In the U.S., poor customer service costs brands $83 billion every year. A study by management consultancy Bain & Company and Harvard Business School found increasing customer retention rates by 5 percent increases profits by 25 to 95 percent. To keep your customers coming back, businesses must provide a good product and a high-quality customer experience. Exemplary customer service distinguishes your brand, builds repeat business, combats price competition, and even improves employee morale.

Watch this amazing TED Talk and find out more:

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Elon Musk has taken Tesla on a path of innovation and success. With that success, they have also experienced setbacks and frustration for both the organization and investors. Musk has been emphatic about applying the concepts of Lean manufacturing to the Fremont plant. At the same time, he has also embraced the highest level of automation and robotics.

Watch this interest new video interview with Musk!

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Are you ready for the Super Bowl? Later this week, there is going to be over 100 million people tuning into that uniquely American sporting event. Friends will gather, grills will be lit and drinks will be chilled all to cheer for their favorite team in the ultimate sporting challenge. You can guarantee a large number of those fans will be enjoying the game from the comfort of their La-Z-Boy recliner. You can also bet that La-Z-Boy has been spending their season preparing for the NFL season and the Super Bowl with the same eager excitement as the fans, through the use of lean manufacturing principles and practices.

La-Z-Boy Inc., is one of the largest furniture manufacturers in the US, employees 8,950 staff worldwide and reports sales in excess of $1.5 billion. Beginning in 1927, the founding partners invested in a small furniture business in Monroe, Michigan. Their goal was to design a chair for people to take advantage of nature’s way of relaxing. The initial production model was a wooden slat porch chair with a reclining mechanism which allowed the seat to move forward as the back reclined. Soon, they were manufacturing an indoor version which was upholstered.

The organization takes pride in its ability to deliver custom furniture to the consumer consistently in four weeks or less. That’s no small achievement, considering that consumers can choose from approximately 175 furniture styles and almost 1,000 fabric and leather coverings. Their five assembly plants are operated using lean manufacturing principles, which position them well in such a highly competitive environment. The La-Z-Boy supply chain has been identified as one of the most capable in the industry, and customer satisfaction remains high through their efforts and attention to processes. Not only are their lean manufacturing processes both agile and efficient, they are safe. Three of their operations set industry records in 2017 for safety and their flagship operation in Dayton, OH exceeded 10 million hours without a lost time accident.

So, when you sit back and relax on a La-Z-Boy for the Super Bowl, know that you are relaxing in a product that is manufactured by true lean professionals whose focus is your comfort.

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Living the Fantasy

Voice of the Customer programs are crucial to the success of your business. The problem is so many think they know exactly what their customers think and feel. You have been in business for 30 years and do things the same way, that’s what your customers want. Are you sure about that? For many businesses, they are either disconnected from their customers or they live with rose colored glasses when it comes to the voice of the customer. Those same businesses are very quick to deal with a vocal, disgruntled customer. Immediately, they are showered with attention, promises and apologies, then a discount to make up for the upset. The customer walks out and everyone breathes a sigh of relief and pats each other on the back, thinking they have saved another customer. Truth be told, what you think just happened is probably not what the customer thinks just happened. This begs the question: do you really know what your customer thinks about you?

What They Really Think of You

Using a solid Voice of the Customer program, you are going to get to the core of what your customers really think of you. For some, it might just be a bit unsettling. Here are some facts you should keep in mind as you begin your journey down the road of truth:

• 78% of customers have walked out on a transaction because of a poor service.
• On average, loyal customers are worth more then 10 times as much as their first purchase.
• It takes up to 12 positive experiences to make up for one negative experience.
• 91% of frustrated customers will not continue to do business with you.
• 40% of customers expressed that if they could improve one thing, they would improve the human element of the service.

These facts are both enlightening and staggering to some. They should disturb organizations enough to happily engage in a viable Voice of the Customer program that is effective. The days of reactive customer service experiences are over. Your customers expect you to be proactive and anticipate their needs and exceed them!

Listening to the Voice of the Customer

The Voice of the Customer is a process used to capture customer expectations and opinions, then provide world class services and products. The key to a successful Voice of the Customer program is to be extremely proactive, not reactive. This will allow your business to grow with your customer base, anticipating their expectations. These expectations are both stated and unstated. A vibrant program will instill a sense of loyalty and satisfaction towards your brand, in a consistent manner.

