Six Sigma is a process improvement methodology that seeks to reduce defects and variability in manufacturing and business processes. It was originally developed by Motorola in 1986 and was later adopted by other companies like General Electric. The textile industry is well-suited for Six Sigma given the variability in its processes. Key aspects of Six Sigma include defining, measuring, analyzing, improving, and controlling quality to reduce defects. It utilizes statistical tools and creates roles like Champions, Black Belts, Green Belts to lead projects. The document outlines potential areas for Six Sigma application in the textile industry and how it has been used successfully by companies like DuPont to improve productivity and quality.

1. Assignment On
SIX SIGMA IN TEXTILE INDUSTRY
Submitted To,
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Miss. Hale Canbaz Karakaş
Submitted By,
Zuhaib Hassan
Student No. 503122807
Subject (Textile Quality TEK501E)
Istanbul Technical University, Istanbul, Turkey

2. SIX SIGMA IN TEXTILE INDUSTRY
Six Sigma:
Six Sigma is a process improvement set of tools and strategies, originally developed by Motorola in 1986.
Six Sigma became well known after Jack Welch made it a central focus of his business strategy at General
Electric in 1995,and today it is used in different sectors of industry. Six Sigma seeks to improve the quality
of process outputs by identifying and removing the causes of defects (errors) and minimizing variability in
manufacturing and business processes. It uses a set of quality management methods, including statistical
methods, and creates a special infrastructure of people within the organization ("Champions","Black
Belts", "Green Belts","Orange Belts", etc...) who are experts in these very complex methods.Each Six
Sigma project carried out within an organization follows a defined sequence of steps and has quantified
financial targets (cost reduction and/or profit increase).
Six Sigma In Textiles:
Textile industry being a field dealing with a lot of variations and defects in each process is the ideal place
for six sigma application, and speedy implementation of the right method will make a significant and
successful difference in many of the companies’ future, assert R Senthil Kumar and S Sundaresan.
Textile is among the leading sectors in the Indian economy in terms of production, exports, employment
and contribution to the exchequer. India needs to reform its laws, modernise machinery and scale up
capacities to global level to exploit this opportunity. Apart from the above factors, the application of
management techniques in the business will bring long-term stability in the market and better company
reputation. The paramount need for a paradigm shift is essential for today’s business scenario. Six sigma
is such a management tool is viewed as a systematic, scientific, statistical and smarter approach to create
quality innovation and total customer satisfaction. This paper emphasises the six sigma concepts and
possible area of six sigma applications in textile industry.
Six Sigma – Definition:
Six Sigma may be defined in several ways:
• Tomkins defines Six Sigma to be “A programme aimed at the near-elimination of defects from
every product, process and transaction.”
• Harry defines Six Sigma to be “A strategic initiative to boost profitability, increase market share
and improve customer satisfaction through statistical tools that can lead to breakthrough quantum
gains in quality.”
Essence of six sigma:
• Strategic tool which aims at eliminating defective output by bringing down the cost of qlty
to zero
• Drastically reduces inspection costs,defective costs,rework and rectification costs
• Data and fact driven mgt approach with focus on cust
• Rigorous analytical process oriented methodolgy

3. • Level of performance(3.4 dpmo) which reflects reduced defects
• Mechanism which allows companies to inprove bottom line
• Concept Linked With Qlty,Productivity And Cost
• Metric which describes how well processes meet capability reqmnt
• Set of statistical tools to help dmaic phases
• Significantly improves profitability thyru capability improvement of processes
• Empowers cost msrmnt and control
Goals of six sigma:
• Defect reduction
• Yield improvement
• Improved customer services
• Higher net income

4. Way of Approach in Traditional (old) and Six Sigma (New) methods:
The essence of Six Sigma is the integration of four elements (customer, process, manpower and strategy)
to provide management innovation. Six Sigma provides a scientific and statistical basis for quality
assessment for all processes through measurement of quality levels. The Six Sigma method allows us to
draw comparisons among all processes, and tells how good a process is. Six sigma provides efficient
manpower cultivation and utilisation.
3 Cs in Six Sigma Concept:
• Change: Changing society
• Customer: Power is shifted to customer and customer demand is high
• Competition: Competition in quality and productivity

5. The pace of change during the last decade has been unprecedented, and the speed of change in this new
millennium is perhaps faster than ever before. Most notably, the power has shifted from producer to
customer. The producer-oriented industrial society is over, and the customer-oriented information
society has arrived. Competition in quality and productivity has been ever-increasing. Second-rate quality
goods cannot survive anymore in the market.
Six Sigma Process Models:
Six sigma facilitated proactive approach through rigorous measurement. Some six sigma models
are given below. DMAIC is used to improve the existing process and DMADV is used to employ
the new products.
1. DMAIC (Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, Control)
• Define - Define the project goals and customer (internal and external) deliverables.
• Measure - Measure the process to determine current performance.
• Analyse - Analyse and determine the root causes of the defects.
• Improve - Improve the process by eliminate defects.
• Control - Control future process performance.
2. DMADV (Define, Measure, Analyze, Design, Verify)
• Define - Define the project goals and customer (internal and external) deliverables.
• Measure - Measure and determine customer needs and specifications.
• Analyze - Analyze the process options to meet the customer needs.
• Design - Design (detailed) the process to meet the customer needs.
• Verify - Verify the design performance and ability to meet customer needs.
Critical Success Factors of Six sigma:
The system needed to achieve Six Sigma creates a culture characterised by:
• Customer centricity
• Financial results
• Management engagement
• Resource commitment
• Execution infrastructure
Six Sigma - Organisational Structure:
Seven Steps for Six Sigma
When a company intends to introduce Six Sigma for its new
management strategy, the author's would like to recommend the
following seven-step procedures:

