Six Sigma Metrics And How to Devise Them

Six Sigma quality improvement techniques lay stress on the use of mathematical and statistical tools that help in developing better quality products and services suited to the needs and requirements of customers. The aim is to achieve near perfect business processes wherein the number of defects are reduced to 3.4 per million opportunities that exist for such defects to occur. Reduced defects naturally translate into better quality products or services, which in turn help in increasing customer satisfaction and promoting customer loyalty.

Creating and utilizing metrics is a part of Process Variation Control (PVC), which involves the use of statistical tools. The main aim is to decrease process variations by altering or modifying the various components or sub-systems of a business process.

Devising Six Sigma Metrics

Devising Six Sigma metrics is often quite difficult in real life situations, but the basic concepts can be easily understood. For learning the basic concepts, let us take the example of a simple process having just three main components or sub-processes. For making improvements in such a process, it is necessary to identify which sub-processes are related to each other or are having a positive correlation. It is also necessary to identify the negative or positive effects on a particular sub-process, which can happen when changes are made to other sub-processes.

Available Options

Composite Metrics: These types of metrics can be devised if the proposed quality improvement is to be carried out in a multivariate environment. Composite Six Sigma metrics help in calculating deviations in huge amounts of data collected over long periods such as a month. For accurate calculations, businesses need to ensure that data collected is free from errors.

Breaking Up The Process: To make things easier, it is always better to break a complicated process into simpler sub-process and then work on each on them by applying the metrics. This method is effective most of the times, but can create problems sometimes, especially when one is unaware of the logical connection between two sub-process breakups and their statistical correlation.

Employing DFSS: Design for Six Sigma (DFSS) scorecards can also be utilized for devising Six Sigma metrics. These are quite effective, especially when most of the parameters of a process are variable and when the deviation of each of these parameters is measurable.

For proper measurement of the deviations, it is necessary to analyze each one of the created metrics even if some of them are not being utilized. However, the important thing is that the overall process should not be overlooked while analyzing the metrics. Businesses also need to be aware that organization-wide metrics for calculating Cost of Poor Quality (COPQ) may not always give the desired results, especially when incorrect data is utilized for creating the metrics. For devising an effective organization-wide metrics, businesses have no other option other than to rely on advanced Six Sigma analytical tools and techniques.

Article Source: http://www.majorarticle.com

Tony Jacowski is a quality analyst for The MBA Journal. Aveta Solution's Six Sigma Online ( www.sixsigmaonline.org ) offers online six sigma training and certification classes for lean six sigma, black belts, green belts, and yellow belts.

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