The Web designing and development is the combination of five languages: HTML, CSS, JavaScript, PHP and MySQL. Along with these, the Photoshop is required to make website design. There are many E-Learning sites that only focus on Photoshop, HTML and CSS. Although combination of these three can let you design and develop the website, but only static. To develop a complete website the addition of JavaScript, PHP and MySQL is important.
The following are the course content of Certify Monster’s Online Web Designing and Development
HTML
CSS
Javascript
PHP
MySQL
Photoshop
Dreamweaver
Conversion of Graphic Templates to HTML Templates
HTML Templates
Cross-Browser Compatibility
Blog, Corporate Websites and E-Commerce websites
Quick E-Commerce Website Development
Graphic Templates
Web Forms & validation
Basic Flash
Practice based course
Website Uploading and maintenance
The course contains the complete theoretical and practical knowledge. At the end of the course, the students need to submit their final report to get the certificate. This report is compulsory for every student, without its submission, they would not get certificate. In practical, you need to develop a website.
So immediately take our Online Web Designing and Development Course. To get register, become a member of Certify Monster by completing the registration form. Whenever you want to get the lessons, you need to sign in using your account.
This means that a lot of priority is given to the implementation of the Six Sigma methodology. All the objectives that have been defined by Six Sigma are influenced a lot by various efforts, especially the way the policies are formulated and how the company’s organizational structure is managed.
One of the major problems in adopting Six Sigma is that it could take as long as three to four months for the company to see the desired effects. Therefore, in order to keep an account of the changes of the implementation process, Six Sigma auditing is essential.
The Six Sigma Outlook
Proper Six Sigma auditing helps in ensuring that everything works according to the plans framed by the Six Sigma methodology. One of the best things about a Six Sigma audit is that the audit checks done by the experts give high priority to the quality of the processes. The auditing process is very simple as well. It involves a set of survey questions that helps the auditor determine the actual condition of a particular business process.
Once the auditors have determined the situation of all the business processes, they simply compare them with the estimated or the desired results. The estimations are made right from the beginning of the operational phase of the Six Sigma implementation. The audit process is so systematic that it seems quite similar to the audit processes adopted by the ISO 9000 certified organizations.
Many companies have actually profited by using the Six Sigma auditing strategy prescribed by the ISO certified organizations.
Details of Six Sigma Audits
In the process of Six Sigma auditing, many professionals use charts and statistics in order to make sure each and every aspect of the Six Sigma implementation has been looked at. These charts are usually prepared at the beginning of the project and serve as a checklist so that the auditors are assured that every aspect has been adhered to.
Each checklist is prepared specifically for a particular business process, which eliminates any chance of errors at the source. For example, when conducting an audit of the available inventory, the auditors will specifically prepare an inventory checklist for that purpose. The checklist procedure is based on the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP), which is defined at the beginning of the implementation stage.
The checklists are in the format of a questionnaire, which helps the auditor to ascertain whether or not that particular company process is being adhered to or not. The Six Sigma audit also helps the organization to identify the problem in any of the processes and correct them before any damage is done. For instance, if a fault is found in the sales system, or if the sales are less than what was estimated in the beginning, the data collected in the entries by the auditors help them determine where exactly had the fault taken place thereby finding the main cause of the deviation in the figures.
Even though the Six Sigma methodology aims at eliminating the defects bringing about quality control in the business processes, the Six Sigma audit process aims only at the present business goals and its achievement.
Tony Jacowski is a quality analyst for The MBA Journal. Aveta Solutions – Six Sigma Online (http://www.sixsigmaonline.org) offers online six sigma training and certification classes for six sigma professionals including, lean six sigma, black belts, green belts, and yellow belts.
With the growing interest in HTML 5 coding many browser manufactures are preparing HTML 5 compatible browsers, currently only Apples Safari is fully HTML 5 ready, Mozilla Firefox 3.5 “supports” the new coding but is not 100% compatible as of yet and as for our friends over at Microsoft their internet explorer still does not reconize HTML 5 reference as of yet.
