Moreover, forecasting can also affect your business’s growth and market potential, which is why accuracy is important. There’s no use expanding into a specific market if there’s no profit there! Think of it this way: if you have fewer competitors, you can price higher, but only when demand is also high.

When entering a new market, forecasting can provide essential insights to help you make the best decisions. Much of this comes down to estimation, but all predictions come from raw facts. You can’t refute facts. So listen to them.  You’ll be an astounding success for it. Learn how you can accurately forecast your company’s demand with Six Sigma.

Useful Forecasting Techniques

There are multiple different methods you can utilize when forecasting demand. In any business, it is typically the management and business owners that perform this role. Using historical data allows your higher-ups to identify demand for specific products and services. If demand points to something already in existence, simply take that product and deliver it to the customer. You can also use forecasting to recognize potential demand for new, different products. All you need to do then is use your findings to produce what customers want.

Similarly, test markets can prove highly beneficial when it comes to forecasting demand. Test markets are simply a type of micro-market, generally found in cities, that reflect the demands of larger markets. Look at your test market. Is the demand high? If so, this tends to suggest a similar demand in larger markets where your product will almost certainly perform well. The only way to know for sure is to try. And with strong forecasting to back up your decisions, you’ve nothing to worry about.

Why Forecasting Is Essential

For those new to forecasting demand, we can understand you may be skeptical. All we can say is, don’t be. The key to using Six Sigma to great effect is to open your mind to new ideas. Not every business responds well to Six Sigma ideas at first but is their resistance that causes such friction in the first place.  Demand forecasting and estimation are key tools in Six Sigma businesses, both of which are integral to effective inventory management.

Remember, businesses like yours purchase inventory based on information gleaned from demand forecasts. Imagine you have a chain of grocery stores that increase their stock of items like ice cream in summer because past data tells them demand increases then. By neglecting to utilize accurate demand forecasting, you run the risk of failing to satisfy, if not exceeding, your inventory needs. More is not always better, and too much inventory can lead to significant losses. You will lose some items, particularly perishables, as their expiration dates pass by.

Moreover, too little inventory will have customers in uproar, leading to missed revenue opportunities. They may even turn away from you completely, losing value in the customers’ eyes. Once that happens, you’ll find it difficult to recover.

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Ask yourself, do you want to deliver faster Six Sigma projects that don’t overstep your budgeting parameters? Then it’s essential for you to outline a detailed plan in your project charter. Your plan will act as your guide through the rough waters of process improvement.

Key performance indicators are highly useful tools here, enabling you to identify precisely which actions benefit you as a company. As such, there are numerous KPIs to help you on your Six Sigma journey, one of which we look at today: Project Cost Variance (PCV). Join us and learn how you can use PCV to deliver Six Sigma projects on time and on budget.

Stay Focused with Project Cost Variance

It’s important to know that Six Sigma relies on the measurement and analysis of process issues. Controlling problems allows you to create solutions that prevent them from recurring, benefitting the business in the long- and short-term. Without a strong plan to follow, you’re likely to lose sight of your goals and business needs. Losing track of your priorities will only send you veering off budget towards slow delivery times. Moreover, this doesn’t just impact you, but also your customers, who depend on you for quality products and services. If customers don’t see any value in your services, or if they see you as unreliable, they’ll take their business elsewhere. For you, this is detrimental, but Six Sigma can help. First, however, we must define cost variance.

What is Does Cost Variance Mean?

A cost variance is the amount by which your project exceeds or falls under your maximum budget. Cost variance is one of two key areas that you should monitor throughout your project, the other being schedule variance, i.e., how early or late you are to meet project deadlines. You can use the following equations to calculate both cost and schedule variance:

• Cost Variance = BCWP (budgeted cost of work performed) – ACWP (actual cost of work performed)
• Schedule Variance = BCWP – BCWS (budgeted cost of work scheduled)

What is Project Cost Variance?

