User:GerardoMilano/sandbox

Manufacturing Engineering is a very important branch of Industrial Engineering.

Bold text Peer review by Chandler Bolog: You should include a definition of what Six Sigma is, rather than jumping right into the application. The sentences are rather broad throughout the article, I would recommend being more descriptive when discussing what Six Sigma actually does which should help clarify the article. Lastly, some sentences are rather wordy--I recommend trying to make your sentences more concise.

Application

Main article: Six Sigma

Six Sigma mostly finds application in large organizations. An important factor in the spread of Six Sigma was GE's 1998 announcement of $350 million in savings thanks to Six Sigma, a figure that later grew to more than $1 billion. According to industry consultants like Thomas Pyzdek and John Kullmann, companies with fewer than 500 employees are less suited to Six Sigma implementation or need to adapt the standard approach to make 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 abilities to make improvements using this set of tools and techniques. The infrastructure described as necessary to support Six Sigma is a result of the size of the organization rather than a requirement of Six Sigma itself.

Although the scope of Six Sigma differs depending on where it is implemented, it can successfully deliver its benefits to different applications.

Manufacturing

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 of these are Johnson and Johnson, with $600 million of reported savings, Texas Instruments, which saved over $500 million as well as Telefonica de Espana, which reported $30 million euros of revenue in the first 10 months. On top of this, other organizations like Sony and Boeing achieved large percentages in waste reduction.

Engineering and Construction

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 a case study on Tinjin Xianyi Construction Technology Co, Ltd., 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.

Finance

Six Sigma has played an important role by improving accuracy of allocation of cash to reduce bank charges, automatic payments, improving accuracy of reporting, reducing documentary credits defects, reducing check collection defects, and reducing variation in collector performance. Two of the financial institutions that have reported considerable improvements in their operations are Bank of America and American Express. By 2004 Bank of America increased customer satisfaction by 10.4% and decreased customer issues by 24% by applying Six Sigma tools in their streamline operations. Similarly, American Express successfully eliminated non-received renewal credit cards and improved their overall processes by applying Six Sigma principles. This strategy is also currently being applied by other financial institutions like GE Capital Corp., JP Morgan Chase, and Sun Trust Banks, with customer satisfaction being their main objective.

Supply Chain

In this field, it important to ensure that products are delivered to clients at the right time while preserving high-quality standards from the beginning to the end of the supply chain. By changing the schematic diagram for the supply chain, Six Sigma can ensure quality control on products (defect free) and guarantee delivery deadlines, which are the two major issues involved in the supply chain.

Healthcare

This is a sector that sector that has been highly matched with this doctrine for many years because of 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 more efficient and refining reimbursements. A study at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, which recorded an increase in examinations with no additional machines of 45% and reduction in patience preparation time of 40 minutes; from 45 minutes to 5 minutes in multiple cases.