Resources

Consider downloading our eBook titled Voice of the Customer and Critical to Quality. Shmula Pro membership provides access to 34 other eBooks and reference guides

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Study the Battlefield of Customer Experience

The battle of competition between business has traditionally depended on several factors. Location, environment, experience, price and customer service have traditionally been the arenas where business has waged the war of competition. Successful businesses have never been strong across all of these factors, but they do excel in certain ones that do attract customer attention for their service or product. Then, along came the digital age and disrupted the rules of the competition battleground. In today’s environment, the one singular factor that leads to success is the customer experience.

The Battle of Exceptional Customer Experience

The fact is, in today’s business environment, if you aren’t winning the war of customer experience, you are losing. The digital environment has changed the dynamic of customer choices, and if you aren’t meeting the exceptions, the customers will quickly go elsewhere. This environment is causing many businesses to struggle with this monumental change. They no longer are able to depend on price as the deciding factor in the battle for customer loyalty. Everything now depends on the customer experience.

Winning the War of Customer Experience

With customers demanding an omni-channel experience, business silos must be broken down. Here are 3 facts to consider about current customer demands:

1. 90% of people move between devices to accomplish a goal. Silos just don’t work anymore.
2. 45% of in-store consumers turn to social platforms on their mobile device to influence buying decisions. The brick and mortar is no longer the platform of success.
3. 54% of marketers cite not having consolidated customer view across channels as the biggest roadblock to a successful cross-channel experience. Business are operating blind.

Businesses who succeed will stay ever mindful that the customer experience lives across multiple channels.

Customer Journey Map Leads to Success in Customer Experience

A customer journey map presents your customer’s point of view, to include the customer journey across all channels, the highs and lows people feel while interacting with your business, and identifies potential opportunities. Use customer focus groups to truly understand the exact factors of their customer behavior. Using both traditional and online focus groups will bring a more accurate representation of customer habits. With those insights accurately illuminated, it’s time to use stakeholder workshops to bring home the case for a better customer experience. Reviewing and analyzing customer feedback can be a very humbling process.

Understanding the ever changing environment of the customer experience is crucial to success in today’s business environment.

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Six Sigma is a methodology that has gained widespread popularity for its ability to improve quality, reduce defects, and increase efficiency in business operations. However, the rise of fake Six Sigma providers has made it increasingly difficult for businesses to choose a provider that offers reputable training and certification. The dangers of choosing a fake provider include incorrect implementation, outdated methodologies, and inadequate support, which can lead to hidden costs for businesses. In this article, we’ll explore the hidden costs of fake Six Sigma providers and the importance of choosing a reputable provider to protect your bottom line.

What Are the Risks of Choosing Fake Six Sigma Providers?

Choosing a fake Six Sigma provider can lead to a host of risks for businesses. One major risk is the lack of proper training and certification provided to employees. Without proper training, employees may not fully understand Six Sigma principles and methodologies, leading to incorrect implementation. Another risk is the use of outdated methodologies, which can be ineffective and even harmful to business operations. Inadequate support and resources provided by fake providers can leave businesses without the necessary tools and guidance to implement Six Sigma successfully. Overall, the risks of choosing a fake Six Sigma provider can lead to significant costs in terms of efficiency, productivity, and quality.

What Are the Benefits of Selecting a Reputable Six Sigma Provider?

Selecting a reputable Six Sigma provider can offer a range of benefits to businesses. Reputable providers offer up-to-date methodologies and tools that can improve efficiency and productivity, leading to cost savings for businesses. Proper training and certification from reputable providers can ensure that employees understand Six Sigma principles and can implement them correctly. Reputable providers also offer comprehensive support and resources to businesses, ensuring that they have the tools they need to implement Six Sigma successfully. Choosing a reputable provider can help businesses improve quality, reduce defects, and increase customer satisfaction, ultimately leading to increased profitability and a stronger bottom line.

Here’s How to Choose the Right Six Sigma Provider

Choosing the right Six Sigma provider is crucial for businesses looking to optimize their operations. To select the right provider, businesses should research providers and check their credentials and certifications. Reading reviews and testimonials can also provide valuable insight into the provider’s effectiveness. Asking for references and ensuring alignment with business goals can further help businesses choose the right provider. It’s essential to select a provider that offers comprehensive support and resources to ensure the successful implementation of Six Sigma. By taking the time to choose the right provider, businesses can protect their bottom line and reap the benefits of Six Sigma implementation.

