Devising Experiments The Six Sigma Way

By Tony Jacowski

The DOE Concept

Six Sigma capitalizes on any situation by making some changes in company practices in order to bring effectiveness to company operations. In order to make these changes smoothly without affecting current business processes, it is very important to analyze the different business processes and recognize their purposes. This way, it becomes easier to compare the source and the consequence of the company's processes with each other. But at the same time, this may not always be possible.

That's because company processes are usually divided into many more secondary processes that are at times more complicated than the parent process itself. Therefore, it may seem relatively easier to make changes in order to implement the Six Sigma strategy in a company having one or two secondary (sub) processes. However, if a company has more than six to seven processes, it becomes very difficult to bring about the necessary changes in the business processes. This simply means that as the sub-processes increase, it will become more difficult to bring about changes.

This desperately calls for the Design of Experiment (DOE), since DOE can easily handle great amounts of information, which is usually created during the implementation of the Six Sigma strategy. Since it usually becomes very difficult to handle such large amounts of information, a tool such as Design of Experiment (DOE) can do wonders in this respect.

Importance of DOE

Design of Experiment is responsible for analyzing any information, which is usually generated during the implementation process. After analysis of the information, DOE simply gives a quantified result, which then helps in defining the changes or the alterations that are to be made for the company to improve its quality of products and services.

One should remember that Six Sigma does include some trial and error experiments, which are absolutely essential for the strategy to be effective in order to achieve the desired results. That's simply because if the concepts are not clearly experimented with and defined, it can take a huge toll on the company, which may then lead to redundancies.

Another important aspect to be kept in mind is that the DOE tool helps Six Sigma experts select the best alternative, since selecting any option without a thorough analysis can ultimately lead to failure to achieve set goals.

One of the best things about DOE is that it helps in identifying the main source that is causing variations or inconsistencies in company processes. Thereafter, once the variations are identified, they are easily eliminated.

Thus, it can be said that Design of Experiment (DOE) forms an integral part of the implementation of Six Sigma in any organization.

Tony Jacowski is a quality analyst for The MBA Journal. Aveta Solutions - Six Sigma Online (http://www.sixsigmaonline.org) offers online six sigma training and certification classes for six sigma professionals including, lean six sigma, black belts, green belts, and yellow belts.

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