I want to mention that I have been
hearing about Six Sigma around the office a lot. The foundation of
SixSigma is a process-improvement methodology geared at reducing
variability and defect in business management.
I didn’t really understand what the buzz about Six Sigma was so I did
a little research and Wikipedia unveiled the 2 core foundations behind
Six Sigma
"Methodology
Six Sigma has two key methodologies: DMAIC and DMADV. DMAIC is used
to improve an existing business process; DMADV is used to create new
product or process designs.
DMAIC
The basic methodology consists of the following five steps:
DEFINE process improvement goals that are consistent with customer
demands and the enterprise strategy.
MEASURE key aspects of the current process and collect relevant data.
ANALYZE the data to verify cause-and-effect relationships. Determine
what the relationships are, and attempt to ensure that all factors
have been considered.
IMPROVE or optimize the process based upon data analysis using
techniques like Design of Experiments.
CONTROL to ensure that any deviations from target are corrected before
they result in defects. Set up pilot runs to establish process
capability, move on to production, set up control mechanisms and
continuously monitor the process.
DMADV
The basic methodology consists of the following five steps:
DEFINE design goals that are consistent with customer demands and the
enterprise strategy.
MEASURE and identify CTQs (characteristics that are Critical To
Quality), product capabilities, production process capability, and
risks.
ANALYZE to develop and design alternatives, create a high-level design
and evaluate design capability to select the best design.
DESIGN details, optimize the design, and plan for design verification.
This phase may require simulations.
VERIFY the design, set up pilot runs, implement the production process
and hand it over to the process owners. "
If you scrolled through all of that without reading it, I understand.
But if we think about our product as our case competitions and events
and our customers as our members, BC is just like any other business.
The reputation of BC also depends heavily on our employee-customer
interaction. I’m still plowing through "Human Sigma." Its a pretty
interesting read, and a great resource about improving the
effectiveness of customer service. Remeber, one bad interaction can
not only drive away that member for good, but it can also drive away
that member’s 5 friends.
