The MECE principle ( mutually exclusive and collectively exhaustive ) is a grouping principle for separating a set of items into subsets that are mutually exclusive (ME) and collectively exhaustive (CE). It was developed in the late 1960s by Barbara Minto at McKinsey & Company and underlies her Minto Pyramid Principle, and while she takes credit for MECE, according to her interview with McKinsey, she says the idea for MECE goes back as far as to Aristotle .
59-759: The MECE principle has been used in the business mapping process wherein the optimum arrangement of information is exhaustive and does not double count at any level of the hierarchy. Examples of MECE arrangements include categorizing people by year of birth (assuming all years are known), apartments by their building number, letters by postmark , and dice rolls. A non-MECE example would be categorization by nationality, because nationalities are neither mutually exclusive (some people have dual nationality) nor collectively exhaustive (some people have none). Strategy consultants use MECE problem structuring to break down client problems into logical, clean buckets of analysis that they can then hand out as work streams to consulting staff on
118-469: A R ecognize step at the beginning, which is to recognize the right problem to work on, thus yielding an RDMAIC methodology. Also known as DFSS (" D esign F or S ix S igma"), the DMADV methodology's five phases are: One key innovation of Six Sigma involves professionalizing quality management. Prior to Six Sigma, quality management was largely relegated to the production floor and to statisticians in
177-473: A "six sigma process". The accepted Six Sigma scoring system thus cannot be equated to actual normal distribution probabilities for the stated number of standard deviations, and this has been a key bone of contention over how Six Sigma measures are defined. The fact that it is rarely explained that a "6 sigma" process will have long-term defect rates corresponding to 4.5 sigma performance rather than actual 6 sigma performance has led several commentators to express
236-632: A case study on Tinjin Xianyi Construction Technology, it was found that construction time and construction waste were reduced by 26.2% and 67% accordingly after adopting Six Sigma. Similarly, Six Sigma implementation was studied at one of the largest engineering and construction companies in the world: Bechtel Corporation, where after an initial investment of $ 30 million in a Six Sigma program that included identifying and preventing rework and defects, over $ 200 million were saved. Six Sigma has played an important role by improving
295-480: A fee. The American Society for Quality , for example, requires Black Belt applicants to pass a written exam and to provide a signed affidavit stating that they have completed two projects or one project combined with three years' practical experience in the body of knowledge. Within the individual phases of a DMAIC or DMADV project, Six Sigma uses many established quality-management tools that are also used outside Six Sigma. The following list shows an overview of
354-405: A lot of time transforming data from non-normal to normal using transformation techniques. It must be said that sigma levels can be determined for process data that has evidence of non-normality. Six Sigma asserts that: Features that set Six Sigma apart from previous quality-improvement initiatives include: In fact, lean management and Six Sigma share similar methodologies and tools, including
413-420: A model that was specified in advance. Another comment refers to the oft-mentioned Transfer Function, which seems to be a flawed theory if looked at in detail. Since significance tests were first popularized many objections have been voiced by prominent and respected statisticians. The volume of criticism and rebuttal has filled books with language seldom used in the scholarly debate of a dry subject. Much of
472-816: A reduction in patients' preparation time of 40 minutes; from 45 minutes to 5 minutes in multiple cases. Lean Six Sigma was adopted in 2003 at Stanford hospitals and was introduced at Red Cross hospitals in 2002. While there are many advocates for a Six Sigma approach for the reasons stated above, more than half of projects are unsuccessful: in 2010, the Wall Street Journal reported that more than 60% of projects fail. A review of academic literature found 34 common failure factors in 56 papers on Lean, Six Sigma, and LSS from 1995-2013. Among them are (summarized): Others have provided other criticisms. Quality expert Joseph M. Juran described Six Sigma as "a basic version of quality improvement", stating that "there
531-686: A reference to the fraction of a normal curve that lies within six standard deviations of the mean, used to represent a defect rate. Motorola pioneered Six Sigma, setting a "six sigma" goal for its manufacturing business. It registered Six Sigma as a service mark on June 11, 1991 ( U.S. Service Mark 1,647,704 ); on December 28, 1993, it registered Six Sigma as a trademark . In 2005 Motorola attributed over $ 17 billion in savings to Six Sigma. Honeywell and General Electric were also early adopters of Six Sigma. As GE's CEO, in 1995 Jack Welch made it central to his business strategy. In 1998 GE announced $ 350 million in cost savings thanks to Six Sigma, which
590-400: A separate quality department. Formal Six Sigma programs adopt an elite ranking terminology similar to martial arts systems like judo to define a hierarchy (and career path) that spans business functions and levels. Six Sigma identifies several roles for successful implementation: According to proponents, special training is needed for all of these practitioners to ensure that they follow
