal is to reduce the number of defects to fewer than 3.4 per million. Six Sigma professionals exist at every level – each with a different role to play. While Six Sigma implementations and roles may vary.
- At the project level, there are black belts, master black belts, green belts, yellow belts and white belts. MSI six sigma training course is best. Defects per million opportunities (DPMO) Six-Sigma is determined by evaluating the DPMO, Multiply the DPO by one million.
- Process Sigma Once you have determined the DPMO, you can now use a Six Sigma table to find the process sigma. You will look for the number closest to 33,333 under defects per 1,000,000.
DMAIC Methodology: -
The Six Sigma uses an approach called DMAIC, which stands for define, measure, analyze, improve, and control. It is a statistically driven methodology that is used for improving, optimizing, and stabilizing business processes. Here are the steps of DMAIC:
Define
- Define a problem or project goal that needs to be addressed. This step aims to explain clearly the business problem, the goal, potential resources, project scope, and timeline of the high-level project.
- You need to identify what you currently know, set objectives for your business, and form the project team.
Measure
- Measure the problem and process from which it was produced. The necessary data is identified and collected in this step. The initial metrics of the situation are measured.
- These metrics can show what may cause the problem, give insights to the team for understanding the full picture, and help set the process performance baselines.
Analyze
- Analyze data & determine root cause of opportunities. In this step, the team identifies the root cause of process errors.
- To do that, each input is isolated and tested as the cause of the problem during analysis.
Improve
- Improve the process by finding solutions to fix, diminish and prevent future problems. This step aims to improve process performance.
- After the analysis step, possible solutions are discussed and implemented in the process for eliminating the errors.
Control
- The team adds controls to the process to ensure that the solution works, and the process doesn’t become ineffective again.
Also Implement, control and sustain the improvements solutions to keep the process on the new course.
Snapshots: -
