Wednesday, October 7th, 2009
For years, many have held that conventional wisdom dictates that Six Sigma is most appropriate for implementation in large multi million dollar companies. Massive companies all over the globe have used Six Sigma to save millions of dollars by using efficiently managed processes to cut costs and increase profits. The general thought has been that Six Sigma is best confined to huge companies that employ thousands. But this is not necessarily so. The very nature of the Six Sigma orthodoxy is to implement efficiencies and control them. That measure can be applicable to any sized business, including new startups.Considering employees, new startup managers who earn Six Sigma Black Belt certificates while at new companies with just a few employees will continue to grow as their careers progress and they eventually move on to larger companies. Six Sigma is a method of teaching how to increase profits by controlling costs, certainly two things that will never go out of style. The advantage of a startup company having managers with Six Sigma certification gives the employer the comfort of knowing that the manager is dedicated to running the company with a sharp eye toward the bottom line.Startup companies are also plagued by lack of process control and optimization, a skill that is honed through ...
Tags: Conventional Wisdom, Six Sigma, Sized Business
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Wednesday, August 19th, 2009
Introduction- Six Sigma Background and Issues Six Sigma is the practical application of a theoretical statistical measurement that equates to 3.4 defects per million opportunities -a position of practically zero defects for any process or service. Its attainment is one of the highest measures of quality and is based on the ideology that practically all errors are preventable (Behara et al, 1994). Initially originating in Motorola Inc. in 1985 as a response to drastic quality improvement pressures from the threat of Japanese competition (Harry & Schroeder, 2000), it quickly gained many followers particularly G.E., Allied Signal, Ford Motor Company etc. and more recently attentions have shifted to service environments.Bob Galvin former CEO of Motorola stated that the lack of initial investment in the non manufacturing areas of the business over four years was a blunder that cost the business over 5 million dollars (Basu & Write, 2003, p43). However, organisations have implemented six sigma initiatives in transactional frameworks with success- testimonial for six sigma triumphs in services range from American Express and PriceWaterHouseCoopers to local NHS departments.The nature of Six Sigma and it’s Quality ObjectivesAs outlined in Lagrosen & Lagrosen (2003) six core principles form the basis of quality management, constitute the common material measured by numerous recognised quality awards (e.g. Malcolm Baldridge ...
Tags: Customer Orientation, Six Sigma, Six Sigma Methodologies
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Thursday, April 30th, 2009
Every Six Sigma project that you undertake requires that you listen to the voice of the customer. This is because if you assimilate what the customers' needs are, you will be able to bring about changes accordingly.Collecting data is the most important process in the Measure phase. This is the foundation upon all subsequent actions are decided upon. There are a few things to be considered in this process, the time required to gather the data, the cost involved and the pros and cons for the process are among others.The telephone surveys of customers are based on samples collected from amongst the entire population. If the data collection is done properly, such samples can be generalized to the entire population. However, such telephone surveys prove to be expensive though the information collected is very valuable. Another disadvantage of such surveys is that if the questions are standardized, then it could prove to be a very rigid interaction, with the possibility that the data being received could be incorrect.Mail surveys can get some good quantifiable data without being as expensive as telephone surveys. If the questionnaires are well drafted and designed, they can yield substantial information. However, the responses may take some time to come, and the feedback may come in very late, ...
Tags: Customer Feedback, Pros And Cons, Six Sigma
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Monday, March 30th, 2009
Naturally, Six Sigma is considered for business continuity management, since it deals so actively with process analysis and improvement. But, before connecting Six Sigma with the management continuity processes, let us first go through the details and benefits of the concept of 6 Sigma in a business process.Definition Of Six SigmaSix Sigma can be defined as an ideal measurement of quality that is 3.4 defects per million occurrences. Mathematically, a sigma gives a measure of variation. For instance, evaluating the measure of variance in the average value of a process. In other words, a sigma value indicates the performance level of a process - and the higher the value, the fewer the defects per million occurrences.In a more practical language, we can define Six Sigma as a conventional, yet powerful statistical problem-solving tool that indicates wasteful costs, as well as the specific steps that can be taken to eliminate them. Thus, 6 Sigma can be said to be a quality process that triggers virtual elimination of defects from every process and product.Due to these qualities, 6 Sigma is a very effective strategy to adopt for business continuity, security and emergency management. When these three processes are not properly known, how many defects can be eliminated remains a big question. But when 6 ...
Tags: Customer Satisfaction, Occurrences, Six Sigma
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