Six Sigma is…

  • A management philosophy

  • A management system to achieve world-class performance

  • A statistical measure of how well a process, product or service is performing

  • A performance goal that is near perfection

  • Making decisions based on fact and data

  • The relentless, ruthless pursuit of variation reduction

In short, a Six Sigma culture entails total management commitment and a philosophy of excellence, customer focus, process improvement and continuous measurement. Six Sigma continues to be a driver in Johnson & Johnson's way of doing business and achieving operational excellence. For Johnson & Johnson, Six Sigma is a key driver of competitive advantage. Improvement methodologies such as Six Sigma, Design Excellence and Lean provide a systematic and data-driven approach. The focus of these improvement efforts are critical process elements that significantly influence outcomes. In Johnson & Johnson, the Health & Safety (H &S) organization believes that Six Sigma is critical to ensuring that we continue to meet and exceed customer needs, reduce risk and drive operational excellence.

In a Six Sigma culture there is strategic alignment of vision, mission, goals and objectives throughout the organization. Metrics (the critical few) that demonstrate results and focus on the key outcomes are carefully selected. Goals are set for each critical metric. Performance against goals and targets is tracked over time to identify improvement opportunities. Data is displayed in the form of a "dashboard" or "scorecard" and reviewed frequently to understand the underlying causal factors of change. The focus is to more effectively manage business processes, improve these, and deliver outstanding business results.

Dashboards and Measures

A dashboard is a tool that helps quickly and effectively deploy a strategy. It provides a descriptive strategic framework and consists of a set of critical metrics that drive the desired business results. Organizations use dashboards to establish goals and track progress against them. At any given point in time a dashboard presents a measurement snapshot, thus providing a quick overview of the status of key drivers and results. A well-designed dashboard enhances the alignment of vision, strategy and measures. It helps leaders identify, charter and allocate resources. It enables progress tracking, assigns accountability, captures what has worked (gains), links improvements to results, and blends leading and lagging indicators. A well-deployed dashboard drives data gathering and measurement and the behaviors necessary to achieve the desired results. When a dashboard is well communicated, well understood, acted upon by employees and led by management, then it becomes a competitive advantage for the organization.

At the heart of Johnson & Johnson's improvement strategy is the implementation of high-level operational dashboards and a series of methodologies and tools that can transform the way we do business and accelerate improvement throughout our global businesses. The use of dashboards in J &J H &S has allowed us to effectively manage the key business processes that drive the ultimate success of our organization.

Keywords:
Fleet Safety, lwdc rate, recordable rate, six sigma, safe fleet introduction, metric, operational excellence, Johnson, Excellence, Safety Dashboard
Subjects:
Information Management and Systems
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2004. American Society of Safety Engineers
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