Roles And The Meaning Of The Belt

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

Contents

Introduction

This report discuss six sigma quality philosophy in general, the report first start with defining what six sigma means, it then discuses the importance of pursuing six sigma, it will then further looks at the roles and responsibilities by defining black belt, master black belt and green belt. Then the report discusses how to implement six sigma using the using DMAIC and DMADV methodology and lastly the reports discusses the implication and obstacle that hinders implementation of six sigma and the solution to these setback. Finally the reports end with a conclusion summarising the six sigma in general.

Six sigma definition

Six sigma is a business philosophy that employs a step-by-step approach to decrease variation, enhance quality, customer satisfaction, and, in time, market share (course work tutorial) It is mainly a tested and verified method that assists organisation and business to be run more efficiently and profitably. ( www.six-sigma,com).

The Greek alphabet sigma is a statistical term used to measure process variations on how a given process that is causing defect deviates from excellence. Six Sigma works in a way that manage variation and eliminate defects--or rather get them as close to zero as possible (Harrison, 2006)

Therefore a six sigma practice is one that delivers a fault rate of less than 3.4 parts per million even when the mean itself shift by up to 1.5 sigma in either positive or the negative direction. In other word the company should operate at 99.997% precision (Tennant, Geoff 2001). The distribution curve shown below in figure 1 demonstrates the terms variation and mean used.

[Six Sigma Bell Curve]

Fig 1 Distribution curve showing variation and mean (www.leantransformation.com/six-sigma-quality.html)

Six sigma is a management philosophy that was first started by Motorola to originally focused on improving the quality of manufactured component that later expanded for improving any business process However over the past two decades Six Sigma has evolved from a focus on metric to the Methodology level and finally to the design and development of entire Management Systems (Pyzdek. T, Keiler P. A 2010).

As a Metric, when a process is operating at Six Sigma level, it will produce defects at a rate of not more than 3.4 defects per one million opportunities. As a Methodology, Six Sigma leads to business process improvement by focusing on understanding and managing customer expectations and requirements As a Management System, Six Sigma is used to ensure that critical improvement opportunity efforts developed through the Metrics and Methodology levels are aligned with the firm’s business strategy (De Feo, Joseph A.; Barnard, William 2005). Therefore for six sigma to be implemented it uses two types of methodology DMAIC and DMADV Methodology.

DMAIC Methodology is mainly used in already existing processes or product that is underperforming. While the DMADV Methodology can either be used when organisation is trying to develop a new process or product, or when an existing process or product does not meet the six sigma level of customer requirement. The DMAIC methodology has a five stage process that include Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve and Control, and in DMADV Methodology the initial three phases are the similar to those of DMAIC methodology and the final two phases are Design and Verify (De Feo, Joseph A.; Barnard, William 2005).

Argument for six sigma

.Generally six sigma benefit both business and customer that been the case any business organisation that is providing product and service ought to pursue six sigma to help them to be economically viable. In terms of benefiting business six sigma has the tools to reduce cost by improving the performance of the overall process, second it reduces defect by optimising processes, and by reducing defect it in turns reduces the amount of rework that would have otherwise been carried out, these further benefit the employee to have less anxieties (that is associated with crisis of reworking) and job satisfaction ( www.ssqi.com ). Third six sigma also helps reduce inventory as well as other cost associated with it. In terms of benefiting the customer, six sigma reducing the likely hood of shipping defect to the customer, reduces the cycle time as well as increasing delivery predictability (Gygi at el 2005).

Also six sigma facilitate success and increase competition, guarantee the quality necessary to satisfy the ever more demanding customers, six sigma also create a standard language and approach across all the branches of the business and develop employees with problem solving skill. (Course work tutorial)

However six sigma benefits are endless, even though the obvious results are the major financial profits that result from the maximum use of the processes and the removal of defect, the argument is that sigma philosophy is not just a quality control tool that aims at defect free product, but it’s also a customer oriented process that focus at voice of the customer and customer satisfaction and so the heart of all improvement action is built on customer requirement and needs (Gygi at el 2005).

therefore while there are many reward for implementing six sigma there are few challenges that needs to be overcome. First the cost of implementing six sigma is expensive, and the fact that the 100% commitment requirement from the employees who are a part of the project, and finally other than concentrating on other days to day’s activities it required a lot of time to be spend and dedicated to the project.