6. 1. Top-level management commitment for Six Sigma is first and foremost. Then organise a Six
Sigma team and set up the long-term Six Sigma vision for the company.
2. Start Six Sigma education for Champions first. Then start the education for White belt- WBs,
Green Belt-GBs, Black Belt-BBs and MBBs in sequence.
3. Choose the area in which Six Sigma will be first introduced.
4. Deploy Critical to Quality - CTQs for all processes concerned. The most important is the
company’s deployment of big CTQy from the standpoint of customer satisfaction. Appoint BBs
as full-time project leaders and ask them to solve some important CTQ problems.
5. Strengthen the infrastructure for Six Sigma, including measurement systems, statistical process
control (SPC), knowledge management (KM) and database management system (DBMS).
6. Designate a Six Sigma day each month, and have the progress of Six Sigma reviewed by top-
level management.
7. Evaluate the company’s Six Sigma performance from the customers’ viewpoint, benchmark the
best company in the world, and revise the Six Sigma roadmap if necessary. Go to step 1 for
further improvement.
Possible Areas in Textile Industry for Six sigma application:
Textile/Fashion Houses/Export Houses or Buying Houses have potential of applying Six Sigma in
following improvement projects:
1. Reducing rejections in shipments.
2. Improving first sample approval percentages while working with buyer.
3. Improving supplier evaluation processes.
4. Improving AQL performance in shipments.
5. Improving merchandiser performance.
6. Reducing non conformances in audits by buyer.
7. Improving processes at the source (including fabric purchase and inspection, stitching,
embroidery, packing and shipping) to reduce rejections at later stages.
8. Eliminating manufacturing errors/defect.
Convincing apparel executives to accept the process, other than as a selling tool, has been a difficult task.
About the only agreement reached is that every garment cannot be manufactured to the perfect
specification. However, the typical manufacturing plant is producing apparel at about a 3 sigma level with
2.5 to 4% defects. That is 4 defects per 100 not the 3.4 defects per 1,000,000 produced by a Six Sigma
manufacturer. The gap is wide enough that significant improvement can be made in any such plant. Two
financial facts are important to note.
Historical studies have shown overall savings in the $10,000 to $20,000 range for an improvement of just
one Sigma. Apparel managers are generally astounded by the “True Cost of Quality” in their
manufacturing facility. Typically, these costs are hidden in overhead but include inspection and marking,
sorting, transport, re-inspection, supervisor time, downstream operator repair, cleaning, and irregulars.

7. Therefore, any improvement in quality has a triple effect of reducing indirect labour, lowering total fabric
cost, and improving customer satisfaction.
Companies uses Six Sigma:
DuPont uses the programme for its productivity and quality improvement strategies. It considers Six
Sigma a business-management process that concentrates on eliminating defects from work processes.
The company now has more than 4,000 completed or in-process Six Sigma projects. Other textile
companies, such as Burlington Industries, Collins and Aikman, and PGI have also started Six Sigma
initiatives.
Seven basic SQC tools used in Six Sigma process:
1. Cause and effect diagram
2. Check sheet
3. Control chart
4. Histogram
5. Pareto chart
6. Scatter diagram
7. Stratification
Conclusion:
Six Sigma is a new strategic paradigm of management innovation for company survival in this
21st century which implies three things such as statistical measurement, management strategy and
quality culture. Six Sigma with its 4S (systematic, scientific, statistical and smarter) approaches
provides flexibility in managing a business unit. Textile industry being a field dealing with lot of
variations and defects in each process is the exact place for six sigma application. The speedy
implementation of the right method will make a significant and successful difference in many of
the companies’ future.
References:
1. Sung H Park: Six Sigma for Quality and Promotion, Asian Productivity Organization, 2003.
2. Michael L George: Lean Six Sigma, McGraw Hill Publication.
3. Six Sigma for the Apparel Industry by Richard Atwell, Manager of Education and Engineering
Textile Clothing Tech. Corp in Techexcange.com
4. Timothy G Clapp PhD, A Blanton Godfrey PhD, Dale Greeson, Roy H Johnson PhD, Coleman
Rich and Cliff Seastrunk: Quality Initiatives Reshape the Textile Industry, Quality Digest.
.

8. Assignment On
LEAN PRODUCTION ( TPM)
Submitted To,
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Miss. Hale Canbaz Karakaş
Submitted By,
Zuhaib Hassan
Student No. 503122807
Subject (Textile Quality TEK501E)
Istanbul Technical University, Istanbul, Turkey