By Forrest W. Breyfogle III

Which companies will be around in ten years? The certainty of any response to this question has probably changed during recent years. Will your corporation face problems similar to those of Enron or K-Mart? Many enterprises need to readdress how they measure and make improvements within their organization. Companies need to seek ways to replace fire-fighting activities with a focus on fire prevention. To realize a maximized performance, they now are looking at a new approach to execute Six Sigma.

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Motorola invented Six Sigma in the mid-1980s as a method to improve quality. It is now a methodology that employs data analysis and statistics to quantify and maximize an organization's return on investment through the designation and removal of "defects" ("Six" Sigma is 3.4 defects/million opportunities) in manufacturing and service-driven practices.

In the mid-1990s, General Electric took Six Sigma to new heights when it created "black belts," full-time Six Sigma practitioners, and "champions," who serve as a liaison between the executive team and the black belts, helping to define projects and remove barriers. This approach to implementing Six Sigma involves the use of statistical and non-statistical tools within a structured environment for the purpose of creating knowledge that leads to higher quality products in less time than the competition. The selection and execution of project after project, which followed a disciplined Define-Measure-Analyze-Improve-Control (DMAIC) execution, led to significant bottom-line benefits for GE.

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Many other large and small companies have followed GE's example by deploying various versions of Six Sigma. More recently, companies have started focusing on the implementation of Six Sigma in the development process; this effort is known as Design for Six Sigma (DFSS).

The S⁴/IEE approach

In order to take both Six Sigma and DFSS to new heights, Smarter Solutions, Austin, Texas, developed the Smarter Six Sigma Solutions (S⁴) or Integrated Enterprise Excellence (IEE) methodology. The S⁴/IEE approach allows users to get out of the firefighting mode and provides a structured system to measuring and improving the workflow through integrating lean techniques, and Six Sigma techniques.

Organizations need to operate in a framework that leads to the right activities in their day-to-day operations. These activities involve doing the right things, as well as doing things right. However, management often unconsciously asks the wrong question of its employees. When this happens, employees can waste a lot of resources answering the wrong question.

All managers within an organization need a system that helps them determine what questions to ask their employees, including the type of answers the employees should provide. As a result, a system needs to be created that not only uses data to make the right decisions for the organization, but also makes meaningful data available in a form that is useful to divisions throughout the supply chain.

Within an S⁴/IEE management system, satellite-level and 30,000-foot-level metrics are created and tracked. This approach leads to measuring the organization as a system at different levels, which are aligned.

Long-term improvement opportunities to the overall system can, as a result, be easily identified and scoped as S⁴/IEE improvement projects. Trained practitioners can then follow a structured roadmap for executing S⁴/IEE projects, which can involve quality maximization and cycle time reduction that minimizes waste within an organization.

At both the satellite and 30,000-foot project levels, voice of the customer (VOC) issues need to be addressed. At the satellite-level , a system that captures and tracks the true VOC is required. This involves more than just sending out survey forms that people may or not answer. It entails the creation of a meaningful customer feedback process, which encourages activities that are aligned with the needs of both internal and external customers. This information can come from several sources, which can lead to the formulation of an improvement process, improvement projects, or new product development opportunities through DFSS.

Producing an efficient system to track the effectiveness of meeting customer needs at the satellite- and 30,000-foot-levels is not easy. However, after a VOC scheme is established, systems can be created to help track and report these metrics, along with other meaningful metrics, which are aligned with the needs of the business enterprise as a whole.

Development of a bowling ball

The integration of lean and Six Sigma statistical techniques within a product DFSS environment can be illustrated through the development of a bowling ball.

Basically, an eight-month development process of bowling balls is to be reduced. A time value diagram with calendar times and work times is constructed, where calendar time and actual work time is noted within each activity.

An S⁴/IEE team is next assigned to reduce the overall development time of this process, leading to almost a two-month decrease in the development cycle time. This is achieved by combining two prototype definition steps through Design of Experiments (DOE) statistical techniques, where many variables can be considered at one point in time. This DOE application step addresses the optimization of the bowling ball core and shell requirements simultaneously. The DOE approach, unlike the one-at-a-timemethod,dealswithfactor-interaction possibilities. Furthermore, by considering manufacturing factors within this development DOE, a ball with less variability is produced.

Becoming learning organizations

About the author
Forrest W. Breyfogle III is president and CEO of Smarter Solutions, Inc. in Austin Texas.  He earned a master's degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Texas – Austin.  Breyfogle is the author of Implementing Six Sigma 2nd Edition, for which he received the 2004 Crosby Medal. For more information on Forrest and Smarter Solutions Inc., please visit www.smartersolutions.com.

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