649-468: A stack of discs. Specifically, say that there are six standard deviations —represented by the Greek letter σ ( sigma )—between the mean —represented by μ ( mu )—and the nearest specification limit. As process standard deviation goes up, or the mean of the process moves away from the center of the tolerance, fewer standard deviations will fit between the mean and the nearest specification limit, decreasing
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#1732779898971708-897: A symbol set derived from Gilbreth's original work as the ASME Standard for Process Charts. Business process mapping, also known as process charting, has become much more prevalent and understood in the business world in recent years. Process maps can be used in every section of life or business. The Major Steps of Process Improvement using Process Mapping Process mapping is capable of supporting several important business goals: Process mapping has overlapped with software development incorporating tools that can attach metadata to activities, drivers and triggers to provide some automation of software process coding. Quality improvement practitioners have noted that various graphical descriptions of processes can be useful. These include: detailed flow-charts, work flow diagrams and value stream maps. Each map
767-457: Is a result of the size of the organization rather than a requirement of Six Sigma itself. After its first application at Motorola in the late 1980s, other internationally recognized firms currently recorded high number of savings after applying Six Sigma. Examples include Johnson & Johnson , with $ 600 million of reported savings, Texas Instruments , which saved over $ 500 million as well as Telefónica , which reported €30 million in savings in
826-442: Is broken down into all of the different tasks that need to be done: cook bacon, cook eggs, toast bread, and fry potatoes. These tasks are then broken down further below. In order to cook eggs, one must first heat the pan, pour the mixture, stir mixture, add pepper, and remove eggs. This is a prime example of how process mapping can be used in any situation/process in order to understand all of the different parts so that we can complete
885-400: Is helpful depending on the process questions and theories being considered. In these situations process map implies the use of process flow and the current understanding of the causal structure. Six Sigma practitioners use the term Business Process Architecture to describe the mapping of business processes as series of cross-functional flowcharts. Under this school of thought, each flowchart
944-447: Is introduced into the calculation. Mikel Harry, the creator of Six Sigma, based the 1.5 sigma shift on the height of a stack of discs. He called this "Benderizing". He claimed that based on his stack, all processes shift 1.5 sigma every 50 samples. According to this idea, a process that fits 6 sigma between the process mean and the nearest specification limit in a short-term study will in the long term fit only 4.5 sigma – either because
1003-448: Is not equivalent to the failure rate of a 4.5 sigma process with the mean-centered on zero. This allows for the fact that special causes may result in a deterioration in process performance over time and is designed to prevent underestimation of the defect levels likely to be encountered in real-life operation. The role of the sigma shift is mainly academic. The purpose of six sigma is to generate organizational performance improvement. It
1062-425: Is nothing new there. It includes what we used to call facilitators. They've adopted more flamboyant terms, like belts with different colors. I think that concept has merit to set apart, to create specialists who can be very helpful. Again, that's not a new idea. The American Society for Quality long ago established certificates, such as for reliability engineers." Quality expert Philip B. Crosby pointed out that
1121-522: Is of a certain level (between 0 and 4) based on the amount of detail the flowchart contains. A level 0 flowchart represents the least amount of detail, and usually contains one or two steps. A level 4 flowchart represents the most detail, and can include hundreds of steps. At this level every task, however minor, is represented. Flowchart is a primary type of business process mapping. It consists of some symbols such as arrows, circles, diamonds, boxes, ovals, or rectangles. The type of Flowchart just described
1180-518: Is overselling of Six Sigma by too great a number of consulting firms, many of which claim expertise in Six Sigma when they have only a rudimentary understanding of the tools and techniques involved or the markets or industries in which they are acting. A Fortune article stated that "of 58 large companies that have announced Six Sigma programs, 91% have trailed the S&;P 500 since". The statement
1239-459: Is paid to reducing variation and searching for any significant factors, and less attention is paid to developing robustness in the first place (which can altogether eliminate the need for reducing variation). The extensive reliance on significance testing and use of multiple regression techniques increase the risk of making commonly unknown types of statistical errors or mistakes. A possible consequence of Six Sigma's array of p -value misconceptions
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#17327798989711298-442: Is pronounced by many as / ˈ m iː s i / , the author insisted that it should be pronounced as / m iː s / . Business mapping Business process mapping refers to activities involved in defining what a business entity does, who is responsible, to what standard a business process should be completed, and how the success of a business process can be determined. The main purpose behind business process mapping
