Six Sigma Full Course 2025 | Six Sigma Tutorial For Beginners | Six Sigma Training | Simplilearn

Key Takeaways

[music] Hey there, welcome to this six sigma full course by simpler. Ever wondered how companies like Toyota make cars so perfectly or how Amazon delivers millions of packages without major mess ups? The secret is six sigma. A smart way of working that help businesses run like clockwork and keep customers super happy. Think of six sigma as a superpower for fixing problems. It teaches you how to spot what's going wrong in any process, figure out why it's happening and fix it for good. So whether it's reducing weight times, cutting cost or making products better, six sigma gets result. Companies everywhere are desperately looking for people who can make their operation smoother and more efficient. Six Sigma professionals are like business doctors. They diagnose problems and make everything work better. We'll start simple and build you up step by step from basic lean principles which is all about cutting out waste to advanced six sigma techniques. We'll explain everything in plain English so you can actually use what you're learning right away. Whether you're brand new to this or want to get certified, we will take you from beginner to six sigma expert. So let's get started. Now before we move on, if you're interested in mastering advanced process optimization and becoming a lean six sigma expert, this program is for you. You can join simply learns lean six sigma expert course to earn globally recognized green and black belt certifications accredited by SSC. You will gain hands-on experience with 13 plus projects, 12 simulations, and 18 Harvard case studies. Plus, master powerful tools like mini tab and generative AI for quality management. With 40 hours of live training, lifetime access, and 114 plus PDUs, you'll be fully equipped to drive operational excellence and boost your career in just 10 weeks. So, hurry up and enroll now and you can find the course link below. Six sigma is a highly disciplined process that focuses on delivering near-perfect products and services consistently. Its strength is that it's a continuous improvement process with an unwavering focus on change empowerment, seamless training of resources and continuous top management support. These three are known as the pillars of six sigma. If six sigma is implemented methodically, it will give sustained results for any process. Now the question arises as to what is a process. This will be explained in the next screen. A process is a series of steps designed to produce a product andor service according to the requirement of the customer. A process mainly consists of four parts. Input, process steps, output, and feedback. Input is something put into a process or expended in its operation to achieve an output or a result. For example, man, material, machine and management. Output is the final product delivered to an internal or external customer. For example, product or services. It is important to understand that if the output of a process is an input for another process, the latter process is the internal customer. Each input can be classified as controllable represented as C, non-controllable represented as NC, noise represented as N, and critical represented as X. The most important aspect of the process is the feedback. As can be inferred from the image, any change in the inputs causes change in the output. Therefore, y equals f ofx. Feedback helps in process control because it suggests changes to the inputs. Let us understand how six sigma works in this screen. Six sigma is successful because of the following reasons. Six sigma is a management strategy. It creates an environment where the management supports six sigma as a business strategy and not as a standalone approach or a program to satisfy some public relations need. Six sigma mainly emphasizes the DMAC method of problem solving. Focused teams are assigned well-defined projects that directly influence the organization's bottom line with customer satisfaction and increased quality being byproducts. Six sigma also requires extensive use of statistical methods. The organizational benefits of six sigma are as follows. A six sigma process eliminates the root cause of problems and defects in a process. Sometimes the solution is creating robust products and services that mitigate the impact of a variable input or output on a customer's experience. For example, many electrical utility systems have voltage variability up to and sometimes exceeding a 10% deviation from nominal value. Thus, most electrical products are built to tolerate the variability. Drawing more amperage without damage to any components or the unit itself. Using six sigma reduces variation in a process and thereby reduces waste in a process. It ensures customer satisfaction and provides process standardization. Rework is substantially reduced because one gets it right the very first time. Further, six sigma addresses the key business requirement. Six sigma can also be used by organizations to gain advantage and become world leaders in their respective fields. Ultimately, the whole six sigma process is to satisfy customers and achieve organizational goals. What do you see on the screen? Well, it depends on your perception or how you see the world. If you are a pessimist, you might think the glass is half empty. If you are an optimist, you might think the glass is half full. If you are a realist, you might think the glass is full with water and air. However, the six sigma practitioner sees a glass that is bigger than it needs to be, assuming the current water level is what the customer desires. As we begin our journey to learn more about six sigma, it is important to know that applying six sigma is the way of seeing and analyzing the processes around you. We will talk more about what six sigma means and how the viewpoint impacts organizations in the screens to come. Let's begin this lesson by defining quality. Quality is defined as meeting the requirements of the customer. Well, what features do you look for when purchasing a car? What facilities do you want in your house or apartment when buying one? What do you expect from a premium chocolate candy