Six Sigma as a System of Management

Six Sigma as a system of management:

A significant difference between six sigma and seemingly similar programs of past years is the degree to which management plays a key role in regularly monitoring programs results and accomplishments. When Jack Welch introduced the Six Sigma program at GE, he told senior executives that 40% of their annual bonus would be based on their involvement and success in implementing six sigma.

That focused executive attention on turbo-charging six sigma in their individual divisions. Training in GE was given a huge boost, and thousands of teams were trained in large sessions. At the same time, executives throughout GE participated in days and sometimes weeks of Six Sigma training.

But training alone is not a management system. A management system involves accountability for results and ongoing reviews to ensure results. With both accountability and regular reviews, managers can begin to use six sigma as a guide to leading their business.

As a management system, though, six sigma is not owned by senior leaders (although their role is critical) or driven by middle management (although their participation is key). The ideas, solutions, process discoveries, and improvements that arise from six sigma take place at the front lines of the organization. Six sigma companies are striving to put more responsibility into the hands of the people who work directly with customers.

In short, six sigma is a system that combines both strong leadership and grassroots energy and involvement. In addition, the benefits of Six sigma are not just financial. People at all levels of a Six sigma company find that better understanding of customers, clearer processes, meaningful measures, and powerful improvement tolls make their work more rewarding.

Six Themes of Six Sigma:

The critical elements of Six sigma can be put into six themes as follows:

Theme one-genuine focus on the customer: companies launching six sigma have often been appalled to find how little they really understand about their customers. In Six sigma, customer focus becomes the top priority. For example, the measures of Six sigma performance begin with the customer. Six sigma improvements are defined by their impact on customer satisfaction and value.

Theme two- data and fact driven management: Six sigma takes the concept of "management by fact" to a new, more powerful level. Despite the attention paid in recent years to improved information systems, knowledge management, and so on, many business decisions are still being based on opinions and assumptions. Six sigma discipline begins by clarifying what measures are key to gauging business performance and then gathers data and analyzes key variables. Then problems can be much more effectively defined, analyzed, and resolved-permanently. At a more down-to-earth level,