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DocQment, newsletter of the STC Quality SIG, March 2002.

Six Sigma and Technical Communication

You hear the jargon in the halls of corporate America. People are talking about "black belts" and "green belts" but they're not discussing fashion, nor breaking boards with their heads. There's discussion about something that sounds like "dee-MAY-ick." What's going on? What does it have to do with technical communication? What's going on is a commitment by many companies to something called Six Sigma. Six Sigma is a disciplined, data-driven approach aimed at near-elimination of defects from every product, process, and transaction. Six Sigma's goal is breakthrough knowledge leading to demonstrated process improvements. These improvements enable companies to do things better, faster, and at lower cost while offering superior consumer satisfaction.

Six Sigma success stories are legendary. Companies such as Motorola, Texas Instruments, and General Electric report savings of as much as $9 billion over 10 years following Six Sigma implementation. At the core of Six Sigma is a highly structured process known as DMAI2C (pronounced as dee-MAY-ick), an acronym for its steps: 

  • Define
  • Measure
  • Analyze
  • Innovative Improvement
  • Control
By following these steps, Six Sigma teams effectively focus in on a problem or improvement opportunity, and determine its current state. The team can figure out the effect of the process and what its possibilities are. Then teams test out, prove, and implement improvement strategies, and maintain the improvement at a consistent level.

Leading these initiatives are Six Sigma Black Belts and Green Belts, individuals who are intensively trained to attack problems using the DMAI2C methodologies. As weapons, Black Belts use an array of Six Sigma tools, some of them highly scientific and statistical in nature, others common sense. Black Belts must demonstrate competence in most of the Six Sigma tools. Green Belts use a narrower range of tools and usually carry out their projects under the guidance of a Black Belt.

Six Sigma has long been applied to improve manufacturing processes. In recent years, however, other areas of organizations have been applying the tools and seeing results. Many technical communicators are joining the ranks of certified Six Sigma Black and Green Belts. Rather than shaking heads in wonder at how the methodologies can be applied to "administrative" work, organizations are welcoming the application of Six Sigma thinking to what are now called "transactional" processes.

Technical communicators offer much to a Six Sigma initiative. One of the tools taught to Black and Green Belts is creative thinking, the ability to come up with those innovative improvements that form a core of the methodology. Technical communicators usually have a natural ability to innovate, and usually also have the technical ability required to master other tools in the Belt arsenal.

At the heart of Six Sigma is something called the Voice of the Customer, a simple concept: if you want to know what you should do to satisfy your customer, then go out and ask the customer. For technical communicators, who often represent the customer's needs in an organization, this concept is second nature.

Does your company have a Six Sigma push under way, or is it considering one? Have you considered joining up and adding "Belt" to your résumé? Keep reading this series-you probably will discover you have what it takes!

Jill Finan is a past president of the STC Rochester Chapter.
She is a recently-certified Black Belt at Ortho-Clinical Diagnostics, Inc., a Johnson & Johnson Company.

Reprinted with permission from Proof Sheet, the newsletter of the STC Rochester Chapter.

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