bar? Answers to these questions will tell what quality means to you for each of these items. Here's a snapshot of the quality journey with a few key milestones. In the 1930s, the idea of statistical process control was conceived by Walter Schuard to monitor and control a process using statistical methods. This was used extensively during World War II to quickly expand industrial capabilities of the US. In the 1960s, quality circles were formulated. A quality circle is a self-improvement workers group that performs similar work, meets regularly to identify, analyze, and solve work- rellated problems. In 1987, the International Organization for Standardization designed ISO 9000. This is a set of international standards on quality management and quality assurance for organizations to implement quality management systems. In 1987, the Baldridge award criteria was developed by US Congress to raise awareness of quality management systems and recognize US companies that have successfully implemented quality management systems. In 1988, the concept of benchmarking was introduced. Benchmarking is an improvement process where an organization measures its performance against the best organizations in its field, determines how such performance levels were achieved and uses the information to improve its own performance. During the 1990s, the balance scorecard or BSC was introduced. It is a management tool that helps managers at all levels to align activities to the strategy of their organization and to monitor the multiple results obtained in their key areas. In 1996, the concept of re-engineering was introduced. Re-engineering is also known as business process re-engineering which involves restructuring an entire organization. The term six sigma has different meanings or implications depending on the context. Sigma is a Greek letter used in the statistical world to represent a measure of variability. The six sigma process is an important method of quality principles and techniques. Also, six sigma is a business strategy to change company culture with top management support. The sigma level is a measure of performance for a business process or service. So when you say six sigma there are several definitions that are all correct. Quality is defined as the degree of excellence of a product or service and conformance to customer requirements. Taking a process to six sigma level ensures the quality of product and increase in profits as the primary goal. In other words, six sigma signifies quality. In 1986, Bill Smith and Muel Harry at Motorola started the Six Sigma Initiative to improve performance. In 1995, Jack Welch initiated Six Sigma at General Electric to improve the entire business system and became the global promoter of Six Sigma. In 1998, Allied Signal saved a half billion with the use of Six Sigma. In 2000, General Electric saved 2 billion annually with the use of six sigma. And in 2001, Motorola saved 16 billion commulatively with the use of six sigma. Six sigma is a business methodology that employs a customer ccentric fact-based approach to reduce process variation and waste. This helps us dramatically improve customer satisfaction, increase shareholder value, and strengthen employee commitment. The methodology is designed to make companies rethink the way they do business and generate improvements in processes and services. Following are the benefits of implementing six sigma in an organization. It eliminates the root cause of problems and defects in a process. Creates robust products and services. Reduces process variation and waste. Ensures customer satisfaction. Achieves process standardization. reduces rework by getting it right the first time. Addresses key business requirements. Helps gain competitive advantage and helps achieve organizational goals. Following are the three reasons why organizations are successful with six sigma. It is a proven systematic problem solving methodology that follows a tried and effective process known as deic which improves productivity and efficiency by eliminating defects. Six Sigma is customerfocused. This methodology ensures businesses align their projects to customers needs. It allows organizations to produce better products and services and improves customer loyalty. Lastly, six sigma achieves long-term improvements based on datadriven statistical analysis to prioritize issues and fix root causes. The six sigma process is known as deic. DEA comprises five phases. Define, measure, analyze, improve, and control. These phases are the road map to problem solving and improving our processes. The effectiveness of six sigma method is derived from its structure. Each phase has an overarching objective and specific deliverables that need to be completed which helps us achieve the objectives. The purpose of the define phase is to document the problem, the desired outcome, goals, and deliverables. The purpose of the measure phase is to obtain baseline process performance levels and quantify the problem. The focus of the analyze phase is to identify the key root causes for process variation and defects. The purpose of the improve phase is to develop, test, and implement the solutions. The goal of the control phase is to monitor the key factors and maintain the gains. You learn the aspects of the demic process. Now we'll look at the tools used in each phase. The list of tools corresponds to the deic phase in which they are used. The use or application of these tools gives the expected deliverables in each demic phase for a green belt. Some of the tools listed are not required in every six sigma green belt project. These tools give us an insight into the problem and lead us toward the real issues in our processes. That is with more experience, you're likely to know the tools you need for your projects. In the define phase, we use cypo, voice of the customer or VOC, critical to quality CTQ, the quality function deployment or QFD, failure modes and effects analysis known as the FMEA or the FIA and the cause and effect C& matrix. In the measure phase, we use measurement system analysis or MSA, control charts, process capability and normality plots. In the analyze phase we use simple linear regression or SLR prao charts