It shouldn’t be long before all browsers are 100% compatible as HTML 5 has been designed to make things easier for browsers to render a web page, powerful applications, rich multimedia, stunning designs are all on their way to a computer screen near you.
HTML5 is fast approaching and getting wide spread usage. Most are familiar with the new tags like header, section and footer and everybody is aware of the new video tags thanks to Apple vs Adobe. However, there is a lot more to HTML5 those just those two aspects.
I want to focus on localStorage() this time. localStorage is a client-side key-value database, meaning it is stored in the users browser. This means the users data is saved on their machine inside their browser. This also means that their data is only available to them when on that machine and in that browser. Remember that localStorage is per browser not per computer.
Browser support is always a huge topic when discussing new html5 or even css3 aspects. This is due to such a wide spread of support from the big browsers right now. In the case of localStorage, it is supported by Safari 4+, Mobile Safari (iPhone/iPad), Firefox 3.5+, Internet Explorer 8+ and Chrome 4+. This only leaves out Opera who currently does not support this storage. Depending on your target audience browser support may be an issue for you.
HTML5 localStorage() is a four part series of articles where I will show you how to create a simple html5 time tracking web app using localStorage as the sole database. The series will walk you through the basics of localStorage to advanced techniques to leverage the power of this new html5 database. We won’t stop at just the functionality of the app but in part four we will cover styling the app with html5 and css3 to create an iPhone(ish) web app.
Here is a quick example of what the javascript looks like to access localStorage();
if (typeof(localStorage) == ‘undefined’ ) {
alert(‘Your browser does not support HTML5 localStorage. Try upgrading.’);
} else {
try {
localStorage.setItem(“name”, “Hello World!”); //saves to the database, “key”, “value”
} catch (e) {
if (e == QUOTA_EXCEEDED_ERR) {
alert(‘Quota exceeded!’); //data wasn’t successfully saved due to quota exceed so throw an error
}
}
document.write(localStorage.getItem(“name”)); //Hello World!
localStorage.removeItem(“name”); //deletes the matching item from the database
}
In the code snippet above we are doing several things including checking if your browser supports localStorage, saving a new item to the database, retrieving that item and displaying it and then removing the item. The above is your typical Hello World example but shows you just how easy it is to use. The time tracking app we will create will be storing a unique id as the key and joining multiple values into one string, as localStorage only supports storing of strings. I will be making the source code available at the end of each article along with the full source and the working app at the end of the series, which you can follow here.
” Written for HTML5Tutorial.net by James Fleeting, a web designer and developer obsessed with the future of the web working at Crane | West Advertising Agency in Wichita Falls, Texas. “
We’ve discussed a lot of new elements here at HTML5Doctor, but the article element has somehow escaped the microscope… until now! article is one of the new sectioning elements. It is often confused with section and div but don’t worry we’ll explain the difference between them.
What the spec says
Thankfully, the spec is short and sweet:
The article element represents a component of a page that consists of a self-contained composition in a document, page, application, or site and that is intended to be independently distributable or reusable, e.g. in syndication. This could be a forum post, a magazine or newspaper article, a blog entry, a user-submitted comment, an interactive widget or gadget, or any other independent item of content.
W3C Specification
In addition to it’s content, an element typically has a heading (often in a header element), and sometimes a footer. The easiest way to conceptualise is to think of it’s use in a weblog, as mentioned in the spec’s examples “a blog entry” and “user-submitted comments.” Here at HTML5 Doctor, we wrap each weblog entry inside an element. We also use on ‘static’ content pages, like the About and Contact pages, as can be used for “any other independent item of content.” The tricky part is, what exactly is an independent item of content?
The smell test for going independent
An independent piece of content, one suitable for putting in an element, is content that makes sense on it’s own. This yardstick is up to your interpretation, but an easy smell test is would this make sense in an RSS feed? Of course weblog articles and static pages would make sense in a feed reader, and some sites have weblog comment feeds. On the other hand, a feed with each paragraph of this article as a separate post wouldn’t be very useful. The key point here is that the content has to make sense independent of its context, i.e. when all the surrounding content is stripped away.
