Is It A Good Fit?

Before deploying an effective Six Sigma program, the biggest consideration leaders must consider is whether or not it is a good fit for the organization. While moving through the decision-making process, leaders sometimes lack a complete understanding of what Six Sigma really is, what can it really accomplish and is the organization properly prepared for the process. Reality is that there are serious considerations that must be discussed and a firm commitment to the change process must be acceptable. There is a quote that illuminates this point:

“I cannot say whether things will get better if we change; what I can say is they must change if they are to get better.”

-Georg C. Lichtenberg

When implementing Six Sigma, we seek permanent and continuous change to achieve the best possible result.

Measure Yourself For a Fit

As leaders move through the due diligence process leading up to Six Sigma implementation, there are six questions that must be considered:

1. Does your company leadership team understand and embrace their role, and are they willing to learn what lean and Six Sigma are all about?
2. Does your company utilize cross-functional, multilevel teams to get things done?
3. Have you mastered the basic problem-solving tools throughout the company, driving to root-cause corrective actions?
4. Do you have accurate data systems (gauge repeatability and reproducibility) that are easily accessible to the workers closest to the process, and does this data drive your improvement actions?
5. Are the employees empowered to shut a process down if an out-of-control condition occurs, and are there resources instantly available to help the employee identify and implement corrective actions to get the process back up and running?
6. Is the financial community willing to participate in the improvement efforts, assist in the calculation of the financial impact of the improvements, and help reshape the accounting systems to more accurately reflect reality?

How Does It Feel?

Now that you have considered the questions, leaders must ask — is it a good fit? The fact is, without being able to 100% answer affirmatively each of these questions, it just may not be a great fit for your organization. Belief and commitment to a change process of any kind is crucial. The good news is that leaders with open minds and a commitment to quality find these six questions easy to answer. They also lead organizations that are open and willing to make permanent changes in the corporate culture and process. Now that you have a good fit with Six Sigma for your organization, doesn’t it feel good?

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In the meantime, take a really look at what the regular benefits of implementing Six Sigma are and if you haven’t already done so make your business akin to those of the Fortune 500 successful businesses. Now is the time to do so.

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How Six Sigma Has Changed the Corporate Landscape

Six Sigma has been around for a while now, and its impact on various industries is already quite noticeable. It only takes a brief look at the current state of the corporate world to realize the huge changes that have been brought forward by the tight integration of Six Sigma practices into the standard workflow. And we’re likely only seeing the tip of the iceberg, too. There are many reasons to believe that we’re going to see even more changes in this area in the near future as companies continue to adopt and use Six Sigma in their work.

More Focus on Root Cause Analysis

Getting to the bottom of a problem has never been more important, and it’s likely going to become even more so. Root cause analysis plays a major role in Six Sigma, and it’s a fundamental aspect of its philosophy. Some companies might struggle to adopt these principles correctly in their work if they haven’t used them before. But once the dust has settled, it’s very easy to see the positive results of proper root cause analysis practices.

The Importance of Specialization

Companies are now also starting to wise up to the importance of having properly trained specialists in their ranks who understand the intricate details of working with Six Sigma and know how to apply it in the company’s specific environment. This is easier said than done, even when dealing with people who’re already familiar with Six Sigma to begin with.

Specialization is only going to become a more critical issue in the near future too, and it will be interesting to see how the market evolves in this regard. We’re already seeing a lot of attention towards Six Sigma specialists, and it will likely become even more pronounced not too long from now.

Improved Performance on All Levels

One of the best things about using Six Sigma correctly is that it can produce some very tangible improvements in the company’s performance on pretty much all levels. From the very top of leadership and management, to the lower ranks of workers doing various tasks, everyone stands to benefit from the integration of Six Sigma into their work.

And when there are some tools available that can actually measure that performance and provide the company with an adequate overview of how it has changed over time, things can get even better.

The Right Mindset

Six Sigma is not just about optimizing your company’s work and ensuring that work gets done as quickly as possible. It’s also about developing the right mindset for evolving the organization as a whole, and this is a skill that can take quite a lot of time to build up to an appropriate level. It gets even more complicated if you consider an organization with a very rigid structure that has gone through relatively little evolution in its thinking over time.

Clearly, when dealing with a situation like this, a different approach is needed. Developing the mindset required to successfully implement Six Sigma principles into the organization can take a lot of time, but once you’re there, you’re going to start seeing opportunities for improvement in pretty much every corner of the organization.

Improved Connection with Employees

Last but not least, a good Six Sigma implementation and the right adoption of those principles into the organization can result in a significantly improved ability to connect with employees on a fundamental level. This is more important than it may seem to some leaders, because various reports have indicated that these relationships have been on a decline for some time now in corporate environments, and things are only going to get worse over time if this is not addressed.

