Six Sigma TRIZ

Successful Inventive Problem Solving

TRIZ (or TIPS) comes from the Russian for 'Theory of Inventive Problem Solving' and is a powerful problem-solving toolkit that complements the more traditional Six Sigma Black Belt skills. Black and Green Belts often use process improvement or design methodologies such as DMAIC and DMADV, both of which rely heavily on solving business problems by optimisation alone. Unfortunately this is sometimes not enough and we need a more creative or inventive solution. TRIZ can provide a great deal to help Black Belts and their teams adopt the new paradigm of inventive and creative thought!

TRIZ and all its component parts were developed by Genrich Altshuller and a group of many others over a period of fifty years from the late 1940's, using work undertaken to study more than 2.5 million patents. By analysing technical inventions Altshuller was able to realise several laws, principles and algorithms for problem solving (such as ARIZ) based on the evolution of technical systems. His approach has been used extensively in Russia for decades, and is now being applied by engineers world wide to aid the solution of the increasingly complex design of products and systems.

The laws and principles of inventive problem solving are the product of a great deal of work undertaken by Altshuller in his native Russia, and although much has only recently been translated into English, the ideas are now being successfully applied across both Europe and the United States. Many organisations today realise that Six Sigma provides an excellent framework for quality and business improvement, and approaches such as TRIZ and Lean manufacturing can be readily integrated into DMAIC and DMADV to enhance the overall impact.

Six Sigma Certification

Attaining a recognised qualification in Six Sigma - be it Green Belt, Black Belt, Master Black Belt or Champion - is a necessary step for any quality practitioner. But what exactly does it involve?
Many questions arise in the minds of six sigma certification candidates.Here is brief outline of a few fundamental questions that are frequently asked about Six Sigma Certification.

What is Certification?

Six Sigma Certification is documented proof that a person has acquired certain standardized capabilities with regard to the quality management technique that, when applied, works towards error/defect elimination and prevention. However, the certificate does not guarantee that a candidate has implementation skills, but only certifies competency in the subject matter.
One can attain certification in any of the key roles (Black Belt, Master Black Belt, Champion, etc.).

How do I become Six Sigma certified?

Six Sigma Certification typically involves studying the related subject matter and passing an exam. Training institutes or companies provide certification tests and six sigma training courses. It is not unusual for new companies to have their employees test on a training institutes' tests. This completes the first part of the written test in the candidate's proficiency in the subject matter. Now comes the real test! Once having passed the written test, The candidate must work hands on a project or two in a practical environment. In this situation, the candidate must demonstrate that he or she is competent enough to implement the knowledge acquired in classroom six sigma training.

During the practical part of the exam, there is no benchmark for what passes or not. Not just this, but some companies may accept just one project and some others may not. This means that out of the three critical aspects of six sigma certification training, the written exam and the practical competency demonstration, a crucial third one may be said to be lacking seriously or non-existent, unless it becomes standardized. To complicate matters, there is no one single body to regulate or standardize all the critical aspects of six sigma certification.

Do I need a Six Sigma Certification?

This is any individual's professional decision. Anyone wanting to get six sigma certification will need to think seriously about it. Sometimes candidates are chosen (or compelled) by their employer to take six sigma training and thereby attain six sigma certification. But many times, it is the other way around. Someone may decide to pursue six sigma certification for reasons such as attainment of a raise or promotion. Another may be prompted by the fact that six sigma certification will enhance their marketability. While each reason is an individual one, candidates must be result oriented, highly motivated in order to be successful.

What will certification cost me?

Again, this is a highly subjective question. It could cost you anywhere from $0 to $30,000 per person, depending on where you receive six sigma training. Again, the decision as to the trainer, location, and online or offline six sigma training method are other considerations as to cost.

What worked for one person may not work for another. When contemplating six sigma certification, there really are no generalizations that can be made. It all depends on who individual capabilities, location, and to some extent, your position in the corporation (or lack thereof).

When to Use Process Capability Charts

Process capability attempts to answer the question: can we consistently meet customer requirements?

The number one limitation of process capability indices is that they are meaningless if the data is not from a controlled process. The reason is simple: process capability is a prediction, and you can only predict something that is stable.

In order to estimate process capability, you must know the location, spread, and shape of the process distribution. These parameters are, by definition, changing in an out of control process. Therefore, only use Process Capability indices if the process is in control for an extended period.

