Six Sigma
Strategic Goals
Strategic
Values are the shared beliefs concerning the long-term direction and
end results of the organization. A strategic value defines how an
organization views itself or wishes to be perceived by its customers
or clients. These shared beliefs guide on-going activities and
decisions. Organizations have relatively few strategic
values.
The following
are examples of TQ / Six Sigma Strategic
values:
·
Customer-service oriented
·
Shared decision-making
·
Continuous learning
organization
The Six Sigma
Strategic Goals involve the use of statistical tools within a
structured, disciplined methodology for gaining the knowledge needed
to produce better quality products and services faster and at
significantly lower costs by reducing variation, rework, scrap,
waste, downtime, and other losses. The key success factor for
Six Sigma Strategic Goals is people’s beliefs, values and attitudes
toward it.
Six Sigma
Strategic Goals build a measurement system based on robust
capability, with a mix of linked financial and non-financial
measures, and is now seen as creating opportunities for a company's
performance breakthrough. The use of the Six Sigma Strategic Goals
approach has led to a strong focus on performance indicators over a
broad range of elements of business strategy, a focus that has taken
business metrics from being a measurement system to being
measurements which capture the system of the business, and offers
improvement measures that capture progress towards world class
performance.
The Six Sigma
Strategic Goals provide with a five-step process designed to take
performance in production, quality and support systems to
unprecedented levels of customer satisfaction. Many of the tools
used in the Six Sigma Strategic Goals have been used in the past,
but the focus on improving processes to Six Sigma levels leads to
break through progress beyond what has previously been achieved.
With the Six Sigma Strategic Goals it is possible to measure the
degree of process variation, evaluate the process, and identify
areas where improvements would increase product consistency and
reliability.
The Six Sigma
Strategic Goals involve a series of steps that are designed to lead
a team through the gauntlet of process
improvement:
DECIDE: Step 1
in the process is to establish a Leadership Team that will decide
the project on which to work. Key considerations include cost
benefits, customer expectations, product quality enhancement and the
ability of the team to have a positive impact on the
process.
MEASURE: In
Step 2, the team examines all aspects of the project, develops a
thorough understanding of it, and identifies the critical
requirements and processes. Once this is done, the team defines
performance measures for key characteristics, and establishes an
effective means of measuring them. Measurements are then taken, and
data collected, to establish the existing process
capability.
ANALYZE:
Progressing to Step3, the team analyzes the results of this
collected data and lays the groundwork for improving the process.
This analysis includes identifying and quantifying the source and
location of defect-causing variables within the process.
IMPROVE: Step 4
requires the team to identify process improvements based on the
collected data and analyses, design a plan of action, perform risk
assessments on the potential changes, implement the plan, and
monitor the results of the recommended
changes.
CONTROL: During
Step 5, the team reviews the entire process to ensure the
appropriate changes have been made and to identify the actions that
will permanently maintain those changes. Here, steps are taken to
establish the “new process” as standard practice.