1357-433: Is sometimes referred to as a "detailed" flowchart because it includes in detail, the inputs, activities, decision points, and outputs of any process. The example is Proposed Patient Appointment Procedure. It starts with "preparation of appointment book" followed by a decision whether the appointment is shore or fleet. If the appointment is fleet, inform patient they can call 1500 to make own appointments for next few days, if
1416-455: Is submitted from front desk to fleet liaison. If a patient showed for appointment, put "Patient showed" in appointment book. An easy example to follow is making breakfast: [REDACTED] We must first understand that making breakfast is a process. The ingredients are the inputs and the final breakfast ready to be served is the output. This graph shows the breakdown of each process vertically and horizontally. For instance, cooking ingredients
1475-445: Is the false belief that the probability of a conclusion being in error can be calculated from the data in a single experiment without reference to external evidence or the plausibility of the underlying mechanism. One of the most serious but all-too-common misuses of inferential statistics is to take a model that was developed through exploratory model building and subject it to the same sorts of statistical tests that are used to validate
1534-413: Is to assist organizations in becoming more effective. A clear and detailed business process map or diagram allows outside firms to come in and look at whether or not improvements can be made to the current process. Business process mapping takes a specific objective and helps to measure and compare that objective alongside the entire organization's objectives to make sure that all processes are aligned with
1593-527: Is to improve all processes but not necessarily to the 3.4 DPMO level. Organizations need to determine an appropriate sigma level for each of their most important processes and strive to achieve these. As a result of this goal, it is incumbent on management of the organization to prioritize areas of improvement. Six Sigma projects follow two project methodologies, inspired by W. Edwards Deming 's Plan–Do–Study–Act Cycle , each with five phases. The DMAIC project methodology has five phases: Some organizations add
1652-484: Is up to the organization to determine, based on customer expectations, what the appropriate sigma level of a process is. The purpose of the sigma value is as a comparative figure to determine whether a process is improving, deteriorating, stagnant or non-competitive with others in the same business. Six Sigma (3.4 DPMO) is not the goal of all processes. The table below gives long-term DPMO values corresponding to various short-term sigma levels. These figures assume that
1711-508: The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) published the first standard "ISO 13053:2011" defining a Six Sigma process. Other standards have been created mostly by universities or companies with Six Sigma first-party certification programs. The term Six Sigma comes from statistics , specifically from the field of statistical quality control , which evaluates process capability . Originally, it referred to
1770-582: The 1990s started offering Six Sigma certifications to their employees. In 2008 Motorola University later co-developed with Vative and the Lean Six Sigma Society of Professionals a set of comparable certification standards for Lean Certification. Criteria for Green Belt and Black Belt certification vary; some companies simply require participation in a course and a Six Sigma project. There is no standard certification body, and different certifications are offered by various quality associations for
1829-400: The Six Sigma standard does not go far enough—customers deserve defect-free products every time . For example, under the Six Sigma standard, semiconductors , which require the flawless etching of millions of tiny circuits onto a single chip, are all defective. The use of "Black Belts" as itinerant change agents has fostered an industry of training and certification. Critics have argued there
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1888-407: The ability of manufacturing processes to produce a very high proportion of output within specification. Processes that operate with "six sigma quality" over the short term are assumed to produce long-term defect levels below 3.4 defects per million opportunities (DPMO). The 3.4 dpmo is based on a "shift" of ± 1.5 sigma explained by Mikel Harry . This figure is based on the tolerance in the height of
1947-597: The accuracy of allocation of cash to reduce bank charges, automatic payments, improving the accuracy of reporting, reducing documentary credit defects, reducing check collection defects, and reducing variation in collector performance. For example, Bank of America announced in 2004 that Six Sigma had helped it increase customer satisfaction by 10.4% and decrease customer issues by 24%; similarly, American Express eliminated non-received renewal credit cards. Other financial institutions that have adopted Six Sigma include GE Capital and JPMorgan Chase , where customer satisfaction
2006-411: The answers to a question in a MECE framework so as to consider all of them exactly once, forcing the answers themselves to be MECE can be unnecessarily limiting. Another attribute of MECE thinking is that, by definition, it precludes redundancies. However, there are cases where redundancies are desirable or even necessary. There is some debate regarding the pronunciation of the acronym MECE. Although it
2065-399: The appointment is shore, confirm 24 hours prior to appointment. Next confirm that the patient confirmed. If a patient did not call, the appointment is canceled, otherwise the patient is given a confirmation number. Finally confirm that the patient showed for the appointment. If not, a standby patient is placed in the appointment slot, the appointment book is marked "Failure" and a failure report
