Technical Talk : Project Management & Six Sigma - New Approach (8 Sept 2010)

By Ir. Noor Iziddin Abdullah B. Haji Ghazali, PMP®, MIEM, P. Eng.

Committee of Project Management Technical Division for Session 2010/2011.

Project Management Technical Division (PMTD) of IEM organized a 2 hour talk entitled

“Project Management & Six Sigma” on 18 September 2010, at Auditorium in Wisma IEM,

Petaling Jaya. This talk was conducted in collaboration with Genaxis Sdn. Bhd; currently the

first and only American Society For Quality (ASQ) Certified Partner in Malaysia. The talk was

delivered by Mr. Selveentharan Muniandy, Chief Operating Officer (COO) from Genaxis Sdn.

Bhd. He is the professional member of the American Institute of Industrial Engineers and a

Registered Graduate Engineer in Malaysia's Board of Engineers. He holds a Bachelors Degree

(Hons) in Business Information System and is a Certified ASQ Master Black Belt Instructor,

Six Sigma Black Belt from General Electrics USA and Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide

Inc. Mr. Selveen has also conducted 2 sessions of 2 days talk on 'Project Management & Six

Sigma" in IEM last year.

The primary objective of the talk was to introduce to the talk participants of using the

combination tools of Project Management and Six Sigma which can play a significant

role in the engineering environment. Project Management is a strategy applied in planning,

organizing and managing projects to ensure the success of completion within project goals

and objectives. On the other hand, Six Sigma is a statistical based process improvement

methodology and risk management tool that helps in minimizing errors and risk,

reducing costs, improving workflow and increasing customer satisfaction.

Six Sigma at many organizations simply means a measure of quality that strives for near

perfection. But the statistical implications of a Six Sigma program go well beyond the

qualitative eradication of customer perceptible defects. It is a methodology that is well

rooted in mathematics and statistics.

The objective of Six Sigma Quality is to reduce process output variation so that ±six standard

deviations lie between the mean and the nearest specification limit. This will allow no more

than 3.4 defect Parts per Million (PPM) opportunities, also known as Defects per Million

Opportunities (DPMO), to be produced.

By implementing Six Sigma wisely on carefully selected projects, companies will benefit

from:

•Improved customer satisfaction

•Reduced cycle times

•Increased productivity

•Improved process flow, capacity and output

•Reduction in total defects

•Increased product reliability

•Decreased work-in-process (WIP)

Brief explanation on Six Sigma Green Belt and Black Belt:-

Black Belt (BB) - Black Belts are the heart and soul of the Six Sigma quality initiative. Their

main purpose is to lead quality projects and work full time until they are complete. Black

Belts can typically complete four to six projects per year with savings of approximately

$230,000 per project. Black Belts also coach Green Belts on their projects, and while

coaching may seem innocuous, it can require a significant amount of time and energy.

Green Belt (GB) - Green Belts are employees trained in Six Sigma who spend a portion of

their time completing projects, but maintain their regular work role and responsibilities.

Depending on their workload, they can spend anywhere from 10% to 50% of their time on

their project(s). As the Six Sigma quality program evolves, employees will begin to include

the Six Sigma methodology in their daily activities and it will no longer become a percentage

of their time—it will be the way their work is accomplished 100% of the time. Now we know

how some companies have organizationally structured their Six Sigma quality program. But

how do you ensure that everyone’s doing their job? How do you we keep your our

employees motivated when fires are burning all over the corporate landscape?

This was the third time IEM organized such kind of Project Management & Six Sigma talk. A

total of 86 participants from various industries attended the talk. They consisted of both

corporate members and graduate members of IEM. After completing the talk, each of them

earned 2 PDUs of BEM Approved CPD/PDP Hours. Mr. Selveentharan Muniandy received a

certificate of attendance and a memento, from Ir. Noor Iziddin Abdullah B. Haji Ghazali, who

currently serves as a Committee Member of PMTD, at the end of the talk. Feedback from

the talk participants was encouraging with some indicating their intention to go for Six

Sigma Green Belt and Black Belt certification.

It is hoped that more engineers willparticipate in this talk to enhance their professional knowledge as well as professional career. First Admiral Dato’ Ir. Haji Ahmad Murad Omar (Rtd), who currently serves as the Advisor of PMTD chaired the talk’s opening and Ir. Noor Iziddin Abdullah B. Haji Ghazali, chaired the talk closing.