DMAIC

For six sigma proponents, DMAIC is like a message from the messiah!

DMAIC stands for Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve and Control.

DMAIC offers an approach and associated tools and techniques for:

• systematically determining the current business value created by a process
• setting realistic targets on the expected higher business value
• and then driving changes to the process in delivering the higher value.

A typical roadmap for applying DMAIC Six Sigma to solve a business problem is as follows:

DEFINE

• State the business problem (pain point or improvement opportunity). Example: 
• CEO - “we have lost two customers last month, and if I remember correctly we lost one the month before as well”
• Identify the business process or processes that majorly contribute to the business problem. Example: 
• VP Sales - "our suppliers are delaying on their commitments… our supplier monitoring process is ineffective in dealing with this issue, and our supplier selection process is not rigorous enough”

MEASURE

• Apply quantitative rigour to select the business processes to be considered for change or improvement. Example: 
• VP Quality - "on analysis performed by the Six Sigma Black Belt, our supplier monitoring process has emerged as something we got to fix”
• Quantify the business problem in terms of the characteristics of the selected business processes. Example: 
• Six Sigma Black Belt - "the average %Schedule Slippage of our suppliers is close to 8%, but the “worst performing” 5 out of the 20 suppliers have an average %Schedule Slippage of 15%”

ANALYZE

• Apply Six Sigma tools and techniques to determine the factors influencing the behavior of the selected business processes. 
• And then determine the possible changes and improvements to these business processes so that they behave in a desired manner. Example: 
• Six Sigma Black Belt -"study of the 5 suppliers has shown that the common problem area is poor demand forecasting and inventory management by these suppliers, this can be easily taken care of by deploying appropriate statistical methods”

IMPROVE

• Bring about the changes or improvements to the selected business processes. Example:
• VP Quality - "selected suppliers have been asked to improve their demand forecasting and inventory management method, also they have been trained by the Six Sigma Black Belt on some of the statistical tools they can use” 

CONTROL

• Ensure the improved process performs as desired Example: 
• VP Quality - "in the last two month since we brought the issue of demand forecasting and inventory management with some of the suppliers and helped them in fixing it, we haven't missed any date!
• VP Sales - "our customers are happy with timely deliveries"
• CEO - "good going, well... we have won back some of the old customers and are also having discussions with come new customers".