PCV is the process of evaluating your project’s financial performance. You should compare the budget you agreed before starting the project with the actual amount you spend. You can calculate PCV by finding the difference between BCWP and ACWP. Your ideal project cost variance should be when your BCWP equals the same as your ACWP. Your project cost variance provides otherwise unavailable insight into your finances throughout the scope of your project. Using it to your advantage allows you to monitor when and where you breach your budget. When you use PCV together with DMAIC, you can actively control your finances, targeting areas for improvement, like overspending. The result is a more focused, efficient, and successful project.

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Staying Aware and Accepting the Inevitable

It’s an unavoidable fact. If you’ve built a successful Six Sigma organization, sooner or later, someone will try to copy your success. While this is somewhat inevitable, you don’t have to sit back and accept it. Take an active hand in deterring fraudulent practitioners from stealing your business. Just look at companies like Coca Cola and Apple. There are countless rip-offs, knock-offs, fakes, and counterfeits floating around. The same is true of Six Sigma.

Countless Counterfeits, Frequent Fraud

Some companies try to pass their services off as the real deal via a flimsy copycat name, e.g., China’s Sunbucks, Wu Mart, and HiPhone. But Six Sigma fraudsters have the audacity to use the Six Sigma name while offering up sub-standard training services. Even more disturbing, some fake practitioners use Six Sigma as a ploy to clean out your wallets, promising the world and giving you nothing. They may recognize your success and try to piggyback off it with a similar-sounding name and list of services.

Moreover, it’s not uncommon for criminals to send phishing emails claiming to represent your organization. We’ve even heard of fraudulent websites, whose only purpose is to draw in customers to exploit, that are virtually indistinguishable from their legitimate counterparts. As such, accepting and building an awareness of these risks is the first step to deterring fraud in the Six Sigma industry.

Innovation is the Key to Success

Our advice? Keep innovating in every way possible, as quickly as you can. Use Six Sigma techniques to improve your training services. Employ Lean principles and continuous improvement culture for an added triple-effect solution. Outpacing your fake competitors through sheer innovation will put you at the top of the leader board, making it clear to customers why you deserve their custom. Once they realize their bait isn’t catching, fraudulent practitioners will throw it somewhere else.

Maintain Strong Company-Customer Relationships

Six Sigma stresses strong reliance on data which practitioners use to make improvements. Customer satisfaction is a key driving factor behind business success and one that Six Sigma aims to improve by proxy. It’s difficult to improve customer satisfaction directly. There’s more to it than simple hocus-pocus. Six Sigma streamlines processes for added efficiency while improving quality through systematic elimination of defect. All this adds up to greater quality products delivered quickly into customers’ hands, driving up customer satisfaction rates. The key to deterring fraud is to demonstrate to customers why your business is the one they need.

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What is Capacity Analytics?

Remember, your capacity utilization is inextricably linked to efficiency and productivity. These two keystones enable your business to move along at a rapid pace, making prompt, proactive decisions on the go. As such, both have a large impact on profit. You can use capacity utilization analytics to measure your capacity, providing insight into how you’re currently doing. This is extremely helpful when trying to find solutions to low revenue, as you never know how much more you could be doing.

While there are similarities between customer utilization analytics and employee capacity analytics, they focus on different things. The key difference is that the former focuses on machinery and equipment as opposed to employees. Modern production machinery feature sensors which collect information on their usage. You can then analyze this data to gain useful insights into your efficiency. Moreover, you can then apply Six Sigma techniques to devise improvement solutions.

Your Guide to Capacity Analysis

First off, decide what area you wish to assess, be it admin, production, or another sector of your business. You should lay out a plan for analyzing the data before commencing the analysis. Consider your current capacity levels. Take a holistic approach, and you will gain a holistic understanding of the issues affecting performance and inhibiting change. You can then act on this information to change your operations for the better. Moreover, the capacity types you find may vary from business to business. Don’t forget to zero-in on hard and soft capacities, as well as factors like power distribution and leadership.

You should also lay out which tools and approach you wish to use. You could take an incremental approach which begins by identifying your current capacity, allowing you to build on this information, to create viable solutions. On the other hand, a gap analysis may benefit you more. This technique begins by defining the optimal conditions for your business, i.e., how they should be, so you can identify what’s missing. All you have to do then is fill in the gap.

