Question: what is the purpose of Six Sigma? Answer: to attain operational excellence through a comprehensive process improvement strategy. We associate Six Sigma primarily with variation – one of its core principles being the identification and elimination of variation to improve quality. Many of Six Sigma’s ideas and techniques aim to improve efficiency, which supports strong revenue and exceptional customer experience. Many companies all over America and the world work to maximize their success however they can. A prime example of Six Sigma success is the popular e-commerce site eBay.
eBay, originally called AuctionWeb, is a highly successful multinational e-commerce corporation, rivaling both Amazon and Alibaba. Founded by Pierre Omidyar in 1995, the site is also a household name, with users buying and selling on a global scale. Today, learn how eBay went from an unknown startup of the dot-com bubble to one of the world’s most successful online marketplaces. Learn how eBay achieved operational excellence, and all from using Six Sigma methodologies.
eBay and Operational Excellence
To understand how eBay has used Six Sigma to achieve operational excellence, we first have to ask, what is operational excellence? What does it look like? There are various factors that are essential to eBay’s success. Firstly, they appreciate the value of teamwork. Similarly to Six Sigma, which involves project-oriented process improvement work, eBay has partnered with other successful sites. Their collaborations all help move them towards the goal of optimum customer experience and complete operational excellence. Furthermore, sites like StubHub, Shopping.com, Rent.com, PayPal, and Bill Me Later complement and enhance user experience, and to deliver improved profits. Through outsourcing from external partners in Europe, Asia-Pacific, as well as internal partners in America, eBay maintains excellent results. They can draw on multiple resource reserves and sources of expertise to bolster their operations.
Six Sigma Techniques
Moreover, one of the great things about eBay is that it is simple to use and highly effective. Their process is streamlined and efficient, allowing users to buy and sell with ease. It’s clear that Six Sigma ideas have influenced their business model as they have gradually improved and expanded their company over the years. By eliminating variation and wasteful none-value-adding processes, they have crafted a near-perfect user interface and a highly profitable trading platform. Six Sigma techniques like DMAIC and Root Cause Analysis are likely popular at eBay. These practices enable you to define, measure, analyze, improve, and control problems, as well as to isolate the underlying causes. This makes it easier to act on problems and resolve them.
Six Sigma + Lean + Kaizen = Success
Furthermore, Lean ideas and Kaizen thinking are also plain to see in the way eBay works. The company introduced continuous improvement several years ago and has enjoyed major improvements. Remember, Kaizen is a culture, a point of view, and not just a set of practices. As such, eBay has built its team around driving Kaizen to ensure they always maintain optimum efficiency and productivity. The key to this is to train employees to be vigilant and actively seek out areas that require improvement. Problems could also appear as waste from over-processing, human error, or transport, and even defective products resulting from variation in part quality. Moreover, using Six Sigma, Lean, and Kaizen thinking, eBay guards its place as a leading global figure in e-commerce.
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