Six Sigma is another management style, and study shows that firms who successfully implement this style is typically deliver better return on investment, return on sales, employment growth, stock growth and value growth.
Pros:
1)Six Sigma strategy places a clear focus on achieving measurable and quantifiable financial returns to the bottom-line of an organization. No Six Sigma project is approved unless the bottom-line impact has been clearly identified and defined.
2)Six Sigma methodology of problem solving integrates the human elements (culture change, customer focus, belt system infrastructure, etc.) and process elements (process management, statistical analysis of process data, measurement system analysis, etc.) of improvement.
3)Six Sigma emphasizes the importance of data and decision making based on facts and data rather than assumptions and hunches! Six Sigma forces people to put measurements in place. Measurement must be considered as a part of the culture change.
4)Six Sigma utilizes the concept of statistical thinking and encourages the application of well-proven statistical tools and techniques for defect reduction through process variability reduction methods.
Cons:
1)The challenge of having quality data available, especially in processes where no data is available to begin with (sometimes this task could take the largest proportion of the project time)
2)The right selection and prioritization of projects is one of the critical success factors of a Six Sigma program. The prioritization of projects in many organizations is still based on pure subjective judgement. Very few powerful tools are available for prioritizing projects and this should be the major thrust for research in the future.
3)Assumption of 1.5 sigma shift for all business processes does not make much sense. This particular issue should be dealt with extra caution as a small shift in sigma could lead to erroneous defect calculations.
4)The relationship between Cost of Poor Quality (COPQ) and Process Sigma Quality Level requires more justification.