Six Sigma GE

Six Sigma GE is described as: "The most challenging and potentially rewarding initiative ever undertaken at GE." Like many other practitioners of Six Sigma GE has benefited from applying Six Sigma to improve its manufacturing processes. But GE stands alone in it unique application of Six Sigma at the research and design phases with its Design for Six Sigma (DFSS) methodology.

The Six Sigma GE Quality Coach is an electronic performance support system (EPSS) designed to assist GE employees worldwide as they proceed through each step of the Six Sigma GE quality improvement process. It was deployed to remove the mentoring burden from the Six Sigma quality experts in each GE business, known as Black Belts and Master Black Belts, allowing them to return to their primary roles as quality leaders within each business.

The Six Sigma GE Quality Coach (SSQC) supports the users by taking them sequentially through the Six Sigma GE quality process in coaching/mentoring for project execution. It dynamically links Six Sigma methodology and tools with actual project experience. It is an easy-to-follow, multimedia mentor to help project teams through quality projects. It can answer questions about what process & which tools to use, when to use those tools, and how to use them.

DMAIC and DMADV road maps: Consistent with the quality process, the Six Sigma GE Quality Coach focuses on product/process quality improvement process (known as DMAIC) and product/process design process (known as DMADV). The typical Six Sigma GE Quality Coach user is a college educated, exempt professional with or without previous Six Sigma Green Belt training working in one of seventeen functional areas in any of the eleven major businesses that make up GE. Company for which he or she works – (need to confirm this). The Six Sigma GE Quality Coach database shows that there are over 12,000 active internal users worldwide.

Six Sigma GE goes beyond the standard Six Sigma methodology and tools to ensure that your results are accepted and sustainable. Six Sigma GE methodology is a five-phase disciplined approach for continuous process improvement.

• DEFINE: The Define phase in Six Sigma GE sets the expectations of the improvement project and maintains the focus of Six Sigma strategy on the customer's requirements. This phase identifies the product and/or process to be improved and ensures that resources are in place for the improvement project.
• MEASURE: The Measure phase identifies the key internal processes that influence critical-to-quality deliverables, metrics, or requirements (CTQs), and measures the defects generated relative to these identified CTQs. Defects are defined as out-of-tolerance CTQs. The end of this phase occurs when the Black Belt can successfully measure the defects generated for a key process affecting the CTQ.
• ANALYZE: The objective of this phase in Six Sigma GE is to begin to understand why defects are generated. Statistical tools are used along with extensive brainstorming sessions to identify key variables (Xs) that cause the defects. The output of this phase is the explanation of the variables that are likely to drive process variation the most.
• IMPROVE: The goal of the Improve phase in Six Sigma GE is to confirm the key variables and then quantify the effect of these variables on the CTQs, identify the maximum acceptable ranges of the key variables, make certain the measurement systems are capable of measuring the variation in the key variables, and modify the process to stay within the acceptable ranges.
• CONTROL: The objective of this final phase in Six Sigma GE is to ensure that the modified process now enables the key variables (Xs) to stay within the maximum acceptable ranges using tools such as statistical process control (SPC) or simple checklists.

According to Six Sigma GE: A highly disciplined process that helps us focus on developing and delivering near-perfect products and services. The word Six Sigma is a statistical term that measures how far a given process deviates from perfection. The central idea behind Six Sigma GE is that if you can measure how many “defects” you have in a process, you can systematically figure out how to eliminate them and get as close to “zero defects” as possible. Six Sigma has changed the DNA at GE – it is the way we work – in everything we do and in every product we design.”

GE defines six sigma as first as a management philosophy; a never ending to competitive leadership by satisfying customer requirements profitability. Second they define it as a measurement system; a measure of a processes inherent ability to meet customer requirements. In general six sigma is a statistical non-financial performance measurement at which you should design, operate, and control every process in your company in such a way that none of yield more than 3.4 defects per million units of output.

Six Sigma is a tool that measures in a clear, accurate, mathematical terms how good or bad their quality levels are, how much they can improve, and what progress they are making along the journey. On a global perspective, companies that have not begun their quality journey are around one or two sigma. The worldwide average is around three sigma. For example, the majority of the companies utilizing six sigma in India are at a low two sigma. An average domestic company is at three sigma, while a good company is at three and a half. Today GE is around three and a half with goals of reaching six sigma in the years to come.