Protect Your Bottom Line with a Reputable Six Sigma Provider

In conclusion, choosing a reputable Six Sigma provider is essential for businesses looking to optimize their operations and protect their bottom line. The risks of choosing a fake provider can lead to hidden costs and potential harm to business operations. On the other hand, selecting a reputable provider can offer a range of benefits, including improved efficiency, productivity, and customer satisfaction. By researching providers, checking credentials, and ensuring alignment with business goals, businesses can choose a provider that offers comprehensive support and resources to ensure successful Six Sigma implementation. Protect your bottom line and reap the benefits of Six Sigma by choosing a reputable provider.

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The concept of lean startups places importance on delivering the greatest possible customer value without engaging in elaborate planning. While several businesses face challenges and fail, lean startups are more resilient and more flexible, as they’re not restricted by a rigid business plan. 

Businesses of any scale can embrace lean startup principles to create products that are actually needed by customers, as the latter will be willing to pay a price for something they really need. This also helps establish brand loyalty in the long term which contributes to greater customer lifetime value.

What is Lean Methodology?

Lean is a process improvement methodology that aims to fix waste in production to improve efficiency, productivity, and customer satisfaction. Waste is anything that doesn’t contribute any value to customers and includes delays, waiting times, switching times, defects, production issues, etc

Lean traces its roots to the 1960s when it originated in the manufacturing sector. The approach puts all emphasis on processes and focuses on continuous improvement. It is highly customer-centric.

When wastes are removed from processes, what remains are value-adding processes. Lean minimizes inventory management costs with a pull system, where goods are only created when there’s a demand for them. This helps manage overproduction.

How Startups Can Become Lean?

Startups that aim to embrace lean should focus on continuous improvement. It is crucial to create ways to obtain continuous feedback from your customers and use it to shape your goods and services in a way that adds more value to customers.

It’s a great idea to involve customers in product design cycles so that the final product already has an established demand in the market. Constant product improvement helps startups differentiate themselves from their competitors as well while enjoying greater business efficiency at reduced costs.

Since customer needs are incorporated into the product at early stages, products are much more likely to succeed.

The Era of Lean Startups

Lean startup is actually an innovative methodology that emphasizes experimentation to create minimum viable products. Lean startups use the lean methodology to create rapid product delivery cycles for customers. This helps reduce market risks and immediately cuts down on overproduction and inventory management losses. 

Companies should strive to cut down on waste, which are process inefficiencies that don’t address customer pain points. 

Since customers are involved from the beginning itself, lean startups will address customer requirements in a better way and face fewer losses. 

Brands that attempt to launch new products and services should use the lean startup approach to increase their chances of success.

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Six Sigma helps organizations in all industries reduce variation (any result the customer does not expect). In a healthcare setting, patients are the customer, and to reduce variation in their eyes, healthcare providers need to deliver quality care. This can be done by focusing on improving healthcare processes by making them efficient and cost-effective for both the organization and its patients.

Variation or defects lead to customers becoming dissatisfied. And when it comes to matters of health, the severity of the dissatisfaction can lead to loss of life. For instance, if a patient is incorrectly diagnosed and given the wrong medication and/or treatment, their health can severely deteriorate. Through Six Sigma, healthcare providers can eliminate such errors from happening.

Unfortunately, the healthcare industry doesn’t have many processes that can be automated. This means humans are at the forefront, which makes variation a major concern. That is where Six Sigma can play a vital role in making the healthcare industry better.

How Does Six Sigma Improve Healthcare Processes?

Too much human involvement means that there are too many variables to consider. And to make it worse, these variables tend to be small, making them difficult to quantify. But through Six Sigma’s DMAIC methodology, this becomes easier.

Here is how healthcare providers can use DMAIC to their advantage:

• Define: The problem being experienced, whether it is long wait times for a doctor’s appointment or improper diagnosing, needs to be identified. Afterward, it needs to be defined in a clear and concise manner.
• Measure: How much do the healthcare processes need to be improved? The Measure phase is where the extent of the problem is assessed and put in quantifiable terms. As such, the Six Sigma team comes up with the necessary performance measures and KPIs.
• Analyze: The data is collected in regards to the performance indicators identified in the previous steps, allowing the team to analyze and zero in on the areas of improvement.
• Improve: The team begins making changes to the processes in order to improve the problematic processes.
• Control: The performance of the healthcare processes is monitored to see if the changes have indeed led to improvement. If not, the previous steps are repeated. Furthermore, this step is repeated continuously, regardless of success, to improve the processes on an ongoing basis and ensure that any gains stick.

