The ets Six Sigma DMAIC Method is a way to reduce gaps whether they be opportunities for growth or reductions in defects. It was designed to effectively guide you through gap reduction, set the stage for continuous improvement, and enable you to communicate your approach to others–all while facilitating quick understanding and decision making. You can think of the DMAIC method as a step-by-step procedure with checkpoints that helps a team understand a gap and its causes and find the best permanent solution. DMAIC (and other formal problem solving methodologies) are dynamic processes that are continually being improved and revised. Although the steps and checkpoints may evolve over time, the general logic will remain the same: use data to understand a gap and find the most significant cause, correct it, and continue until performance meets requirements.
The ets Six Sigma DMAIC Method is composed of 5 steps and 33 checkpoints, each of which represents an activity in the gap reduction process. These steps and checkpoints are used to help segment the gap closing process into a logical series of actions. By using a series of steps, teams can complete the gap reduction process by following step-by-step instructions. In the context of this course, “steps” refer to the major operations in the DMAIC process: Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, and Control. The term “checkpoints” refers to the smaller actions that make up the larger steps. “Step 1: Define” has 5checkpoints, “Step 2: Measure” has 6 checkpoints, “Step 3: Analyze” has 5 checkpoints, “Step 4: Improve” has 7 checkpoints, and “Step 5: Control” has 10 checkpoints.
- Step 1: Define
The first step in DMAIC, “Define” contains checkpoints that help a team demonstrate the significance of a particular improvement need, with data, and develop a theme statement and a schedule for completing the DMAIC method. - Step 2: Measure
Whereas the objective of Step 1 was to quantify the significance of a particular improvement need or theme, the objective of Step 2 is to focus more closely on the theme that you selected and find a specific problem within it to improve. During Step 2 you investigate critical features of the theme and select a specific problem to improve. The theme must be examined, stratified, and analyzed from various viewpoints before your team can discover the most significant problem and create a problem statement. - Step 3: Analyze
Step 3 is composed of activities that help illustrate the reasons why the selected problem exists, and guide improvement teams through the process of finding the most significant, or root causes, of the problem. Just as selecting the root or most significant causes of the problem is critical to efficiently improving the theme, selecting the most significant cause will also generate the most efficient gap reduction. Remember that much of the DMAIC process involves sorting through the “trivial many” to find the “significant few”, hence the need for analytical tools and data. - Step 4: Improve
In Step 4, “countermeasures” are selected, tested, and evaluated for use in correcting the root causes identified in Step 3. A countermeasure is a refined idea that your team feels will reduce or eliminate the root cause. The term “countermeasure” is a carefully selected word because it implies that its purpose is to counter a verified root cause. The term “solution” often suggests a more general, less disciplined action. - Step 5: Control
Step 5 of the DMAIC process is the step in which a team confirms that its improvements are successful, their efforts remain effective, and the theme of the project is completely addressed. The key phases of this step are Results, Standardization, and Future Plans.
