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The quality initiative Six Sigma is not a good fit for every midsized company, admits Mike Wilber, a senior vice president at Datacard Group, a Minnetonka, Minn.-based manufacturing firm. But, Wilber adds, for companies that have the appropriate data-gathering infrastructure and sufficient implementation support, the initiative can be a vital tool for growth and survival.

"Six Sigma employs some sophisticated tools, and implementing it can be a complex process," Wilber says. "But continuous improvement is a matter of survival. The global economy is upon us, and if U.S. based midsized businesses are not constantly thinking about ways of improving what we do, we are going to lose."

Datacard Group manufactures secure identification and card personalization systems for clients around the world. Over the years, the company has embraced principles from many quality initiatives based on Dr. W. Edwards Deming’s 14 principles for transforming business effectiveness, including lean manufacturing and ISO 9000/9001. Three years ago, the company began using Six Sigma to precisely measure levels of productivity, improve process efficiency and boost the company’s bottom line. To date, the company has realized millions of dollars in savings from Six Sigma projects, Wilber says.

Rather than supplanting the company’s other quality initiatives, Datacard is home-growing its own pool of Six Sigma experts who also use the best practices of other quality initiatives to generate the best outcomes for the company.

Six Sigma, perhaps more than any other process-improvement initiative, is not for the undereducated, the under-prepared or the ambivalent. While it can hold great promise for success, experts warn it has no guarantees. Is Six Sigma a good fit for your midsized company? The following information can help you weigh the potential risks against the possible rewards for your organization.

What is Six Sigma?
SixSigma was pioneered by Bill Smith and other quality engineers at Motorola, who, in 1986, persuaded the company’s executives to implement a process for improving quality and reducing defect levels below 3.4 defects per million opportunities. To date, Motorola has reported more than $17 billion in savings from Six Sigma improvement projects. Other notable followers of Six Sigma include corporate giants Ford, General Electric and Microsoft.

The name Six Sigma reflects the initiative’s statistical bent: The lowercase Greek letter sigma represents standard deviation. The term six sigma refers to the idea that if you have six standard deviations between the mean of a process and the nearest specification limit, you will make practically no items that exceed the specifications.

While originally designed for large manufacturing companies, Six Sigma has evolved into a practice that can apply to repetitive processes in companies of all sizes, across all industries, including banking,health care, insurance and software. Six Sigma employs two primary methodologies, known as DMAIC and DMADV. DMAIC is used for improving existing business processes, while DMADV (also known as DFSS for "Design for Six Sigma") is used when creating new product or process designs.

The Six Sigma resource Web site defines the two methodologies as follows:

DMAIC
Define the project goals and customer (internal and external) deliverables.

Measure the process to determine current performance.

Analyze and determine the root cause(s) of the defects.

Improve the process by eliminating defects.

Control future process performance.

DMADV
Define the project goals and customer (internal and external) deliverables.

Measure and determine customer needs and specifications.

Analyze the process options to meet the customer needs.

Design the process to meet the customer needs.

Verify the design performance and ability to meet customer needs.

Six Sigma practitioners fall into several categories:

Master Black Belt: A Six Sigma expert qualified to train other levels in Six Sigma methodologies, tools and applications.

Black Belt: A project team leader certified in Six Sigma’s tools and methodologies.To become a Black Belt, candidates must first complete an extensive training program, pass a certification exam and complete two Six Sigma projects that a certification committee approves.

Green Belt: A certified Six Sigma practitioner who helps lead teams on a part-time or project basis.

Champion: A business leader who facilitates the implementation and deployment of Six Sigma methodologies.

Implementing Six Sigma
Dr. Mikel Harry, one of Six Sigma’s principal architects at Motorola, posts answers to readers’ questions on isixsigma.com. In answer to the question, "How do you apply Six Sigma in a small factory?" Harry answered, "Same as a big factory, but in a small way."

While the answer is certainly somewhat tongue-in-cheek, it also underscores the fact that companies of all sizes can and do use Six Sigma with good results. But how to get started? Before committing your company’s time and resources to Six Sigma, experts advise asking yourself the following questions:

What data is your company capturing?
Without precise baseline data, Six Sigma cannot work. Companies that are good candidates for Six Sigma either already have well-documented processes and extensive production data or are committed to gathering such performance metrics. Additionally, while not everybody in the company needs to be a statistician for Six Sigma to succeed, the initiative works best in companies where executives and employees value data gathering and have the inherent competence to understand comprehensive data analysis.

Does Six Sigma have top-down support in your company?
Six Sigma has been described as a philosophy and a way of life as much as a quality process. It takes a strong show of CEO and executive-level support to successfully introduce a new way of business into any company. Leaving education and implementation in the hands of one ortwo midlevel managers is a near-certain recipe for failure.

Are you in it for the long haul?
While an average project takes about three to six months, experts urge companies exploring Six Sigma to take the long view. This includes determining how many internal resources you will dedicate to Six Sigma initiatives and how much time and money will go to training those resources. Additionally, Six Sigma is about continuous improvement, so be prepared to re-evaluate processes repeatedly atregular intervals to ensure they are at optimal efficiency.

Implementing Six Sigma across a complex organization takes time, patience and perseverance, Wilber says.

"It’s challenging and sometimes discouraging due to the fact that many people do not like change," he says. "But Six Sigma is a viable tool for all-sized companies, and for Datacard, it’s great."