Remember, each entity within your business progresses at a different rate. Paying attention to past analyses will help you track the entity’s course from then to now, allowing you to make decisions that will affect your future capacity. Moreover, don’t fall prey to generalization, as your conclusions will suffer from inaccuracies. Pragmatism is important here as too much information can be redundant. You’ll never need to perform analysis down to the smallest detail, so don’t waste valuable time. Instead, develop strategies to expand your capacity using Six Sigma process improvement. Use business analytics well, and you can transform your organization for the better.

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Calculate Your Customer Profitability Score

To calculate your customer profitability score, simply subtract the cost of supporting a customer from the revenues they generate for you. CPS is a highly useful decision-making tool, one that is pivotal when customer-company value exchanges are in flux. The company-customer relationship is often volatile, fluctuating in response to new information. Customers don’t always value the same things, with changing needs affecting profitability. Monitoring your value stream with Six Sigma provides insight into how you can manage changes to CPS. Moreover, it can also shed light on the value of new business versus the cost of lost business. Using Six Sigma techniques like root cause analysis, affinity diagrams, DMAIC, and hypothesis testing, you can do the following:

• Select customers to target that would benefit the company.
• Separate customers to retain from customers to drop.
• Decide which customers to cross-sell, plus what products to sell to them.
• Set prices for products and services.
• Set sales compensation rates and reward program entitlements.
• Recognize customer behaviors that generate or destroy value.

Multiple types of value determine customer profitability. If you are to make the most of CPS, we recommend getting to know each one.

Historical Value

Historical value derives from long-term company-customer relationships. It is most useful when ranking your customers regarding value, plus when selecting targeted marketing groups. Similarly, historical value also impacts on your assessment of pricing and budgeting.

Current Value

Current value comes from short periods of time, usually the current or previous month, as this coincides with reporting cycles. It tends to be highly volatile, as cyclical relationship factors don’t always register within such specific time frames. The benefit of current value is that it underscores the effects of changes in the customer relationship compared to previous values.

Present Value

Present value looks to the future, specifically at revenue and cost streams of current customer business. It projects future revenues and costs, helping to model the impact of price and service decisions before you implement them. Using it effectively requires patience, but the payoff is worth the effort.

Lifetime Value

Lifetime value also focuses on the future, while acknowledging projected revenue and cost streams from existing business and prospective customers. Implementing lifetime value requires insight into your customers’ repurchase behavior. Similarly, it also entails the likelihood of the customer increasing or reducing their future business with you. Lifetime value is the optimal customer value measurement and is appropriate for just about any decision-making situation. If you can use it effectively, you can maximize profit and increase customer exposure.

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Before You Begin

Planning is integral to Six Sigma project work. Remember, if you fail to prepare, prepare to fail. Before you commence any project work, ensure you have a sufficient plan to guide you through it. This should include your itinerary, as well as the strategies, techniques, and solutions you intend to employ. When working within a short time frame (weeks or months), it’s important you push yourself to create an effective plan.

Shorter time frames may seem like the easier option, but a lot can go wrong in a short time. Whereas, long-term Six Sigma projects allow you more time to course-correct if something goes wrong. With short-term projects, it’s imperative you take a disciplined and thorough approach to planning will ensure you don’t go off track.

Planning your project properly is beneficial for numerous reasons. Namely, it enables you to determine scope and outcomes. It also allows you to predict any would-be road bumps, and to measure, test, and correct visible problems before you begin. We’ve seen highly promising projects fail due to minor oversights snowballing into massive problems without project leaders realizing. When it comes to Six Sigma project work, you can’t afford to wing it.

In the Thick of It

Learning to leverage your Six Sigma tools effectively hones your creativity, allowing you to develop innovative solutions to problems you encounter. As a Six Sigma professional, you should know how to use your selection and decision-making tools to identify viable solutions. Don’t let yourself fall prey to intellectual snobbery. The answer isn’t always obvious. In fact, it’s sometimes a case of the more creative your solutions, the better. But, on the other hand, complex solutions aren’t always appropriate. Don’t forget about Occam’s Razor, i.e., the simplest answer is most often the right one. Don’t jump on your first idea, as it’s not always the most optimal solution. You should always approach problems from multiple angles to determine how to proceed. Once you understand the problem, you have the best chance of finding the right solution. The most common mistakes made in this area are.

