General Motors Process Improvement: Six Sigma Approach

Analysis of the process using the DMAIC Six Sigma Methodologies

The Six Sigma approach was designed by Motorola in 1986. The primary objective of the concept was to develop a tool for tallying the process defects and, as the result, improving business operations. The foundations of the approach are the customer needs, statistical analysis of data and facts, and timely execution. The method promises numerous benefits such as increasing performance and profitability of an organization, improving product or service quality and employee morale, decreasing costs, the growth of market share, the higher level of satisfying customer needs, etc. (Meredith & Shafer, 2013). The primary advantage of the Six Sigma approach is that it provides a logical and structured blueprint for solving problems.

The projects developed and conducted using the Six Sigma approach usually consist of five stages define, measure, analyze, improve, and control, or simply DMAIC (Meredith & Shafer, 2013). The key issue about the whole process is that in the case if the effectiveness of the project is assessed at the end of every stage, then it is a perfect way of improving operational performance of a company because it is assumed that the shift to the next phase is only possible once the results of the previous one are satisfactory.

Speaking of the stages, the first one is define. It is a step of defining the goals of the projects and the results it is aimed at such as reaching certain levels of productivity of customer satisfaction. The next one is measure, and it is the stage of collecting data and facts and evaluating current operational performance. Third is analyze with the purpose for developing methods and theories that will best suit the solving of the problem; it is also a stage of detecting cause-and-effect ties of the processes. The fourth phase is improve. It is aimed at generating ideas for reaching the desired process improvement. Finally, there is the control stage that is about monitoring the operations to find out whether the process of improvement is smooth and the problems were solved (Meredith & Shafer, 2013).

The use of Six Sigma tools by GM (process analysis)

General Motors (GM) has already proved that it actively implements the Six Sigma approach to improving the companys operational performance and reaching higher levels of customer satisfaction. For example, it has started Six Sigma training in Warren, Michigan, where the organization is one of the biggest employers. The objective of the initiative is that GM sees the concept as one of the ways to improve the quality of the processes, as there have been concerns about the companys performance (General Motors seizes every opportunity to capitalize on Six Sigma training in Warren, n.d.).

General Motors applied the concept to engineering operations, but the company plans to implement it across the entire organization, infiltrating areas of supply chain management, product development, and recall procedures (Staff, 2014, para. 15). One example of the approach embodiment is dealing with the safety concerns deriving from ignition switch issue that caused the customers vehicles crashes and even led to deaths. What GM has done is developed the safety improvement project based on the Six Sigma approach.

On the define phase, the specialists detected the problem that had to be solved and found that it was the lack of quality control of the ignitions. On the measure stage, GM collected the data to find out the primary reason for the problem, and saw it in the fact that the assembly lines work 24/7, but employees failed to control their performance constantly. The analyze phase helped realize that the primary way of solving the problem is launching the initiative that will let the workers contact the senior management as soon as they detect the problem with the automobile parts quality or potential dangers. The company called it Speak Up for Safety Program.

The improve was a step at which GM decided to build up a new quality assurance process that will control the performance of every stage of the final part assemblage. Finally, control phase implies developing ignition recall update website (GM safety initiative listed, 2014). The primary purpose is to make sure that the customers know how to act in the similar situation and have an opportunity to provide the company with the feedback.

The recommendations to improve the use of Six Sigma tools for GM

The overall result of using the Six Sigma approach to solving the safety issues may be considered as positive because the company has developed a better quality control procedure and produced enough repaired parts to fix the vehicles that were affected by the problem. Moreover, GM has designed an effective tool for receiving customers feedback. If considered in general, these steps will lead to the improvement of ignition quality and increase the companys responsiveness. So, I believe that they will lead to higher level of satisfying the customers needs.

Nevertheless, there are still opportunities to improve the process. For example, one of the steps was launching the Spanish version of the recall website (GM safety initiative listed, 2014). My recommendation is to translate it in some other languages. Of course, English and Spanish speaking people are the primary users of GM automobiles, but the company should also think about the minorities who do not know these languages but still may face the similar problem. With the resources the company has, it is possible to bring this improvement to life.

The ways of controlling the process to satisfy the customers needs

Once the operational performance is improved, there is a need to monitor the processes and make sure that the level of performance does not decrease. In the case of the Six Sigma approach, this function is conducted by different professionals, who carry out particular roles master black belts, black belts, green belts, and yellow belts together with champions/sponsors and project owners (Meredith & Shafer, 2013). Master black belts, for example, are those who have the rich experience in implementing the Six Sigma tools and train the senior managers, so that they can apply these tools to business. Black belts usually lead projects.

Green belts are those who work on the Six Sigma projects but under the strict supervision of the black belts. Yellow belts are people who completed training but do not have enough experience to develop the guidelines for implementing the Six Sigma tools. As it is seen, this is the hierarchy based on the level of knowledge and experience in using the concept. Champions/sponsors are other managers involved in the operational performance improvement, and project owners are the companys customers.

What can be said about General Motors is that the company constantly improves the control process by hiring people who carry out the roles of black belts and master black belts and train its managers (General Motors seizes every opportunity to capitalize on Six Sigma training in Warren, n.d.). What is more, GM demands that its managers are certified after completing the Six Sigma awareness trainings, so that it is sure that they are professionals and can develop projects that will improve operational performance.