fishbone diagram bailer modes and effects analysis the familia multivaried charts and hypothesis testing. In the improved phase we use brainstorming piloting and also the failure modes effects analysis and design of experiments DOE. In the last phase, control will use control charts, a control plan, and measurement system analysis. >> This lesson provides an overview of the certified six sigma green belt or CSSGV course. A process is a series of steps designed to produce a product and/or service according to the requirement of the customer. A process mainly consists of four parts. Input, process steps, output, and feedback. Input is something put into a process or expended in its operation to achieve an output or a result. For example, man, material, machine and management. Output is the final product delivered to an internal or external customer. For example, product or services. It is important to understand that if the output of a process is an input for another process, the latter process is the internal customer. Each input can be classified as controllable represented as C, non-controllable represented as NC, noise represented as N, and critical represented as X. The most important aspect of the process is the feedback. As can be inferred from the image, any change in the inputs causes change in the output. Therefore, y equals f ofx. Feedback helps in process control because it suggests changes to the inputs. Let us learn about the process of six sigma in the next screen. Let us understand how six sigma works in this screen. Six sigma is successful because of the following reasons. Six sigma is a management strategy. It creates an environment where the management supports six sigma as a business strategy and not as a standalone approach or a program to satisfy some public relations need. Six sigma mainly emphasizes the DMAC method of problem solving. Focused teams are assigned well-defined projects that directly influence the organization's bottom line with customer satisfaction and increased quality being byproducts. Six sigma also requires extensive use of statistical methods. The next screen will focus on some key terms used in six sigma. Let us look at the sigma level chart in this screen. As discussed earlier, the six sigma quality means 3.4 4 defects in 1 million opportunities or a process with a 99.99966% yield. The sigma level chart given on the screen shows the values for other sigma levels. Please take a look at the values carefully. Let us understand the benefits of six sigma in the next screen. The organizational benefits of six sigma are as follows. A six sigma process eliminates the root cause of problems and defects in a process. Sometimes the solution is creating robust products and services that mitigate the impact of a variable input or output on a customer's experience. For example, many electrical utility systems have voltage variability up to and sometimes exceeding a 10% deviation from nominal value. Thus, most electrical products are built to tolerate the variability. Drawing more amperage without damage to any components or the unit itself. Using six sigma reduces variation in a process and thereby reduces waste in a process. It ensures customer satisfaction and provides process standardization. Rework is substantially reduced because one gets it right the very first time. Further, six sigma addresses the key business requirement. Six sigma can also be used by organizations to gain advantage and become world leaders in their respective fields. Ultimately, the whole six sigma process is to satisfy customers and achieve organizational goals. In the next screen, let us understand six sigma and quality. Taking a process to six sigma level ensures that the quality of the product is maintained. The primary goal of improved quality is increased profits for the organization. In very simple terms, quality is defined as the degree of excellence of a product or a service provided to the customer. It is conformance to customer requirement. If the customer is satisfied with the product or service, then the product or service is of the required quality. Let us look at the history of quality in the next screen. In the mid 1930s, statistical process control SPC was developed by Walter Shuhart and used extensively during World War II to quickly expand the US's industrial capabilities. SPC is the application of statistical techniques to control any process. Walter Shuhart's work on the common cause of variation and special cause of variation assignable has been used proactively in all six sigma projects. The approach to quality has varied from time to time. In the 1960s there were quality circles which originated in Japan. It was started by Kauru Ishikawa. Quality circles were self-improvement groups composed of small number of employees belonging to a single department. Quality circles brought in improvements with little or no help from the top management. In 1987, ISO 9000 was introduced. ISO stands for International Organization for Standardization. ISO 9000 is a set of international standards on quality management and quality assurance to help organizations implement quality management systems. ISO 9000 is still in effect. Baldridge Award, now known as the Malcolm Baldridge National Quality Award, was developed by the US Congress in 1987 to raise awareness of quality management systems as well as recognize and award US companies that have successfully implemented quality management systems. In 1988, another quality approach was developed known as benchmarking. In this approach, an organization measures its performance against the best organizations in its field, determines how such performance levels were achieved and the information is used by the organization to improve itself. Then in the 1990s, there was the balanced scorecard approach. It is a management tool that helps managers of all levels to monitor their results in their key areas so that one metric is not optimized while another is ignored. During the year 1996 through 1997, an approach known as re-engineering was developed. This approach involved the restructuring of an entire organization and its processes. Integrating various functional tasks into crossf functional