KC 1.3.3 -Six Sigma, Benchmarking, Continuous Improvement & Best Practices

I dont feel there is need of long notes here as many resources are available on the web. So I am just briefly giving their definitions with the related resources.

Six Sigma
The goal of Six Sigma is to increase profits by eliminating variability, defects and waste that undermine customer loyalty.

Six Sigma can be understood/perceived at three levels:

1. Metric: 3.4 Defects Per Million Opportunities. DPMO allows you to take complexity of product/process into account. Rule of thumb is to consider at least three opportunities for a physical part/component - one for form, one for fit and one for function, in absence of better considerations. Also you want to be Six Sigma in the Critical to Quality characteristics and not the whole unit/characteristics.
2. Methodology: DMAIC/DFSS structured problem solving roadmap and tools.
3. Philosophy: Reduce variation in your business and take customer-focused, data driven decisions.

Six Sigma is a methodology that provides businesses with the tools to improve the capability of their business processes. This increase in performance and decrease in process variation leads to defect reduction and vast improvement in profits, employee morale and quality of product.

Resources:

1. What is Six Sigma - A Paper
2. isixsigma.com
3. SixSigma Tutorial

Benchmarking
The concept of discovering what is the best performance being achieved, whether in your company, by a competitor, or by an entirely different industry.

Benchmarking is an improvement tool whereby a company measures its performance or process against other companies' best practices, determines how those companies achieved their performance levels, and uses the information to improve its own performance.

Benchmarking is a continuous process whereby an enterprise measures and compares all its functions, systems and practices against strong competitors, identifying quality gaps in the organization, and striving to achieve competitive advantage locally and globally.
Resources:

1. Complete info on Benchmarking
2. Benchmarking – Uncovering Best Practices & Lessons Learnt from others
3. Is Benchmarking And Identifying Best Practices Worth It?
4. iSixSigma's resources on Benchmarking

Best Practice
A way or method of accomplishing a business function or process that is considered to be superior to all other known methods.
<!--[if !supportLineBreakNewLine]--><!--[endif]-->

A lesson learned from one area of a business that can be passed on to another area of the business or between businesses.

Continuous Improvement (CI)
Continuous Improvement (CI): Adopting new activities and eliminating those which are found to add little or no value. The goal is to increase effectiveness by reducing inefficiencies, frustrations, and waste (rework, time, effort, material, etc). The Japanese term is Kaizen, which is taken from the words "Kai" means change and "zen" means good.
Resources:

1. Continous Improvement - A paper
2. Library Info on Continuous Improvement
3. KAIZEN's concept of Continuous Improvement