Green, R. (abril, 2004).
Six Sigma for dummies: how the nonexpert can use Six
Sigma successfully. 89th Annual International Conference Proceedings (AR26700)
E-01
Ron R. Green
Six Sigma for Dummies: How the Nonexpert Can
Use Six Sigma Successfully
Anyone who has heard of six sigma has likely
also heard of its heavy reliance on statistics.
You may have heard that there are “belts” that
experts in the six sigma have earned. Or, you
may have heard that it can only work in large
organizations.
There is some truth in all of these
statements. However, six sigma does not have to
be this mysterious force only wielded by people
with advanced degrees in statistics. With a little
help, the nonexpert can use the tools and, more
importantly, the methodology to solve many
business problems.
WHAT IS SIX SIGMA
History
Six sigma was developed and pioneered by Mo-
torola in the 1980s. It was developed as a result
of a correlation that Motorola discovered: The
products with the lowest in-factory defect rates
also had the highest customer satisfaction. In
other words, if they made a product that didn’t
require rework in the factory, it was also more
likely to not be returned by the customer. Out
of this grew the methodology and statistical rig-
or that we associate with six sigma today.
In the years that followed, several other large
companies realized the power of six sigma and
began adopting the methodology. Companies
such as AlliedSignal (now Honeywell), General
Electric (GE), and Sun Microsystems have
incorporated six sigma into their way of doing
business.
While six sigma is relatively new, the
concepts at its core and many of its tools have
existed for a long time. To name a few, control
charts were developed by Shewhart in the 1920s,
histograms and Pareto charts were made popular
by total quality management (TQM) in the 1970s,
and fishbone diagrams were created by Ishikawa
in the 1940s.
Six Sigma – Tool, Metric, and
Methodology
What makes six sigma different from past ef-
forts? Six sigma can be viewed as a collection
2004 International Conference Proceedings, © 2004 APICS—The Educational Society for Resource Management
of tools, a metric, and a business methodology.
As a collection of tools, you can make a very
convincing argument that there is nothing new
in six sigma that you couldn’t find somewhere
else. However, six sigma is more than a collec-
tion of tools.
As a metric or goal, a six sigma process is
one where only 3.4 defects are generated per
million opportunities (to make a defect). Most
business processes operate at three or four sigma
rather than six sigma. See Figure 1.
Sigma Level Defects per Yield
million
opportunities
1.0 690,000 31%
2.0 308,000 69%
3.0 66,800 93.3%
4.0 6,210 99.4%
5.0 320 99.98%
6.0 3.4 99.9997%
Figure 1. Sigma Level and Process Yield
What is wrong with a 93 percent or, better
yet, a 99.4 percent process? Two things: (1)
There are many services where customers
expect a much better yield (airplane safety,
electricity service to our homes), and (2) most
of our processes have more than one step. Take
a simple five-step process and assume that each
step yields 93.3 percent. The overall yield of
this process is only 71 percent (0.933 X 0.933
X 0.933 X 0.933 X 0.933). In other words, just
71 percent of items processed go through the
system without being reworked.
Six sigma is also a powerful business
methodology and concept. It is built upon
three major concepts: (1) Understand what your
customer wants, (2) variation causes defects,
and (3) the output of a process is a function
of the process’ inputs. These three concepts
are encapsulated in the define measure analyze
improve control (DMAIC) approach. (See
Figure 2.)
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 Six Sigma for Dummies: How the Nonexpert Can Use Six Sigma Successfully

What happens in this step

DEFINE what’s important Identify the opportunity; scope the problem
MEASURE how we’re doing Baseline the current process
ANALYZE what’s wrong Identify root causes
IMPROVE by fixing what’s wrong Prioritize, plan, and test potential solutions
CONTROL to guarantee sustained results Put plan in place to maintain the gains
Figure 2. DMAIC Explanation
Six Sigma Deployment Thought process maps also help us to make
There is nothing inherent in six sigma that pre- our assumptions explicit. Implied assumptions
cludes it from being adopted by small and me- are the downfall to many projects, particularly
dium-sized organizations. In practice, most of when different people on the team have different
the major victories with six sigma have come assumptions.
from larger companies, and, therefore, most of Many teams/projects are started without a
the literature is biased toward a deployment in clear definition of the problem statement and
this environment. However, for an investment therefore lack clarity about what to do to solve
of under $2,000 and a dedication of roughly 40 the problem. Anyone should be able to pick up a
hours of training, any organization can bring the thought process map and understand where the
six sigma methodology into their company. project is, where it is headed, and what problem
it is trying to solve.
SIX SIGMA’S BASIC TOOLS Process Maps
There are number of basic six sigma tools that, Just about everything can be described as a pro-
with a little practice, are easily mastered by the cess. Our working definition of a process is
nonexpert. Among the tools are thought pro- something that transforms inputs into outputs.
cess maps, process maps, fishbone diagrams, and See Figure 3.
cause and effect matrices.

