2. A Brief History
Six Sigma became well known after Jack Welch, who made it a
central focus of his business strategy at General Electric in
1995, and today it is used in different sectors of industry.
Later, the Six Sigma processes were adopted at the General
Electric Corporation. Jack Welch said: "Six Sigma changed the
DNA of GE."[ The Six Sigma process requires 99.99967% error
free processes and products, (or 3.4 parts per million defects or
less). Without the Six Sigma process controls, it may not have
been possible for John F. Mitchell to launch the Iridium satellite
constellation,
3. What is Six Sigma
A quality-control program developed in 1986 by Motorola it
emphasized cycle-time improvement and reducing
manufacturing defects to a level of no more than 3.4 per million.
Six Sigma at many organizations simply means a measure of
quality that strives for near perfection. Six Sigma is a
disciplined, data-driven approach and methodology for
eliminating defects (driving toward six standard deviations
between the mean and the nearest specification limit) in any
process from manufacturing to transactional and from product to
service.
4. Why Six Sigma?
• Increase profitability
• Increase customer satisfaction
• Higher product quality
• Improve employee performance
• Reduce defects in production
5. Theoria Motus Corporum Arithmeticae
• Carl Gauss, a German mathematician, published "Theoria
Motus Corporum Arithmeticae." In this book, Gauss
introduced the concept of the bell curve, a shape that can
often represent the variation that occurs in a controlled
process. In order to study further about the topic he
defined variations , Variation is defined as deviation from
expectation.
9. DMIAC project methodology
Define the
problem: the
voice of the
customer, and
the project
goals, specifically
MEASURE :key
aspects of the
current process
and collect
relevant data
ANALYZE :the
data to
investigate and
verify cause-and-
effect relationship
Improve :optimize the
current process
based upon data
analysis using
techniques such
as design of
experimentations
CONTROL :he future
state process to
ensure that any
deviations from
target are corrected
before they result in
defects
10. Toshiba before Six Sigma
• Faced first net loss in 23 % in the year 1999
• Reduced size of management
• “Toshiba is a second tier company”- John
Pritchard
11. After Six Sigma Implementation
• $1.3 billion in savings in
2000
• Was able to complete MI
campaign in 2001
• Improved training processes
• A Greater technique of
technological assimilation
lead to new innovation
12. Toshiba is now big on Six Sigma
Toshiba started “Management Innovation Campaign in 2001, having Six Sigma as a core methodology. MI
2001 campaign was initiated to execute three pillars of Toshiba’s Management Innovation:
(1) improvement of the management mechanism,
(2) structural reform of the business,
(3) reform of Toshiba’s corporate culture.
We mainly used DMAIC to solve the current problems, and for new process or product creations, Toshiba
developed its unique DFSS (Design for Six
Sigma) approach called DFACE. Toshiba is promoting this MI activities for whole Toshiba group wide
including domestic and overseas subsidiaries, that is in China, in Asia, in
America and in Europe with communicating common words. Both DMAIC and DFACE are convenient
methods for solving important issues. But, the most important thing is how to build these methods into the
company and how to manage them for solving business issues and achieve the business goal.