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Six Sigma Essay

Decent Essays

This article itemizes the varying success stories of organisations who championed the Six Sigma tools since its inception over two (2) decades ago. It highlights the benefits and attributes associated with Six Sigma and the ideologies they have grown to practice. Anne Harris conveys this information through her article, as she relays the stories from global manufacturers about what Six Sigma has done for them. Six Sigma in a nutshell is a theory to target client’s needs, while smashing the problem barrier. It was created at the Motorola Group in 1986 by former senior engineer Bill Smith. His goal for Six Sigma was multi-layered, targeting the quality of products and services, developing a philosophy and a strategic process within his company. …show more content…

This is exactly who Scott Johnson was Caterpillar. Caterpillar encapsulates three of the Six Sigma routes, (business transformation, strategic unit improvement and problem solving on a particular cell) as the ‘transformational deployment strategy’. Focusing more on the transformational than the functional as Johnson eluded. “…we really looked at Six Sigma as being much more powerful, almost a business transformation set of tools extending to everyone, from departments, to dealers to supporters. Adopting a transformational approach, it becomes less about the tools of Six Sigma, and more about the culture in which you are going to operate”. Six Sigma is decision making, based on facts and data, with the purpose of adding continuous value to your company. Caterpillar ensures this by pushing their future leaders into gaining a Six Sigma background, thus making them strong leaders as Caterpillar goes into the future. Caterpillar is in route to achieving its one organisational goal according to Johnson; “Creating a common language across the globe which says we are very serious about making Six Sigma the way we work at …show more content…

Critical questions arose at the inception of the Six Sigma implementation within 3M, according to 3M United Kingdom (UK) Leader at the time; Phil Wide. Pertaining to the differences between country to country and business to business, what approach would you take to deploy continuity and proof of methodology? What works culturally? What works in that particular operation? Implementation of the Six Sigma tools was a challenge, especially in achieving the initial buy-in and continued support from their workforce who have seen management fads come and go. Regardless, 3M took the reins of their workforce, training and motivating them in the ideals of Six Sigma. This was done around a central core of excellence and focus. Overtime the benefits of this move have yielded many advantages as compared to traditional improvement processes, one of which is the ability to ‘close the

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