Roles and the meaning of the belt

In six sigma the project are run by people who are well trained in the philosophy and its application and they are mainly determined to eliminating defect whenever they are in the business process and therefore have different roles and responsibility.

4.1- Black belts

Black belts are employees who have been trained in the six sigma application and its philosophy whose effort are to focused on discovering defects on business process and eliminating it, they moves from department to department to helps in the team build up and to create confidence while keeping the project get going so as to achieve the desired result. Black belts are normally backed up by project champions who are in the senior management level to help overcome the challenges and obstacle throughout the six sigma project. A black belt normally can do up to four projects a year

4.2- Master Black belts.

Master Black belts (MBB) in most of the companies are people who coach and mentor the black belts working on different variety of project. Their main responsibilities are to ensure that the black belt and his or her team stay on track and complete their work. Master black belt are normally most highly train and skilled expert they may occasionally designates an external consultant specialist in Six Sigma process improvements.

4.3- The Green Belt

The Green Belt is mainly involved with six sigma project as the role of assisting or as a part time, they help in collecting the data for the black belt team leader as well as having a job doing the company normal duties. The green belt also serves lower level leaving the harder task for black belts. (Pande et al 2001).

Implementing six sigma

Implementing six sigma is not an easy task and does not necessarily translate into instant results, and therefore Implementing six sigma involves a five step process also called DMAIC/DMAIDV (define, measure, improve and analyse and control design and verify.

5.1- Define stage

In the define stage, of the implementation of the six sigma the organization leader defines the opportunity or the problem within a particular process, and then set the project goals by identifying the customer requirement and finally form the team and set the project timeline.

5.2- Measure stage

In the measure stage the practitioners of the six sigma may use a variety of statistical tools to try and analyse the various variable and their relationship to each other in terms of the input and output of the six sigma processes. This stage also describe the problem and decide a suitable technique to analysis the result and make conclusions base on the result and then validate the process.

5.3- Analyse stage

In the analyse stage the teams needs to brainstorm to arrive to a solutions to eliminate the root causes of the defect to the product or service and then analyse the solution using tools such as pareto to assess the processes controllability and cabability as well as its cost effectiveness.

5.4- Improve stage

This stage is where the process is transform into result. vital inputs have been established and root cause of the problem identified in the previous analyse stage it is then it evaluated on what will be the new improvement required and assessment made on how long will this improvement take basically is caring out cost and benefit analysis also in this stage the team start to come up with an implementation plan so as to assist the organisation to adjust the new improvement solution.

5-5- Control stage

In the control stage the teams aims at preparing the actions to maintain the gains that was a achieved in the prior stage. In this stage the team also needs to identify the opportunities to reproduce the gains again.

In the DMADV methodology of six sigma implementation the initial three steps are identical as those in the DMAIC methodology. However they differ in the final two stages which are Design and Verify for DMADV. In these two final stages the organization will design the details and then verify the design.

Challenges of implementing six sigma

However while there are many reward gain from the implementation of six sigma successful implementation is not easy and does not necessarily translate into instant results, the fact that implementing six sigma on less important project, that people are always resistant to change and the 100% commitment requirement of six sigma from employees are possible challenges that may hinder proper and successful implementation of six sigma.

Therefore in order to overcome these challenges of implementing six sigma there must be commitment and conviction of leadership support from top to bottom, availability of dedicated resource such as committing personnel to lead and mentor others in the project while focusing on process improvement on day to day basis, employee incentive so as to motivate them, proper and essential training of employees and finally commitment to communicate the progress and result of the project.

Conclusion

In conclusion we have seen that Six Sigma is a powerful tool or method that can reduces and eliminating defects in a process which does increases the long term viability of a business and therefore is a means of both growth and change.

It also shows that six sigma consist of three main elements which are meeting customer requirement (i.e. VOC) and satisfaction, process definition and measuring the process and finally building teams and employee involvement.

However just kicking off a Six Sigma program does not immediately guarantee results and that successes will takes time, but the chances can be successfully increase by team work and team effort.

As like any other process, Six Sigma also has some disadvantages but the return out weight the disadvantages and that there is no doubt regardless of how big or small organisation and business is it will definitely benefit from six sigma if implemented well.