Inspiring Business Confidence.

Bring Quality Near Perfection

with Six Sigma
enquiries@parkersolutionsgroup.co.uk
www.parkersolutionsgroup.co.uk

Define, Measure, Analyse, Improve and Control your way

to success!
Has your company ever implemented a quality initiative that failed? Quality initiatives often are seen by
executives as a financial burden and by employees as a way to make them work harder. Is this true?
How can organisation benefit from implementing a quality initiative successfully and how can they do
that? Which initiative has proven to be successful when implemented correctly? Six Sigma!
Six Sigma is a management philosophy which aims at improving the business performance by eliminating
defects. This methodology was first introduced by Motorola engineers during 1980s, more specifically
Mikel Harry studied variation and together with other engineers used different tools to improve the
processes with the most variation. Six Sigma soon became a powerful methodology used by world
class organisation to improve their business processes. Six Sigma was made famous by General
Electric, who experienced multiple successes due to an effective implementation of the methodology.
Six Sigma is a methodology for process
improvement which tends to make
organisations effective and efficient by
keeping customers and employees satisfied.
This management philosophy uses the
DMAIC methodology as a roadmap for
problem solving and process improvement.
Each phase of the DMAIC methodology
usually follows the order define, measure,
analyse, improve and control. However,
sometimes the project must be re-defined,
re-measured, and re-analysed after the
data collected has been analysed. The
methodology can only proceed to improve
and control phases once the Six Sigma
team has come to a final project definition
Data-based decision making is one of the most important elements of the Six Sigma methodology.
Even though the fear of using and applying statistics might sometimes make organisation not undertake
this initiative, it is clear that data-based decision making helps in taking better decisions. Professionals
should overcome the barrier of learning statistics and remember that it is used to describe, compare,
and relate the data. The path of learning can be easier if one understands the correlation between the
three and then focuses on advanced statistical methods.
Many organisation get to see the performance of different processes when sigma performance is
calculated. Research shows that the sigma performance is usually lower than expected. What makes
Six Sigma the ultimate methodology is the fact that achieving a 6 sigma performance means having
only 3.4 defects in a million opportunities, which is close to perfection. Airplane industry is the only
industry to have a better performance than 6 sigma in terms of flight crashes. Research shows that
in a million flights there are less than four crashes. Traveling by plane is safer than traveling by train,
bike, car or ship. In addition, research shows that the luggage process is a three sigma process, which
means that out of million pieces of luggage, the airplane will lose, misplace, misdirect, mishandle, or
delay 66,807 pieces.

Lately, the uncertainty on whether Six Sigma is the greatest management philosophy has grown.
Executives tend to undertake other initiatives with the excuse that many companies have failed with
Six Sigma. What they fail to realise is that Six Sigma can be implemented incorrectly just like any other
initiative. There are many factors that affect the success of the project and they include:
Senior Management Involvement - is crucial for the success of a
Six Sigma project as that is the only way for the executives to see Measurement is the first
where the problems derive from. Executives can select projects step that leads to control and
and teams, approve improvement ideas, resolve conflicts, provide eventually improvement. If
you cant measure something,
the resources for the project, and review the projects.
Six Sigma Infrastructure Creation makes resource allocation for you cantunderstand it. If you
process improvement efficient. Research shows that failure to cant understand it, you cant
create a suitable organisation infrastructure can lead to project control it. If you cant control
it, you cant improve it. H.
failure.
Education and Training is a key factor for the successful James Harrington
implementation of Six Sigma. Training the team members will
reduce the chance of project failure. Preferably, all employees of
the organisation should have some sort of awareness training so that they can get involved in the
project whenever necessary.
Effective use of Six Sigma tools will allow the Six Sigma team to implement the project correctly. It
is important that employees that undertake the training are those with strongest technical and social
skills.
Project Management Skills are highly important when implementing a Six Sigma project. The
project team should be able to overcome the obstacles and achieve the project objectives on time
and within the planed budget.
Communication in Six Sigma projects is a substantial factor to facilitate the change without much
resistance.
Some of the reasons why Six Sigma has prospered include bottom line cost reduction, improved customer
and employee satisfaction, improved product or service quality, and process improvement through a
common language throughout the organisation. As mentioned above, world class organisation such as
Motorola, General Electric, Allied Signal, Dell, Amazon.com, United States Army, Boeing, Ford Motor
Company, and so on, have benefited from Six Sigma implementation. Motorola saved $17 billion from
the implementation of Six Sigma, General Electric saved $750 million by making Six Sigma their quality
culture, and many millions more were saved by organisation and institutions worldwide.
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International Organisation for Standardization has created ISO 13053 which serves as a guideline for
process improvement. ISO 13053 describes the methodology for process improvement also known
as Six Sigma. This methodology aims at improving the business performance by eliminating defects
and waste. Six Sigma can make your organisation efficient by generating higher profits. With ISO
13053 you ensure that quality within the organisation is near perfection. This international standard
adopts the process model Define-Measure-Analyse-Improve-Control (DMAIC) which is applied to
the structure of all the processes in a management system.
Implementing standards such as ISO 13053 is crucial for organisation that want to improve their
business performance. The organisation implementing Six Sigma will remain competitive due to the
reduction in their costs. Growing competition will make Six Sigma crucial for business sustainability,
and as such the need for qualified personnel on implementation and audit of ISO 13053 will keep
increasing.
PECB (Professional Evaluation and Certification Board) is a certification body for persons on wide
range of international standards. It offers Six Sigma trainings to help you achieve your business
objectives and reach process efficiency while having satisfied customers. Successful ISO 13053
training completion validates your knowledge in developing a Six Sigma project. It proves that you
understand the Six Sigma tools and concepts, and that you are capable to improve organisation's
bottom line. This training suits quality professionals, project managers or consultants wanting to
prepare and to support an organisation in the implementation of a Six Sigma project. In addition, ISO
13053 training can also be followed by auditors wanting to perform and lead Six Sigma audits, and
staff involved in the implementation of the ISO 13053 standard.
ISO 13053 and Six Sigma Trainings offered by Parker Solutions Group:
Certified ISO 13053 Lead Implementer (5 days)
Certified ISO 13053 Lead Auditor (5 days)
Certified ISO 13053 Foundation (2 days)
ISO 13053 Introduction (1 day)
ISO 13053 Lead Auditor, ISO 13053 Lead Implementer and ISO 13053 Master are certification
schemes accredited by ANSI ISO/IEC 17024.
Lorika Bina is the Quality, Management and Risk (QMR) Product Manager at PECB. She is in charge
of developing and maintaining training courses related to QMR. If you have any questions, please do
not hesitate to contact her at qmr@pecb.org.
For further information, please visit www.pecb.org/en/training or www.parkersolutionsgroup.co.uk/
training/index.php
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