Helpful Tools

We recommend applying hypothesis testing beforehand, to decide how to proceed, and DMAIC once the project has commenced. Hypothesis testing, while relying on data to first suggest a hypothesis, is primarily speculation. It helps to give ideas a test-run first, as doing so draws attention to problems that may crop up later. DMAIC, on the other hand, produces a data-centric understanding of problems you discover, on which you can then act. It’s essential to act quickly on short-term Six Sigma projects, and DMAIC provides all the tools for you to make short work of difficulties as they arise.

The post Handling Difficult Six Sigma Projects like a Professional appeared first on 6sigma.

Plan to Succeed

All you need do is browse the internet to find inspiration for your time-saving, cost-reducing process improvement plan. Using Six Sigma techniques like DMAIC and root cause analysis, you can identify problems on which to act. Similarly, Six Sigma also prompts you to devise solutions driven by data, with the potential for massive savings. For some businesses, it’s even possible to save up to 100 thousand dollars per year. Not only will this radically improve your cash flow, but you can then redirect that money to areas that need it, which could potentially drive greater savings. That’s like winning a scratch card, only to then win the lottery.

San Diego Six Sigma

Let’s look at some real-life examples of time and cost-savings. Only this year, San Diego enrolled city staff on a sixteen-week Lean Six Sigma course at UC San Diego Extension. The aim of this was to find ways of improving customer satisfaction and process efficiency. They certainly succeeded. Not only did they manage to reduce 911 call waiting times and speed up street light maintenance to minimize disruption, but also to improve customer service in local libraries. This shows that businesses big and small aren’t the only ones Six Sigma can benefit.

Almis Udrys, San Diego’s director of the Performance and Analytics Department, has a lot to say on the matter. For Udrys, Six Sigma represents a huge opportunity to reinvigorate city staff problem-solving skills. Skills that enable you to locate problems at the source and eliminate them to save time and increase cost-savings. Lean wastes like overprocessing, overproduction and human error are the usual causes of concern. Correcting these harmful issues will stand your business in good stead down the line.

The Secret to Saving Time and Money with Six Sigma

Six Sigma training doesn’t just revitalize your practical process improvement abilities. It helps you to look at problems from new perspectives. Naturally, you’ll want your employees to come complete with a wide array of skills that will benefit your organization. The business world is changing at a rapid pace, and Six Sigma can help you keep up by saving time and costs. The key to successful process improvement is for employees to open their minds to innovation, embrace data-driven decision-making, and commit to continuous improvement.

The post Practicing Due Diligence: Reclaim Lost Time, Maximize Cost-Savings appeared first on 6sigma.

Customer Focus

Airbnb takes advantage of the sharing economy’s popularity. Respect for customer expectations lies at the heart of their business practices, with their strong customer-focus overlapping with Six Sigma. One of several driving factors behind Airbnb’s success is the high rate of customer satisfaction they enjoy. Not only from those staying in the properties but also the owners who rent them out. Their motto is “A community build on trust,” which signifies some strong connections to Six Sigma thinking. Strong company-customer relationships are important in Six Sigma as they allow you to gain a greater understanding of customer need. The better your understanding, the greater your ability to serve the customer.

Enforcing the Rules

They also employ an extensive list of standardized community standards to which members should adhere. In fact, thousands of hosts, and guests become barred from using the site due to not following these guidelines. This is reassuring for the rest of Airbnb’s client-base and creates an environment of openness and transparency. But how does Six Sigma fit in here? Take a look at what Airbnb does. By actively monitoring processes and enforcing regulations to deter problems, it’s clear they’re using DMAIC.

While they seem to take a laissez-faire approach, they are, in fact, surprisingly hands-on when necessary. There’s no need for them to define their primary problem, as they already know it. But by measuring and analyzing issues such as rule-breaking, they can take actions to correct and improve them. As such, they exercise a great deal of control over their business operations often without having to interfere at all.

