Feature

The Six Sigma Syndrome

Six Sigma (6s) - a disciplined management methodology remains a mystical term in the corporate sector. The tool enables the organisation to continuously improve its work culture and processes. Saurabh Jaggi divulges ways of its implementation and benefits to the hospitality industry

Six Sigma (6s) - even after years of its existence and hundreds of articles splashed all over, remains one of the mysterious buzzwords in the corporate sector. The 6s team is an integral part of the quality set up in any organisation, aiming at establishing a continuous improvement culture. Which brings me to an interesting and unusual question - What is 6s? Is it a metric, a tool, a methodology or a discipline? The answer is - all of the above. Sigma is a Greek alphabet used to designate the distribution around the mean of any process. History: Six Sigma is a management tool developed by Motorola in the mid-1980s that helped it realise superior performance results in the organisation. GE, Allied Signals (now Honeywell), Ford, American Express, Chase JP Morgan followed suit and saved millions of dollars through this quality methodology. Mikel Harry who is also known as the Godfather of this methodology, though he did not invent it, is acknowledged as a leading authority in theory and practice. He is recognised for preaching and popularising it. While Dr Deming's theory of profound knowledge built management awareness and Dr Juran established the foundation of Quality Science, Dr Harry demonstrated how to transform theory into practice at companies like Motorola, GE and Allied Signal. The credit for assigning the name Six Sigma goes to a Motorola engineer named Bill Smith who worked with Harry at Motorola.

My past few years in this field taught me that it is a rigorous and disciplined data-driven approach to improve processes by reducing variation and eliminating defects from a product and/or service. It helps an organisation realise breakthrough achievements to do things faster, better and cheaper and most importantly aims at achieving and exceeding customer expectations. The bouquet of tools that are offered coupled with its approach make it different from the other methodologies that have been existing for some time. To put it in simple terms, it is a metric that indicates how well a process is performing. The higher the Sigma value, the better. The 3 commandments of this philosophy are: The Customer is the King In God only we trust, rest all gather data Variation is the enemy of all processes

Manufacturing, automobile, aviation, medical transcription, software, ITES, banks and even other financial institutions are following this methodology. Human Resources/ Personnel Accuracy of payroll Documentation management Reduce the turnaround time of recruitment Reduce the turnaround time of relieving Increase the employee satisfaction rate