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The Six Sigma Way

Statistics - How much do we need?
Why do we need statistics at all?   Why not just use the old adage - ‘if it ain’t broke - don’t fix it’?   Why not just fix any problems as they occur?  Actually, that is what most organizations have been doing with their Business Intelligence assets.   

First of all - our business intelligence assets are just too important to take such a half baked approach.   How do we even know that we have a product which is serving the needs of the organization?  

What do the statistics tell us?   How do we know how much of this rigorous approach we should  apply?  How much statistics is enough -- and when have we ‘gone too far’?    Can we go too far?  We have to measure the value received from the statistics and the rigor of the methodology just like anything else.   Yes, we can go too far and get lost in the process without adding much value toward our objectives.  Applying metrics and carefully auditing and measuring these BI assets takes time and money.  That time and money could be spent directly  on a BI product.  Spend the resources wisely  and effectively.

In order to get the best Business Intelligence possible - we need to understand what that is.  

The questions which the statistics should be answering for us are:

Six Sigma has evolved over the last two decades and so has its definition. Six Sigma has literal, conceptual, and practical definitions. At Motorola University, we think about Six Sigma at three different levels:

As a metric
As a methodology
As a management system
Essentially, Six Sigma is all three at the same time.

Six Sigma as a Metric
The term "Sigma" is often used as a scale for levels of "goodness" or quality. Using this scale, "Six Sigma" equates to 3.4 defects per one million opportunities (DPMO). Therefore, Six Sigma started as a defect reduction effort in manufacturing and was then applied to other business processes for the same purpose.

Six Sigma as a Methodology
As Six Sigma has evolved, there has been less emphasis on the literal definition of 3.4 DPMO, or counting defects in products and processes. Six Sigma is a business improvement methodology that focuses an organization on:

Understanding and managing customer requirements
Aligning key business processes to achieve those requirements
Utilizing rigorous data analysis to minimize variation in those processes
Driving rapid and sustainable improvement to business processes
At the heart of the methodology is the DMAIC model for process improvement. DMAIC is commonly used by Six Sigma project teams and is an acronym for:

Define opportunity

Measure performance

Analyze opportunity

Improve performance

Control performance
Six Sigma Management System
Through experience, Motorola has learned that disciplined use of metrics and application of the methodology is still not enough to drive desired breakthrough improvements and results that are sustainable over time. For greatest impact, Motorola ensures that process metrics and structured methodology are applied to improvement opportunities that are directly linked to the organizational strategy.

When practiced as a management system, Six Sigma is a high performance system for executing business strategy. Six Sigma is a top-down solution to help organizations:

Align their business strategy to critical improvement efforts
Mobilize teams to attack high impact projects
Accelerate improved business results
Govern efforts to ensure improvements are sustained
The Six Sigma Management System drives clarity around the business strategy and the metrics that most reflect success with that strategy. It provides the framework to prioritize resources for projects that will improve the metrics, and it leverages leaders who will manage the efforts for rapid, sustainable, and improved business results.
  

Motorola, Inc. invented Six Sigma, and we have learned a great deal about it over the last 18 years. During that time, Six Sigma has evolved from its roots as a measure of quality to an overall business improvement methodology and to what it is today at Motorola – a fully integrated management system.
In 1986, Bill Smith, a senior engineer and scientist within Motorola’s Communications Division, introduced the concept of Six Sigma in response to increasing complaints from the field sales force about warranty claims. It was a new method for standardizing the way defects are counted, with Six Sigma being near perfection.
Smith crafted the original analysis and tools that were the beginnings of Motorola’s Six Sigma methodology. He took his ideas to CEO Bob Galvin, who was struck by Smith’s passion and came to recognize the approach as key to addressing quality concerns. Six Sigma became central to Motorola’s strategy of delivering products that met the high quality standards our customers deserved.
Following a common Six Sigma methodology, Motorola began its journey of documenting key processes, aligning these processes to critical customer requirements and installing measurement and analysis systems to continuously improve the process.  
 
 
 
 
 
 
   
 
 

Introduction

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