The same argument holds for a Histogram. If the purpose of creating a histogram is to see the "shape" of the process, it will be very misleading if the process is not stable. For example, a process that is stable could very well have the same histogram as a process undergoing a trend, since the only difference in the data would be the order of the points. Since the histogram does not consider the sequence of the points, you would see no difference between histograms.

Upon further investigation, however, it is apparent from the control chart of this process data (shown below) that the process is not in statistical control. Thus, while we can assert the sample data is Normally distributed, we can make no assertions about the more general (and relevant) process behavior, including its Process Capability index.

Pros and Cons of Six Sigma

The following aspects of the Six Sigma strategy are not accentuated in previous quality improvement initiatives.

1) Six Sigma strategy places a clear focus on achieving measurable and quantifiable financial returns to the bottom-line of an organisation . No Six Sigma project is approved unless the bottom-line impact has been clearly identified and defined.

2) Six Sigma strategy places an unprecedented importance on strong and passionate leadership and the support required for its successful deployment

3) Six Sigma methodology of problem solving integrates the human elements(culture change, customer focus, belt system infrastructure, etc.) and process elements(process management, statistical analysis of process data, measurement system analysis, etc.) of improvement.

4) Six Sigma methodology utilises the tools and techniques for fixing problems in business processes in a sequential and disciplined fashion. Each tool and technique within the Six Sigma methodology has a role to play and when, where, why and how these tools or techniques should be applied is the difference between success and failure of a Six Sigma project.

5) Six Sigma creates an infrastructure of Champions, Master Black Belts (MBBs), Black Belts (BBs) and Green Belts (GBs) that lead, deploy and implement the approach.

6) Six Sigma emphasises the importance of data and decision making based on facts and data rather than assumptions and hunches ! Six Sigma forces people to put measurements in place. Measurement must be considered as a part of the culture change.

7) Six Sigma utilises the concept of statistical thinking and encourages the application of well-proven statistical tools and techniques for defect reduction through process variability reduction methods (e.g.: statistical process control and design of experiments)

The following are some of the limitations of Six Sigma which creates opportunities for future research.

1) The challenge of having quality data available, especially in processes where no data is available to begin with (sometimes this task could take the largest proportion of the project time)

2) The right selection and prioritisation of projects is one of the critical success factors of a Six Sigma program. The priorit isation of projects in many organisations is still based on pure subjective judgement. Very few powerful tools are available for prioritising projects and this should be the major thrust for research in the future.

3) The statistical definition of Six Sigma is 3.4 defects or failures per million opportunities. In service processes, a defect may be defined as anything which does not meet customer needs or expectations. It would be illogical to assume that all defects are equally bad when we calculate the Sigma Capability level of a process. For instance, a defect in a hospital could be a wrong admission procedure,misdiagnosis, lack of training required by a staff member,misbehaviour of staff members, unwillingness to help patients when they have specific queries, etc.

4) Assumption of 1.5 sigma shift for all business processes does not make much sense. This particular issue should be dealt with extra caution as a small shift in sigma could lead to erroneous defect calculations.

5) Non-standardisation procedures in the certification process of Black belts, Green belts, etc. Research has shown that the skills and expertise developed by Black belts/Green belts are inconsistent across companies and are dependent a great deal on the certification body. Black belts believe they know all the practical aspects of advanced quality improvement methods such as Design of Experiments, Robust Design, Response Surface Methodology, Statistical Process Control and Reliability, when in fact they have  barely scratched the surface.

6) Six Sigma can easily digress into a bureaucratic exercise if the focus is on such things as the number of trained Black Belts and Green Belts, number of projects completed, etc. instead of bottomline savings.

7)There is an overselling of Six Sigma by too many consulting firms. Many of them claim expertise in Six Sigma when they barely understand the tools and techniques and the Six Sigma roadmap.

8) The relationship between Cost of Poor Quality (COPQ) and Process Sigma Quality Level requires more justification.

Blackbelts - Who and How?

While Six Sigma Black Belts are generally given credit for their expertise in analytical, statistical and problem solving techniques, successful Black Belts must be much more than technical experts
.
The advancement of an organization from a nominal 3.5 Sigma to Six Sigma represents a vast organizational (and cultural) change. Black Belts are primarily Change Agents.