Resolving Problems with Six Sigma

One of the benefits of listing strangers’ homes for rental, means customers can see what they’re in for. TV and internet advertizing can sometimes be misleading. Who hasn’t booked a room thinking it was The Ritz, only to discover it was a hotel from hell? Airbnb provides an accurate picture while never setting up false expectations. Moreover, they originally got off to a rocky start, as many customers were uploading poor quality photos to the site. Naturally, this didn’t do their business any favors, and so they began professionally photographing all properties.

Here they recognized a problem – one responsible for poor quality and profit – devised a hypothesis, and implemented a solution. The impact of this was clear, prompting them to direct more resources to that area. Customers don’t like to be disappointed, and one mistake can lose them forever. Airbnb understands how Six Sigma can help prevent this right from the start.

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It’s a fact that organic food doesn’t last like non-organic, and tends to be quite expensive at times. Whole Foods started off when the organic food market was much smaller and has ridden the wave of increasing demand ever since. They took advantage of a naturally-occurring monopoly and have dramatically increased their market presence for maximum profitablity. Today, we cover how the grocery store chain took the country by storm by offering unique, healthy products. And all with a dash of Six Sigma.

Minimal Interference and Flexible Management

Whole Foods is a customer-driven organization. Using Design for Six Sigma, they rely on feedback to help shape their business processes. As such, the customer’s voice is a primary metric for improvement, but just as important is the process data itself. The axis of their corporate structure is a single golden rule: minimal interference. Store managers, like Six Sigma practitioners, are change agents. The company ensures minimal corporate meddling, allowing managers to make changes for the good of their store. The needs of a busy urban branch do not reflect the needs of a small-town store. As such, both should be managed appropriately, according to their needs. Management flexibility of this kind grants them the freedom to source local produce as well as to operate under different hours.

The Customer Matters

As a customer-facing, retail-oriented corporation, Whole Foods relies on strong customer relationships. By collecting customer feedback at the store level, they can shed light on problems affecting quality, efficiency, and productivity.  Whole Foods stores provide a Customer Comments Wall for those wanting to offer feedback, encouraging customers to have their say. This level of customer engagement is highly beneficial, not just for the valuable feedback it provides, but also for the strong store-customer relationship it fosters. In short, it shows Whole Foods care about those frequenting their stores and purchasing their goods.

Each comments wall allows customers to leave both positive and negative comments. While it may seem simplistic, this approach helps to foster transparency, openness, and honesty between store and customer. Customers value and respond to this, as Whole Foods have shown. Providing a place to leave feedback lays the groundwork for a continuous improvement culture. One that drives improvement for the sake the customer, without end. Never forget. Any feedback, critical or otherwise, is extremely valuable. Even the smallest comment can help you make dramatic changes on the path toward Six Sigma.

Happy Employees = Happy Customers

Moreover, this openness also benefits Whole Food’s staff. All employees want to feel like they matter. They’re people, after all, not mindless automatons. They want to feel that their voices are heard and that they play an active role in the success of the company. Remember, the happier your employees, the happier your customers. If you can’t keep the first happy, the second will feel it.

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Six Sigma and Best Practices

The Exxon Mobil Corporation has around 80,000 employees working in multiple countries around the world. Headquartered in Texas, they’re also no strangers to the benefits of Six Sigma in the workplace. Their 2013 Annual Report made the following statement: “Operational Excellence begins with exceptional employees.” This is above all, on the most intrinsic level, a Six Sigma statement. Its meaning is pretty clear.

Just as in Six Sigma, Exxon Mobil demands the best of the best. Without talented, change-driven individuals to conduct their work, neither Six Sigma nor Exxon Mobil would be able to function. This Six Sigma consciousness filters through every level of operation. When a new employee begins working for Exxon Mobil, the company provides them with extensive best practice procedures training. This ensures their new staff stay within guidelines, but it also helps to promote efficiency and productivity. Key agents in Six Sigma work. By reinforcing the need for best practices, employees are also less likely to cut corners or become wasteful.

Moreover, best practice procedures like standardization can also help reduce variation which leads to defective products, as well as to streamline processes. All these things mirror Six Sigma perfectly. In fact, they are in many ways the same, because Six Sigma is all about encouraging process improvement culture in the workplace.