Outcomes of Using Six Sigma to Improve Healthcare

When Six Sigma is implemented correctly, the healthcare organization should experience the following outcomes:

• Customer satisfaction will be improved
• Turnaround of lab results will be faster
• Human errors from doctors, nurses, and other healthcare professionals will either be reduced or eliminated
• The wait time for doctor appointments will be reduced
• The supply chain will be streamlined, increasing the pace at which healthcare services are delivered
• Medical claims will be reimbursed much faster

Conclusion

With Six Sigma, healthcare providers can improve their processes, leading to cost reduction and customer satisfaction. Not only will this improve the quality of life for people who rely on their services, but the organizations will see their bottom line increase as well. However, Six Sigma needs to be implemented correctly by following the DMAIC methodology to experience its positive impact.

Learn more about our training and courses

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Eliminating Waste in Customer Service

Waste is a major problem in many industries, and it can pop up in some surprising places from time to time. And if you’re not prepared to deal with it adequately, it can be very damaging to your company’s operations in the long run. Thankfully, we have various methodologies nowadays that have been specifically designed to address the problem of waste.

But implementing those in your organization is not a straightforward process, and you’ll have to pay attention to the small details along the way. Otherwise, you risk generating even more waste in the long run, as paradoxical as it might sound.

What Is Waste?

First things first though what exactly is waste in the context of a company’s work? In general terms, it’s anything that does not contribute to the positive performance of the system. Waste is more than just a physical definition. An employee taking too long to walk to their workstation is a basic example of waste.

And with customer support, it’s not hard to find such problems all over the place if you just start looking. If you’ve never paid attention to streamlining the operation of your support centers, you likely have a lot of work ahead of you.

Getting to the Root Cause of Each Problem

Every source of waste can be traced back to some specific issue in your organization. The problem is that sometimes the cause of your problem is not close to the results that it produces. It may even be in a completely different domain. With that in mind, you have to develop a good methodology for tracing the root causes of problems in your organization and make sure that it’s applied properly whenever something comes up in your operations.

It will take a while to develop the right mindset for that, but it will be extremely beneficial in the long run as far as the overall performance of your company and its support sector are concerned.

Preventing Reoccurrence

Solving a problem once is one thing, but preventing it from ever coming back is a different story and requires a much more calculated, careful approach. If you want to prevent the reoccurrence of issues related to waste, that’s even more complicated in most cases. You have to constantly analyze the situation and collect enough data about the way things are working at the moment.

And whenever you notice some deviation from the norm, don’t delay the investigation into that issue. The more you wait, the more serious the problem is going to become behind the scenes, and it might end up affecting your business in some very unpleasant ways later on. When it comes to customer support, this can happen very easily.

Ensuring Everyone Is on the Same Page

Sometimes your employees will need a little extra push to ensure that they’re properly motivated to help you in your efforts to reduce waste. Not everyone understands the importance of doing this by default, so you might have to reorganize things a little bit to make the situation more appropriate for this kind of mindset.

If you have to, be strict punish people for not complying with your new requirements and track their progress individually. It might seem harsh at first, but sometimes it’s the only way to ensure that there are no compliance issues in your organization.

Evaluating Customer Satisfaction

Last but not least, you’ll want to make sure that all of this effort is actually producing any viable results. To this end, make sure that you pay attention to your customer evaluation surveys and analyze the data coming in from them in as much detail as you can. Sometimes they can reveal some surprising insights into the way your company works as a whole, but in other cases, you’ll need to do some extra digging to make sense of the information presented to you.

Don’t be afraid to reach out to individual customers with your concerns in this regard as well. People are often more than happy to talk about problems they might be having with your organization, especially when it comes to customer support. And the more you talk to them on an individual level, the more positive their impressions of your company are going to be in the long run.

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There are a few things that will cause a company’s performance to suffer, like non-driven and unmotivated employees. True, your workers may come to work on time each morning and not clock out until 5pm. Still, are they motivated enough to actually do their work effectively?

If you do not enforce a corporate culture that encourages all your workers to work towards achieving the same organizational goals, how can they feel engaged? This is an issue that can easily make or break your company at a crucial time.

