[...]... evolution of Six Sigma is continuing with, for example, the integration of Lean Principles, development of a product/service variant (Design for Six Sigma) amongst others (De Mast, 2006) Download free ebooks at bookboon.com 12 Six Sigma 2.3 Background and History Deinition of Six Sigma Before we study the subject of Six Sigma in any depth, we need to deine the term Perhaps unusually, Six Sigma has 3... Six Sigma 3.6 Summary Six Sigma has the potential to contribute to an organization in a range of ways; the common approach of focusing on inancial measures alone misses some of the more important but less easily measurable aspects Figure 3.7 Impact on competitiveness versus diiculty for various Six Sigma approaches Download free ebooks at bookboon.com 23 Why Six Sigma? Please click the advert Six Sigma. .. exacerbates the potential ‘them and us’ attitudes of the Six Sigma evangelist If you see life in this binary fashion those outside the Six Sigma cadre will, at best, be ambivalent and at worst hostile Inclusivity is the key at both strategic and project levels Download free ebooks at bookboon.com 28 Six Sigma Six Sigma: Key Strategic Concepts he irst thing in almost every text book or article on Six Sigma is... indicated their interest in making Six Sigma their management philosophy of choice While many of the businesses attempting to implement Six Sigma are well intentioned and want to implement Six Sigma properly just as General Electric did, there are also those impatient executives who now look on Six Sigma in the same way as they look on downsizing his quick-ix approach to Six Sigma is a sure path to the same... advert Six Sigma Download free ebooks at bookboon.com 24 Six Sigma Six Sigma: Key Strategic Concepts 4 Six Sigma: Key Strategic Concepts here are a number of important concepts which have come together in the modern Six Sigma philosophy hese are summarised in this chapter in order to provide a sound basis for the discussions in later chapters 4.1 Six Sigma is Strategic Historically, initiatives centred... free ebooks at bookboon.com 11 Six Sigma 2.2 Background and History Six Sigma: The Next Evolution here are those who will tell you that Six Sigma is radical and new he fact is that Six Sigma (done properly) is a recognisable evolution of TQM De Mast (2006) sees it as an on-going phase in the evolution of methods and approaches for quality and eiciency improvement Six Sigma can be seen as the accumulation... right and the beneits will follow Download free ebooks at bookboon.com 29 Six Sigma Strategic Six Sigma 5 Strategic Six Sigma 5.1 Introduction In order to be efectively implemented, Six Sigma needs to be treated as a strategic priority To understand what this means we need to deine some terms: Strategy Strategic Management Six Sigma has oten been used efectively as a tactical approach to address some... placed upon Six Sigma programmes he sub-sections below address the potential answers to the question; ‘Why Six Sigma? ’, and draws on the work of Henderson and Evans (2000) who investigated the GE experience in some detail 3.2 To Improve Financial Performance and Proitability Bob Galvin (then Motorola president) was reputed to be the man who began the Six Sigma revolution by issuing a Six Sigma Challenge’... development is suggested and it is recognised that the current status quo is unlikely to be permanent Download free ebooks at bookboon.com 13 Six Sigma Why Six Sigma? 3 Why Six Sigma? 3.1 Introduction here can be few initiatives which have been trumpeted as loudly as Six Sigma; few where the claims have been so extravagant; and few which divide the quality community so completely While this section does not,... now generally accepted that Six Sigma is applicable to various environments such as service, transactions or sotware industry regardless the size of the business (Pande, 2002; Lee, 2002) and being adapted Six Sigma may lead to nearly perfect products and services Moreover, Six Sigma is widening its areas of application very rapidly and there are examples of applying Six Sigma to predicting the probability . free ebooks at bookboon.com 2 Graeme Knowles Six Sigma Download free ebooks at bookboon.com 3 Six Sigma © 2011 Graeme Knowles & Ventus Publishing. 22 3.6 Summary 23 4 Six Sigma: Key Strategic Concepts 25 4.1 Six Sigma is Strategic 25 4.2 Six Sigma is About Customers 26 4.3 Six Sigma is About Variation