Positive Results

Six Sigma practices have benefited Exxon Mobil to the point that it achieved a 17% return on capital employed in 2013 alone. Moreover, they were also able to reduce refinery cast operating costs thanks to energy-efficiency improvements. These results have only improved over time. Once you have completed your Six Sigma implementation, there’s no going back. These ideas and practices stay with employees, burrowing down to the deepest levels of your company’s infrastructure. Just as with Exxon Mobil, who, alongside Amazon and Apple, have cited “operational excellence” as the driving force behind their positive change.

Exxon Mobil has managed to save billions of dollars in operating expenses thanks to its implementation of Six Sigma principles. Six Sigma is a science all its own, and Exxon Mobil takes its use of Six Sigma a step further than the rest. Utilizing a detail-oriented, science-based approach to performance improvement, they employ measurement, data collection, and analysis, as well as risk management. These practices allow them to gain new insights into process issues and create improvements to correct them. Six Sigma’s influence is clear here, and we can trace it across every facet of Exxon Mobil’s operations. If you want your business to achieve a similar level of success, take a close look at how they run theirs.

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Ask Your Trainer

Who else can tell you how you’re getting on than your trainer? Think of it as a one-to-one mentoring meeting to discuss your future. Experienced Six Sigma trainers all tend to possess Master Black Belt certification and have a lot to offer in the way of advice. Naturally, they will monitor your progress and improvement as you go along and will address issues as they arise. Moreover, they can point out areas where your results are falling and make suggestions for improvements. Don’t disregard their advice. It could be the difference between Six Sigma success and a cab ride to nowhere. Ask your trainer about your progress. It’s what they’re there for!

Use What You’ve Learned: Apply Six Sigma

If you want to gain a clearer understanding and a better picture of your training progress, why not apply what you’ve already learned? Even something as simple as brainstorming your key subject areas can shed light on which ones you’re struggling with. You’re bound to absorb more information on some subjects than others, but recognizing the areas in which you’re lacking will help you improve. The more you know, the more you grow, after all. Furthermore, you can then apply additional Six Sigma tools to mine the problem deeper.

Using techniques like affinity diagrams and root cause analysis, you can identify what’s holding you back and alter your behavior to improve results. Furthermore, use Lean to search for wasteful practices for you to eliminate. Human error is one of the biggest waste issues, which is why a little process improvement can go a long way to helping your learning experience along. Similarly, by adopting a Kaizen attitude of continuous improvement, you’re sure to see positive changes in your training. Kaizen demands you put in the maximum effort. Condition yourself to stop wasting time and start taking action.

Look at Your Mistakes

When you look at your mistakes, are there any patterns that start to appear? Why do you think you keep struggling with certain tasks? What’s holding you back? By scrutinizing your mistakes down to the minutest detail, you can learn a lot about your development. This can tell you a lot about the reasons behind your mistakes. Use root cause analysis to delve deeper into these issues so you can take corrective action. If you can’t learn from your mistakes, after all, then you won’t get very far.

The post Practicing Due Diligence: Six Sigma Progress Check-In appeared first on 6sigma.

At 6Sigma, our goal is to stand out from the competition. Specifically, the illegitimate practitioners. The only way to protect yourself from these scammers is to shine a light on the Six Sigma training industry. By comparing multiple Six Sigma programs, you can work out the pros and cons. Not to mention finding the best deal on the market. Here are a few ways you can compare our programs to others you’re considering.

How to Compare Different Six Sigma Programs

Whether you’re a novice Yellow Belt or an experienced Master Black Belt, Six Sigma training of any kind can create great opportunities. But finding the right training program for you can be a nightmare if you don’t know what to look for. The fact is, there are no clear guidelines on what makes the perfect Six Sigma program, although there are plenty of bad ones. Having no governing body to moderate its practices means fake practitioners can use Six Sigma to clean out your wallets. To avoid this, judge programs against the following factors.

Worthwhile Real-World Applications 

Improvement projects play a substantial part in Six Sigma certification. But there’s more to it than just theoretical study and simulated project work. But if your program helps you apply its theoretical content to real-world situations, then you’re onto a winner. With us, Six Sigma isn’t just bland theory. We apply Six Sigma concepts to real-life situations during training to keep our students on their toes.