processes is one of the examples of re-engineering. In the next screen, let us find out about the quality gurus and their contribution to the field of quality. Let us focus on six sigma and the business system in this screen. Business systems are designed to implement a process or a set of processes. A business system ensures that process inputs are at the right place and at the right time so that each step of the process has the resource it needs. A business system design should be responsible for collecting and analyzing data so that continual improvement of its processes, products and services is ensured. A business system has processes, subprocesses and steps as its subsets. Human resources, manufacturing and marketing are some examples of processes in a business system. Six sigma improves a business system by continuously removing the defects in its processes and also by sustaining the changes. A defective item is any product or service that a customer would reject. A customer can be the user of the ultimate product or service or can be the next process downstream in the business system. Let us learn about six sigma projects and organizational goals in the following screen. Let us understand the structure of the six sigma team in this screen. There are totally five levels in the six sigma screen. The first level consists of the top executives of the organization. These people lead change and provide direction as they own the vision of the organization. For any improvement initiative to work, it is important that top management of the organization be actively involved in its propagation. The top executives own the six sigma initiatives. Next in the level are six sigma champions. They identify and scope projects, develop deployment and strategy, and support cultural change. They also identify and coach master black belts. Three to four master black belts work under every champion. Six sigma master black belts train and coach black belts, green belts and various functional leaders of the organization. They usually have at least three to four black belts under them. The fourth level in six sigma structure is six sigma black belts. They apply strategies to specific projects and lead and direct teams to execute projects. Finally, there are six sigma green belts. They support the black belt employees by participating in project teams. Green belts play a dual role. They work on the project and perform day-to-day jobs related to their work area. In the next screen, we will understand the drivers and metrics of organizational strategy. While financial accounting is useful to track physical assets, the balanced scorecard or BSE offers a more holistic approach to strategy implementation and performance measurement by taking into account perspectives other than the financial one. For an organization, traditional strategic activities that concentrate only on financial metrics are not sufficient to predict future performance. They are not sufficient to implement and control the strategic plan either. BSSE translates the organizational strategy into actionable objectives that can be met on an everyday basis and provides a framework for performance measurement. The balanced scorecard helps clarify the organizational vision and mission to workable action items to be carried out and measured. It also provides feedback on both internal business processes and external outcomes. By doing so, it enables continuous improvement in strategic performance toward achieving organizational goals. The balanced scorecard achieves all this by integrating the organizational strategy with a limited number of key metrics from four major areas of performance. finance, customer relations, internal processes and learning and growth. Many organizations in the world use balanced scorecard approaches and the number is increasing every day. In the next screen, we will describe the balanced scorecard framework. We will learn about developing a balanced scorecard in this screen. While applying the balanced scorecard in an organization, care must be taken to account for interactions between different perspectives or strategic business units and avoid optimizing the results of one at the expense of another. To outline the strategy, a top-down approach is followed by determining the strategic objectives, measures, targets, and initiatives for each perspective. The strategic objectives refer to the strategy to be achieved in that perspective. Three or four leading objectives are agreed upon. The progress towards strategic objectives is assessed using specific measures. These measures should be closely related to the actual performance drivers. This enables effectively evaluating progress. Highle metrics are linked to lower level operational measures. The target values for each measure are set. The initiatives required to achieve the target value are identified. As already mentioned, this exercise is carried out for all the perspectives. Finally, the scorecard is integrated into the management system. In the next screen, let us understand the change in the approach to the balance scorecard from the fourbox model of BSC to strategy maps. In earlier approaches to the balance scorecard, the perspectives were presented in a fourbox model. This kind of scorecard was more a comprehensive glance at the key performance indicators or metrics in different perspectives. However, the key performance indicators or metrics of different perspectives were viewed independent of each other which led to a silo-based approach and lack of integration. However, modern scorecards place the focus on the interreations between the objectives and metrics of different perspectives and how they support each other. A well-designed balanced scorecard recognizes the influence of one perspective on another and the effect of these interactions on organizational strategy. To achieve the objectives in one perspective, it is necessary to achieve the objectives in another perspective. In short, the four perspectives form a chain of cause and effect relationships. A map of interlin objectives from each perspective is created. These objectives represents the performance drivers which determine the effectiveness of strategy implementation. This