Thought Process Maps

Thought process maps, also known as thought
maps, are an important tool that helps to organize
your thoughts, communicate your direction, and
make your assumptions explicit. However, one
of the most important reasons to use thought
process maps is that they help to prevent serial
thinking. Too often, we approach problems and
their solutions as if there is only one way to re-
solve them.
Thought process maps can take a variety of
forms. The key components are
• non-sequential
• contains questions to be answered
• answers to questions are added
(as discovered)
• living document.
Primarily, the thought process map exists as
a roadmap of where your project is headed. This
does not mean that thought maps and project
plans are interchangeable. A thought map is a
roadmap of your thoughts—things you want to
understand more about and data that you need
to capture.
Figure 3. Elements of a Process
A process does not have to be documented
to be a process. In fact, you learn a lot more
about how a process works by watching it in
action versus reading about how it’s supposed
to work.
The process map is used to identify
process steps, inputs, and outputs. It is used to
determine the important inputs that contribute
to the process’ outputs. Later, tools will
use these inputs and outputs to find and fix
problem areas.
As mentioned above, process maps should
be used to show what really happens—not how
it’s supposed to happen. The activities that are
often not part of the as written procedure but
happen nonetheless are called the hidden factory.
The hidden factory can be defined as the often
overlooked capacity and resources that get used
up to do rework and other non-value-added

