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Home > Consulting > Operational Excellence > Six Sigma

Six Sigma

What is Six Sigma?

There are a lot of books that describe HOW to implement Six Sigma, but few give concrete definitions for what Six Sigma actually is. Some are:

"The application of advanced statistical methods to produce revolutionary improvements - not incremental - in Quality and Performance."

"A comprehensive and flexible system for achieving, sustaining and maximizing business success. Six Sigma is uniquely driven by close understanding of customer needs, disciplined use of facts, data, and statistical analysis, and diligent attention to managing, improving, and reinventing business processes."

Here at the Institute, we have a simple definition for Six Sigma:
"The radical reduction of variation in a process that yields significant time based improvements in Quality and Performance."
We believe in the power of Six Sigma because we are trained in and practitioners of its tools. We also know that most companies are not having the kind of success with Six Sigma that they should be.

Three simple reasons for this situation exist:

1. Leadership wants the "end" that Six Sigma delivers but is unwilling to learn and commit to the "means" necessary to making it work. Culture is how your people think and get things done. If we "know" but fail to "do" the seeds of organizational fracture are planted - in Priority Thinking® we identify and avoid this error.
2. Statistical Competence is lacking. Many Six Sigma initiatives fail to develop the primary core competency of applied statistics in their key people, and this failure limits greatly the power of Six Sigma to reveal its full benefits. Many "certified" black belts lack the depth of knowledge and practice to apply the benefits that statistical methods bring to Six Sigma.
3. Compensation is not connected to the significant cost saving opportunities of Six Sigma. The compensation of leaders and black belts must be aligned to support the Six Sigma "means" as a way of producing the "ends" otherwise known as improved Quality and Performance.

Discover the power of Six Sigma applied through Priority Thinking (PT). Priority Thinking lays the foundation for making Six Sigma work in a way that is aligned to the basic priorities all organizations should practice.

Why do priorities help to keep your Six Sigma initiatives fresh and focused on what is most important?

Our PT system helps business leaders keep their focus on the basics of sustained value creation. Six Sigma is an operational excellence tool that can give businesses significant cost advantages in their markets. When Six Sigma is applied through our PT model, common sense prevails and the rational application of these tools makes sense. Why? Because basic priorities are being addressed, enabled and sustained that are good for the employees, customers, shareholders and the broader community.

What is unique about approach to Six Sigma through PT?

We help organizations to apply the concepts and the statistical methods of risk theory in a way not commonly understood or acknowledged. Risk in current Six Sigma methods is embodied in the 1.5σ (sigma) shift. In classical statistics, 6σ (Six Sigma) equates to about 2 PPB (parts per billion). But in the Six Sigma world, the impact of the 1.5σ shift is that the process now yields a 3.4 PPM (parts per million) non conforming rate. We help organizations to understand the power of Six Sigma to impound risk into their process improvements as well as how to apply advanced statistical methods to address the Respondable Risks in their business.