Typical Six Sigma Opportunities
What are classic Six Sigma opportunities?
In general Six Sigma's thorough and analytical approach is best applied to costly problems with no know solution. It can be applied to transactional or manufacturing processes:
Manufacturing Opportunities
Low Yields
High Customer Returns- Defects that require extra inspection in or out of your plant
- High Scrap or Rework rates
- Production below expectations
- Non-customer driven overtime
- Downtime
- Premium Freight costs
Transactional Projects
Long customer wait times
- Long processing time
- Errors in transaction
- Paperwork cycle time
History and Six Sigma Usage
History of Six sigma
Six Sigma finds its roots in Carl Frederick Gauss (1777-1855) who introduced the concept of the normal curve. Then in the 1920’s Walter Shewhart showed that 3 sigma was a key process correction point. It was a Motorola engineer named Bill Smith who coined the term "Six Sigma". (Incidentally, "Six Sigma" is a federally registered trademark of Motorola). When the Japanese took over a television-manufacturing unit of Motorola in 1970, the idea was advanced, and under Motorola’s Chairman Bob Galvin the methodology was further developed and given the emphasis to change the culture. With this cultural shift of Six Sigma, Motorola documented more than $16 Billion in savings as a result of Six Sigma.
Since then, hundreds of companies around the world have adopted Six Sigma as a way of doing business. This is a direct result of many of America's leaders openly praising the benefits of Six Sigma -- leaders such as Larry Bossidy of Allied Signal (now Honeywell), and Jack Welch of General Electric Company. Six Sigma has now evolved into a philosophy of doing business.
References:
Six Sigma is currently benefiting thousands of companies across the world including Motorola, GE, Toyota, Bank of America, Lear, Textron, JPMorgan, Citigroup, Merril Lynch, Washington Mutual, FleetBoston, Capital One, BlueCross & BlueShield.