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Six Sigma Case Studies, Examples, and Training Material

Following the definition of Six Sigma below are articles on Six Sigma below show examples, applications, and a comprehensive definitions and application of its tools.

What is Six Sigma?

Six Sigma originated as a set of practices designed to improve manufacturing processes and eliminate defects, but its application was subsequently extended to other types of business processes as well. In Six Sigma, a defect is defined as any process output that does not meet customer specifications, or that could lead to creating an output that does not meet customer specifications.

Bill Smith first formulated the particulars of the methodology at Motorola in 1986. Six Sigma was heavily inspired by six preceding decades of quality improvement methodologies such as quality control, TQM, and Zero Defects, based on the work of pioneers such as Shewhart, Deming, Juran, Ishikawa, Taguchi and others.

The term “Six Sigma” comes from a field of statistics known as process capability studies. Originally, it referred to the ability of manufacturing processes to produce a very high proportion of output within specification. Processes that operate with “six sigma quality” over the short term are assumed to produce long-term defect levels below 3.4 defects per million opportunities (DPMO). Six Sigma’s implicit goal is to improve all processes to that level of quality or better.

In recent years, some practitioners have combined Six Sigma ideas with lean manufacturing to yield a methodology named Lean Six Sigma.

Your Baby is Ugly

by Pete Abilla on August 30, 2010

No, we’re not talking about children or infants here. We’re talking about people who are so invested in their idea, business, and process, which results in hyper tunnel vision and they begin to believe the fantasy that their [enter "whatever" here] is the best and cannot get better. Calling that [thing] imperfect is analogous to [...]

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Red Bead Experiment: Part 6

by Pete Abilla on August 30, 2010

This is Part 6 of 6 of the Deming Red Bead Video Tutorial. The Red Bead Experiment by Dr. W. Edwards Deming Pete Abilla www.shmula.com Product Review Aug 30, 2010 Rating: 5/5 An amazing and incredibly simple game that illustrates so many important management principles and also principles of process improvement. I promise you – [...]

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Red Bead Experiment: Part 5

by Pete Abilla on August 28, 2010

This is Part 5 of 6 of the Deming Red Bead Video Tutorial. The Red Bead Experiment by Dr. W. Edwards Deming Pete Abilla www.shmula.com Product Review Aug 28, 2010 Rating: 5/5 An amazing and incredibly simple game that illustrates so many important management principles and also principles of process improvement. I promise you – [...]

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Red Bead Experiment: Part 4

by Pete Abilla on August 26, 2010

This is Part 4 of 6 of the Deming Red Bead Experiment Video Tutorial. But, before we get to the Red Bead Video Tutorial, here are some famous quotes of Dr. W. Edwards Deming. Famous Quotes of Dr. W. Edwards Deming “Profit in business comes from repeat customers, customers that boast about your project or [...]

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Red Bead Experiment: Part 3

by Pete Abilla on August 24, 2010

This is Part 3 of the Deming Red Bead Experiment Video Tutorial. But, before the tutorial, below is a biography of Dr. W. Edwards Deming (credit to the deming.org), the creator of the Red Bead Experiment. Biography of Dr. W. Edwards Deming William Edwards Deming was born in Sioux City, Iowa on 14 October 1900 [...]

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Red Bead Experiment: Part 2

by Pete Abilla on August 23, 2010

Part 1 explained the Red Bead Experiment. In Part 2, I’ll share the a video tutorial on the Red Bead Experiment – part 2 of that video series. Before we get to the video, below are Dr. Deming’s Fourteen Points – the principles by which he practiced management and quality management. Deming Fourteen Points “Create [...]

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Red Bead Experiment: Part 1

by Pete Abilla on August 22, 2010

The Red Bead Experiment is a metaphor for problems, where the red beads represent “bad” and white represent “good”. It is a teaching tool mostly used in manufacturing or instruction in quality management. The Red Bead Experiment was created by Dr. W. Edwards Deming, the person who influenced Toyota who, later, would develop The Toyota [...]

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Control Charts

by Pete Abilla on August 21, 2010

This post will briefly explain and answer “What is a Control Chart?” and also quickly explain “How to Create a Control Chart?” through a video tutorial of a Control Chart. First off: entire books and PhD dissertations are written about Control Charts – this short post won’t do it justice. So, please learn on your [...]

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