Working Papers

Strategic planning as applied to Six Sigma involves detailed and systematic planning in areas of concern that have far-reaching and tactical implications at the project selection stage. The purpose of strategic planning is to develop relevant decisions and actions that guide successful Six Sigma implementation. Read more...

By Forrest W. Breyfogle III

It is essential to weigh the advantages and disadvantages of training methods that lead to certification and implementation of Lean Six Sigma and related methodologies. This is necessary for any organization to ensure alignment not only with all operational processes, but equally important, the entire enterprise. Read more...

By Peter Galuszka

The financial industry seeks new business models to regain profitability with intense focus on quality through “Six Sigma” management. Read more...

By George Byrne, Dave Lubowe and Amy Blitz

This research (.PDF) and experience shows that the right operations strategy can help companies make innovation a regular occurrence. Such a strategy, if focused not just on efficiency but also on growth, can serve as a foundation for innovation throughout an organization – far beyond operations to products, services, markets and even a company’s underlying business model. Simply put, this sort of strategy is not about doing things better; it is about doing better things.

Six Sigma is a rigorous and disciplined methodology that uses data and statistical analysis to measure and improve a company's operational performance by identifying and eliminating "defects" in manufacturing and service-related processes. Commonly defined as 3.4 defects per million opportunities, Six Sigma can be defined and understood at three distinct levels: metric, methodology and philosophy...
Read more...

Six Sigma makes use of a great number of established quality management methods that are also used outside of Six Sigma. This document shows an overview of the main methods used.

By T. Snyder

Lean manufacturing is a management philosophy focusing on reduction of the seven wastes (Over-production, Waiting time, Transportation, Processing, Inventory, Motion and Scrap) in manufactured products or any type of business.
The five core concepts of lean are:
1. Specify value in the eyes of the customer
2. Identify the value stream and eliminate waste
3. Make value flow at the pull of the customer
4. Involve and empower employees
5. Continuously improve in the pursuit of perfection.

This is an excellent presentation (.Pdf) which describes:
1. The origins of Lean and Six Sigma,
2. What makes Lean Six Sigma effective,
3. How organizations are implementing it,
4. Some keys to success.

DMADV methodology is a key element of the Six Sigma approach. It not only provides the framework for setting up new business processes, but also for redesigning processes that have reached their inherent performance limits. Read more...

Six Sigma and improvement approaches such as CMM, CMMISM, PSPSM/TSPSM are complementary and mutually supportive. Depending on current organizational, project or individual circumstances, Six Sigma could be an enabler to launch CMM®, CMMISM, PSPSM, or TSPSM. Or, it could be a refinement toolkit/methodology within these initiatives. For instance, it might be used to select highest priority Process Areas within CMMISM or to select highest leverage metrics within PSPSM. Read more...

By Robert Tripp

Kaizen is seductive and efficient. It can deliver results quickly and on a significant scale, utilize the collective insight and experience of those who know most about the process and inspire employees with a relentless curiosity about and discomfort with waste, defects and constraints to throughput. But it is also overrated.
Six Sigma, or DMAIC, can assist in filling the gap that Kaizen fails to address. Six Sigma is not a substitute for Lean and does not necessarily cultivate a learning culture. It is effective in supplying the analytical discipline and rigor necessary to thoroughly understand the nature of processes and problems. Read more...

By Nayantara Padhi

Total Quality is a description of the culture, attitude and organization of a company that strives to provide customers with products and services that satisfy their needs. The culture requires quality in all aspects of the company's operations, with processes being done right the first time and defects and waste eradicated from operations. Read more...

By Lance Gibbs and Tom Shea

Lean Six Sigma (LSS) and Business Process Management (BPM) have much to contribute to each other. Unfortunately, most companies have not integrated these initiatives successfully - inhibiting companies from realizing the full potential of their process improvement efforts.
Why the disconnect? On the LSS side, most teams are taught that technology is not the solution to process problems - and so BPM efforts are dismissed as just more technology that cannot help
the LSS efforts. While it is true that BPM has a technology component, LSS teams would benefit greatly from better leverage of BPM capabilities and methodologies. Similarly, most BPM teams,
and, specifically, most BPM vendors, have little understanding of LSS techniques and how assets produced by LSS teams could help drive more successful BPM projects. In fact, the decomposition and statistical techniques of the LSS methodology are often viewed by BPM teams as overly complex and needlessly time consuming.
Read more...(.PDF)

Six Sigma employs a structured approach to problem-solving and requires the management of projects which have the potential of having significant impact on the business. To maximize the benefits of these projects, it is necessary to provide an infrastructure that facilitates the adoption of Six Sigma across the organization, manage individual projects, share information effectively and manage financial information in such a way as to gain acceptance on an enterprise-wide basis.

Six Sigma I: An Introduction
Six Sigma II: Innovative Quality
Six Sigma III: Value Based Strategic Sourcing
Six Sigma IV: Achievement

By Thomas Pyzdek

Six Sigma is a rigorous, focused and highly effective implementation of proven quality principles and techniques. Incorporating elements from the work of many quality pioneers, Six Sigma aims for virtually error free business performance. Sigma, s, is a letter in the Greek alphabet used by statisticians to measure the variability in any process. A company's performance is measured by the sigma level of their business processes. Read more...

A recent survey published in the November/December issue of iSixSigma Magazine shows that most companies using Six Sigma think they are on the right track. Around 50% of the respondents using Six Sigma said they would maintain their current level of training and staffing for 2007, according to Michael Marx, research manager for iSixSigma Magazine.

Nearly 1,500 professionals from a broad range of companies took part in this survey. More than one third of the respondents expected to increase the training investment. Nearly 50 percent of those surveyed said they intend to increase the staffing level. Now contrast this with firms that are already involved in Six Sigma. Only 17 percent of the respondents whose companies are already involved in Six Sigma expected to spend less on training, and just 8 percent expected staffing levels to decrease.