is called a strategy map. The function of a strategy map is to outline what the organization wants to accomplish and how it plans to accomplish it. The strategy map is one-page view of how the organization can create value. For example, financial success is dependent on giving customers what they want, which in turn depends on the internal processes and learning and growth at an individual level. In the next screen, we will look at the impact of the balance scorecard on the organization. The balanced scorecard and strategy map force managers to consider cause and effect relationships which leads to better identification of key drivers and a more rounded approach to strategic planning. The BSC enables the organization to improve in the following ways. Being a one-page document, a strategy map can easily be communicated and facilitates understanding at all levels of the organization. An organization is successful in meeting its objectives only when everyone understands the strategy. The balanced scorecard also forces an organization to measure what really matters and manage information better so that quality of decisionmaking is higher. Creating performance reports against a balanced scorecard allows for a structured approach to reporting progress. It also enables organizations to create reports and dashboards to communicate performance transparently and meaningfully. As expected, a balance scorecard helps an organization to better align itself and its processes to the strategic goals outlined in the BSC. The overall objectives of the BSE can be cascaded into each business unit to enable that unit to work toward the common organizational goal. All the activities of the organization such as budgeting or risk management are automatically aligned to the strategic objectives. To conclude, the balance scorecard is a simple and powerful tool that when implemented correctly equips an organization to perform better. Let us proceed to the next topic of this lesson in the following screen. In this topic, we will look at what lean is and how lean is applied to a process. Let us start with the lean concepts in the next screen. Let us look at the process issues in this screen. Lean focuses on three major issues in a process known by their Japanese names Muda, Mura and Marie. Muda refers to nonvalue adding work. Mura represents unevenness and Marie represents overburden. Together they represent the key aspects in lean. Let us look at the types of waste in the next screen. There are seven types of muda or waste as per lean principles. Let us understand these seven types of muda. Overp production. This refers to producing more than is required. For example, a customer needed 10 products and 12 were delivered. Inventory. In simple words, this refers to stock. The term inventory includes finished goods, semifinished goods, raw materials, supplies kept in waiting, and some of the work in progress. For example, test scripts waiting to be executed by the testing team, defects, repairs, rejects, any product or service deemed unusable by the customer or any effort to make it usable to the original customer or a new customer. For example, errors found in the source code of a payroll module by quality control team. Motion, a waste due to poor ergonomics of the workplace. For example, finance and account team sit on the first floor, but invoices to customers are printed on the ground floor causing unnecessary personnel movement. Overprocessing. Additional process on a product or service to remove unnecessary attribute or feature is overprocessing. For example, a customer needs a bottle and you deliver a bottle with extra plastic casing. A customer needs ABc3 bearing and your process is tuned to produce more precise ABC7 bearings, taking more time for something the customer doesn't need. Waiting. When a part waits for processing or the operator waits for work, the wastage of waiting occurs, for example, improper scheduling of staff members. Transport. when the product moves unnecessarily in the process without adding value. For example, a product is finished and yet it travels 10 kilometers to the warehouse before it gets shipped to the customer. Another example, an electronic form is transferred to 12 people, some of them seeing the form more than once, that is the form is traveling over the same space multiple times. Next, we will look at lean wastes. Other than the seven types of waste discussed, some lean experts talk about additional areas of waste. Underutilized skills. Skills are underutilized when the workforce has capabilities that are not being fully used toward productive efforts. People are assigned to jobs in which they do not fit. Underperforming processes. Automation of poorly performing process. Improving a process that should be eliminated if possible. For example, the product returns department or product discounts process. A symmetry in processes that should be eliminated. For example, two signatures to approve a cost reduction and six signatures to reverse a cost reduction that created higher costs in other areas. In the next screen, we will look at an exercise on identifying the waste type. We will cover each step of the lean process in the next few screens. In this screen, we will learn about the first step. Identify value to implement lean to a process. It is important to find out what the customer wants. Once this is done, the process should be evaluated to identify what it needs to possess to meet customer requirements. The next screen will focus on the next step of the lean process, value stream mapping. In this screen, we will discuss the differences between push and pull processes. An organization can adopt either of these processes depending on the requirement. Contrary to a pull process, in a push process, the first step is to forecast the demand for a product or service. The production line then begins to fill this demand and produced parts are stocked in anticipation of customer demand. For example, a garments manufacturer produces 200 shirts based on expected demand and then waits for customer orders for them. Note that the demand is expected and not actual. Discounts offered to customers by big retailers are examples of the push