Examples of in use
A bare-bones
We only have a title and some content, but it’s enough to make sense on it’s own (assume there’s a lot more content about apples
Apple
The apple is the pomaceous fruit of the apple tree…
…
A weblog-style
A published date leads us to add a , and there’s also content that would be suitable in a
Apple
Published:
The apple is the pomaceous fruit of the apple tree…
…
An with comments as nested s
This example shows a weblog entry with comments. Each comment can be marked up as an within the containing .
Apple
Published:
The apple is the pomaceous fruit of the apple tree…
…
Comments
Posted by: Apple Lover
I love apples, my favourite kind are Granny Smiths
Posted by: Oranges are king
Urgh, apples!? you should write about ORANGES instead!!1!
An with s
You can use the element to split the article into logical groups of content with headings:
Apple varieties
The apple is the pomaceous fruit of the apple tree…
Red Delicious
These bright red apples are the most common found in many supermarkets…
Granny Smith
These juicy, green apples make a great filling for apple pies…
A containing s
Where appropriate a element can contain elements. We already saw this in the comment section example above, and other common examples are the homepage or category pages of a weblog:
Articles on: Fruit
Apple
The apple is the pomaceous fruit of the apple tree…
Orange
The orange is a hybrid of ancient cultivated origin, possibly between pomelo and tangerine…
Banana
Bananas come in a variety of sizes and colors when ripe, including yellow, purple, and red…
Using for a widget
The specification also mentions that an interactive widget can also be an . The example below shows how the markup might look for an embedded widget from somewhere like Widgetbox.
My Fruit Spinner
The pubdate attribute
You may have noticed the pubdate attribute in these examples. pubdate is an optional boolean attribute that may be added to one time element within the . If present it indicates that the
pubdate
pubdate=”pubdate”
You could think of these as HTML and XHTML-style — the end result is the same so use the style you like. Note that pubdate applies only to the parent element, or to the document as a whole.
The difference between and
There’s been a lot of confusion over the difference (or perceived lack of a difference) between the and elements in HTML5. The element is a specialised kind of ; it has a more specific semantic meaning than in that it is an independent, self-contained block of related content. We could use , but using gives more semantic meaning to the content.
By contrast is only a block of related content, and
is only a block of content. Also as mentioned above the pubdate attribute doesn’t apply to . To decide which of these three elements is appropriate, choose the first suitable option:
1. Would the content would make sense on it’s own in a feed reader? If so use
2. Is the content related? If so use
3. Finally if there’s no semantic relationship use
Dr Bruce has written HTML5 s and s, what’s the difference?, so we recommend reading that if you are still fuzzy on when to use .
Summary
Hopefully this post has given you some insight into the correct use of the element. Do you have any other examples that you can share for using in your HTML5 markup?
I’m also keen to hear your thoughts on the confusion between the and elements. Do you think the distinction between the two is clear?
This article was first submitted on www.html5doctor.com
This section will give an overview of the 10 most important technical tools which a Six Sigma team member needs to master as they progress through the DMAIC methodology.
While these tools are considered technical in nature, most of them are relatively easy to learn and apply. They are covered in the order they are used in the DMAIC methodology.
Tool #1 The Critical to Quality (CTQ) Tree:
The critical to quality tree is used during the Design Phase of DMAIC. It is used to brainstorm and validate the needs and requirements of the customer of the process targeted for improvement.
The steps in creating a CTQ tree are as follows:
Identify the customer of the process targeted for improvement.
Identify the need of the customer.
Identify the first level of requirements of the need, that is, some characteristic of the need that determines whether the customer is happy with the need.
Drill down to more detailed level(s) of the requirement if necessary.
Tool #2 The Process Map:
During the Define phase, the project team creates the first of several process maps. A process map is a picture of the current steps in the process targeted for improvement.
