Six Sigma implementation

[stevsmith]

As some of you may be aware, I recently started working for a major sub-contract company as a Senior Cad/Cam Engineer. During my interview I was told that I would be shortlisted to be trained and implement the process of Six Sigma within the company.

 

I am just curious as to whether anybody else has had experience with this process.

 

I would still maintain my position as the Senior Cad Engineer, but I'm curious as to whether it would interfere with my "day to day" role. It's a big role to play, and a major investment for the company who have just recently started me.

[MikeScott]

Are you going to be the only six sigma trained employee? If so, you're stepping into a.. umm.. storm.

 

There's a lot of what feels like micromanaging, and if you're the only one trained.. walking around trying to implement it, you're likely to find resistance, unless management truly understands it, and makes the effort to keep lower staff "in-the-loop" with what you're trying to accomplish.. In all reality, it's something that needs to be implemented at all management levels.

 

I would suggest that perhaps you're on more of a fact-finding mission, to determine how best to make six-sigma work within the constraints of your company. if you are to be THE six sigma person.. it's a fulltime job while setting it up, though you can delegate parts of it once it's running.

 

 

It's worth doing, in terms of ensuring quality, and getting the high end projects that require their sub-contractors to do it, but it's a headache if you're expected to simply install sigma six protocols without training EVERYONE.

 

Our company went that direction for a little while and decided it was too much effort, so we switched to quality control systems that we adapted from the sigma six protocols, and in many respects, our clients were just happy with having a documentable quality control system.. however, the really big boys will require it unless your costs are significantly lower than the competition, and you argue that you're able to do it because you AREN'T fully six-sigma, you just use a similar system, that's tailor made to the type of work you do.

[stevsmith]

Hi Mike,

 

As far as I am aware, my predecessor was trained as a black belt and there are several other employee's that are trained to green belt levels. I would be trained up to resume the role of the "Black Belt".

 

You described it right and this is basically a fact finding mission. I understand that the implementation of six sigma during it's initial stages is going to be a total nightmare so I have signed up to the isixsigma.com website, but to be honest I find that a lot of the information given is very vague so I have paid amazon a little visit.

 

It was just a major shock to find out just how much was involved.

It's not your ISO 9000's any more.

 

Thanks for your input Mike, it gave me a good insight into what would be required by getting everyone involved.