When I talked with my Lean Six Sigma friend Mike Negami on phone about the typical topic “Why is Lean Six Sigma unpopular in Japan”, he said that the Lean Six Sigma is getting more popular as the next step of quality improvement after the ISO 9001 certification.
I knew that the ISO officially adopted the Lean Six Sigma as a standard in 2011, but the Six Sigma adopted by ISO (i.e., ISO 13053 and ISO 18404) is different from the ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 in terms of certification. The ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 certify a company if they follow it. But the Six Sigma in ISO does not certify a company every if they follow it.
The certification of ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 not only improve the quality of the company, but improve the good reputation of the company in their customers. That is the biggest reason why many company got certified.
If the Six Sigma in ISO does not certify the company, what is the reason the Japanese companies got an interest in Six Sigma?
The reason why ISO adopted Six Sigma
I am not a member of ISO, and I don’t know the real reason. But according to the information from my colleagues and articles, ISO could try to standardize the Six Sigma. It’s because the required skills and knowledge in Six Sigma was different in every organizations and companies. Some companies were really good, and some companies were really bad. ISO could need to standardize and define with the minimum requirements of Six Sigma.
Even nowadays, we see the big differences in Six Sigma training curriculum, number of days, project requirements, and cost by each training provider. Such differences effect on the performance of the belt certification holders.
ISO could have needed to reduce the variations in the Six Sigma before the Six Sigma reduces a variation in a process or a product.
ISO 13053 and ISO 18404
There are three parts in the Six Sigma standard in ISO. The standard defines the “Whats” such as what types of tools, what curriculum in the training, and what type of roles should be in the Six Sigma. The standard doesn’t define the “Hows” such as how to use the tools.
The standard uses the word “Six Sigma”, but it actually includes the Lean tools and concepts. So the standard could need to use “Lean & Six Sigma”. The following lists are the contents in ISO 13053 and ISO 18404.
ISO 13053-1 Quantitative methods in process improvement – Six Sigma
Part 1: DMIAC Methodology (32 pages)
- Fundamentals of Six Sigma projects within organizations
- Six Sigma measures
- Six Sigma personnel and roles
- Minimum competencies required
- Minimum Six Sigma training requirements
- Six Sigma project prioritization and selection
- Six Sigma project DMAIC methodology
- Six Sigma project methodology
- Monitoring a Six Sigma project
- Six Sigma infrastructures within an organization
ISO 13053-2 Quantitative methods in process improvement – Six Sigma
Part 2: Tools and techniques (49 pages)
- Define Phase: Objective, Steps and Tools
- Measure Phase: Objective, Steps and Tools
- Analyze Phase: Objective, Steps and Tools
- Improve Phase: Objective, Steps and Tools
- Control Phase: Objective, Steps and Tools
- Factsheets for tools
ISO 18404 Quantitative methods in process improvement – Six Sigma
Competencies for key personnel and their organizations in relation to Six Sigma and Lean implementation (35 pages)
- Competency of key personnel in relation to Six Sigma, Lean and “Lean & Six Sigma”
- Adequacy of an organization with regards to its Six Sigma, Lean or “Lean & Six Sigma” approach and deployment
- Resource management
If you read a text book of Six Sigma, you might be surprised by the thickness of the book and wide variety of subjects in it. It is impossible to condense all subjects of Six Sigma to such small standard. So the standard can only work as a checklist of Six Sigma.
If you are going to adopt and implement the Six Sigma in your organization, you would need to take a formal training from a well-known provider.