A process map has five major categories of work from the identification of the suppliers of the process, the inputs the suppliers provide, the name of the process, the output of the process, and the customers of the process. Each of these steps is summarized as SIPOC to indicate to the team the steps that must be conducted to complete a process map.
Tool #3 The Histogram:
This tool will be used during the Analysis stage of DMAIC. The project team will review data collected during the Measure stage of DMAIC.
It is often suggested that the data be organized into graphs or charts to more easily understand what the data is saying about the process.
Data is of two types – Discrete data ( go/no go, fail or pass ) and continuous data ( time, hight etc.). For continuous data presentation, the best tool to use is the histogram.
Tool #4 The Pareto Chart:
Histogram is useful for continuous data same way when the data is discrete, most teams create a Pareto chart. Discrete data is counted data – go/no-go, off/on, yes/no, and defect/no defect type data.
An Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto,in the sixteenth century proved mathematically that 80 percent of the world’s wealth was controlled by 20 percent of the population. This 80-20 rule eventually proved applicable in arenas other than economics.
When dealing with discrete data, the project team should create reason codes for why a defect occurs and count and categorize the data into these reason codes and a preto chart should be prepared.
Tool #5 The Process Summary Worksheet:
The goal of a Six Sigma project team is to improve effectiveness and efficiency. Efficiency is measured in terms of cost, time, labor, or value.
The process summary worksheet is a “roll-up” of the subprocess map indicating which steps add value in the process and which steps don’t add value.
Tool #6 The Cause-Effect Diagram:
The most important tool to assist the project team in determining root causation is the cause-effect diagram. This tool captures all the ideas of the project team relative to what they feel are the root causes behind the current sigma performance and finally help in finding a root cause of the problem.
Tool #7 The Scatter Diagram:
Once ideas have been prioritized after use of the cause-effect diagram, the most important thing the project team does is validate the remaining ideas with fact and data.
The scatter diagram takes an idea about root causation and tracks corresponding data in the response the team is trying to improve. The team can validate an idea about root causation through one of three methods. Using basic data collection, a designed experiment, or through the scatter diagram.
Tool #8 The Affinity Diagram:
An affinity diagram is used to help sort and categorize a large number of ideas into major themes or categories. It is especially useful when the team is ready to brainstorm solutions in the Improve stage of DMAIC. The steps in creating an affinity diagram are:
Have each team member write one idea per Post-it note and post on a wall randomly.
As ideas are read off for clarification, sort ideas into similar groups
Create a ‘header’ card for each general category of ideas below it.
Tool #9 The Run Chart:
We have discussed the histogram and Pareto chart. Think of both of these tools as similar to a camera where a snapshot of the process has been taken. But the run chart is similar to a camcorder, recording some process element over time.
Tool #10 The Control Chart:
Similar to a run chart, a control chart uses the data from a run chart to determine the upper and lower control limits. Control limits are the expected limits of variation above and below the average of the data. These limits are mathematically calculated and indicated by dotted lines.
Conclusion:
We saw 10 major technical tools a project team member uses during the time they are on a Six Sigma team. These are not the only tools a Six Sigma team may use. However, the tools covered here are those that are most common for every team member to be aware of and knowledgeable about.
The last phase of DMAIC is control, which is the phase in which we ensure that the processes continue to work well, produce desired output results, and maintain quality levels. You will be concerned with four specific aspects of control, which are:
(1) Quality control:
The ultimate purpose in control is overall assurance that a high standard of quality is met. The customer’s expectations depend on this, so control is inherently associated with quality.
Since the purpose to Six Sigma is to improve overall process by reducing defects, quality control is the essential method for keeping the whole process on track; for enabling us to spot trouble and fix it; and for judging how effectively the project was executed and implemented.
Quality is at the heart of the Six Sigma philosophy. Reducing defects has everything to do with striving for perfection. Whether we reach perfection or not, the effort defines our attitude toward quality itself.
(2) Standardization:
One feature of smooth processing is to enable processes to go as smoothly as possible. This usually means standardization. In a manufacturing environment, the value of standardization has been proven over and over.
We need to devise a control feature to processes so that the majority of work is managed in a standardized manner.