process. If the garment company adopts a pull process instead, it would start making the shirts only after receiving a confirmed demand from customers. Note that although the full approach seems better, it is not applicable to all situations. For example, a pharmacy uses a push process. In the next screen, we will learn about theory of constraints. Let us look at an example for the TOC methodology. In this screen, the three subprocesses in the packing process are coating or printing, filling, and sealing. The data for the three subprocesses are observed and collected as number of units produced in an hour. The data is as follows. Coating or printing is 900 units per hour. Filling is 720 units per hour and sealing is 780 units per hour. How can you implement the TOC methodology in this example? Let us build the TOC map for this example. The first step in the TOC methodology is to identify the constraint. Looking at the data, the output per hour from the filling process is 720. This is the constraint in the system. In the second step, the constraint is exploited by analyzing the performance using data. To break the constraint, a repair and maintenance personnel can be assigned to maintain the filling machine on a daily basis. In the third step, the other fixes in the repair and maintenance function are made as subordinate decisions to the one taken in step two. In this example, carry out the maintenance of the filling machine. In the fourth step, the constraint is elevated by implementing the decisions. In this example, remove the damages from the filling machine. The next step is to go back to step one and identify the next system constraint. As per the data collected after implementation of the first cycle of the TOC, ceiling can be identified as the next system constraint. Let us now analyze the data before and after TOC implementation. In this example, the number of units produced per hour before implementing the TOC encoding or printing process was 900 units. Filling process was 720 units and ceiling process was 780 units. After implementing the TOC, the number of units produced per hour for the filling process increased to 840 from 720 units. Hey there learners, check out our certified lean six sigma green belt certification training course and earn a green belt certification. To learn more about this course, you can click the course link in the description box below. Let us proceed to the next topic of this lesson. In this topic, we will discuss the concepts in design for six sigma or DFSS. Let us first understand DFSS in the next screen. DFSS or design for six sigma is a business process methodology that ensures that any new product or service meets customer requirements and the process for that product or service is already at six sigma level. DFSS uses tools such as quality function deployment or QFD and failure mode and effects analysis or FMEA. DFSS can help a business system to introduce an entirely new product or service for the customer. It can also be used to introduce a new category of product or service for the business system. For example, an FMCG company plans to make a new brand of hair oil, a type of product already in the market. DFSS also improves the product or service and adds to the current product or service lines. To implement DFSS, a business system has to know its customer requirements. DFSS can be used to design a new product or service, a new process for a new product or service or redesign of an existing product or service to meet customer requirements. Let us learn about processes for DFSS in the next screen. The two major processes for DFSS are IDOV and DMAV. IDOV stands for identify, design, optimize and verify. DMAV stands for define, measure, analyze, design and verify. In the IDOV process, the first step involves identifying specific customer needs based on which the new product and business process will be designed. The next step involves design which involves identifying functional requirements, developing alternate concepts, evaluating the alternatives, selecting a best fit concept, and predicting sigma capability. Tools such as FMEA are used here. The third step optimize uses a statistical approach to calculate tolerance with respect to the desired output. When IDOV is implemented to design a process expected to work at six sigma level, this is checked in the optimize phase. If the process does not meet expectations, the optimize phase helps in developing detailed design elements, predicting performances and optimizing design. The last stage of IDOV is to verify that is to test and validate the design and finally to check conformance to six sigma standards. The other process DMADV has five stages. The first stage is to define the customer requirements and goals for the process product or service. Next, measure and match performance to customer requirements. The third stage involves analysis and assessment of the design for the process, product or service. The next step is to design and implement the array of latest processes required for the new process, product or service. The final stage is to verify results and maintain performance. In the next screen, we will look at the differences between IDOV and DMAB. The primary difference between IDOV and DMA DB is that while IDOV is used only to design a new product or service, DMA DB can be used to design either a new product or service or redesign an existing product or service. IDOV involves design of a new process while DMADV involves redesigning an existing process. In IDOV, no analysis or measurement of existing process is done and the whole development is new. The design step immediately follows the identification of customer requirements. In contrast, DMADV the existing product, service or process is examined thoroughly before moving to the design phase. The design stage comes only after defining requirements and analyzing the existing product, service or process. In the following screen, we will learn about tool quality function deployment or QFD which is one of the DFSs tools. QFD also called voice of customer or VOCC or house of quality is a predefined method of identifying customer requirements. It is a systematic process to understand the needs of the