7) Knowledge Management and Six Sigma: Exploring the Potential of Two Powerful Disciplines, Paige Leavitt
1) Six Sigma should not be viewed as a quality program that is commissioned to reduce defects but as a methodology that helps companies better meet the needs of their business. KM shares this goal.
2) Voice of the customer in the DFSS process is also a potential area for a collaboration of ideas. “In Design For Six Sigma, knowledge of the customer-centric requirements is a key input … to the design process,” said O’Dell. “And if you could use knowledge management tools to better understand what the customer is saying to sales people and service people, that information comes back to the folks who can make a difference in the design process.”
3) APQC's Lessons Learned
"The problems, issues, and opportunities in organizations are not about reducing defects; they are about responding to new opportunities, using the voice of the customer knowledge," said O'Dell. "With both Six Sigma and KM, I’m telling you that you’re going to get more of what you want - if you begin to open the conversation to a different way of thinking about solving some of these problems over the long term. Because both Six Sigma and KM have tremendous power, they also have some issues that they need help with."
Professionals in both arenas can learn from each other. Six Sigma can learn from KM how to recognize knowledge, as well as processes. Joseph Hofer-Alfeis from Siemens said, "Six Sigma is oriented to the quality of products and processes. If you think of a knowledge-intensive business, 'Six Sigma for knowledge quality' -- the quality of the proficiency, the quality of knowledge flows, and the quality of description knowledge -- should also be a ...
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...nage the targeted process (e.g., an insurance sales agent or supervisor), while otherswork to support the process
(e.g., an information technology expertwho provides support to the insurance claimsprocess).Unique project teamsare put together for each of the projects, and disbanded after these projects are completed, handing off resulting improvement-actions to process owners—people who routinely operate the processes.
5) Although each project has different objectives and specific tools employed, overall these projects follow a standardized, structured five-phase project management approach known as ‘‘DMAIC’’ for
Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve and Control phases (Schroeder et al., 2008).
6) Project leaders are trained in the use of practices for collecting, combining, and synthesizing the knowledge of team members for use in process improvements (Hoerl, 2001).
Now, let’s recap a little about Six Sigma and how it operates. This set of quality management tools uses data that reduces defects. The methodology steps in Six Sigma are knowns as: define, measure, analyze, improve, and control. This process is known as the DMAIC system. Each step in this process will help everyone improve the quality of any product. These vital steps make Six Sigma a great tool. Six Sigma achievement happens when the process produces less than 3.4 defects per million opportunities. This quality practice is now used in many companies across the globe.
Sitnikov, C. (2012). Six sigma as a strategic tool for companies. Young Economists Journal / Revista Tinerilor Economisti, 94-102.
Lean Six Sigma is a methodology that creates processes within an organization to cut waste and improve the company’s performance. However, studies have shown that over the past decade applying Lean Manufacturing and Six Sigma can create problems for companies financially and potential problems for employees. Companies should take great care before implementing a Lean Six Sigma solution because in some instances, going lean can do more harm than good both financially for the organization as well as destroying employee loyalty and moral.
Sigma is known for its multinational clientele (Ferrell & Hartline, 2014, p. 461). The area in which Sigma marketing targeted was very much limited in how the area served, only covered a radius approximately 30 miles around the city of Streator and had a number of major manufacturing plants that were potential users of substantial quantities of printing (Ferrell & Hartline, 2014). Sigma provides quality and service despite the limited uniqueness of the company. Signa will have to utilize innovative techniques and skills to tap into areas that its competition has not conjured up or thought of. Furthermore, they need to ensure that they utilize developing products that could potentially differentiate them and give them a strategic competitive advantage.
According to what we have learned in class, six sigma, statistically, is interpreted as having no more than 3.4 defects per million. However, they dump 10-12 dough balls per week, while 5-6 is more reasonable, which illustrates the quality mismanagement. So, the food cost there is way higher when it accounts for 38%, while industry ideal is 30%. In order to streamline the entire process of making pizza, it is an imperative for Pizza My Heart to exhaustively put six sigma in action.