A responsive company is one that is made up of fully involved employees. Within such a company, each employee takes responsibility for the customer experience. No matter if they actually meet with the customer directly or not, they still have an impact on revenues and customer retention. Involvement of employees will automatically result in customer retention.

Using Six Sigma to Improve Employee Involvement

The initial step towards increasing employee involvement and engagement is to find a way to measure it. Similarly, the method you use to measure employee engagement determines the accuracy of your data. For many organizations, the easiest way to find out the employee engagement rate is by conducting surveys of the employees. Short and sweet, this method should help you assess exactly how employees see your corporate vision and the role they see themselves taking within it.

Besides, employee surveys also help in assessing the employees’ contribution toward your organization’s productivity and its overall performance. This is data that can be collected by your lower Six Sigma professionals Green or Yellow Belts. They can also concisely organize and accurately display the results of the study.

Once you have your data at hand, you can move forward and make your changes based on it. The data collected is used to advise your team and project managers on areas that need to be improved to enhance employee involvement. The project managers report to upper management and are normally Six Sigma Black Belts or higher.

How Employee Involvement Improves Customer Involvement

Studies have shown that most organizations that have high employee involvement rates also retain a larger percentage of their customers, leading to increased revenues. Similar to the discussion regarding customer retention vs. customer acquisition, this is one that would appear to have a painfully simple solution just get the employees more motivated!

Unfortunately, this is often much easier said than done, in most cases. This is because a recent study by a management firm showed that, out of the employees polled, only 30% seemed genuinely engaged, while 80% said that they were coerced into completing their tasks.

Involving employees is an activity that takes a village. Unfortunately, many companies simply leave engagement of employees to HR and leave the department to its own devices in dealing with it. In reality, it is an initiative that needs to be taken by everyone within the organization setting up a purpose, letting everyone within the organization know the purpose, arming employees with the tools and skills to achieve the purpose and, finally, rewarding them. This should start from senior executives and trickle down to management and finally to all employees. Every part should feel like they have ownership of the customer experience.

What is the reward for cultivating employee involvement? Customer satisfaction is much higher in organizations which proactively cultivate a culture of engagement and ownership among employees.

Conclusion

If a Six Sigma implementation is to be successful, engagement has to reach each level of the organization and run through all its processes. This fact is especially true in the case of employees, since engagement is necessary if maximum return on investment in the Six Sigma implementation is to be realized. Involvement of employees is largely driven by an emotional commitment and connection which employees feel with regard to the organization and its corporate vision.

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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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In It for the Long Haul: Long-Term Benefits

• Greater Customer Satisfaction

• Black Belt training will enable you to increase customer satisfaction drastically. Using your analytical and practical knowledge, you can make changes that benefit the customer. Customers love to be understood, and your Black Belt training will allow you to demonstrate this understanding. Remember, the customer is always on the receiving end of your processes. Understanding precisely what the customer wants is the key to successful process improvement. As a Black Belt, you will know which processes to eliminate and which to improve to make your business a successful one.

• Lasting Change

• Black Belts are more than just leaders and project managers. They are change agents. Through occupying this role, you will learn how to overturn the status quo for the better. For effective change, walls need to be torn down and bridges built. Black Belts bolster their improvement work with their vast Six Sigma knowledge and practical experience. Similarly, without change, you can’t move forward. While it may be difficult for some, Black Belts are the ones to do it.

• Manage Projects with Flair

• Six Sigma Black Belts will acquire unbelievable project management skills throughout training. You can expect your training to transform you into a first-class project manager. Black Belts must manage everything from scope and requirements to resources and timeline, plus variance perspectives. Furthermore, without their fundamental project and management skills, Black Belts could not handle their workload.

Close at Hand: Short-Term Benefits

• Strong Leadership Capabilities

• Black Belts are great leaders. This is an essential aspect of Black Belt work, underpinning all your duties and responsibilities. Black Belt training will help to bring out your inner leader, pushing you to hone your teamwork and communication skills. The benefits of a good leader are abundant, but Black Belts are also great motivators and influencers, as well as leaders.

• Expert Communication Skills

• Black Belts must communicate effectively to manage projects successfully. As trainers, coaches, and mentors, communication is key. You will develop this essential skill throughout training, allowing you to speak to audiences, allocate responsibilities, and direct teams. Moreover, the best communicators can tailor what they say to suit the needs of the audience, and Black Belts are the best in the business.