customer and convert them into a set of design and manufacturing requirements. QFD motivates business to focus on its customers and design products that are competitive in lesser time and at lesser cost. The primary learning from QFD includes which customer requirements are most important, what the organization strengths and weaknesses are, where an organization should focus their efforts, and where most of the work needs to be done. To learn from QFD, the organization should ask relevant questions to customers and tabulate them to bring out a set of parameters critical to the design of the product. Apart from understanding customer requirements, it is also important to know what would happen if a particular product or service fails when being used by a customer. It is necessary to understand the effects of failure on the customer to ensure preventive actions are taken and to be able to answer the customers in the event of failure. In the next screen, we will look at another DFSS tool, failure modes and effects analysis or FMEA. Failure modes and effects analysis or FMEA is a preemptive tool that helps any system to identify potential pitfalls at all levels of a business system. It helps the organization to identify and prioritize the different failure modes of its product or service and what effect the failure would have on the customer. It helps in identifying the critical areas in a system on which the organization's efforts can be focused. Note that while FMEA enables identification of critical areas, it does not offer solutions to the identified problems. We will look at the varieties of FMEA such as DFMEA and PFMEA in the next screen. PFMEA stands for process failure mode and effects analysis and DFMEA stands for design failure mode and effects analysis. PFMEA is used on a new or existing process to uncover potential failures. It is done in the quality planning phase to act as an aid during production. A process FMEA can involve fabrication, assembly, transactions or services. DFMEA is used in the design of a new product, service or process to uncover potential failures. The purpose is to find out how failure modes affect the system and to reduce the effect of failure on the system. This is done before the product is sent to manufacturing. All design deficiencies are sorted out at the end of this process. In the following screen, we will understand FMEA risk priority number. FMEA risk priority number or RPM is a measure used to quantify or assess risk associated with a design or process. Assessing risk helps identify critical failure modes. Higher the RPN, higher the priority the product or process receives. RPN is a product of three numbers. Severity of a failure, occurrence of a failure, and the detectability of a failure. All these numbers are given a value on a scale of 1 to 10. The minimum value of RPN is 1 and the maximum value is 1,000. A failure mode with a high occurrence rating means the failure mode occurs very frequently. A mode with a high severity rating means that the mode is really critical to ensure safety of operations. A mode with a high detection rating means that the current controls are not sufficient. In the next screen, we will look at the FMEA table. The FMEA table helps plan improvement initiatives by underlining why and how failure modes occur and helps organizations plan for their prevention. Typically, FMEA is applied on the output of root cause analysis and is a better tool for focus or prioritization as compared to multivoting. One important aspect of FMEA is that it does not need data. Experts in a particular area can form the FMEA table without having to look at data from any source. In functions such as human resources, the FMEA table is very useful as there might not be much data available to the problem solving team. The sample FMEA table is given on the screen. Please go through the contents for better understanding. In the following screen we will discuss severity of risk priority number and scale criteria. Let us first discuss severity. Severity refers to the seriousness of the effect of the failure mode or how critical the failure mode is to the customer or the process. The severity of a failure mode is rated on a scale of 1 to 10 using a severity table. Different industries follow different structures for the severity table. A high severity rating indicates a mode is critical to operational safety. For example, a team working on FMEA of a radioactive plant may insert fatal as the effect with rating 10. Another example is the severity table for a sports team. The team manager wants to rate the severity of failure of the team in an upcoming game. She might rate it at nine given that the team would lose a big sponsorship should they face defeat which could in turn be hazardous to the team's future. Shown here is a generalized table of severity. The severity rating can never be changed. For example, if a mode has a rating of nine before improvement, it will continue to have a rating of 9 after improvement too. Let us look at occurrence of RPM and scale criteria. Occurrence is the probability that a specific cause will result in the particular failure mode. As with severity, occurrence is rated on a scale of 1 to 10 based on a table. Like the severity table, higher the occurrence of a failure, higher is its rating. Again, this table might vary depending on the industry and scenario. Sometimes the project team can use data here if available based on past data. The probability of occurrence of a failure can easily be rated. Shown here is a generalized table. Let us next look at detection of RPN and scale criteria. Detection is the probability that a particular failure will be detected. The table shown here is again a generalized one. The rating here is a bit different from severity or occurrence. Higher the detectability of a failure, lower is its rating. This is because if the failure can easily be detected, then everyone would know of it and therefore there would be less or no damage. For example, if detection is impossible, the failure is given a rating of 10. Please note that at the start of a six sigma project, the failure mode is given a relatively high detection rating. Let us look at an example of