“Quality” isn’t merely a set of standardized numbers. It denotes the degree to which a product or service meets the needs of the consumer.
Six Sigma uses a bell curve to calculate deviations, encouraging the company to accept just 3.4 errors per million steps. As a result, good implementation may enhance company operations such as manufacturing, financing, human resources, and project management, among others. It emphasizes on producing “quality” products that leads to the highest level of client pleasure.
With the help of lean six sigma black belt training, organizations can get acquainted with the six sigma methodology that focuses on decreasing “waste” via the use of a mix of statistical and managerial techniques. Companies may use these technologies to create customer-friendly goods and services.
Any material or procedure that is used in excess of what is necessary in the delivery of a product or service is considered waste. Since these undesirable materials or procedures may only add to total costs or time delays, it’s critical to keep them to a minimum.
As a result, waste management is an important factor to consider if you want to increase your company’s efficiency. Waste management entails the following steps:
- Recognizing the many sorts of waste
- Determine the rate at which the business can minimize waste.
- The measures that the firm must take in order to succeed
Waste and Importance of Six Sigma
Waste of any form functions as a dead-weight, slowing down a project. When a process, product, or input fails to create value, it should be removed and replaced with something that will help the project reach its full potential. Under these conditions, required tools must be implemented, with Six Sigma being one of the most popular. Six Sigma is already being used by an increasing number of businesses to identify and remove waste.
Six Sigma’s DMAIC technique is one of the most prominent approaches for identifying wastes and inefficiencies in your business. This strategy focuses on removing inefficiencies and replacing them with new ways to save you money on disposal expenses.
However, you must first determine your waste reduction rate.
Ascertaining the waste reduction rate
The waste reduction rate is a measure of how effective your organization is at decreasing waste.
You should be aware of some of the advantages of understanding how much garbage your firm produces. Understanding the impact of waste on your business allows you to:
- Determine the company’s disposal expenses.
- Calculate the amount of time it takes to complete a task.
- Calculate the amount by which the project’s budget is exceeded.
- Determine whether inventory operations are superfluous, and so forth.
The waste reduction rate shows you how far you’ve come in terms of cutting down on waste.
The waste reduction rate may be expressed mathematically as:
- Waste reduction rate=Wasted Raw Material in a given period ÷ by Wasted Raw Material in the preceding period × by 100.
You must gather data from the past year as well as the current year. You must guarantee that the information is correct and comes from reputable sources.
Types of six sigma wastes
Understanding the sort of wastes you’re working with is essential for effective waste management.
Wastes are divided into eight categories, as follows:
- Zero value processes
Six Sigma focuses only on the processes that improve product quality. You may consider a step “waste” if it contributes nothing important to the process.
It is simple to remove these steps from your process without affecting quality. One Six Sigma tool that might be utilized here is Value Stream Mapping. Analyzing all of the phases allows you to see the sections that are wasting time and money while providing little value to the overall process.
- Overproduction
When you manufacture more things than the market demands, you are only squandering the resources and work invested. This is seen as a waste by Six Sigma since it includes excessive inventory holding expenses that add no benefit to the product’s quality.
You may prevent this by using “the pull system,” a Six Sigma method. This tool pushes you to only produce when there is a market need. This allows you to plan and estimate production plans while also reducing unnecessary inventory expenditures.
- Motion
Any stage in a process where there is unnecessary motion causes a time lag and incurs transportation expenses for the organization.
A production engineer, for example, may be travelling back and forth with his team to grab a few tools or paperwork. If they are within their grasp, they can prevent undesired moves.
This kind of motion is considered a Six Sigma waste since it adds to the cost and time.
- Inventory
This waste has nothing to do with overproduction. Overproduction immediately increases your storage and shipping costs. Inventory waste takes up space and may need the hiring of additional personnel for safety and transportation reasons. This category also includes the storage requirements for damaged items that cannot be discarded.
You may reduce this waste as a manager by effectively predicting demands and enforcing a disciplined manufacturing procedure.
- Transportation
You may wind up carrying a product needlessly owing to an unanticipated procedure. Delivering goods to the incorrect address is a typical example. Due to data inaccuracies, you were forced to ship and absorb all transportation charges, which added nothing to the consumer value.
- Defects
Product defects contribute to inventory waste. Scrap or faulty items can tarnish the company’s reputation among its consumers. These are simple to locate and define.
- Unutilized employee talent
Any ability is considered a waste if it is not used effectively and in a timely manner. It occurs mostly as a result of a company’s lack of training facilities or motivated leadership.
Organizations must foster an environment that encourages innovation. It’s a fantastic approach to find a never-ending supply of new and unexplored ideas.
Conclusion
Six Sigma is a dynamic tool that should only be used by six sigma certified experts who have completed globally recognized lean six sigma black belt training. They know how to use a variety of instruments and procedures to come up with the finest ways to get rid of this waste. DMAIC, a series of five step procedures that helps you detect waste, is the core technique. It also analyzes and measures the issue using technologies like value stream mapping, 5 WHY analysis, Just in time, and other tools.
