Project Management

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Six sigma is a project NOT LEAN !

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Riyadh Salih Saskatchewan, Canada
Six sigma is a project "NOT LEAN" implemented in manufacturing to reduce a defect, once you achieve the 3.4 defects PPM the project is closed and the rest will be operation process to achieve repetitive results.

Can we apply six sigma on project management processes, if YES, what could be achieved?
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Rami Kaibni
Community Champion
Senior Projects Manager | Field & Marten Associates New Westminster, British Columbia, Canada
Six Sigma is like the highest quality you can achieve (%99.99997). You can’t apply it on PM Processes because many organizations will go broke as the cost of achieving such near-perfect quality will be extremely high. Even manufacturing companies they do not use Six Sigma. A few industries use it like National Security, Medicine and Nuclear Power where they do have that much budget to achieve this near-perfect quality as it is of ultimate importance.

Don’t get me wrong, because while setting quality target at 6 Sigma is appropriate for processes demanding high quality, most organizations are advised to set their quality standards lower. Setting your quality target depends on:

- Cost of Achieving this Quality.
- Consequences of Defects.
- Customer Expectations and how much is he willing to pay for quality.
- Competitive Environment.

In general, most organizaions set their quality at Four Sigma.
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1 reply by Riyadh Salih
May 01, 2018 7:04 PM
Riyadh Salih
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Rami, I agree that the cost is very high imagine to achieve defect only 3.4 PPM parts per million which comes to same number you wrote if you reverse it however, we can say it is not impossible to achieve it but it is costly, now in some industries might not be justifiable to spend that money or it just doesn't worth it. thanks for your commit
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Sante Delle-Vergini, PhD Senior Project Manager| Infosys Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
In project management it's probably more like 2 or 3 sigma Rami ;-)
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1 reply by Riyadh Salih
May 01, 2018 7:12 PM
Riyadh Salih
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Sante, yes looks more achievable
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Kevin Drake Perth, Western Australia, Australia
There is no repetitive job in high scale to benefit from investing on 6 sigma. Each project is s unique and I would imagine the cost will be so high.
4 is the benchmark usually.
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1 reply by Riyadh Salih
May 01, 2018 7:13 PM
Riyadh Salih
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Kevin, is that the threshold your baseline then you have upper limit is 5 sigma and lower level is 3 sigma
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Sergio Luis Conte Helping to create solutions for everyone| Worldwide based Organizations Buenos Aires, Argentina
Fully agree with Rami here. I have experienced what Rami stated. Riyadah, the answer to your questions is YES, in process like quality management, scope (mainly project requirements where I used Z language to specify them because I worked into an initiative for a nuclear plan). But if and only if there is a strategic reason to do that.
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1 reply by Riyadh Salih
May 01, 2018 7:11 PM
Riyadh Salih
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Sergio, thanks for your input, are you referring Z language as the software engineering language used for describing and modelling computing systems.

I also found that Jonathan Jackys ``The way of Z`` is interesting too
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Vincent Guerard Coach - Trainer - Speaker - Advisor| Freelance Mont-Royal, Quebec, Canada
Riyadh,

Rami and Sergio answer covers it.
Six Sigma is way too expansive for most project. I can see project related to pharmaceutical or food testing where the level of error needs to be near 0.
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1 reply by Riyadh Salih
May 01, 2018 7:15 PM
Riyadh Salih
...
Vincent, thanks for your input yes I agree it cost a lot
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Riyadh Salih Saskatchewan, Canada
May 01, 2018 2:12 AM
Replying to Rami Kaibni
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Six Sigma is like the highest quality you can achieve (%99.99997). You can’t apply it on PM Processes because many organizations will go broke as the cost of achieving such near-perfect quality will be extremely high. Even manufacturing companies they do not use Six Sigma. A few industries use it like National Security, Medicine and Nuclear Power where they do have that much budget to achieve this near-perfect quality as it is of ultimate importance.

Don’t get me wrong, because while setting quality target at 6 Sigma is appropriate for processes demanding high quality, most organizations are advised to set their quality standards lower. Setting your quality target depends on:

- Cost of Achieving this Quality.
- Consequences of Defects.
- Customer Expectations and how much is he willing to pay for quality.
- Competitive Environment.

In general, most organizaions set their quality at Four Sigma.
Rami, I agree that the cost is very high imagine to achieve defect only 3.4 PPM parts per million which comes to same number you wrote if you reverse it however, we can say it is not impossible to achieve it but it is costly, now in some industries might not be justifiable to spend that money or it just doesn't worth it. thanks for your commit
avatar
Riyadh Salih Saskatchewan, Canada
May 01, 2018 7:27 AM
Replying to Sergio Luis Conte
...
Fully agree with Rami here. I have experienced what Rami stated. Riyadah, the answer to your questions is YES, in process like quality management, scope (mainly project requirements where I used Z language to specify them because I worked into an initiative for a nuclear plan). But if and only if there is a strategic reason to do that.
Sergio, thanks for your input, are you referring Z language as the software engineering language used for describing and modelling computing systems.

I also found that Jonathan Jackys ``The way of Z`` is interesting too
avatar
Riyadh Salih Saskatchewan, Canada
May 01, 2018 4:23 AM
Replying to Sante Delle-Vergini, PhD
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In project management it's probably more like 2 or 3 sigma Rami ;-)
Sante, yes looks more achievable
avatar
Riyadh Salih Saskatchewan, Canada
May 01, 2018 4:34 AM
Replying to Kevin Drake
...
There is no repetitive job in high scale to benefit from investing on 6 sigma. Each project is s unique and I would imagine the cost will be so high.
4 is the benchmark usually.
Kevin, is that the threshold your baseline then you have upper limit is 5 sigma and lower level is 3 sigma
avatar
Riyadh Salih Saskatchewan, Canada
May 01, 2018 2:25 PM
Replying to Vincent Guerard
...
Riyadh,

Rami and Sergio answer covers it.
Six Sigma is way too expansive for most project. I can see project related to pharmaceutical or food testing where the level of error needs to be near 0.
Vincent, thanks for your input yes I agree it cost a lot
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