FMEA and RPN in the next screen. In this example, a bank wants to recognize and prioritize the risks involved in the process of withdrawing cash from an ATM. It can be observed from the table that not having a control in place for network issues has the highest RPN. This is due to the detectability for a network issue being very low. The next set of information in the table shows the action taken by the bank's management to address the failure modes. Following the implementation, the new RPN is calculated retaining the security level at 9. This is because the actions were not directed at reducing the severity but at the causes of failure. It can be seen that the new RPN is much lower and the risk for both causes has been mitigated. This lesson will cover the details of the define phase. Six sigma can be applied to everything around. It can be applied across almost 70 different sectors. However, it cannot be applied to all problems. The first step is to check if the project qualifies to be a six sigma project. The questions that need to be asked are as follows. Is there an existing process to implement the DMAC methodology of problem solving? A process needs to exist. The process should be an operation for the development of the product or service. Is there a problem in the process? Ideally the process should not have any problem. If there is a problem in the process performance the process needs to be improved. Is the problem measurable? The problem has to be measurable in order to assess the root cause and the impact of the problem on the process. Does the problem impact customer satisfaction? If the problem affects customer satisfaction, an action needs to be taken immediately. Else the customer may start finding alternate products or switch to competitors products. Does working on the problem impact profits of the company? It is very essential to assess the impact of the project on the profits of the company. If the project affects the profits of the company adversely, then such a project is not feasible. Is the root cause of the problem unknown? If the root cause of the problem is visible, then a six sigma project is not required. Other problem solving techniques can be used in this case. Is the solution unknown? If the solution to the problem is already known, then there is no need for any project. The company can directly implement the solution. The define phase of DMAC will be introduced in the next screen. The six sigma project process is known as a DMAC process. Define is the first phase in the six sigma project process. In the define phase, the problem is defined and the six sigma team is formed. The objectives of the define phase are as follows. Clearly define the problem statement through customer analysis. Understand customer requirements and ensure that the six sigma project goals are aligned to these requirements. Define the objectives of the six sigma project. Plan the project in terms of time, budget, and resource requirements. Define the team structure for the project and establish roles and responsibilities. In the next screen, let us learn about benchmarking. Benchmarking is the process of comparing an organization's business processes, practices, and performance metrics with that of industry leaders. There are various types of benchmarking. Let us briefly look at each type. Process benchmarking entails comparing specific processes to a leading company or an industry standard. This is useful to obtain a simplified view of business operations and enables a focused review of major business functions. Process benchmarking includes comparisons of production processes, data collection processes, performance indicators, and productivity and efficiency reviews. Financial benchmarking is performed to assess overall competitiveness and productivity. It is done by running a detailed financial analysis and analyzing the result. Performance benchmarking involves comparison of products and services with those of competitors with the intention of evaluating the organization's competitiveness. Product benchmarking involves designing new products or services or upgrading existing products or services. This can involve reverse engineering a competitor's products to study the strengths and weaknesses and modeling the new product on these findings. Strategic benchmarking refers to studying strategies and problem solving approaches in other industries. Functional benchmarking is the focused analysis of a single function with the aim of improving it. Complex functions may need to be divided into processes before benchmarking is done. Competitive benchmarking includes standardizing organizational strategies, process, products, services and procedures against the competitors in the same industry. Collaborative benchmarking is a type of benchmarking where the standardization of various business parameters is carried out by a group of companies and the information is shared. If the subsidiary units of a company or its various branches carry out the benchmarking, it is called collaborative benchmarking. Let us take a look at best practices for benchmarking in the next screen. Best practice is a method that ensures continuous improvement leading to exceptional performance. It is also a method to sustain and develop the process continuously. Some of the best practices in benchmarking are as follows. Increase the objectives or scope of benchmarking. Set the standards and path to be followed at the initial stage. Reduce unnecessary effort and comply with the scope. Recognize the best in the industry to set a benchmark. Share the information derived from benchmarking. In the next screen, we will discuss project selection. Let us understand process, business process and business system in this screen. A process is a series of steps designed to produce a product or service to meet the requirement of a customer. A process mainly consists of three elements input, process, and output. A business process is a systematic organization of objects such as people, machinery, and materials into work activities designed to produce a required product or service. As shown on the screen, a process is a subset of a business process. A business process is in turn a part of a