(3) Control methods and alternatives:
The development of a new process of any change to an existing process requires the development of procedures to control work flow.
When a process cannot be managed in the normal manner, we need to come up with alternatives short of forcing compliance to the standardized method.
(4) Responding when defects occur:
The final step in a control process is knowing how to respond once a defect is discovered. The weak links in the procedure,where defects are most likely to occur, can and should be monitored carefully so that defects can be spotted and fixed before the process continues.
The response to a defect may be to prevent a discovered flaw from becoming a defect at all. In the best designed systems, defects can be reduced to near zero, so that we may actually believe that Six Sigma can be attained.
Conclusion:
The project team determines how to technically control the newly improved process and creates a response plan to ensure the new process maintains the improved sigma performance.
If the project team does a thorough job in the root causation phase of Analysis, the Improve phase of DMAIC can be quick, easy, and satisfying work.
The objective of Improve Phase is to identify improvement breakthroughs,identify high gain alternatives, select preferred approach, design the future state, determine the new Sigma level, perform cost/benefit analysis, design dashboards/ scorecards, and create a preliminary implementation plan.
Identify Improvement Breakthroughs:
Apply idea-generating tools and techniques to identify potential solutions that eliminate root causes.
Identify/Select High Gain Alternatives:
Develop criteria to evaluate candidate improvement solutions.
Think systematically and holistically.
Prioritize and evaluate the candidate solutions against the solution evaluation criteria.
Conduct a feasibility assessment for the highest value solutions.
Develop preliminary solution timelines and cost-benefit analysis to aid in recommendation presentation and future implementation planning.
Improvement can involve a simple fix once we discover the causes of defects. However, in some cases, we may need to employ additional tools as well. These include:
Six Sigma aims to define the causes of defects, measure those defects, and analyze them so that they can be reduced.We will consider five specific types of analysis that will help to promote the goals of the project. These are source, process, data, resource, and communication analysis. Now we will see them in detail:
(1) Source Analysis:
This is also called root cause analysis and attempts to find defects that are derived from the sources of information or work generation. After finding the root cause of the problem, attempts are made to resolve the problem before we expect to eliminate defects from the product.
THE THREE STEPS TO ROOT CAUSE ANALYSIS
The open step: During this phase of root cause analysis, the project team brainstorms all the possible explanations for current sigma performance.
The narrow step: During this phase, the project team narrows the list of possible explanations for current sigma performance.
The close step: During this phase, the project team validates the narrowed list of explanations that explain sigma performance.
(2) Process Analysis:
Analyze the numbers to find out how well or poorly the processes are working, compared to what’s possible and what the competition is doing.
Process analysis includes creating a more detailed process map and analyzing the more detailed map for where the greatest inefficiencies exist.
The source analysis is often difficult to distinguish from process analysis.The process refers to the precise movement of materials, information, or requests from one place to another.
(3) Data Analysis:
Use of measures and data ( those already collected or new data gathered in the analyze phase) to discern patterns, tendencies or other factors about the problem that either suggest or prove/disprove possible cause of the problem.
The data itself may have defect. There may be a case when product or deliverable do not provide all the needed information. So data is analysed to find out the defects and attempts are made to resolve the problem before we expect to eliminate defects from the product.
(4) Resource Analysis:
We also need to ensure that employees are properly trained in all departments that affect the process.If training is inadequate, you want to identify that as a cause of defects.
Other resources include raw materials needed to manufacture, process, and deliver the goods. For example if the Accounting Department is not paying vendor bills on time and, consequently, the vendor holds up a shipment of shipping supplies, this becomes a resource problem.
(5) Communication analysis:
One problem common to most processes high in defects, is poor communication. The classic interaction between a customer and a retail store is worthy of study because many of the common communication problems are apparent in this case.
The same types of problems occur with the internal customer as well, even though we may not recognize the sequence of events as a customer service problem.
The exercise of looking at issues from both points of view is instructive. A vendor wants payment according to agreed-upon terms, but the Accounting Department wants to make its batch processing uniform and efficient. The disconnect between these type of groups demonstrates the importance of communication analysis.