The Six Sigma approach was designed by Motorola in 1986. The primary objective of the concept was to develop a tool for tallying the process defects and, as the result, improving business operations. The foundations of the approach are the customer needs, statistical analysis of data and facts, and timely execution. The method promises numerous benefits such as increasing performance and profitability of an organization, improving product or service quality and employee morale, decreasing costs, the growth of market share, the higher level of satisfying customer needs, etc. (Meredith & Shafer, 2013). The primary advantage
Bose, R. & Sugumaran, V. (2003) Knowledge and Process Management: Journal of Corporate Transformation, 10(1), 3-17
T.D. Wilson (2002) makes a point of identifying several sources of articles, references and course syllabi with varying takes on knowledge management within organizations. Wilson is convinced that organizations misuse the terminology “knowledge management” and that their activities are more concerned with managing information than with the management of knowledge (Wilson, 2002). Wilson defines knowledge as involving “the mental processes of comprehension” or, as “what we know” and information as the expression of what we know and can convey through messages (Wilson, 2002). By researching the use of the “knowledge management” Wilson conveys that the terms knowledge and information are used interchangeably, which results in an inaccurate application
Smithfield Foods is a forward-thinking company that likes to be the industry leader. The main way to for them to achieve and maintain this goal is to utilize both the Six Sigma and lean philosophies. Merging lean with Six Sigma provides the company “a richer set of tools, particularly those associated with the define, measure and analyze phases. Likewise, the lean tools nicely complement the traditional Six Sigma tools and methodologies” (Meredith, p. 198). Smithfield needs the help of employees to keep these process improvements in motion and to make sure the improvements that have been implemented are actually effective. Thus, always working towards their goal of producing “Good food, responsibly.”
(106) 'Knowledge management means using the ideas and experience of employees, customers and suppliers to improve the organisation’s performance. ' (5) Knowledge management (KM) is best when 'it is in alignment with organizational culture, structure and strategy ' (5). For this reason, the aim of this briefing document is to advise Santander on solutions to potential KM barriers employees may face by discussing three key barriers- culture, technology and leadership.
Motorola has implemented a six-sigma program for them to improve quality. This helped them with the numerous complaints that were received by field sales engineers because of quality defects. In 1986, the six-sigma methodology was used to address quality concerns. This led Motorola to set the goal no more than 3.4 defects per million opportunities. Using Six Sigma, the processes were documented, and measure and analysis systems were installed to continuously improve the process. “The six sigma evolved from its roots as a measure of quality to an overall business improvement methodology and to what it is today at Motorola- the next generation Six Sigma is an overarching high performance system that executes business strategy” (McCarty, 2004). Tom McCarty, senior management has created a balanced scorecard of strategic goals to identify the improvement points that will have the most effect on the organization’s bottom line. Second, customer focus teams are formed and empowered to take action. Third, the team uses an action-learning framework to build their capability and execute the project. Finally, all projects are carefully reviewed in the context of process metrics and business outcome goals (McCarty, 2004).
Hansen M., Nohria N., and Tierney T. (1999), “What’s your Strategy for Managing Knowledge?,” Harvard Business Review (March 1999), 106–16.
In most organizations, effective utilization of knowledge increases productivity, creates competitive advantage and, ultimately, improves profits.
Manufacturing sectors have experienced a dramatic increase in adoption of lean six sigma activities over the past decade. Many environmental professionals view the increased popularity in Lean six sigma activities as an opportunity to reduce our environmental impact and sustain our environment for future generations.
Lean and Six Sigma are two methodologies that industries use that rely on the improvement of performance by removing waste and reducing variation in the manufacturing processes. Sometimes industries pay their employees to take a Lean Six Sigma course to better improve the company's performance and make profit. However, some companies think Lean Six Sigma have no effect whatsoever in their process. Through this research, the effectiveness of Lean Six Sigma will be questioned and it will be shown whether if it improves performance in organizations and to what magnitude does it improve it.