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Six sigma tools are very effective in improving the products and customer services. Six sigma is not just a couple of strategies to manage the organizations and their departments. These quality management tools are extremely useful for all levels of six sigma project. These are discussed in the six sigma training courses. Contract management software, brainstorm, affinity diagrams, QFD, fishbone diagrams, Pareto charts, run charts etc are some of the popular six sigma tools.
Six sigma happens to be one of the time-tested approaches that can help any organization improve its performance in terms of production, manufacturing and customer satisfaction. There are quite a number of six sigma tools made available to facilitate the implementation and execution of six sigma strategies. These quality management tools are simple enough to be used in the existing infrastructure of a company. During the six sigma training, the employees are taught about the usage of them. Most of them are discussed in the green belt level and the complicated ones are explained to the black belts and master black belts. Just knowing the six sigma tools can never help a person until he is learning their benefits and practical utility. Here are some of the tools commonly used in six sigma:
- Contract Management Software: This is an important six sigma tool used by almost all the small and large companies. This software can make it extremely easy to improve the process of managing businesses and also helps the management to locate the important functions of the company. If there are certain requirements or issues in a particular department, the contract management software aids in identifying as well as simplifying them.
- Brainstorm and Affinity Diagrams: Brainstorm is a great six sigma tool that can facilitate creativity in employing the approach. This is a tool that allows one to list all sorts of innovative ideas provided by the members of a team, as a solution to any given problem. It helps is finding causes of different problems and also to identify the best solution to it. As a result of brainstorm several ideas will come up and form a list. The Affinity diagrams help sorting out the best suggestions from the list.
- Analysis: When you plan to implement a particular six sigma project for the improvement purposes of any department of the organization, you need to do a lot of analysis before that. Make sure the process needs alterations and have the potential to survive the changes you make. It is also important to evaluate if the six sigma implementation for that particular process is worth the cost or not.
- QFD (Quality Function Deployment): This is a great tool that helps to understand the requirements of the customers in a better way. With the aid of QFD, the team can identify the requirements and further rate these requirements on a numerical scale. The ones getting higher score are considered as priorities whereas the lower scoring ones get less attention during execution. This is definitely an easier way to achieve customer satisfaction.
- Histogram: Histogram is a particular type of bar chart that is used to calculate the data collected for various purposes. Here, a number of data points are segregated under a group and the bar becomes higher with the frequent occurrence of the points. Though with lesser number of points and bars, the histograms become confusing but generally it is considered one of the important six sigma tools.
- Pareto Chart: Pareto chart was constructed according to the principles of Vilfredo Pareto, an Italian economist. This chart is considered the practical usage of his theory. The principle says that almost 80% of the various problems are caused by just 20% of the problems. This is what can be assessed with the help of the Pareto charts.
- Fishbone Diagrams: Fishbone diagram is a tool that aids in analyzing the problems. It was developed by Dr. Ishikawa, the Japanese statistician. This diagram systematically categorizes the reasons of various problems and the effects of these problems. This is why the fishbone diagrams are often referred as “cause and effect diagrams”. When a particular process in an organization is facing certain difficulties, Fishbone diagrams are used to reach the roots of those problems and also understand the effects.
There are many other six sigma tools like process mapping, FMEA, flow charts, run charts, pie charts, process capabilities, team roles, thought maps and many more which are all important for successful working of organization.
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