ARTICLES

Introspect Business Suite
Six Sigma Problem Solving Module

Overview
Six Sigma incorporates many of the lean manufacturing practices; the key difference is problem solving and measurement. DMAIC is used to improve an existing business process.
Basic methodology consists of the following five phases:

• Define - formally define the process improvement goals that are consistent with customer demands and enterprise strategy.
• Measure - to define baseline measurements on current process for future comparison. Map and measure the process in question and collect required process data.
• Analyze - to verify relationship and causality of factors. What is the relationship? Are there other factors that have not been considered?
• Improve - optimize the process based upon the analysis using techniques like design of experiments.
• Control - setup pilot runs to establish process capability transition to production and thereafter continuously measure the process and institute control mechanisms to ensure that variances are corrected before they result in defects.

There are two angles to problem solving namely the tools used such as fishbone diagrams, spider web analysis, 5Ys, etc. and tracking and managing the status of the project. The Action Tracker manages the people who are responsible for the various facets of a DMAIC process.

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