Design for Six Sigma (DFSS) has improved the way senior executives at Masco Builder Cabinet Group (Masco BCG) view and manage their business. The methodology focuses on designing a product or service right the first time, in a timely, cost-effective manner.
Steve Wittig is vice president of Six Sigma at Masco BCG, a leading designer and manufacturer of kitchen cabinets with brands including Merillat and Quality Cabinets. As such he is in charge of Six Sigma deployment for the company and oversees DFSS initiatives.
“The Masco Builder Cabinet Group requires Green Belts to complete 64 hours of training, pass a written examination, complete a project, and defend the project,” Wittig explained in an interview with iSixSigma. “We expect our Green and Black Belts to solve problems that are highly complex and/or highly cross-functional.” The company also believes in the value of Six Sigma certification by an outside company. “We use the Juran Institute to certify all our Green Belts, Black Belts and Master Black Belts. The criteria is based on what our consultant and the Masco Builder Cabinet Group believe to be ‘best in class’ Six Sigma practitioners,” says Wittig.
The recent DFSS project revolutionized the way executives at corporate headquarters and managers at 10 plants and distribution centers across the country report, review, and manage financial, business, and operational metrics.
“The focus of this DFSS project was to design a user-friendly and ‘user-useful’ executive information system that provided ‘one set of numbers’ with individualized views that are relevant to each specific executive or manager,” Wittig explains.
Different executives and managers are now able to drill down performance data from the company, plant, department, and product line levels. They can access relevant and accurate information very quickly and with fewer keystrokes. More importantly, these different views come from the same “one set of numbers” -- there are no discrepancies in how numbers are reported, recorded, and viewed across the entire company.
“Juran’s Design for Six Sigma is very applicable to designing or redesigning our business, transactional, and service processes including financial accounting systems, product and service quality, procurement, design, engineering, and customer service,” Wittig adds. “DFSS enables us to design or redesign based on disparate needs and requirements of internal and external customers.”
Masco BCG is an excellent example of how organizations around the world are quickly moving from a corrective operational mindset to a proactive preventative one in terms of meeting customer needs.