21 Sep 2010 – The Standard
Businesses all around the world look for prosperous and healthy growth. It’s crucial for bosses and employees always to equip themselves and get a good grasp of what can bring growth momentum to the company.
Six Sigma is one of the strongest tools in building great businesses in various industries and saving billions for international companies.
Originally developed by Motorola, Six Sigma is a business management methodology used to identify and remove the causes of defects and variability in business processes, which in turn improves the quality of process outputs.
As companies achieve higher sigma levels, the defective percentage is reduced significantly, eventually reaching 0.00034% at the sixth sigma level.
Later on, Lean Six Sigma is developed with the integration of Six Sigma Methodology and Lean manufacturing. Derived from the Toyota Production System, Lean is a production practice renowned for its focus on reduction of the original waste to improve overall process operations and customer value.
Sigma Breakthrough Technologies, Inc. (SBTI) provides management consulting to companies in order to optimize business performance by advancing them to best-in-class results in revenue growth, cost reduction, new product development and process improvement. The company delivers these top and bottom line results for customers through training and project management.
How does it work?
Certainly, the effect of consulting will be maximized if the whole company is dedicated to achieve the goals. To achieve this, SBTI also organizes training for company employees. Cream employees will be picked, and together they will be trained up to use a set of quality management methods and follow a defined sequence of steps to carry out process improvement projects.
According to Dr. Y.K. Chan, Managing Director of SBTI-HK, there are five phases in the massive project. The DMAIC sequence will lead to a major boost in boost in business performance. Starting with D, a company needs to define their business opportunities such as the aim to increase market share of their hero product or service.
“What comes next is data gathering. It’s important to find out the root causes that affect particular business performance. This involves measurement of the current situation and steps into the M stage,” Dr. Chan said.
As major parameters are identified, step A should be taken. Analysis is needed for a company to know what’s going to help with the situation. This is then followed by I, the stage at which practical measures are adopted to optimize the improvement.
“Take an easy example; when you have to prepare a cake, what you need to know are the factors that would allow you to produce delectable cake constantly with promising quality. It might be the amount of egg yolk, flour, butter and sugar, cooking temperature, etc. With these factors in mind, a company would then be able to product yummy cakes,” he explained.
But the last step lines in C, representing control and monitoring which can sustain a desirable business performance. Risk management is involved in this step as well.
In the long progress to achieving great success in the company, SBTI will provide professional consulting based on Six Sigma methodology to top management in the company and offer extensive guidance to employees who are taking part as leaders in the process improvement projects.
Six Sigma courses for individuals are also available as programs offered in local universities. Interested individuals are welcome to join open classes conducted by the Six Sigma Institute which is highly recognized in Asia and the mainland.