Effective Change Agents are:

1) Positive Thinkers: Black Belts need to have faith in management and in the direction of the business and its Six Sigma program. They must be upbeat and optimistic about the program success, or they risk undermining management or the Six Sigma initiative. They need to exude self-confidence, without the pitfalls of being overbearing, defensive or self-righteous. Proper Management support and vision allow Black Belts to both believe in and experience their potential as Change Agents.

2) Risk Takers: Black Belts need to be comfortable as Change Agents. While ineffective Change Agents agonizes over implementing change, effective Change Agents relish it. They enjoy the excitement and the challenge of "making things happen" and "grabbing the bull by the horns". They know that change is necessary for the company and the customers' sake; and that change is inevitable, given the competitive market. Only by leading the change can we hope to steer its outcome. The effective Change Agent wants to lead the charge.

3) Good Communicators: An effective Black Belt needs to be capable of distilling a vast amount of technical material in an easily comprehensible fashion to team members, Sponsors, Champions and management. Many of these personnel will have only minimal training (Green Belt or Champion level) in statistical techniques, if any at all. The Black Belt that can clearly and succinctly describe to the team why, for example, a designed experiment is better than one-factor-at-a-time experimentation will strengthen the team and shorten its project completion time.

Of course, being a good communicator is much more than just being capable of distilling technical material. An effective Change Agent must also comprehend and appreciate others' concerns. These concerns must be responded to in a thorough, respectful and thoughtful manner.
4) Respected by Peers: It is often said that an individual's position in an organization can be either earned or granted, but that true power must be earned. Effective Change Agents have earned the respect of others in the organization by their hard work and effective communication. Those new to an organization, or who have not gained respect from others, will find it harder to implement changes.

5) Leaders: Black Belts will often serve as Team Leaders; other times they need to show respect to others (and true leadership) by allowing them to assume leadership roles. First wave Black Belts will also serve as role models and mentors for Green Belts and subsequent waves of Black Belts.

Many of these Change Agent skills are facets of one's personalities, but they can be supported through awareness training, management policy, and coaching and mentoring by Master Black Belts and Champions.

The best Black Belts are those individuals who show a balance between these softer attributes and the technical skills described in the Body of Knowledge.

Many firms demand demonstration of these Change Agent attributes, through work history and personal recommendations, as a pre-requisite for consideration of Black Belt candidates.

When to Use an Attribute Chart

Only Attributes data can be applied to an Attributes control chart.

To see the differences between various attribute charts, let's consider an example of the errors in an accounting process, where each month we process a certain number of transactions.

1) The Np-Chart monitors the number of times a condition occurs, relative to a constant sample size, when each sample can either have this condition, or not have this condition. For our example, we would sample a set number of transactions each month from all the transactions that occurred, and from this sample count the number of transactions that had one or more errors. We would then track on the control chart the number of transactions with errors per month.

2) The p-Chart monitors the percent of samples having the condition, relative to either a fixed or varying sample size, when each sample can either have this condition, or not have this condition. For our example, we might choose to look at all the transactions in the month (since that would vary from month to month), or a set number of samples, whichever we prefer. From this sample, we would count the number of transactions that had one or more errors. We would then track on the control chart the percent of transactions with errors per month.

3) The c-Chart monitors the number of times a condition occurs, relative to a constant sample size. In this case, a given sample can have more than one instance of the condition, in which case we count all the times it occurs in the sample. For our example, we would sample a set number of transactions each month from all the transactions that occurred, and from this sample count the total number of errors in all the transactions. We would then track on the control chart the number of errors in all the sampled transactions per month.

4) The u-Chart monitors the percent of samples having the condition, relative to either a fixed or varying sample size. In this case, a given sample can have more than one instance of the condition, in which case we count all the times it occurs in the sample. For our example, we might choose to look at all the transactions in the month (since that would vary month to month), or a set number of samples, whichever we prefer. From this sample, we count the total number of errors in all the transactions. We would then track on the control chart the number of errors per transactions per month.

Six Sigma - Infrastructure

A very powerful feature of Six Sigma is the creation of an infrastructure to ensure that performance improvement activities have the necessary resources.

Failure to provide this infrastructure is the #1 reason why 80% of all TQM implementations failed in the past. Six Sigma makes improvement and change the full-time job of a small but critical percentage of the organization's personnel. These full time change agents are the catalyst that institutionalizes change.

 Figure below  illustrates the required human resource commitment required by Six Sigma.