Communication and Delivery

Communication is key in Six Sigma. This goes for training too. We pride ourselves on excellent training delivery and prompt communication, but that’s just us. How are other programs taught? Online study is certainly useful to those with tight schedules. However, class-based study is always more beneficial. You’ll be sure to get more one-to-one contact with instructors and develop a deeper, more comprehensive understanding of Six Sigma.

Value Over Price

Value is a key concept in Six Sigma and Lean principles. It’s also one of several subjects you’ll study on your program! Therefore, you shouldn’t be quick to judge a Six Sigma program on price alone. You get what you pay for isn’t always applicable, but higher prices generally equate to higher quality. Assess the contents of the course as well as factors like price. This will help you make the best decision. Remember, your training’s value will surely outweigh its cost. With our Six Sigma programs, you can rest knowing you’ve made the best possible decision.

Reviews and Reputability

There’s a reason people tend to prefer Coca Cola over supermarket own-brands. With brand recognition, it’s make or break, and discerning customers almost always go for the safest option. After all, why risk wasting money on what could prove disappointing, when they could have something they know and like? Bad reviews can do permanent damage to a brand’s name, and often for good reason. Pay attention to what other customers have to say. Furthermore, is the program or provider a recognized brand? How long have they been in business? Asking questions like these can provide eye-opening insights. Read our blog and check out our testimonials. You’ll be both pleased and intrigued to learn more.

The post Practicing Due Diligence: Comparing Six Sigma Programs appeared first on 6sigma.

“Official” Governing Bodies

Our advice is to avoid any person, website, organization, or training program claiming endorsement from Six Sigma’s official governing body. As we’ve already mentioned, Six Sigma does not currently have an official, centralized governing body. That’s why, here at 6sigma.com, we do our best to educate the public and spread the good news about Six Sigma. Any decent practitioner should care about Six Sigma’s standing. Fake practitioners only interested in using the Six Sigma label to con you out of your hard-earned money are to blame for sullying its reputation.

Neglecting to Research

The best thing you can do is scrutinize the practitioner or the organization. Does anything seem off about them? Scour the web for testimonials and reviews. Look at what other customers have to say. This can help ensure you aren’t disappointed later.

We hear stories about good people like you all the time. People who jump on the first course they find, only to find out later they’ve made a mistake. Furthermore, even those who expend hours of their time searching for the right program are equally vulnerable. The one you settle on may seem too good to be true. It probably is. You might think you’ve got yourself a great deal. Only to realize, halfway through, with hundreds – possibly thousands of dollars – down the drain, that your Six Sigma certification program is complete rubbish.
You can prevent this from happening to you by seeking out only the most reputable Six Sigma organizations. Get in touch. Learn as much as you can. You can save yourself a lot of time and money. Plus, there are plenty of blogs and sites compiling the best legitimate Six Sigma organizations. Use these to your advantage in your search.

Missing the Warning Signs

It’s essential to be aware of the warning signs of illegitimate practitioners and fake Six Sigma certification. You never can tell when and where they might appear. Even professional Six Sigma conferences can also be at risk. Like a wolf among sheep, fake practitioners lie in wait everywhere. Don’t let them take advantage of you. Watch out for these key warning signs:

• A suspicious lack of employee bios on their website.
• Little to no contact information – Always suspicious.
• No blog – Serious organizations take the time to write about their Six Sigma work.
• Few or no client testimonials. Or, even worse, bad reviews.
• All talk, with no demonstration of Six Sigma knowledge or skills.

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Don’t Pay for What You Don’t Need

It’s important always to know your needs. Especially if you’re searching through numerous Six Sigma practitioners. As such, if you want someone to come and clean up your business, it’s likely you’ll want to hire them on an ongoing basis. But this shouldn’t be any costlier than it needs to be. Our advice? Don’t fork out for Master Black Belt when all you need is Green. It may seem beneficial to have the extra skills on hand, but if you don’t need them, then what are they for? Remember the ancient phrase: It’s only a bargain if you want it. Or, in this case, need it.

