Six Sigma is a powerful management strategy focused on customer satisfaction. It can be used to improve management and manufacturing processes, improve the quality of products and services, reduce costs and making profits. In these days, Six Sigma is ...
Six Sigma is a powerful management strategy focused on customer satisfaction. It can be used to improve management and manufacturing processes, improve the quality of products and services, reduce costs and making profits. In these days, Six Sigma is adopted even in R&D, marketing, and process development. It utilizes a roadmap called DMAIC (Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, and Control), which is a structured and statistical approach. It was first introduced in Korean companies such as Doosan Heavy Industries Co. Ltd., Samsung SDI, LG Electronics around 1996. But now, a lot of Korean companies are implementing Six Sigma as one of their initiatives. While Six Sigma is widely adopted and it shows its effectiveness in many large companies, it is still difficult for small and medium sized companies to implement it. Their business environments are rather poor and there are not enough resources available in a small and medium sized company.
In this thesis, a Six Sigma model for small and medium sized companies is considered. First, the concept, definitions, and the history of Six Sigma are reviewed and it is compared with other quality improvement methods and problem solving procedures. And then, the problems solving methods are also reviewed that have been already adopted in small and medium sized companies.
It is found that five success factors of management leadership, Six Sigma organization and belt system, education and training, recognition and reward system, and the selection of right project are necessary for implementing Six Sigma successfully in a small and medium sized company. Finally, two Six Sigma implementation cases of small and medium sized companies in Changwon are shown.