Conclusion:
Analysis can take several forms. Some Six Sigma programs like to use a lot of diagrams and worksheets, and others prefer discussion and list making. There are many tools which can be used to perform analysis like Box Plot, Cause and Effect Diagram, Progressive Analysis, Ranking, Pareto Analysis, Prioritization Matrix, Value Analysis etc. The proper procedure is the one that works best for your team, provided that the end result is successful.
During Measure Phase the overall performance of the Core Business Process is measured.There are three important part of Measure Phase.
(1) Data Collection Plan and Data Collection
A data collection plan is prepared to collect required data. This plan includes what type of data needs to be collected, what are the sources of data etc., The reason to collect data is to identify areas where current processes need to be improved.
You collect data from three primary sources: input, process, and output.
The input source is where the process is generated.
Process data refers to tests of efficiency: the time requirements, cost, value, defects or errors, and labor spent on the process.
Output is a measurement of efficiency.
(2) Data evaluation:
At this stage, collected data is evaluated and sigma is calculated. This gives approximate number of defects.
A Six Sigma defect is defined as anything outside of customer specifications.
A Six Sigma opportunity is the total quantity of chances for a defect.
First we calculate Defects Per Million Opportunities (DPMO) and based on that a Sigma is decided from a predefined table:
Number of defects
DPMO = ------------------------------------------- x 1,000,000
Number of Units x Number of opportunities
As stated above, here Number for defects is total number of defects found, Number of Units is the number of units produced and number of opportunities means the number of ways to generate defects.
For example: The food ordering delivery project team examines 50 deliveries and finds out the following:
Delivery is not on time (13)
Ordered food is not according to the order (3)
Food is not fresh (0)
So now DPMO will be as follows:
13 + 3
DPMO = ----------- x 1,000,000 = 106,666.7
50 x 3
According to the Yield to Sigma Conversion Table given below 106,666.7 defects per million opportunities is equivalent to a sigma performance of between 2.7 and 2.8.
This is the method used for measuring results as we proceed through a project. This beginning point enables us to locate the cause and effect of those processes and to seek defect point so that the procedure can be improved.
(3) Failure Mode and Effects Analysis – FMEA:
The final segment of the measure phase is called FMEA. This refers to preventing defects before they occur. The FMEA process usually includes rating possible defects, or failures, in three ways:
The likelihood that something will go wrong.
The ability to detect a defect.
The level of severity of the defect.
You may use a rating scale. For example, rate each of these three areas from 1 to 10, with 1 being the lowest FMEA level and 10 being the highest. The higher the level, the more severe the rating. So a high FMEA would indicate the need to devise and implement improved measuring steps within the overall process. This would have the effect of preventing defects. Clearly, there is no need to spend a lot of time on this procedure if the likelihood of a defect is low
DMAIC: refers to a data-driven quality strategy for improving processes. This methodology is used to improve an existing business process.
DMADV: refers to a data-driven quality strategy for designing products & processes. This methodology is used to create new product designs or process designs in such a way that it results in a more predictable, mature and defect free performance.
There is one more methodology called DFSS – Design For Six Sigma. DFSS is a data-driven quality strategy for designing design or re-design a product or service from the ground up.
Sometimes a DMAIC project may turn into a DFSS project because the process in questionrequires complete redesign to bring about the desired degree of improvement.
DMAIC Methodology:
This methodology consists of following five steps.
Define –> Measure –> Analyze –> Improve –>Control
Define : Define the Problem or Project Goals that needs to be addressed.
Measure: Measure the problem and process from which it was produced.
Analyze: Analyze data & process to determine root causes of defects and opportunities.
Improve: Improve the process by finding solutions to fix, diminish, and prevent future problems.
Control: Implement, Control, and Sustain the improvements solutions to keep the process on the new course.
In the subsequent session we will give complete detail of DMAIC Methodology.
DMADV Methodology:
This methodology consists of following five steps.
