What the hell is Six Sigma?

[Largo]

I found out from my employer that I will have to learn about Six Sigma.

What is this?

I looked it up on the internets, and it sounded like karate school.

Can someone shed light on this?

[ScubaCaveman]

From wikipedia:
Six Sigma seeks to improve the quality of process outputs by identifying and removing the causes of defects (errors) and variation in manufacturing and business processes.

Six Sigma - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Good luck with it....I understand it is a good certification to have.

It is a standardization method.

[Largo]

I'm not in charge of anything, can't hire anybody, can't fire anybody.

Pretty much everybody in my group has to learn about it. We're not getting any certs.

A couple of years ago we all had to learn about something called ISO 9001. Or something like that. All I got from it was that I have to keep a hard copy of the individual work authorization for any project I'm working on, in my desk.

[chinacat46]

Yeah motorola is a big proponet of six sigma and there stock is a piece of sh**. But it does look good on the resume.

[MxDiver]

Originally Posted by Largo

I'm not in charge of anything, can't hire anybody, can't fire anybody.

Pretty much everybody in my group has to learn about it. We're not getting any certs.

A couple of years ago we all had to learn about something called ISO 9001. Or something like that. All I got from it was that I have to keep a hard copy of the individual work authorization for any project I'm working on, in my desk.

What do you do for a living?
I am a Quality Engineer and deal with six sigma day in and day out. If you tell me what is it you do I may be able to tell you how it could relate to you.

[scubadiver888]

Originally Posted by Largo

I'm not in charge of anything, can't hire anybody, can't fire anybody.

Pretty much everybody in my group has to learn about it. We're not getting any certs.

A couple of years ago we all had to learn about something called ISO 9001. Or something like that. All I got from it was that I have to keep a hard copy of the individual work authorization for any project I'm working on, in my desk.

The whole idea behind ISO9001 and Six Sigma is best practices and accountability. ISO9001 in a nutshell is, "Document what you do and do what you document." The ISO9001 standard has loose guidelines for what kind of documentation you should have. Basically, if you adhere to ISO9001 then an ISO9001 auditor has a set of questions which you should be able to answer. Things like "How long do you maintain testing results?" Or for ISO9001:2000, "Have you had any training? Can you show how this training was effective?"

If you follow the concept behind ISO9001 then it should improve your processes and procedures. However, you can follow the letter of the standard and it is meaningless. In other words, if I create a really stupid process, document it and make sure I save documentation to prove I followed the stupid process, I am ISO9001 certified.

Six Sigma is supposed to be better. It expects the process to be smart and improving. You have different levels of Six Sigma all the way to Black Belt. With anything, you can game the system, i.e. follow the letter of the standard rather than the intent.

A case in stupidity at the last place I was in charge of ISO training/compliance: We developed software for development boards on loan from hardware manufacturers. These boards were worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. I noted that if we had a fire the only source of extinguishing it was the building sprinkler system. Because the office was open concept, the sprinklers went off building wide. So if you had a fire in the kitchen, (1) it would have to get pretty serious to trigger the sprinklers and (2) it would flood everything including the computer lab. I pointed this out. I was asked what our documentation indicated. Our QMS (Quality Management System) indicated that government requirements would be met. I was told it was done and not to worry about it.

To put the hardware in a proper Halon room separate from the main office space would come out of the Site Manager's budget. Since we didn't generate revenue, the Site Manager was judged on how low his operating costs were. He just didn't want to spend the money because it made our site have a much lower operating cost than other sites.

As to why you need to know about ISO9001 and Six Sigma, during an audit, the external auditors will randomly quiz staff. The ISO9001 documentation must include job descriptions/titles, the duties of those individuals and which QMS documentation applies to them. The audits will then restrict their questions to those relevant to the applicable QMS documents.

For my staff I wrote up ISO9001 for dummies documents with links to the QMS documentation. They could memorize the answers from my documentation or they could read the QMS if knowing why helped them to remember. NOTE: as ISO Champion I was allow to 'clarify' auditor questions. Basically, I knew the answer the auditor was looking for and could ask the questions from my dummy docs verbatim. This made it easier for the staff to give the 'right' answer.

[bennerman]

Six Sigma just sounds cool. You can lure unsuspecting ladies into thinking you are in the military

[JCAT]

scubadiver888

Great Post!

[Largo]

Originally Posted by bennerman

Six Sigma just sounds cool. You can lure unsuspecting ladies into thinking you are in the military

I wonder if Chuck Norris is a Six Sigma Black Belt?

[nrembis]

We use six sigma and are iso9001 certified where I work, it's all about documentation, has little to do with machining, the process is documented, doesn't mean thats its the best way to machine a part..I have been thru several audits and the most they have ever asked me as a machinist is what part am I machining and how do I know for sure the program I am using is the program for this particular part, how do know If there has been revisions to the part print and the program matches the revision updates, that sort of thing

six sigma and iso certifications are a way of showing you how to cover your own ass.