Differences between Six Sigma and Japanese management models

Introduction to Six Sigma Management:

Six Sigma is a kind of implementation principles and technologies that can improve the quality of enterprise process management strictly, intensively and efficiently, with the perfect business pursuit of "zero defect", drive a significant reduction in quality costs, and ultimately achieve the improvement of financial effectiveness and breakthroughs in enterprise competitiveness.

Six Sigma Management Implementation Steps:

1. Define --- identify products or processes that need to be improved. Determine the resources required for the project;

2. Measure --- define defects, collect the performance of this product or process as the bottom line, and establish improvement goals;

3. Analysis--- Analyze the data collected during the measurement phase to identify a set of variables that affect quality in order of importance;

4. Improve --- optimize the solution, and confirm that the plan can meet or exceed the project quality improvement objectives;

5. Control --- ensure that process improvement can continue once completed and will not return to the previous state.

Philip Krausby, an American quality management expert who proposed the concept of "zero defects" as early as 1961, said: "When everyone agrees that mistakes cannot be avoided in the process of operation, the next step is to develop a number that allows errors." When the yield rate is set to be 85, it means that a mistake of 15 is allowed.

People who practice this kind of 'yield management' will tell you that it's not true, but it is. ”

In order to improve quality, the managers of the factory invented the "Six Sigma" management method. "Sigma" is a unit in statistics that represents the standard deviation from the mean. It can be used to measure the perfection of a process, showing how many lapses occur per 1 million operations.

1 sigma 690,000 turnovers million operations.

2 sigma 308,000 turnovers million operations.

3 Sigma 66,800 turnovers million operations.

4 sigma 6210 turnovers million operations.

5 sigma 230 turnovers million operations.

6 sigma turnovers million operations.

7 sigma, 0 turnovers, million operations.

Six Sigma is a data-based approach to quality that pursues almost flawlessness.

GE's "Six Sigma" management has a long reputation.

At GE, the best example of the Six Sigma approach is that of ED C, a subsidiary of GE. After six sigma entered the factory, the company used it to identify deep-seated quality problems that had long interfered with on-time delivery at the factory. At first, it was suspected that the circuit board was in short stock, so it was wanted to solve the problem by increasing the expected order, but later through investigation, it was found that the supplier had difficulty inserting diodes, transistors, and capacitors and resistors on the component board, and often broke the components.

The company used the "Six Sigma" tool to measure the error of the first business in the production process, and through the use of hierarchical management model diagrams, time model diagrams and other statistical tools, it was found that the crux of the problem was that the holes on the circuit board were too small, which in turn was caused by GE's own hole points being too small. Similar findings dramatically improve efficiency and reduce costs.

This is a quality management tool, and the accuracy of quality inspection has been achieved.

Six Sigma, also known as Six Sigma and Six Sigma, is a management strategy that mainly tends to quality management, and was proposed by Motorola in 1986. This strategy emphasizes setting extremely high goals, collecting data, and analyzing the results to reduce product and service deficiencies. The principle behind Six Sigma is that if you detect how many defects there are in your project, you can figure out how to systematically reduce defects and make your project as perfect as possible.

For a company to meet the Six Sigma standard, it must not have an error rate of more than one in a million.

Six Sigma management consists of two processes: Six Sigma DMAIC and Six Sigma DMADV, which are the two main steps in the process. Six Sigma DMAIC is the process of defining, measuring, analyzing, improving, and controlling items that are currently below Six Sigma specifications.

Six Sigma DMADV is the process of defining, measuring, analyzing, designing, and validating a new product or project that attempts to achieve Six Sigma quality. All Six Sigma projects are executed by Six Sigma Green Belts or Six Sigma Black Belts, who are then supervised by a Six Sigma Master Black Belt.

The Essence of Six Sigma Management Theory:

Sigma refers to the Greek Mother of Heaven" "It is a statistic in a statistical sense that describes the degree of dispersion of normal data, known as standard deviation. In the field of quality management, , average, and tolerance are often used together to indicate the level of quality control.

The sigma level is directly proportional to the quality control level and inversely proportional to the defect rate. In other words, the lower the level of sigma, the lower the level of quality control, the higher the product defect rate, and the lower the level of the enterprise to meet customer needs; Conversely, the higher the level of sigma, the higher the level of quality control, the lower the defect rate of the product, and the higher the level of the enterprise to meet customer needs.

Six Sigma theory is a management theory that pursues a near-perfect level of quality control, which requires customer-centric, project-driven, quantitative control indicators, and gives full play to the strength of employees within the organization to achieve comprehensive and leapfrog improvement of product quality control level.

Six Sigma management is a statistical evaluation method, the core of which is the pursuit of zero-defect production, prevention of product liability risks, cost reduction, increase productivity and market share, and improve customer satisfaction and loyalty.

Generally speaking, it contains the following three meanings:

1) It is a quality measure and the goal to pursue.

2) It is a set of scientific tools and management methods, using the DMAIC (improvement) or DFSS (design) process to design and improve the process.

3) It is a management strategy. 6 SIGMA management is to improve customer satisfaction while reducing operating costs and cycle of process innovation methods, it is to improve the quality of the operation of the core process of the organization, and then improve the profitability of the management mode, but also in the new economic environment of enterprises to obtain competitiveness and sustainable development ability of the business strategy.

Six Sigma is an implementation principle and technology that enables rigorous, focused, and efficient improvement in the quality of enterprise process management. It contains many pioneering achievements in the forefront of management, with the perfect business pursuit of "zero defect", driving a significant reduction in quality costs, and finally achieving a significant improvement in financial effectiveness and a major breakthrough in enterprise competitiveness.

Six Sigma management was first proposed as a quality improvement methodology. Most of the original tools it uses are designed to understand customer needs and then improve processes to be the first to reduce product defect rates. The traditional approach to other quality management improvements is to identify and correct defects – this is ineffective, does not eliminate waste, but simply avoids leaving defective products or services in the hands of customers.

The Six Sigma approach is very different from these in that it emphasizes first and foremost not creating defects. In short, neither approach will make the customer see the defects, but Six Sigma management can lead to significant savings by eliminating waste in the process.

It's important to note that after 20 years of evolution, Six Sigma practitioners today have a more holistic view of issues such as process performance and waste. Therefore, this approach should be considered a process improvement initiative today.

Six Sigma differs from previous methods such as Total Quality Management in that it requires the involvement of the organization's leadership team. In the past, when quality was improved, employees were asked to do more work. Employees make specific improvements, and the work of leadership and managers does not change.

So it's clear that this kind of implementation won't last long!

One of the key success factors for Six Sigma is the high level of involvement of business leaders and managers in the improvement process. When these people are closely involved in the project and use Six Sigma techniques and tools themselves, employees value them and are more likely to follow through on the measures over time.

Six Sigma is focused on improving core business processes, so it's first and foremost a management initiative. If companies fail to recognize this, they will only achieve limited success and end up with mediocre performance.