Define –> Measure –> Analyze –> Design –>Verify
Define : Define the Problem or Project Goals that needs to be addressed.
Measure: Measure and determine customers needs and specifications.
Analyze: Analyze the process for meet the customer needs.
Design: Design a process that will meet customers needs.
Verify: Verify the design performance and ability to meet customer needs.
DFSS Methodology:
DFSS – Design For Six Sigma is a separate and emerging discipline related to Six Sigma quality processes. This is a systematic methodology utilizing tools, training and measurements to enable us to design products and processes that meet customer expectations and can be produced at Six Sigma Quality levels.
This methodology can have following five steps.
Define –> Identify –> Design –> Optimize –>Verify
Define : Identify the Customer and project.
Identify: Define what the customers want, or what they do not want.
Design: Design a process that will meet customers needs.
Optimize: Determine process capability & optimize design.
The starting point in gearing up for a Six Sigma is to verify that you are ready to embrace a change that says “There is a better way to run your Organization”.
There are number of essential questions and facts you will have to consider in making a readiness assessment:
Is the strategic course clear for the company ?
Is the business healthy enough to meet the expectations of analysts and investors ?
Is there a strong theme or vision for the future of the organization that is well understood and consistently communicated ?
If the organization good at responding effectively and efficiently to new circumstances ?
Evaluating current overall business results.
Evaluating how effectively do we focus on and meet customers requirements ?
Evaluating how effectively are we operating ?
How effective are your current improvement and change management systems ?
How well are your cross functional processes managed ?
What other change efforts or activities might conflict with or support Six Sigma initiative ?
Six Sigma demands investments. If you can not make a solid case for future or current return then it may be better to stay away.
If you already have in place a strong, effective, performance and process improvement offer then why do you need Six Sigma ?
There could be many questions to be answered to have an extensive assessment before deciding if you should go for Six Sigma or not. This may need time and a thorough consultation with Six Sigma Experts to take a better decision.
The Cost of Six Sigma Implementation:
Some of the most important Six Sigma budget items can include the followings:
Direct Payroll for the individuals dedicated to the effort full time.
Indirect Payroll for the time devoted by executives, team members, process owners and others involved in activities like data gathering and measurement.
Training and Consultation fee to teach people Six Sigma Skills and getting advice on how to make effort successful.
Improvement Implementation Cost
Six Sigma Start-up:
Now you have decided to go for Six Sigma. So what’s next:
Deploying a Six Sigma within an organization is a big step and involved many activities including define, measure, analyze, improve, and control phases. These phases are discussed in subsequent session. Here are some steps which are required for an organization at the time of starting Six Sigma implementation.
Plan your own route: There may be many paths to Six Sigma but the best is the one that works for your organization.
Define your objective: Its important to decide what you want to achieve and priorities are important
Stick to what is feasible: Set up your plans so that they can match your influences, resources and scope.
Preparing Leaders: They are required to launch and guide the Six Sigma Effort.
Creating Six Sigma organization: This includes preparing Black Belts and other roles and assigning them their responsibilities.
Training the organization: Apart from having black belts it is required to have all employees Six Sigma skilled.
Piloting Six Sigma Effort: Piloting can be applied to any aspect of Six Sigma including solutions derived from process improvement or design redesign projects.
Project Selection for Six Sigma:
One of the more difficult challenges in Six Sigma is the selection of the most appropriate problems to attack. There are generally two ways to generate projects:
Top-down: approach is generally tied to business strategy and are aligned with customer needs. The major weakness is they are too broad in scope to be completed in a timely manner (most six sigma projects are expected to be completed in 3-6 months).
Bottom-up: In this approach Black Belts choose the projects that are well-suited for the capabilities of teams. A major drawback of this approach is that projects may not be tied directly to strategic concerns of management thereby receiving little support and low recognition from the top.
Under a Six Sigma program, members of an organization are assigned specific roles to play, each with a title. This highly structured format is necessary in order to implement Six Sigma throughout the organization.