After all, do you need a Master Black Belt with Lean Six Sigma know-how? Someone who can conduct highly complex data analysis and design experiments to predict future customer demand? Or is a Green Belt, someone who can run Six Sigma improvement projects to streamline your production processes, all you need? Know the answer, and you can save yourself a lot of money. This even qualifies as a waste-reduction measure, as you’re reducing costs by not overspending. Well done, you!

You Get What You Pay For

On the other hand, when searching for a Six Sigma training provider, you tend to get what you pay for. The higher the belt level, the better the training experience for you and your employees. So don’t be afraid to pay more for better service. In fact, you’re more likely to lose money by going with sub-par providers who will only disappoint you. Do you want to waste time and money on one or more cheap providers when you can save both by making a beeline for the best? Of course, you don’t. So be sure to take some time to think before making any rash decisions. That way, you can save time and money, while making a great investment for the future of your company.

Research Beforehand

Keep your wallets closed for now. A little research before making a decision can help you avoid disappointment later. Research also helps to put things in perspective. If you’re uncertain, researching different organizations can help you settle on your ideal price. It can also help you decide what you want from your potential practitioners. Moreover, there are plenty of testimonials and reviews out there, so make use of them. See what other clients have to say. Read about their experiences with certain practitioners or organizations. This information is highly valuable, and you can use it to justify your final decision. Furthermore, Six Sigma’s lack of any central governing body spells bad news for unwary customers. We’ve heard many unhappy stories of people who thought they were in for a win, when, sadly, they ended up being cheated. Take our advice, and do your research!

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Six Sigma

Six Sigma is the world’s most trusted process improvement methodology. But what does it entail? Six Sigma’s primary aim is to reduce variation, to create greater quality and efficiency in the workplace. Like any science, Six Sigma uses statistics to validate hypotheses, with practitioners using data to justify their decisions and predict future problems. Furthermore, your mastery of Six Sigma depends on belt color, as different belts require different levels of training. Yellow Belts, for instance, have a basic understanding of Six Sigma and can conduct simple data analysis. Master Black Belts, on the other hand, are just that – masters of Six Sigma knowledge and technique. They utilize tools like DMAIC, hypothesis testing, statistical process control, root cause analysis, and Pareto charts. With these key skills, practitioners make lasting process and quality improvements in industries like manufacturing.

Lean

Lean shares many similarities with both Six Sigma, each complementing the other, giving rise to a hybrid methodology: Lean Six Sigma. LSS combines the best qualities of both improvement approaches to create even greater efficiency. But Lean alone takes a different approach. In Lean terms, anything that does not add value is a threat to production. Utilizing in-depth analytical techniques to identify waste, Lean allows you to eliminate it at the source. Below are the eight types of waste (Muda) that occur in the workplace.

1. Transport. Movement of people, products or information to different locations.
2. Inventory. Unnecessary storage of parts, pieces or documentation.
3. Motion. Any extraneous human motion or action. E.g. bending down, turning around, reaching, lifting, or walking.
4. Waiting. Needless waiting for parts, instructions, information or equipment.
5. Overproduction. Producing more product than your current demand due to human error. g. producing fifty batches of mobile phones when the customer only wanted ten.
6. Over-processing. Maintaining overly strict procedures or excessively high-grade materials than you need.
7. Defect. Variation, defective products, reworking, repeating tasks, incorrect documentation.
8. Skills. Failure to utilize talented employees appropriately. Delegating tasks to those unqualified to perform them.

Kaizen

Kaizen is a Japanese word, also known as continuous improvement, though its literal meaning is “good change.” As such, any positive change to a business’s production processes, quality, efficiency or productivity is Kaizen. There is some overlap with both Lean and Six Sigma, but, the difference between them is that Kaizen is not a practice. Kaizen is a culture, an attitude towards work, that you must cultivate to see positive change. You can use Lean and Six Sigma to build a continuous improvement culture at work. Moreover, the key is in the word “continuous,” in that there is no end. Therefore, Kaizen is not a single practice but a way of thinking. The aim of which is to create a sustained and continuous effort to maximize your business’s productivity and efficiency.

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