Six Sigma Tools

Six Sigma Tools are used to improve the processes and products of a company. They are applicable across every discipline including: Production, Sales, Marketing, Design, Administration and Service. Six Sigma Tools and techniques all are found in total quality management.

The Six Sigma approach is most helpful in a software development project in the concept and requirements gathering phase. Problem definition and stakeholder analysis provide great tools for developing the project concept. CTQ analysis helps in clearly identifying the requirements. This approach also ensures that the primary project focus is on the deliverables and not the technology. Process mapping plays an important part in any Six Sigma project. Mapping the process using Six Sigma Tools help in understanding the problem space and boundaries.

Most Six Sigma Tools are suited for discovering data relationships by quantitative or physical methods. Such relationships are typically represented as algebraic or other forms of equations. These equations define the relationships between the goal (Y) and the variables affecting it (Xs). In software development, data relationships are generally easily discovered via interviewing and process mapping. Data flow diagrams, entity relationship diagrams, and object models are commonly used tools to represent data in software projects. These diagrams represent the data that the software will manage, whereas the Six Sigma approach tries to find the data that defines the problem.

The one software development area where Six Sigma methodology falls short is in measuring a system architecture for quality. Peer reviews and simulations provide a way to review the quality of an architecture design with respect to the CTQs. However, these tend to be subjective in their approach and are not easily transferable from one project to the next. These approaches also do not ensure optimization.

Six Sigma Tools and techniques can be used to drive down disruptive variation in non-constraint system processes that either interfere with or waste the output of the constraint. Using the Six Sigma Tools and methodologies of Six Sigma, companies works with customers to define, measure, analyze, improve, and control day-to-day business processes. Rigorous Six Sigma Tools and methodologies help reduce variation in all processes by focusing on the customer.

Generally, Six Sigma Tools include:

• Brainstorming, this encourages open thinking and allows team members to build on each other’s ideas.
• Flow charts and process maps, which allow a team to identify the order of events in providing a product or service, uncover problems and compare the “ideal” work flow to what actually happens in the workplace.
• Pareto charts, which identify the critical few issues that impact cost and/or customer satisfaction.
• Root cause analysis, a method to help determine the true cause of problems.
• Control charts, a method to observe and improve process performance.

Traditionally, Six Sigma practitioners have used only discrete productivity Six Sigma Tools, such as drawing packages, spreadsheets, statistics packages and personal or workgroup databases—they have built their own Six Sigma processes around these tools. Six Sigma Tools use techniques such as FMEA, C&E Matrix, SIPOC and associated diagrams, including CT-Trees, Fishbone diagrams and Process maps. Six Sigma practitioners also rely upon templates for project selection, prioritization and charter definition as well as the application of project planning tools to create plans for process control, audit and data collection. Bringing all of these methods together, and integrating the Six Sigma information across them, can be daunting. For this reason, new Six Sigma tools are emerging in the marketplace.

Microsoft supplies a Six Sigma solution, but it hardly represents a major innovation. Microsoft has integrated existing tools such as Project, Excel and Access using Visual Basic scripts to provide a basic working Six Sigma Tools. The perceived weakness in such an approach has led others to go further. For example, SigmaFlow provides a dedicated, integrated, purpose-built environment in which to conduct Six Sigma projects. But such productivity based Six Sigma Tools, even though they are a major advance; do not close the loop to process execution. What Six Sigma practitioners want to do is insert new quality processes directly into live operations and use them to control the lifecycle of process improvement. For this reason some companies are experimenting with the integration of Six Sigma Tools with various kinds of business process management (BPM) solutions.

Many Six Sigma Tools require employees to map existing work processes, create new process-based designs, and apply various statistical and quantitative tools depending upon the context and other constraints.