2124-506: The biggest in time variant ( reliability ) related failures. The statistician Donald J. Wheeler has dismissed the 1.5 sigma shift as "goofy" because of its arbitrary nature. Its universal applicability is seen as doubtful. The 1.5 sigma shift has also become contentious because it results in stated "sigma levels" that reflect short-term rather than long-term performance: a process that has long-term defect levels corresponding to 4.5 sigma performance is, by Six Sigma convention, described as
2183-442: The causes of defects and minimizing variability in manufacturing and business processes . This is done by using empirical and statistical quality management methods and by hiring people who serve as Six Sigma experts. Each Six Sigma project follows a defined methodology and has specific value targets, such as reducing pollution or increasing customer satisfaction . The term Six Sigma originates from statistical quality control,
2242-455: The company's values and capabilities. International Organization for Standardization or ISO 9001 : 2015 encourages a process approach to quality management. The relationship between each process within the organization and how those interactions impact Quality Management is significant. The first structured method for documenting process flow, the flow process chart , was introduced by Frank Gilbreth to members of ASME in 1921 as
2301-427: The fact that both were influenced by Japanese business culture. However, lean management primarily focuses on eliminating waste through tools that target organizational efficiencies while integrating a performance improvement system, while Six Sigma focuses on eliminating defects and reducing variation. Both systems are driven by data, though Six Sigma is much more dependent on accurate data. Six Sigma's implicit goal
2360-489: The first 10 months; Sony and Boeing also reported successfully reducing waste. Although companies have considered common quality control and process improvement strategies, there's still a need for more reasonable and effective methods as all the desired standards and client satisfaction have not always been reached. There is still a need for an essential analysis that can control the factors affecting concrete cracks and slippage between concrete and steel. After conducting
2419-474: The first criticism was already published more than 40 years ago (see Statistical hypothesis testing § Criticism ). In a 2006 issue of USA Army Logistician an article critical of Six Sigma noted: "The dangers of a single paradigmatic orientation (in this case, that of technical rationality) can blind us to values associated with double-loop learning and the learning organization , organization adaptability , workforce creativity and development, humanizing
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2478-411: The limits, when the limits are six sigma from the "original" mean of zero and the process mean is then shifted by 1.5 sigma (and therefore, the six sigma limits are no longer symmetrical about the mean). The former six sigma distribution, when under the effect of the 1.5 sigma shift, is commonly referred to as a 4.5 sigma process. The failure rate of a six sigma distribution with the mean shifted 1.5 sigma
2537-423: The main methods used. Experience has shown that processes usually do not perform as well in the long term as they do in the short term. As a result, the number of sigmas that will fit between the process mean and the nearest specification limit may well drop over time, compared to an initial short-term study. To account for this real-life increase in process variation over time, an empirically based 1.5 sigma shift
2596-558: The methodology and use the data-driven approach correctly. Some organizations use additional belt colors, such as "yellow belts", for employees that have basic training in Six Sigma tools and generally participate in projects, and "white belts" for those locally trained in the concepts but do not participate in the project team. "Orange belts" are also mentioned to be used for special cases. General Electric and Motorola developed certification programs as part of their Six Sigma implementation. Following this approach, many organizations in
2655-540: The nature of zero tolerance for mistakes and potential for reducing medical errors involved in healthcare. The goal of Six Sigma in healthcare is broad and includes reducing the inventory of equipment that brings extra costs, altering the process of healthcare delivery in order to make it more efficient and refining reimbursements. A study at the MD Anderson Cancer Center , which recorded an increase in examinations with no additional machines of 45% and
2714-596: The presentation “Process Charts—First Steps in Finding the One Best Way”. Gilbreth's tools were quickly integrated into industrial engineering curricula. In the early 1930s industrial engineer Allan H. Mogensen began training business people by using these tools of industrial engineering at his Work Simplification Conferences in Lake Placid , New York . A 1944 graduate of Mogensen's class, Art Spinanger, took
2773-417: The process mean will move over time, or because the long-term standard deviation of the process will be greater than that observed in the short term, or both. Hence the widely accepted definition of a six sigma process is a process that produces 3.4 defective parts per million opportunities (DPMO). This is based on the fact that a process that is normally distributed will have 3.4 parts per million outside
2832-458: The process mean will shift by 1.5 sigma toward the side with the critical specification limit. In other words, they assume that after the initial study determining the short-term sigma level, the long-term C pk value will turn out to be 0.5 less than the short-term C pk value. So, now for example, the DPMO figure given for 1 sigma assumes that the long-term process mean will be 0.5 sigma beyond
