A Manufacturer can provide a quality which is highly dependent on -
- The Suppliers and the suppliers of suppliers (reaching some times upto mining or extraction of a natural product)
- Clients and clients of clients. (going through value addition by clients, and moving through Distributors, Stockists and Retailers finally reaching the end user)
Somebody who is managing the supply chain has to manage the issues of quality and delivery across supply chain. This means he has opportunities if doing DMAIC and DFSS projects involving suppliers and intermediaries.
Some industries impose certain certification programs on suppliers – for example an automotive component supplier needs to have TS 16949 certification and his suppliers need to be ISO 9001 certified.
Similarly some other companies (as in electronic industry) have supplier approval and supplier assurance programs.
Some other industries are keen to know about labor practices, ethics, environmantal and safety consciousness of their suppliers (example – pharmaceutical industry)
All such programs can be complemented by Six Sigma because Continual Improvement is a requirement in all such programs. Six Sigma has now become synonymous with continual improvement.
Big improvements happen when we convert improvement opportunties into well defined projects, assign the right team members, have the right management support and approval and use a structured methodology (like DMAIC)
After tasting success with Six Sigma and setting their own house in order, many companies induce/ recommend/ suggest Six Sigma implementation in upstream and/or downstream companies.
Companies like GE induced many suppliers to use Six Sigma. Similarly automotive companies are training and developing their suppliers on usage of Six Sigma techniques, Banks are forcing their service providers to use Six Sigma in their BPO environments.
Common projects taken up are -
- Reduce cost without increasing delivery time.
- Reduce delivery time without increasing cost.
- Improve quality without increasing delivery time.
- Reduce delivery time without reducing quality.
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#1 by WPMixer on June 24th, 2010
Wise words, thx
#2 by Sreedha M on June 24th, 2010
What does it mean to be "Six Sigma"? Six Sigma at many organizations simply means a measure of quality that strives for near perfection. But the statistical implications of a Six Sigma program go well beyond the qualitative eradication of customer-perceptible defects. It's a methodology that is well rooted in mathematics and statistics.
The objective of Six Sigma Quality is to reduce process output variation so that on a long term basis, which is the customer's aggregate experience with our process over time, this will result in no more than 3.4 defect Parts Per Million (PPM) opportunities (or 3.4 Defects Per Million Opportunities – DPMO). For a process with only one specification limit (Upper or Lower), this results in six process standard deviations between the mean of the process and the customer's specification limit (hence, 6 Sigma). For a process with two specification limits (Upper and Lower), this translates to slightly more than six process standard deviations between the mean and each specification limit such that the total defect rate corresponds to equivalent of six process standard deviations.
Many processes are prone to being influenced by special and/or assignable causes that impact the overall performance of the process relative to the customer's specification. That is, the overall performance of our process as the customer views it might be 3.4 DPMO (corresponding to Long Term performance of 4.5 Sigma). However, our process could indeed be capable of producing a near perfect output (Short Term capability – also known as process entitlement – of 6 Sigma). The difference between the "best" a process can be, measured by Short Term process capability, and the customer's aggregate experience (Long Term capability) is known as Shift depicted as Zshift or sshift. For a "typical" process, the value of shift is 1.5; therefore, when one hears about "6 Sigma," inherent in that statement is that the short term capability of the process is 6, the long term capability is 4.5 (3.4 DPMO – what the customer sees) with an assumed shift of 1.5. Typically, when reference is given using DPMO, it denotes the Long Term capability of the process, which is the customer's experience. The role of the Six Sigma professional is to quantify the process performance (Short Term and Long Term capability) and based on the true process entitlement and process shift, establish the right strategy to reach the established performance objective
As the process sigma value increases from zero to six, the variation of the process around the mean value decreases. With a high enough value of process sigma, the process approaches zero variation and is known as 'zero defects.'
Statistical Take Away
Decrease your process variation (remember variance is the square of your process standard deviation) in order to increase your process sigma. The end result is greater customer satisfaction and lower costs.
#3 by Mike on June 24th, 2010
#4 by Wordpress on June 24th, 2010
lol, your sick!
#5 by WPBlog Shop on June 25th, 2010
If he is so smart, why he write books together with that useless freeloader Suzy Welsh?
#6 by Summit on June 26th, 2010
#7 by Mike on June 26th, 2010
Yes, that is indeed a number of questions. I'll do 5 for you.
5) Enterprise risk management (the big hint is that the word 'risk' is included in the question itself).
6) Just-in-time
7) Internet
10) Value chain (again, the word 'value' is in the question itself).
#8 by Free Blog on June 26th, 2010
He is brilliant, he donated all profits from his book to charity.
#9 by Anonymous on June 26th, 2010
thanks for the video. Being a student of Industrial Engineering this small video really helped me in understanding the 6 sigma concept.
#10 by Anonymous on June 26th, 2010
gotta love Jack
#11 by Anonymous on June 26th, 2010
Perfect professional role model for me. Any suggestions on how I can eliminate the variation on the career path please ? Suggested reading perhaps…
PS I’m serious
#12 by ik ben alphabetsoup on June 27th, 2010
#13 by Blogger on June 28th, 2010
Jack Welsh is a complete sleazebucket who fired normal people to feather his bed. He perpetuated a long running accounting and stock fraud with GE and paid so much in campaign contributions that in a number of years GE paid no taxes, but received billions from the government. He now lives like a drug lord and still pulls compensation from GE. Its good that he appears to have Alzheimer so now we won’t have to listed to his vacuous BS anymore.
#14 by Anonymous on June 28th, 2010
lol, I guess some times ,just sometimes variation is good ! for that I heard about that book “what color is your paraschute” I mean when it comes to career change.. another note :this looks like an interesting interview any chance someone can give access to the whole thing ..thanks
#15 by bluezephyr on June 28th, 2010
Many people use the MBA as a ticket to be hired. Your best choice (in my opinion) is to take the job and get them to pay for your certifications and your Masters degree. You also could also explore the various areas that you can apply your talents to. There are many interesting jobs in supply management, manufacturing management, quality, etc.