Sizing
up Six Sigma
Vivek
S Kulkarni relates how through the Six Sigma tool, Cummins India could
lower costs, boost delivery and improve capabilities
Six
Sigma is a business process that enables companies to increase profits
by streamlining operations, improving quality, and eliminating defects
or mistakes in all the processes of the company. While traditionally,
quality programmes have focused on detection and correction of defects,
Six Sigma encompasses something broader. It provides specific methods
to recreate the processes themselves so that such defects are never
produced to begin with. And it must be doing something right. Why else
would Wall Street and international corporations such as Allied Signal,
Honda, Canon, Lockheed Martin, American Express, Toshiba, Du Pont, and
Polaroid adopt a corporate wide Six Sigma programme.
It
was precisely because of its broader outlook that Cummins India adopted
Six Sigma in 2000. Instead of addressing specific problems, we felt
that Six Sigma could help us achieve sustainable breakthrough improvements
overall. ‘Six sigma everywhere’ is our motto and how seriously we view
it is obvious from the fact that Six Sigma projects have been completed
in our shop operations, manufacturing, sourcing, finance, service, it,
materials division. Six Sigma is applied basically to improve processes
and thereby the cost performance. As we view all work as process, we
have adopted six sigma across all processes.
Six
Sigma is a quality initiative marked by a series of projects designed
to dramatically improve quality while having measurable impact on bottom
lines and financial results. A Six Sigma ‘belt’ – either Black or Green
– depending on the impact, size and time commitment required, leads
each project. There is a set of rigorous statistical tools and methodologies
used on the projects that require each belt to successfully complete
three weeks of intensive training. In statistics, sigma is a measurement
of deviation from a defined point. If we were aiming at having no defects
across the entire organisation, then 3.4 defects per million would mean
just about approaching perfection.
Prior
to adopting six sigma across our various processes we viewed and compared
it against many other management tools available in the market today.
However, the factor that worked towards its advantage was its factual
and methodical approach. Since ours is an engineering firm, we felt
that our engineers would identify better with a factual tool rather
than a more subjective one.
In
order to achieve the best possible results from Six Sigma, training
of Cummin’s employees is a part of our curriculum. As we said earlier,
the project leaders of six sigma projects are known as Belts, Green
and Black being further classification (for more details see table).
Leaders and Champions usually receive high-level training on the technical
aspects of Six Sigma and specific training on how to lead an initiative.
All belts undergo a common training known as DMAIC (Define, Measure,
Analyse, Improve, Control) roadmap. Candidates attend classroom training
for a few weeks, work on their projects for the following weeks, return
to class for another week, and so on until they have acquired all the
skills appropriate to their role. Hence, the Six Sigma training follows
a pattern of ‘Learn -Apply -Learn’ throughout. The Indian operations
are now self-sufficient in conducting Six Sigma training.
DMAIC
involves the following five stages:
Define:
Project \ problem selection and charter development
Measure:
Define key input \ output variables, perform gage studies on essential
measurement systems, perform short term capability studies and evaluates
existing control plan
Analyse:
Collect and analyse data for potentially critical inputs, review data,
and prioritise variables for key input
Improve:
Verify critical inputs, determine optimum operating window and update
the control plan
Control:
Finalise the process control plan, implement the plan with assistance
of sponsor and maintain ongoing verification of the stability and capability
of the process
....CONTD
