Six-Sigma Approach

In addition to the standard approaches of knowledge transfer the use of lean six sigma approaches, for instance value stream approaches and process flow charts can facilitate better understanding by the receiving site of both the technical facets of the method and the critical order of the key steps of the method (in an analogous fashion to process understanding assessments). 

Six-Sigma Approach Product quality specifications continue to become more stringent as a result of market demands and intense worldwide competition. Meeting quality requirements is especially difficult for products that consist of a very large number of components and for manufacturing processes that consist of hundreds of individual steps. For example, the production of a microelectronic device typically requires 100 to 300 batch processing steps. Suppose... 

In the mid-1990s the six sigma approach was developed and can be seen as one of the most recent approaches to center all statistic-based information of control mechanism with the aim of deriving potentials and target for quality assurance and improvement (Fig. 3). 

The DMAIC procedure is combined with ideas specific to product design to create a methodology that assists in applying the six-sigma approach to product design. Again, a five-step procedure is recommended... 

The Six Sigma approach is composed by five steps, i.e. the DMAIC algorithm (Fig. 1) Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve and Control. 

The Six Sigma approach starts from the near misses detection and then goes back to their potential root causes (Fig. 3). This path could be done through three... 

Figure 2. Comparison between traditional and six sigma approach to problem solving.

Use of a TQM or Six Sigma approach in an organization requires changes in the way people plan, organize, and accomplish work. Everyone in the work group can contribute to improving results, including safety. Effectiveness results from broad participation. 

Six Sigma is a philosophy relating to defects based on a normal distribution but has become synonymous with the development of structured approach to the improvement of organisational systems and processes, using total quality management techniques. Staff can be trained as black belt facilitators of the six sigma approach. 

If your organization uses the Six Sigma approach to quality management, the use of a variation of the PDCA known as DMAIC can be used. DMAIC is a more advanced approach than the traditional PDCA. 

Six-Sigma approach of DMAIC [14], The DMAIC model includes five phases ... 

These examples demonstrate that for complicated products or processes, 3a quality is no longer adequate, and there is no place for failure. These considerations and economic pressures have motivated the development of the six sigma approach (Pande et al., 2000). The statistical motivation for this approach is based on the properties of the normal distribution. Suppose that a product quality variable x is normally distributed, N x, a ). As indicated on the left portion of Fig. 21.7, if the product specifications are x 6a, the product will meet the specifications 99.999998% of the time. Thus, on average, there will only be two defective products for every billion produced. Now suppose that the process operation changes so that the mean value is shifted from x = x to either x = [x + 1.5a or X = [X - 1.5a, as shown on the right side of Fig. 21.7. Then the product specifications will still be satisfied 99.99966% of the time, which corresponds to 3.4 defective products per million produced. 

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