• Powerful Business Acumen

  As business leaders and quality managers, Black Belts must develop world-class business acumen to support their role. With a vast array of business and Six Sigma knowledge to draw on, you can rely on Black Belts as an invaluable source of information. Black Belts are also skilled data analysts, which comes in handy when dealing with finances. Use your skills effectively to assure your Six Sigma success.

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What Is Agile Software Development?

Developing software is a discipline that’s still at a relatively young age, and for the most part, we’re still learning how to tackle some of the more difficult issues that can arise in a typical large-scale software project.

Different methodologies and styles have emerged in order to address the problem in various ways, and among those, agile software development is one of the currently most prominent and respected ones. Agile focuses on delivering a functional product as early as possible, and coordinating the development process with the customer’s requirements tightly.

Here is a brief introduction to how the process works and the important ideas behind it:

Agile is based around a set of twelve principles, which are outlined in its manifesto. It’s important for any team wishing to implement agile methodologies to not only fully understand the principles behind them, but to also apply them in their daily practices.

1) Our highest priority is to satisfy the customer through early and continuous delivery of valuable software.
Customer satisfaction should be at the top of any team’s priority list when developing software. Even if the customer is the team itself. It’s important to properly understand the exact needs of the customer, and to communicate with them regularly in order to ensure that all requirements are being met. Frequent delivery ensures that any misunderstandings will surface early on.

2) Welcome changing requirements, even late in development. Agile processes harness change for the customer’s competitive advantage.
It’s not rare for software requirements to change in the course of development. While many other development methods struggle with this, agile actually welcomes it in its fullest. This means that a team should be ready to handle any changes in the requirements, even if it means scrapping a large portion of their hard work.

Compared to development methodologies which split the process into components like analysis, design, implementation and testing which can last weeks at a time, agile is very suitable for a rapidly evolving model.

3) Deliver working software frequently, from a couple of weeks to a couple of months, with a preference to the shorter timescale.
Again, this puts an emphasis on speedy delivery and on ensuring that the customer’s requirements are being met in a timely manner. Not only that, but by focusing on delivering a working piece of software, teams are forced to actually think about the critical components of the project and focus on them with a priority. The standard time frame is called a sprint, and it usually occurs every 2 weeks.

4) Business people and developers must work together daily throughout the project.
This principle serves to correct a common problem in the modern software development environment. The gap between the developers of a program and the people presenting it to the customer is often huge, and can lead to significant problems in the development process. Agile ensures that all teams involved are always on the same page with regards to the future of the project.

5) Build projects around motivated individuals. Give them the environment and support they need, and trust them to get the job done.
A more personal principle, this is based on the idea that a developer given a comfortable working environment and constant job satisfaction will be able to consistently produce higher quality work. This is a common concept in other industries, but it seems to have taken some time to arrive to the world of software in a more direct way.

6) The most efficient and effective method of conveying information to and within a development team is face-to-face conversation.
Another common issue of software development is the way it predisposes individuals to communicate through electronic means. This can significantly add to the feeling of an improper connection between team members. When the situation allows for it, a team should always prioritize personal meetings to discuss the current status of the project.

Different software development methodologies can sometimes focus on various complicated metrics for determining the current status and health of a project. Agile, on the other hand, puts an emphasis on the simplest possible factor how much of the product is actually finished and works well enough to be presented to a customer.

8) Agile processes promote sustainable development. The sponsors, developers, and users should be able to maintain a constant pace indefinitely.
No matter how large a project grows, the team should always be ready to handle its new scale. The same goes for the opposite case as well if the requirements shrink, the team must retain its current pace and not waste any effort.

9) Continuous attention to technical excellence and good design enhances agility.
Small details matter a lot in creating a solid final impression, but reaching the phase where they’re added to a project requires a solid underlying foundation as well. These two factors can significantly enhance the perceived value of the final product.

10) Simplicity ” the art of maximizing the amount of work not done ” is essential.
This is a rewording of a principle that’s very common in rapid software development in general nowadays. Do just as much as is required to complete the task, and only do more if the customer says something. This concept can be very effective in getting a project off the ground and up to speed. Often, it’s easy for developers to anticipate other customer needs, but this can add delays to the work, and it may not actually be something the customer wants.

11) The best architectures, requirements, and designs emerge from self-organizing teams.
Management structure is another common problem in software development nowadays, and agile recognizes that by putting an emphasis on a team’s ability to govern its own work. While some form of higher-level management will always be required, it should not be critical to a project’s completion on the technical side.

