Page 66 - Six Sigma Advanced Tools for Black Belts and Master Black Belts

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Integration of OR/MS into Six Sigma Deployment 51
Everything has a life cycle. Although it can work very well, Six Sigma cannot be a
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static framework, if the success is to last. Despite its current success, Six Sigma has its
inherent limitations and cannot be a universal solution for every organization in every
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situation. The standard Six Sigma tools and methods are effective in dealing with
quality-related issues. However, statistical methods and quality management tools are
notsufficientfortacklingallbusinessimprovementrelatedproblems.Forexample,the
existingSixSigmatoolsandmethodsareinadequatefordealingwithproblemssuchas
production and service planning and scheduling, inventory control and management,
supply chain management, operations scheduling, workforce scheduling, and so on.
Moreover, quality management tools such as QFD can be greatly enhanced by OR/MS
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tools, and it is becoming apparent that the standard training package received by BBs
is not sufficient for dealing with complex process-improvement projects. In fact, all
these problems are closely related to the overall performance of an organization.
Customer satisfaction is a reflection on the state of the business and depends on
three things: delivering a defect-free product or service; delivering a product or service
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on schedule; and delivering a product or service at the lowest possible cost. Though
standard Six Sigma tools and methods are effective in handling the first problem, they
are not able to solve the last two. OR/MS techniques are well positioned to effectively
solve these problems, among others. Many techniques used by OR/MS practitioners
could and should be integrated into Six Sigma applications to complement the existing
standard Six Sigma tools. In fact, common concepts and procedures of operations
management and project management can play an extremely useful role in Six Sigma
projects. Many Six Sigma success stories have involved the use of OR/MS techniques.
It could be loosely argued that every OR/MS technique can be used in the deployment
and implementation of Six Sigma.
One of the most useful purposes of applying OR/MS techniques is for ‘improve-
ment’. Consequently, various OR/MS techniques are well fitted into the improve
phase in Six Sigma deployment. The Define phase also involves scores of problems,
such as project selection and planning, production and service planning, training and
education planning, resource allocation, investment decision-making, and facility and
service layout and location, which conventional Six Sigma tools cannot handle but
OR/MS techniques can. In the Control phase OR/MS techniques can also be applied,
for example, to optimize the design of control charts and control schemes, and to
improve maintenance management.
Considering the fact that Six Sigma programs adhere strictly to a systems perspec-
tive on quality improvement, it is quite natural to observe the trend of integrating Six
Sigma with other business-improvement tools and methods such as lean manufac-
turing, design for Six Sigma (DFSS), and supply-chain operations reference (SCOR). 7
In the long run, to really accomplish the simultaneous objectives of Six Sigma and
lean enterprise, practitioners will have to gain not only a solid understanding of
additional statistical tools, but also knowledge of industrial engineering and OR tech-
niques, such as systems simulation and factory modeling, mathematical optimization
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methods, and queuing networks. Although these techniques have been included in
Master Black Belt(MBB) traning, the number of MBBs is far too small in a typical en-
terprise to have an impact. Future successes of Six Sigma can only be brought about
by dedicated teams of BBs mastering a set of synergistic tools arranged in a compact
and logical sequence for problem-solving. The next section presents a new roadmap
for a BB training program.