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Achieving a dramatic improvement is a defining attribute of Six Sigma. Without realizing an innovative or breakthrough solution, one misses the main tenet of Six Sigma and lessens the opportunity to succeed. Six Sigma implies lots of improvement very fast. Incremental improvements are not sufficient to achieve Six Sigma Performance. Almost every Company has been improving its infrastructure, processes and products.
Often times, Six Sigma teams struggle to produce significant improvement and miss the breakthrough opportunity. Leadership must address the challenge to realize Six Sigma benefits through breakthrough improvements and accelerate the rate of improvement.
For years, continuous improvement has been the “quality” theme. However due to competitive pressures and customer demands, corporations must aim at continuous dramatic improvement, which can be realized through innovation. The Challenge Black Belts and Master Black belts is that an innovative methodology has not been incorporated into the six sigma tool box. Some Companies have utilized principles of TRIZ (a Russian name for innovation methodology) which consists of observations based on the analysis of several hundred thousand patents.
Lack of innovative thinking at the leadership level and/or the project level can be a contributing factor to the failure of Six Sigma. The Four basic skills that must be learned by individuals in order to achieve dramatic improvement and Six Sigma goals are as points given below.
The absence of time management skills inhibit the execution of any planned activity. One must adhere to commitment made to others. Typically people are not able to complete the action items assigned to them because of lack of prioritization. If an activity is scheduled and commitment is made, time must be found for the activity.
Process thinking alludes to Dr Shewhart’sPlan, Do, Check and act (PDCA) Cycle.
Statistical thinking requires understanding of random and assignable variation. Random variation is variation inherent to the process design, while special cause variation occurs because of specific action. Statistical thinking allows one to make decision based on understanding that variation could be natural, inherent or specific causes. In other words, one develops a better sense of expectations and predictability of the process output.
Some of the Common Steps to innovative thinking consists of the following:-
To maintain the innovative thinking, one must continue to do the following
To summarize we now realize how innovation is important in an organization where we have to constantly innovate on the lines of Six Sigma and apply to Processes or a set of manufactured items or a Software Product.
The Author Suresh V. Menon is a Subject Matter Expert on ERP and has worked in various capacities as Principal Consultant, Test Manager, Implementation Manage and Project Manager and can be contacted at testconsultants@outlook.com for comments and queries.
