Notes from 49th International STC Conference
Nashville, Tennessee, May 5-8, 2002

Using Six Sigma to Improve Documentation

Lori Beard and Erin A. Beal Welch
GE Medical Systems, Information Technologies

Lori Beard and Erin Welch, with GE Medical Systems, Information Technologies are both certified Green Belts in Six Sigma who have applied that Best Practice to single source documentation at GE. They are members of the Metro Baltimore STC Chapter.

Session Description: This session used case studies to illustrate how Six Sigma can improve documentation and gain management attention and approval.

Slides: Available at STC's Conference Web site

Note: The authors published two papers in the Proceedings to this conference. For an electronic copy or a hard copy (depending on availability), contact Dan Voss.

• Six Sigma is:
   
• A system to continuously build quality into your processes and products.
• A fact-based, data-driven improvement system.
• A company-wide commitment to quality.
• One Sigma = one Standard Deviation on a bell curve. Six Sigma = three Standard Deviations in either direction from the mean.
• Six Sigma is not:
   
• A magic wand to correct the ills of a company
• Yet another quality directive without substance
• A tool that can be handed to workers and forgotten.
• DMAIC = Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, Control (fix existing processes)
• DMADV = Define, Measure, Analyze, Design, Verify (create new processes)
• CTQ = Critical to Quality (a transformation of the customer's needs into a measurable requirement for the process)
• The karate belt system varies somewhat from company to company but basically parallels the progression within the martial art. Green Belt = basic proficiency and proven experienced. Black Belt = high expertise, often dedicated to Six Sigma projects. Master Black Belt = top-level driver of Six Sigma initiatives.
• Define: When you scope a project, you find the problem you want to solve.
• Measure: You gather initial information to further refine the problem.
• Analyze:
   
• You look at your empirical data in a variety of ways to find possible solutions.
• You examine several solutions to decide on the best one.
• Using numbers, you acquire management acceptance of the selected solution.
• Improve: You change the process to eliminate the problem.
• Control: You monitor the process to ensure that you have selected the best solution.
• Design: You design a solution to the problem based on the empirical data you have gathered.
• Verify: You run a test of the design to ensure it is the best solution to the problem.
• By stressing empirically derived numbers, Six Sigma tends to take some of the personalities and politics out of business decisions.
• The most critical part of Six Sigma is not the number crunching, it is determining the right quantified metrics in the first place.
• Six Sigma = 99.998 error-free. It is actually rarely attained, and only against a very large base, such as a huge manufacturing production run.
• Four Sigma is quite good; Five Sigma is excellent; 5.5 Sigma is the practical limit in most cases.
• Three Sigma is not acceptable for situations involving health and safety (e.g., medical malfeasance, airline crashes). These areas need to get as close to Six Sigma as possible.
• Case studies. Small groups worked on 4 cases involving the application of Six Sigma to documentation.
   
• Creating a survey
• Revising a manual
• Preparing for new documentation
• Determining a Help system design.
• Presenter suggested a documentation world parallel to the Maslowe pyramid of human needs, which works up from basic Physiological Needs to Safety Needs to Love to Esteem to Self-Actualization. In the documentation version, the most basic user need would be "How" to do something. That need met, the user then begins to care about "Why" he/she should be using the product, "How Much Better" it could be used, "In What Other Applications" it could be used, and how it ultimately contributes to the company's "Bottom Line" (which, ironically, would be at the top of this pyramid). In other words, if the documentation doesn't make sense, if it is hard to find answers, if it doesn't meet the user's basic needs, the user is unlikely to find any further goodness in the documentation or the product.
• Conclusions
   
• Six Sigma can assist in making design decisions.
• Six Sigma can ensure the documentation is satisfying to the customer.
• Six Sigma can show managers where the documentation is improving.
• Six Sigma may take time up front to set up and get the data, but it can save time and money overall.
• Annotated bibliography:
   
• The Power of Six Sigma: An Inspiring Tale of How Six Sigma is Transforming the Way We Work, ISBN #0793144345. Written in the same format as Who Moved My Cheese? It explains, on a high level, how Six Sigma works in a fictional company and each person's role in the process.
• The Six Sigma Revolution: How General Electric and Others Turned Process into Profits, ISBN #047138822X. Highly readable. Provides real-life examples of how the process was put in place at a variety of companies. Written on the managerial level.
• Making Six Sigma Last: Managing the Balance Between Cultural and Technical Change, ISBN #0471415480. Follow-up to The Six Sigma Revolution. Designed to help you carry the Six Sigma process forward after the newness of the process has worn off.
• Six Sigma, The Breakthrough Management Strategy Revolutionizing the World's Top Corporations, ISBN #0385494378. Uses case studies to delve deeper into the Six Sigma process than a general overview. It looks at the process more from a Blackbelt's (project leader's) perspective, without getting into the statistics or other tools used.
• Six Sigma for Managers, ISBN #0071387552. Provides not only an overview of Six Sigma (briefly), but also provides a plan to get Six Sigma started in your department, and describes the basic tools used in a project.
• The Six Sigma Way: How GE, Motorola, and Other Top Companies are Honing Their Performance, ISBN #0071358064. A comprehensive handbook to get you started in using Six Sigma in your company. Spends plenty of time on preparing to use Six Sigma, as well as providing a list of the more complex tools used in Six Sigma. There is also a companion workbook available.