Six Sigma Process Mapping

Motorola Mapping

Six Sigma is a series of practices formulated by Motorola to methodically improve processes by removing loopholes and defects. A defect can be described as discrepancy between a product or service and its specifications.

Six Sigma was highly inspired by a history of six decades of quality improvement practices such as quality control, TQM (Total Quality Management) and Zero Defects. But the details of the methodology were framed by Bill Smith at Motorola in 1986.

Six Sigma process mapping aims at the following:

Continual efforts to remove variation in process outputs from specifications, is pivotal to business success. Business and manufacturing processes can be fathomed, analysed, improved and monitored. Being successful at achieving considerable quality improvement, demands commitment from the entire company, especially from the top-level management.

The term Six Sigma refers to the capacity of effective processes to produce results within specifications. Besides Motorola, companies like Bank of America, General Electric, Merrill Lynch, Honeywell International have also adopted Six Sigma practices long back and continue to follow them till today.

There have been a few retail houses that have attempted to follow this methodology in their business with mixed results. So retailers have learnt from the mistakes of the retailers who were first to attempt this, and are modifying the methodology to conform to their company objectives.

The foundation of the Six Sigma methodology is a data-based, systematic approach to problem solving, with an eye on customer feedback. Statistical instruments and analysis are often used in the process. But the basis of Six Sigma methodologies is not entirely statistics.

Six Sigma has been used since long, in fields of business, engineering, and production, as a problem-solving practice.

Six Sigma emcompasses the instinctive knowledge of the worldwide process improvement practitioners.That knowledge is the simple one that things go wrong in business because processes have defects. Discovering a perfect process is a never-ending search. It is a process which delivers exactly what the customer wants, within the deadline set by customers and at a price the customers are willing to pay.

A defective process results in the delivery of a product that disappoints the customer or crosses the customer deadline. Once an analyst correlates the process defects with customer dissatisfactions, one can begin improving the imperfect processes to meet customer needs better. Six Sigma is nothing but one of the many methodologies or practices which can be used by an analyst to identify process loopholes, find ways of removing those loopholes and ultimately structuring better working ways.