DMAIC Approach in Lean Six Sigma

Lean and Six Sigma Concepts help to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of business performance. The statistical representation of Lean and Six Sigma defines the performance of the process. To achieve Six Sigma, any process needs to reduce the defect rate below 3.4 defects per million (DPM) opportunities. Lean and Six Sigma focuses on process enhancement and reduces the defect of the process. Lean and Six Sigma is driven by a DMAIC concept that recognizes, measures, evaluates, improves and controls the process.

What is DMAIC in Six Sigma?
DMAIC is a data-driven quality methodology utilized for process improvement by integrating a Six Sigma quality initiative. The methodology starts with the Define phase where the core business process and CTQ (critical to quality) issues are defined. In this phase, it explains the expectations of the customer, customer requirements, stop and start the process, project boundaries and process flow.

The performance of the business is measured in the second stage i.e. Measure. The data collection plan is scheduled to define the types of defects and metrics in the process. Depending on the gaps between the current and goal process variation and performance is defined. Further, in the Analyze phase, the process finds the root causes of defects and opportunities for process betterment. A relevant solution is identified to reduce the defects in the process. The plan for the improvement of the process is implemented in the Improve phase. In the last phase, Control includes documentation and standardization of the new process. It defines a plan to observe the process and to control the process performance.

How to apply DMAIC Steps to Continuous Improvement Projects?
Lean and Six Sigma concept not only helps to resolve the problems, but it also helps to identify the actual cause of the problem and offer the relevant solution to control the problem. Some questions related to each process that could lead to solving the problem in a statistical method:

• Define: What is the process outcome to be measured?
• Measure: What is the current performance of the measured process?
• Analyze: Distinguishing the real causes and the problem?
• Improve: How to eliminate the cause from the process or how the problem’s size can be reduced?
• Control: Did the performance of the process improved?

DMAIC is a cycle used to remove the defect from the process and improve the opportunities for business improvements. So that was a brief about the DMAIC in Lean Six Sigma. Happy learning!