2004 International Conference Proceedings, © 2004 APICS—The Educational Society for Resource Management 2
 Six Sigma for Dummies: How the Nonexpert Can Use Six Sigma Successfully
activity. The hidden factory also includes work
and resources that are not typically considered
by upper management when they think about a
given process.
Process maps can be completed at a variety
of levels within the organization, starting with a
high-level process map. The high-level map may
just include one process step with a number of
important inputs and outputs to the process as a
whole. Depending on the level of detail required
to identify and then solve the problem, we can
continue to dive into ever-deeper process maps.
See Figure 4.
Figure 4. Can Process Map at
Varying Levels of Detail
Fishbone Diagram
Up until now, we’ve identified a problem, we’ve
given some structure to how we’re going to pro-
ceed with our project (thought process map),
and we’ve mapped the process. Now we will use
a tool called fishbone (or Ishikawa diagram) to
identify potential causes of our problems. The
tool gets its name from the resemblance to a
fish’s bones with the problem under investiga-
tion as the “head” of the fish.
A fishbone diagram has several parts (see
Figure 5):
• problem statement
• four or more categories to classify potential
causes of problem
o manufacturing (manpower, methods,
materials, machinery, Mother Nature)
o service or administrative (equipment,
policies, procedures, people)
• varying levels of (potential) causes that are
grouped under the above categories.
2004 International Conference Proceedings, © 2004 APICS—The Educational Society for Resource Management
In the absence of data, it’s often easier to sit
a group down and brainstorm potential causes
before developing a fishbone diagram. There
are fewer interruptions to the creative process
that way. As the brainstorming activity starts to
dwindle, you can introduce the fishbone. As you
start to move your brainstormed list of potential
causes to the bones of the diagram, you will
usually generate some more causes. Let the
categories help guide you. If there aren’t a lot of
“methods” causes, ask the question, “What other
procedures or methods (ways of doing things)
can cause this problem to occur?”
At this point, you can begin to dive deeper
into the identified causes by asking, “Why does
this happen?” Continue to ask “why” for each
of these sub-causes. When to stop asking “why”
is an art more than a science. There are two rules
of thumb to consider.
Stop asking why when:
• The cause is controlled by a level of
management more than one level of
management removed from the group.
• The reasons why start to get fuzzy (the
knowledge is contained outside your group).
Ideally, there is some evidence or data
to support the causes that get identified. If
collecting the data is impractical, rely on your
experts’ knowledge of the process. Let this be a
last resort, however. Reliance on data is part of
what separates the six sigma methodology from
many others.
The magnitude of your defined problem
will dictate how important it is to ask “why” for
few, some, or all of the causes identified on your
fishbone. However, even if time constraints
require that you not ask “why” for every cause,
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 Six Sigma for Dummies: How the Nonexpert Can Use Six Sigma Successfully
it is very important to not dive into one cause
chain too quickly.
Cause and Effect Matrix
The cause and effect matrix is a tool we will use
to turn qualitative data into something more
quantifiable. It is useful any time you need to
compare the interrelation between two sets of
things. The tool also helps to improve team dis-
cipline when several factors need to be evaluated
at once.
Suppose we had a business making toast.
We would want to know, from the customers’
perspective, what characteristics should the
toast have. In this case, the toast should be
warm, light brown, with crisp edges and a soft
center. We can use a cause and effect matrix to
determine which process steps have the largest
impact to our customers’ requirements. We
use a one, three, or nine ranking system. For
each box in the matrix, we ask ourselves, “What
impact does x (process step) have on z (customer
requirement). See Figure 6.
Warm Light Brown
Process Steps ↓
Get bread - 1
Set up toaster - 9
Put bread in toaster - -
Toast 3 9
Butter - -
Serve 9 -
Totals 12 19
Figure 6. Cause and Effect Matrix Example Customer Requirements
1 = Low impact
3 = Medium impact
9 = High impact
Based on this analysis, two of our process
steps, set up toaster and toast, have the largest
impact on the criteria that the customer said
were important. Therefore, if we were looking
for processes to improve, we would likely start
with one of these steps.
SIX SIGMA CASE STUDY
You are the manager of a pizza restaurant that
does most of its business through deliveries.
Lately, business has been declining. You used to
be the only pizza delivery business in town, but
recently a competitor has emerged.
There are three critical requirements from
your customers: (1) Taste of pizza, (2) pricing and
2004 International Conference Proceedings, © 2004 APICS—The Educational Society for Resource Management
coupon availability, and (3) delivery performance.
You’ve conducted taste tests comparing your
pizza to the competition, and you are convinced
you still have the best tasting pizza. Your pricing
and coupons are consistent with the other pizza
restaurant in town. You decide to focus on
delivery performance.
What is the problem statement?
Can I clarify customer requirements / wants?
What questions do we need to answer (thought
process map)?
What is the process we use to deliver pizza (pro-
cess map)?
What are the possible causes of our delivery per-
formance (fishbone diagram)?
Which facet(s) of our business are most impor-
tant from the customers’ perspective (cause and
effects matrix)?
Crisp Edges, Soft Middle Totals
3 4
9 18
- 0
9 21
3 3
- 9
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DEFINITIONS AND TIPS
Definitions
Like so many other things, six sigma has a lan-
guage and a terminology. Here is a review of
some of the more common ones you’re likely to
hear or read about.
• DMAIC (pronounced “de may ic”): This
is the six sigma methodology of define,
measure, analyze, improve, and control.
• White belt/yellow belt: A designation used to
identify people who have received a cursory
review of six sigma concepts and tools.
Often, these people will serve on a larger six
sigma team lead by an expert.
• Green belt: Identifies people who have
received approximately 40 hours of six sigma
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 Six Sigma for Dummies: How the Nonexpert Can Use Six Sigma Successfully
instruction. These people are often called
upon to lead process improvement teams.
They have an understanding of the basic
tools of six sigma and some exposure to the
more advanced tools.
• Black belt: Identifies people who have
completed about 160 hours of advanced
statistical six sigma training. Black belts will
serve as mentors for green belts and green
belt teams.
• Y-process outputs: These are the metrics that
we typically measure at the end of a given
process. The problem with process outputs is
that by the time you find a defect or problem,
it is too late—you’ve already invested the time
and material to make a finished product (or
service).
• X–process inputs. Inputs are those factors
that are necessary in order to produce the
output that you care about. Six sigma seeks
to understand and control critical inputs so
that we “fix” problems before they result in
making bad product.
• Y = f(x): Mathematically, this says that Y is a
function of x. In six sigma, this means that
the outputs of a process are directly related to
the inputs of that process.
Tips
Don’t wait until the end of the project to make
changes that make sense. If, during the process
mapping, you discover there is a step that is be-
ing done that used to be required but no longer
is, by all means look to remove that process step.
This takes us to a sometimes sticky issue. If you
want process improvement activities to thrive,
they cannot be simply an exercise in eliminating
jobs. Ideally, if you find that there are jobs that
are no longer necessary due to a process change,
those resources should be used to either generate
more revenue (move to another job) or increase
2004 International Conference Proceedings, © 2004 APICS—The Educational Society for Resource Management
the speed of your process improvement activi-
ties (move them to work in another area that has
to undergo process change).
A common failure mode that happens to
teams during problem solving is that they dive
too deep too soon. As soon as a possible cause
is discovered, the focus shifts to making sure that
that cause goes away. Often, the most obvious
cause is not the best cause to tackle. How many
times have you seen teams respond to audits
or problems by identifying the cause of their
problem as “lack of training”? The solution is
“provide more training.” Yet, the problem often
continues.
SUMMARY
Is this all just common sense? Six sigma is a
structured problem-solving methodology. To
some people, especially those trained in the sci-
entific method, such a process is probably sec-
ond nature. However, there are many of us who
have successfully solved problems in the past
without a structured methodology. What the
business gains by using the recipe of six sigma
is two-fold. First, you can teach six sigma and
therefore problem solving to as many people as
you want. You will no longer be restricted to
always going to the same people to solve all of
your problems. Secondly, this structured meth-
od allows you to break down very complicated
problems and solve them.
As an individual, six sigma skills are very
sought after in all industries. In many companies,
six sigma experts will get a premium over similarly
educated and experienced colleagues. The basic
tools can be used every day to improve your job
output.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Ron Green is a six sigma expert with more than
10 years of supply chain experience.
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