Thankfully, Six Sigma provides various tools for dealing with these issues, and it’s important for any leader to utilize them to their full potential. With time, you’re going to start seeing more and more opportunities for changing things in your organization to improve the way you’re working with Six Sigma. Until then, you should have a lot of patience and be prepared to go through some very challenging periods that might last for quite some time until you see results.

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Exploring Lean Six Sigma and Environmental Improvement Initiatives

There are two incredibly powerful business trends which are shaping today’s corporate landscape. They are organizations’ demands for an increase in efficiency in production and the social imperative that companies reduce their environmental footprint. Modern process improvement experts have discovered that the two aims do not have to be mutually exclusive or unrelated. As a matter of fact, if a Lean Six Sigma implementation has environmental improvement as one of its objectives, it is more likely to become a permanent part of corporate operations and receive funding.

What change managers need to understand is that projects based on environmental improvement are not opposed or passed over because an organization’s management opposes them or that they do not care about the environment. They fall by the wayside because, by themselves, they are not presented as being significant enough for top level leaders to allocate significant resources to them.

However, a combination of environmental improvement initiatives and Lean Six Sigma is certain to sweeten the deal. Such combined projects are certain to appeal to managers because they offer both environmental and quality advantages to the organization.

Environmental Impact Analysis of an Organization

Getting into more detail, analysis of your organization’s environmental impact is a measure of how much your company impacts the surrounding environment. When you are busy operating business processes and the supply chain, there may be negative environmental impacts caused by your business that can occur with or without you knowing it. Among these are spillages of toxic waste, leakage, improper disposal of waste, and other kinds of contamination.

At times, these occurrences may not be easy to notice. Similarly, pinpointing the exact source of such contamination may be difficult. In order to avoid having an adverse effect on the environment, it is essential that you carry out environmental impact analysis.

The variables that you measure and how they are measured largely depends on the type of operation and the industry within which your organization operates. For most lean organizations, the carbon footprint, water use, energy consumed and the percentage of waste recycled are the most common metrics.

Connecting Lean Six Sigma and Environmental Impact Analysis

Carrying out regular analysis of your impact on the environment can be expensive and time consuming. However, when the right approach is taken, unnecessary costs can be eliminated. The initial data collection and analysis is what requires the most manpower, money and time. However, once you have perfected your processes after the first round, you can repeat the steps again after regular periods.

There are many Key Performance Indicators and variables that you can measure to establish how much of an environmental impact your business has. Still, it is important to select the right ones and stick to them.

For your organization to achieve this, it is recommended that you appoint a certified Six Sigma project manager. This manager should be at least a Black Belt. The project manager has the task of collecting the correct data from the right sources. The project team could be comprised of more Six Sigma experts who will collect, store and analyze data.

Once the appropriate data is at hand, you can use it to establish if there are any changes that you can make to your operations or supply chain. To do this, it is recommended that you compare the results of your organization to those of your competitors while also examining existing legislation.

Through taking a proactive stance with your environmental impact study, you could potentially save countless hours and avoid falling foul of strict environmental protection laws. The avoidance of fines can often be the biggest driver of improvement, to get the attention of management.

Conclusion

No matter whether you support climate change laws or not, the fact is that governments all over the world and customers are agitating for organizations and businesses to be run in an environmentally friendly way.

Companies that carry out production and manufacturing operations should expect to be the most affected by tough new environment-related legislation. However, through the reduction of waste and elimination of unnecessary production steps, your organization can be well prepared to avoid losing time and paying hefty fines.

In combination with Six Sigma methodologies, carrying out environmental impact analysis and acting on the findings is the best way to run environmental improvement initiatives.

To learn more, visit LeanSixSigmaEnvironment.org

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How to Speed Up Lean Six Sigma Implementation

The Lean Six Sigma toolkit is a very versatile and potent technique for process improvement. The tools help users understand the process and increase their productivity. Used the right way, the methodology would help reduce costs and increase the quality standards of the products and services offered.

The Cost of Poor Quality

This is a great tool to figure out the improvement areas. The number adds up all of the inefficiencies that are related to any process. It includes unnecessary waste; making up for the defective products produced by running the plants for longer times, additional costs incurred in waste disposal, reshipping products to the clients, warranty issuance, redundant audits and checks, etc.

Consider the cost of poor quality and figure out the expenses that will be incurred in continuing the current way. The Lean Six Sigma methodology can help with minimizing defects. It can drastically improve the effectiveness of business processes. The main purpose of the technique is to enhance the customer experience by eliminating all variations in processes.

Consistency is critically important for any business as it allows customer trust to build up. The tools help cut costs by cutting down on the different waste types.

Realization of the challenges and problems is the first step towards solving them.