There are seven specific responsibilities or “role areas” in the Six Sigma program. These are:
Leadership:
A leadership team or council defines the goals and objectives in the Six Sigma process. Just as a corporate leader sets a tone and course to achieve an objective, the Six Sigma council sets out the goals to be met by the team. Here is the list of leadership Council Responsibilities,
Define the purpose the Six Sigma Program.
Explain how the result is going to benefit the customer.
Set a schedule for work and interim deadlines.
Develop a means for review and oversight.
Support team members and defend established positions.
Sponsor:
Six Sigma sponsor are high-level individuals who understand Six Sigma and are committed to its success. The individual in the sponsor role acts as a problem solver for the ongoing Six Sigma project. Six Sigma will be lead by a full-time, high-level champion, such as an Executive Vice President.
Sponsors are owners of processes and systems who help initiate and coordinate Six Sigma improvement activities in their areas of responsibilities.
Implementation leader:
The person responsible for supervising the Six Sigma team effort, who supports the leadership council by ensuring that the work of the team is completed in the desired manner.
Implementation leader ensuring success of the implementation plan and solving problems as they arise, training as needed, and assisting sponsors in motivating the team.
Coach:
The Six Sigma expert or consultant who sets a schedule, defines results of a project, and who mediates conflicts or deals with resistance to the program.
Duties include working as go-between for sponsor and leadership, scheduling the work of the team, identifying and defining desired results of the project, mediating disagreements, conflicts, and resistance to the program and identifying success as it occurs.
Team leader:
The individual responsible for overseeing the work of the team and for acting as go-between with the sponsor and the team members.
Responsibilities include communication with the sponsor in defining project goals and rationale, picking and assisting team members and other resources, keeping the project on schedule, and keeping track of steps in the process as they are completed.
Team member:
An employee who works on a Six Sigma project, given specific duties within a project, and deadlines to meet in reaching specific project goals.
The team members execute specific Six Sigma assignments and work with other members of the team within a defined project schedule, to reach specifically identified goals.
Process owner:
The individual who takes on responsibility for a process after a Six Sigma team has completed its work.
Extended Definitions of Roles – Belt Colors
Many labels have evolved over the years that Six Sigma has been in use. The assignment of belt colors to various roles is derived from the obvious source, martial arts. Based on experience and expertese following roles have evolved.
NOTE: The belt names are one tool for defining levels of expertise and experience. They do not change or replace the organizational roles in the Six Sigma process.
Black Belt:
The person possessing this belt has achieved the highest skill level and is an experienced expert in various techniques. As applied to the Six Sigma program, the individual designated as a Black Belt will have completed a thorough internal training program and have experienced work on several projects.
The black belt holder is usually given the role of team leader, the person who is responsible for execution and scheduling.
Master Black Belt:
A person who is available to consult with the team or its leadership but who is not a direct member of the team itself. This may be the equivalent of the role played by the coach, or for more technical and complex projects.
The Master Black Belt is available to answer procedural questions and to resolve the technical issues that come up.
Green Belt:
The Green Belt designation can also belong to the team leader or to a member of the team working directly with the team leader.
A Green belt is less experienced than the Black Belt but is cast in a key role within the team.
There are three key elements of Six Sigma Process Improvement.
Customers
Processes
Employees
The Customer:
Customers define quality. They expect performance, reliability, competitive prices, on-time delivery, service, clear and correct transaction processing and more.
Today, Delighting a customer is a necessity. Because if we don’t do it, someone else will!
The Processes:
Defining Processes and defining Metrics and Measures for Processes is the key element of Six Sigma.
Quality requires to look at a business from the customer’s perspective, In other words, we must look at defined processes from the outside-in.
By understanding the transaction lifecycle from the customer’s needs and processes, we can discover what they are seeing and feeling. This will give a chance to identify week area with in a process and then we can improve them.
The Employees:
The company must involve all employees in Six Sigma Program. company must provide opportunities and incentives for employees to focus their talents and ability to satisfy customers.
This is important to six sigma that all team members should have a well defined role with measurable objectives.