2891-540: The process with a better understanding for more efficiency. Although this is just a simple example, many aspects of business, including supply chain, operations, marketing, finance, and accounting, use similar process mapping activities to improve efficiency. Six Sigma Six Sigma ( 6σ ) is a set of techniques and tools for process improvement. It was introduced by American engineer Bill Smith while working at Motorola in 1986. Six Sigma strategies seek to improve manufacturing quality by identifying and removing
2950-475: The project. Similarly, MECE can be used in technical problem solving and communication. In some technical projects, like Six Sigma projects, the most effective method of communication is not the same as the problem solving process. In Six Sigma, the DMAIC process is used, but executive audiences looking for a summary or overview may not be interested in the details. By reorganizing the information using MECE and
3009-437: The related SCQA storytelling framework, the point of the topic can be addressed quickly and supported with appropriate detail. The aim is more effective communication. The MECE concept has been criticized for not being exhaustive, as it doesn't exclude superfluous/extraneous items. Also, MECE thinking can be too limiting as mutual exclusiveness is not necessarily desirable. For instance, while it may be desirable to classify
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#17327798989713068-438: The sigma number and increasing the likelihood of items outside specification. According to a calculation method employed in process capability studies, this means that practically no items will fail to meet specifications. One should also note that the calculation of sigma levels for a process data is independent of the data being normally distributed. In one of the criticisms of Six Sigma, practitioners using this approach spend
3127-899: The specification limit (C pk = –0.17), rather than 1 sigma within it, as it was in the short-term study (C pk = 0.33). Note that the defect percentages indicate only defects exceeding the specification limit to which the process mean is nearest. Defects beyond the far specification limit are not included in the percentages. The formula used here to calculate the DPMO is thus DPMO = 1 , 000 , 000 ⋅ ( 1 − ϕ ( level − 1.5 ) ) {\displaystyle {\text{DPMO}}=1,000,000\cdot (1-\phi ({\text{level}}-1.5))} Six Sigma mostly finds application in large organizations. According to industry consultants like Thomas Pyzdek and John Kullmann, companies with fewer than 500 employees are less suited to Six Sigma or need to adapt
3186-404: The standard approach to making it work for them. Six Sigma, however, contains a large number of tools and techniques that work well in small to mid-size organizations. The fact that an organization is not big enough to be able to afford black belts does not diminish its ability to make improvements using this set of tools and techniques. The infrastructure described as necessary to support Six Sigma
3245-524: The tools back to Procter and Gamble where he developed their work simplification program called the Deliberate Methods Change Program. Another 1944 graduate, Ben S. Graham , Director of Formcraft Engineering at Standard Register Industrial , adapted the flow process chart to information processing with his development of the multi-flow process chart to display multiple documents and their relationships. In 1947, ASME adopted
3304-492: The workplace, cultural awareness , and strategy making." Nassim Nicholas Taleb considers risk managers little more than "blind users" of statistical tools and methods. He states that statistics is fundamentally incomplete as a field as it cannot predict the risk of rare events—something Six Sigma is especially concerned with. Furthermore, errors in prediction are likely to occur as a result of ignorance of or distinction between epistemic and other uncertainties. These errors are
3363-715: Was an important factor in the spread of Six Sigma (this figure later grew to more than $ 1 billion). By the late 1990s, about two thirds of the Fortune 500 organizations had begun Six Sigma initiatives with the aim of reducing costs and improving quality. In recent years , some practitioners have combined Six Sigma ideas with lean manufacturing to create a methodology named Lean Six Sigma . The Lean Six Sigma methodology views lean manufacturing, which addresses process flow and waste issues, and Six Sigma, with its focus on variation and design, as complementary disciplines aimed at promoting "business and operational excellence". In 2011,
3422-503: Was attributed to "an analysis by Charles Holland of consulting firm Qualpro (which espouses a competing quality-improvement process)". The summary of the article is that Six Sigma is effective at what it is intended to do, but that it is "narrowly designed to fix an existing process" and does not help in "coming up with new products or disruptive technologies." More direct criticism is the "rigid" nature of Six Sigma with its over-reliance on methods and tools. In most cases, more attention
3481-467: Was the main objective. In the supply-chain field, it is important to ensure that products are delivered to clients at the right time while preserving high-quality standards. By changing the schematic diagram for the supply chain, Six Sigma can ensure quality control on products (defect-free) and guarantee delivery deadlines, the two main issues in the supply chain. This is a sector that has been highly matched with this doctrine for many years because of
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