DMAIC: A Six Sigma Fundamental Element

The first company that introduced Six Sigma as a business management strategy is Motorola back in 1986. Six Sigma is a metric assessment method that measures the defects metrics during production. During the introduction of Six Sigma, the most common application is the DMAIC. This is related to another Six Sigma fundamental element DMADV which stands for Define, Measure, Analyze, Design and Verify. The difference between the two is that the DMADV is used during the creation of a product design or management. The DMAIC on the other hand is used to lessen errors or defects of an existing business management strategy being used by a company. This makes the DMAIC more in demand than the latter.

Let’s list down the steps to follow for the DMAIC method:

The acronym DMAIC stands for Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve and Control. These words are actually the exact keywords of the method’s steps. All we have to do is look closer at what lies within these steps and what makes it important for the business process.

First off, we start with Define. This step is an executive term which means to identify specific goals that aims to attain results that explains the essential relationship between the demands of the consumer and the present strategy being used and what it plans to implement after. This is where the objectives of the whole process come in as well.

The next keyword is Measure. This is where the Six Sigma team identifies whether their existing strategy lessens the defects of the production. As much as possible, this step involves the collection of data that will be used as a comparison in the future especially during the process’ evaluation at the end of the DMAIC method.

The third step is to Analyze. This step allows you to know the causality factors as well as the relationships between the said factors, which are the cause and effects during the process. Along this step, you are also expected to identify the steps and procedures that you need to do to solve the problems that you might encounter later on.

That’s where the next step comes in. Improve. When you’ve analyzed the idea and the process, you’ll end up knowing what needs to be improved and what must be done to do so. This is where you’re supposed to apply the solutions you’ve come up with during the analysis state. This is where the real application kicks in. Every needed enhancement that the team had decided on is used. You will then need to see whether the upgrade worked. If it does, then you can continue with the next step.

The final step is Control. This is important since this is where all the assessment will be examined. If the process, from the identification of the problem to its solution created a positive impact, what’s left is to make sure that it stays that way. Everything should go smoothly from this step on. Maintenance is the key for this step. With that said, all you need to do is to continue the process that worked for the improvement of the business, and keep it that way and maybe, move on to more enhancements in the future.