What is Six Sigma? Why Use? How to Avoid Six Sigma Deployment Mistakes?

What is Six Sigma? 

Six Sigma is a structured approach to problem-solving that allows organizations to dramatically improve their bottom line and the quality of products/service by designing and developing everyday business activities in a way that minimizes waste and resources, and improves quality and efficiency thereby increasing Customer Satisfaction, Value for Money, Shareholder Value and Profit Margins.

Six Sigma is a disciplined, data-driven approach to eliminating defects in any process - from manufacturing to transactional and in products and services.

The Measurement – Based Six Sigma Methodology focuses on process improvement and reducing variation by applying a set of statistical, analytical and problem solving tools and techniques.

Why Six Sigma?

For Individuals:

   * Improved marketability.

   * Career advancement. Personal growth.

   * Increased self-esteem.

   * Increased confidence.

   * Increased level of job performance.  


For Organizations:  

   * Create an improvement system with proven tools.

   * Improve your most important asset: your employees.

   * Achieve organizational excellence in business process improvement.

   * Excellent ROI – 10 to one or greater.

   * Complete projects that result in measured bottom-line improvement.  


Important:

   * It has been nearly two decades since Six Sigma began and the popularity of the approach continues to grow.

  * As more and more firms adopt Six Sigma as their organizational philosophy, they also adapt it to their own unique circumstances.

Thus, Six Sigma has evolved. This is especially true in the way Six Sigma is used to operationalize the organization's strategy.


How to Avoid Deployment Mistakes?

A nicely planned, yet a flexible deployment strategy can lead to a rewarding experience and immense benefits for an organization or an individual.

Some of the points that need to be taken care of are:

  *  Sponsorship, Support & Commitment by the Top Management.

  * The Deployment Strategies should align the overall organization’s business goals with the deployment results.

 * Adequate Training & Mentoring support to the teams that are trained on the concept & for executing the implementation plan.

  * Ensuring that the selected projects are Data Driven & focused on the business, financial, process and customer goals, and prioritized properly to ensure these goals are met.

  *  Team working: The teams should work in order to win support from all the associates in the organization – which they need to meet the deployment goals.


Remember:

  * Defect is not simply a problem with a product; it is anything that causes a company to operate less cost-effectively, at a slower pace and with the end result of lowered customer satisfaction. Acquiring and constantly pleasing customers is Six Sigma’s ultimate goal...

  * And Six sigma can be applied to any function of an organization, that is, Finance, Operations, Manufacturing, Manufacturing, R&D, Purchase & Inventory...etc... 

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