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Six Sigma’s Impact*

Our Six Sigma Services

Six Sigma has significantly improved my organization’s portability.

Agree 71% Disagree 15% Neither 14%

1. Six Sigma Training - On-site/Off-site • Black Belt Certification • Green Belt Certification • Champion Training • Coaching

Six Sigma has significantly improved job satisfaction at my organization.

Agree 49% Disagree 22% Neither 29% Six Sigma has significantly improved customer satisfaction at my organization.

Agree 59% Disagree 14% Neither 27% *Asked only of respondents whose companies have a Six Sigma program in place.

Putting it all together Six Sigma is a superb strategy that addresses leadership, tools and infrastructure issues, some of which were neglected by previous quality programs, because: • Six Sigma addresses the concept of making the business as profitable as possible.

• In Six Sigma, quality is not pursued independently from business goals. Time and resources are not spent improving something that is not a lever for improving customer satisfaction.

• Six Sigma focuses on achieving tangible results.

• Six Sigma uses an infrastructure of highly trained employees from many sectors of the company (not just the Quality Department).

In conclusion, CEOs of leading U.S. firms praise the accomplishments of their Six Sigma programs and claim that its benefits include up to 50% process cost reduction, cycle-time improvement, less waste of materials, a better understanding of customer requirements, increased customer satisfaction, and more reliable products and services, and they have the soaring stock prices of their corporations to back their claims.

2. Six Sigma Industry Specific Programs • Six Sigma for Manufacturing • Six Sigma for Banking and Financial Services • Six Sigma for Product Design Companies • Six Sigma for Service Companies • Six Sigma for Telecom

Six Sigma (6Σ) Process Improvement Services

• Manage up to 50% process cost reduction in your operations • Define, measure, analyze, improve, and control existing company processes • Make the business as profitable as possible and enhance customer satisfaction

3. Six Sigma Deployment 4. Business Consulting - Planning and Improvement 5. Operations Management and Quality Planning

Epimorfosis Consulting LTD 2-4 Arch. Makariou III Ave., Capital Centre, Office 502, 1065 Nicosia, Cyprus P.O. Box 27319, 1644 Nicosia, Cyprus Tel.: (+357) 22 410 099, Fax: (+357) 22 670 099, E-mail: info@epmorfosis.com Website: www.epimorfosis.com

What is Six Sigma?

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Six Sigma is a disciplined, data-driven approach and methodology used to eliminate defects in any type of process such as a manufacturing process, transactional process, design process, or a service process. Firms that have implemented the Six Sigma programs claim that its benefits include up to 50% process cost reduction, or 10-15% of its revenue.

• Six Sigma addresses the concept of making the business as profitable as possible.

• In Six Sigma, quality is not pursued independently from business goals. Time and resources are not spent improving something that is not a lever for improving customer satisfaction.

• Six Sigma focuses on achieving tangible results.

• Six Sigma uses an infrastructure of highly trained employees from many sectors of the company (not just the Quality Department).

Six Sigma History Six Sigma is a management philosophy developed by Motorola that emphasizes setting extremely high objectives, collecting data, and analyzing results to a fine degree as a way to reduce defects in products and services. The Greek letter sigma is sometimes used to denote variation from a standard.

The philosophy behind Six Sigma is that if you measure how many defects are in a process, you can figure out how to systematically eliminate them and get as close to perfection as possible. In order for a process to be Six Sigma compliant, it cannot produce more than 3.4 defects per million opportunities (outputs), where an opportunity (process output) is defined as a chance for nonconformance.

in conjunction with other statistical methods embodied in the scientific method and the availability of modern statistical software with graphical outputs reduces the drudgery and helps statistically oriented personnel to better ply their trade. It frees problem solvers to lead their teams to improve process performance, decrease variation and maintain consistent quality of the process output. This leads to defect reduction and improvement in profits, product quality and customer satisfaction.

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A successful Six Sigma implementation within an organization exhibits the following three key characteristics:

Managing Decisions with Data - It is not enough to run a business based on one's experience or “tribal knowledge.”

Decisions must be based on data versus the typical “I think”, I feel”, or “In my opinion” practices that often exist today. With the maturation of the information economy, data is available to virtually everyone in the organization, along with the tools for analyzing that data. Properly using data to Measure, Analyze, Improve, and Control performance forms the foundation of the Six Sigma methodology.

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There are two Six Sigma processes: Six Sigma DMAIC and Six Sigma DFSS, each term derived from the major steps in the process. Six Sigma DMAIC is a process that defines, measures, analyzes, improves, and controls existing processes that fall below the Six Sigma specification. Six Sigma DFSS (design for six sigma) is a design methodology that guides the design of new processes or products that are trying to achieve Six Sigma quality. Six Sigma projects, process evaluation and refinement, are executed by Six Sigma Green Belts or Six Sigma Black Belts, which are then overseen by a Six Sigma Master Black Belt, terms created by Motorola.

How Six Sigma Works Six Sigma incorporates the basic principles and techniques used in Business, Statistics, and Engineering. Using these tools

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Champion – An Executive, or a Senior Manager who is responsible for Six Sigma implementation within an organization.

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Master Black Belt (MBB) – Someone who has been trained as a Six Sigma Black Belt and demonstrated proficiency in statistical tools and expertise in leading and teaching others. The MBB trains Black Belts and Green Belts, helping to select, scope and mentor projects

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Black Belt (BB) – The Certified Six Sigma Black Belt is a professional who can explain Six Sigma philosophies and principles.

A BB demonstrates team leadership, understands team dynamics and assign team member roles and responsibilities.

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Green Belt – A part time project lead who has undergone Green Belt training, a subset of the six sigma black belt training, with a focus on using problem solving tools and techniques without the more advanced statistics of black belts. The Six Sigma Green Belt operates in support of or under the supervision of a Six Sigma Black Belt.

Six Sigma Process Improvement Initiative

Leadership Commitment - Achieving Six Sigma is not easy – it requires serious commitment in the form of time, effort, and resources. For a company to be successful, such commitment must come first from the top executive leadership of the organization and must be practiced by everyone.

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defined change agent positions filled by people who possess technical knowledge about the change process. These people are:

Training and Cultural Change - Improved performance does not and will not happen automatically. High-caliber training is required. Disciplined implementation must follow, and people at all levels have to change the way they go about doing their jobs. In short, new ways of thinking, communicating, and operating must pervade the entire organization. You also need a methodology. DMAIC/DFSS provide a structured problem solving roadmap and tools towards obtaining the results you expect.

For the Six Sigma infrastructure to be implemented requires the organization to address issues such as career planning for belts, senior management commitment through monitoring progress and rewarding success, ensuring that resources are freed to work on the selected projects and providing consistent data management processes and tracking project benefits. A soundly designed supporting infrastructure will maximize the success of Six Sigma Process Improvement. Six Sigma’s infrastructure creates formally

Does it Worth it?

In 1997 Citibank started training senior management and so far has trained more than 2,000 people around the world. Five and ten-times defect reductions have already been realized: with a decreased response time for credit card applications and fewer errors in customer statements.

General Electric’s 1996 annual report announced that: 'Quality improvement, under the disciplined rubric of six sigma methodology, will define the way we work.' A three-to-four sigma level, average for most US companies, can cost a company as much as 10-15 percent of its revenue. For GE, that would mean $8-12 billion. GE undertook the program in late 1995 and in 1996 it invested $200 million which it recovered through quality-related savings realized the same year. In 1997 it invested an estimated $300 million which delivered $400-500 million in savings.

Lastly, the results of a survey conducted by Quality Digest confirm that Six Sigma can deliver results to a corporation’s bottom line: