Application of Six Sigma in providing Quality Education

The concept of Six Sigma originated in the 1980s in the manufacturing sector. Motorola in response to the threat of its Japanese counterpart started working on the concept of zero defects. This further spread to other companies like Allied Signal and General Electric and it became news in 1996 when General Electric stated that it had saved $1 billion of cost by using the Six Sigma methodology. In the education sector, Six Sigma is still in its infancy.

Six Sigma has transformed many companies and made them more successful. It aims at the target by changing the culture of the company involving everyone and identifies the problem in a process, evaluates the process, and works to improve the process in totality.

In a company, the goal of Six Sigma implementation requires everyone to:

· Increase customer satisfaction.

· Increase efficiency of the process.

· Lower costs.

· Increase profit.

The Six Sigma concept of quality has to apply to every process in the company so that everyone has the same standard. In the Six Sigma process, the voice of the customer is very important as it shows what their needs and requirements are. In schools, the parents can be considered as the customers as well as the shareholders as they are paying the fees for a private school or taxes for a public school.

The teachers can be considered as the employees or the team providing services which in this case is educating the students. Six Sigma in education involves improving the quality of the matter taught, the character of the students, the quality of the study, and the school life.

Waste in the Education Sector

Waste is common in the education sector like the manufacturing sector. Some examples from where waste might come from:

· Objectives are misaligned- These are the non-value adding tasks that detract from the primary goals of the institution.

· Flawed projects- Unnecessary projects that are not useful.

· Not recognizing talent- This concerns failing to make most of the staff’s skills and ideas.

· Non-standardization- Differing or conflicting goals and objectives.

The concept of Six Sigma in Industry

In the industry Six Sigma raises customer satisfaction by reducing the number of defects through a process to 3.4 defects per million, and the target is measured by the sigma rating. In education, it standardizes the enhancement of the result by percent increase.

Does Education Need Six Sigma?

Some areas of education can respond well to this methodology. Many of the activities that go in education are repeated and that can benefit from the application of Six Sigma principles. The alignment of Six Sigma and education creates better efficiency which is the requirement everywhere in the world. This is caused by several factors:

· Increased tuition in higher education has made parents and students expect more from the coursework that the colleges provide.

· Increased global competition has made it necessary for students to excel in academics.

Education can be broken down into three areas:

· Administration:

The education system is held together by processes that must run smoothly and efficiently. Six Sigma can reduce the variations in processes that involve admissions, certification, information technology, repair, and maintenance, etc.

Enrollment:

Students have to be enrolled and placed in a classroom before the education process can start. Six Sigma can tackle the time process required to complete the higher education enrollment which will lead to greater student satisfaction from the start.

Academics:

Six Sigma can transform the quality of learning in a classroom. From creating a process to choosing the right faculty members to benchmark and identify the best practices of other institutions, Six Sigma can be actively involved.

Using the concept of DMAIC

The implementation of Six Sigma starts with the identification of a problem and starting of a project to alleviate the problem. The project is taken by a team using DMAIC which stands for define, measure, analyze, improve and control.

Define:

In this process write down the purpose of the assignment or the project using a process map, where it would be applied, and the goal i.e. the desired benefits. Be as specific as possible and you can include problems like noise, distractions, and high absentee rates.

Measure:

It involves the analysis of the project to measure its present state and the future. Data collection is the main emphasis of the project.

Analyze:

It involves the analysis of the parts of the process which affect the quality of the problem.

Improve:

This involves finding a permanent solution to the problem.

Control:

This involves maintaining the newly improved process with the solution by creating a protocol and management of procedures.

Six Sigma belt rankings in education:

The Six Sigma belt rankings signify the achievement and typical roles for each level;

Green Belt:

The teachers and instructors of the students come under the green belt. They represent Six Sigma practitioners with a thorough grounding of the approach.

Black Belts:

They include the Six Sigma experts with a thorough grounding of the approach in addition to the ability to lead the projects. A subgroup of teachers and instructors come under this role.

Master Black Belts:

They train and coach the black belts and the green belts and represent people who spend their time focused to assist leadership for projection and consultation. The administration officer or the vice principal falls under this role.

Champions or Leaders:

They are the senior managers who ensure that resources are available for training and projects. The Principal comes under this role in collaboration with the management of the school.

Decision-making is consensual with all the team members participating. When the consensual method fails to come to a decision, the project champion has the sole decision-making authority.

How to implement Six Sigma?

The steps needed for the successful implementation of the Six Sigma concept are as given below:

· The improvement must first start at the senior level which is done by providing training on the principles and the tools needed for the purpose. Along with this, steps are taken to cultivate an environment for innovation. The generation of quality improvement teams occurs at the principal level and other members of the management.

· A module is developed for close communication with customers and employees. The teachers act as a database for reporting and the conduct of the study.

· Training needs are assessed throughout the organization and are considered indispensable. Six Sigma educations are provided to ensure that adequate levels of literacy are processed by teachers.

· The Six Sigma projects are conducted by teams led by Green Belts and assisted by black belts.

· A standardized Six Sigma framework for continuous improvement is developed for monitoring progress and success.

Thus we learn that Six Sigma is one of the tools of the learning system implemented in an educational institution as an element of a business strategy and improves the educational process. Implementing Six Sigma in an educational institution makes it possible to achieve the following advantages:

a) To establish effective use of the allocation of resources i.e. material, administrative, and personnel.

b) It improves the quality of the educational process by reducing the variability of target indicators.

c) It optimizes the time of the learning process.

Six Sigma can help improve the processes that make up the field of education. As parents, students, and the central and state governments continue to put pressure on improving education, the educational institutions may come to rely more heavily on Six Sigma methodology.