12) At regular intervals, the team reflects on how to become more effective, then tunes and adjusts its behavior accordingly.
Software development is a constantly evolving discipline, which sees new ideas on an almost daily basis. A good team should be able to constantly integrate those new developments into their own work when it benefits them.

Conclusion
It’s hard to say which software development methodology is objectively the best at the moment. The truth is that they all fill a different niche in a very large and complex market. But when it comes to rapid development and delivering a product that actually works as soon as possible, few can beat agile’s strong principles and simplistic philosophy.

The post The 12 Agile Software Development Principles appeared first on 6sigma.

What is the difference between Kaizen, Lean and Six Sigma

When looking at business process improvement methodologies like Kaizen, Lean and Six Sigma, it’s very easy to see a lot of similarities. After all, these frameworks aim to make a business as competitive as possible, while striving for top-notch performance, efficiency, effectiveness and reliability. Additionally, all of the three methods employ cycles of gathering data, evaluating it, making practical and quantifiable optimization, and tracking the results. This means that even if you have a previous familiarity with each methodology, it’s easy to spot a lot of similarities and apparent overlaps, especially as one gets buried under an avalanche of buzzwords. On top of this, many of the professionals implementing each methodology might also draw additional inspiration for refinements from other frameworks, which blurs the lines another step further.

While many methods might sound analogous in theory, Kaizen, Lean and Six Sigma have some significant differences that stem from their core values and assumptions about business and improvement in general. To put this in practical terms, the most influential differences between these three methodologies lie in the exact type of metrics each one values the most, and devotes effort to improving. It should come as no surprise that even the slightest changes to the particular metric that importance is placed upon would certainly lead to decisively divergent outcomes and results.

Because of these facts, comparing Kaizen, Lean and Six Sigma can be of great value to a business and its management team, and is an integral part of selecting the best methodology to implement in any given situation.

What is Kaizen

The first of the three approaches to examine is Kaizen. Its name comes from Japanese, and loosely translates to change for the better. Broadly speaking, it’s not just a management and business process optimization methodology, but a general philosophy that could be applied to both one’s personal life and a business organization.

The two core beliefs that inform how Kaizen operates are:

1. Everything can be improved
2. Small gradual changes can lead to significant overall and long term improvements

This means that Kaizen can be applied to absolutely anything, and it doesn’t really have a specific type of metric that it favors. It doesn’t usually produce rapid results (unless you conduct a kaizen burst event). However, when applied over a long period of time, it creates a mentality where problems are fixed without a committee or leadership approval for every little change. This leads to more employee engagement and involvement in the process.

Learn more about Kaizen >>>

What is Lean

While Kaizen is a very general approach to improvement, Lean is a methodology with a background in manufacturing that focuses on a very specific type of metrics. It’s a framework that is already older than a century, and it was a pivotal part for Henry Ford’s Model T’s success. Obviously, the Lean methodology has evolved over the years, but its main focus has remained the same eliminating waste in order to free up time to increase value to your customer. The main target of this approach is efficiency across the system (value stream). It has proven quite successful in improving or removing all the inefficient steps of a process that waste time, energy, finance or raw materials. Lean provides a competitive edge since it allows a business to manufacture products or provide services faster and at lower costs. It also is easy to learn, which makes it easy for all employees to be involved in improvements.

Check out other lean topics such as Andon, SMED, Takt time, and Kata >>>

What is Six Sigma

While Kaizen and Lean both look at resources and ways to optimize a process, the core goal of Six Sigma is achieving consistent and reliable results. It is primarily focused on improving the quality of the result or outcome of the process. This is why it’s sometimes referred to as a quality assurance methodology, despite the fact that it has been successfully applied beyond just quality improvements.

As far as results go, Six Sigma strives for near perfection, where the process succeeds 99.99966% of the time. To achieve this seemingly impossible result, training and coaching is required in order to learn the tools and framework, modeled after the martial arts belt system. These results lead to lower costs, improved customer satisfaction, and helps drive continuous improvement in order to achieve higher and higher sigma levels.

Check out our Six Sigma training videos >>>

Which one do I use in my organization, or what order should I implement them? We answer these questions in our next blog titled “When to use Lean , Six Sigma and Kaizen“

The post What is the difference between Kaizen, Lean and Six Sigma appeared first on 6sigma.