Speeding Up Lean Six Sigma and Process Improvement

Process improvement is a critical component in organizations of all sizes. A number of factors prevent people from using the Lean Six Sigma methodology in their day-to-day activities. It is human nature to resist change. Teams might not be very comfortable with adapting to change. Budget constraints too play a role.

At times, organizations do not have the desired skill set or possess no one to take the lead. Often, teams believe they do not have the time. It is important to adopt a proactive methodology in order to increase quality.

• Lean Six Sigma is a defect-based methodology but it is important to approach it from an appreciative perspective. There are a lot of defects in business processes but teams must also appreciate things that have been working well and leave them unchanged.
• Focus on quick wins. These are opportunities that can result in fast success in the Lean Six Sigma framework. Quick wins also help accelerate further wins.
• It is important to take advantage of opportunities as and when they present themselves. Identify the opportunities and evaluate them.
• Identify the bottlenecks and suggest potential improvements. It is recommended to use business process management software.
• Businesses should compare the processes when it comes to efficiency. Softwares could be used to automate process enforcement. It can keep a track on the deadlines and assign the relevant tasks to appropriate employees.
• Users should consider their first quick win projects as the workable models. Once a few initial quick wins are complete, you should begin publicizing your team’s progress.
• Quick wins can help initialize processes quickly and help determine the speed with which the project will progress. They also provide a strong foundation on which to work. It is imperative to consider wisely your selection criteria for choosing quick wins.
• Trace and identify the most productive employees in your business. Driving quick wins is easier if you already have the most productive employees ready.
• Seamless communication is the key to a speedy implementation of Lean Six Sigma. Inspire your staff and publicize your successes with quick wins. Speeches and literature are a great way to spread the word and motivate your workforce.

Conclusion

Lean Six Sigma combines the strengths of the Lean approach focusing on waste reduction with the defect elimination and problem-solving strategies of the Six Sigma methodology. In order to ensure a speedy implementation of flawless processes using this technique, businesses must focus on quick wins and identify the right opportunities. In the end, it’s a collaborative team effort and relies on the support of your teammates for long-term success.

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The Six Sigma methodology is a process improvement tactic that was originally introduced within the manufacturing space, but has quickly found adoption into higher education. With the concepts of the methodology spreading widely and offering a template for the improvement of efficiency and enhancement of the performance of educational institutions, Six Sigma and its associated tools have proven highly effective in process improvement. We have outlined three effective Six Sigma tools for higher education process improvement.

1. The Project Charter

The project charter, which is also referred to as a business case, project statement or project definition, is a summarization of the objectives, participants and scope of a Six Sigma implementation. The project charter exists for the purpose of communicating the essential details of the project in order to ensure that project sponsors, team members and key stakeholders all understand what the project aims to achieve. Generally, it is drafted before the commencement of the Six Sigma project and helps the stakeholders in the higher education institution in the following ways:

• Providing a high-level understanding of the project, why it is being carried out and the justification for putting it in place
• Establishing the general scope early in the project cycle
• Establishing who the project manager is and their level of authority

The best way to kick off the process of drafting the document is by gathering all the people involved in a project charter development session. These may include client representatives, team leaders, team members and the project sponsors’ representatives.

2. Voice of the Customer

Gaining an understanding of the Voice of the Customer is critical for Six Sigma within higher education. This is a concept that is essential when looking to identify which activities add value and which ones do not.

In the higher education sphere, it is clear that the student is the customer since they are the ones who receive the outcomes of the processes carried out within the institution. Still, it is important to note that the term Voice of the Customer’ has an entirely different meaning with regard to education when compared to the general consumer sphere.

It is important for higher education institutions to deliver quality education that allows the student to function within the wider society. If an individual is able to graduate from the institution of learning but is unable to secure a job or be able to function productively within their capacity, then it does not matter the grades they earned or what they learned quality was not delivered.

3. SIPOC Diagram

SIPOC is an acronym for supplier, input, process, output and customer, and is an invaluable tool that helps to change the thinking and approach educational institutions and their staff take toward process improvement, project management and Six Sigma implementation in general. The tool allows the team to define the problem, outline the process to be improved and provides a method of refining the problem statement before the project is started. Without this definition of the project or process, it is easy for individuals to stumble along aimlessly without achieving the output that is desired.

Process mapping and even process management are impossible to achieve without first having a SIPOC diagram in place as a guide. Any process management effort that does not start with a SIPOC diagram will always have questionable accuracy and unclear scope. The processes within the field of higher education are especially difficult to define, so the use of the SIPOC model ensures that the processes are structured and have a higher chance of providing successful outcomes.

Conclusion

The tools outlined above are among the most important that are used when trying to determine value in the implementation of Six Sigma. In many cases where they have been utilized within the context of higher education process improvement, they have been vital in bringing people in both academic and non-academic functions to pull in one direction toward a common objective.

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Lean and Six Sigma are among the most powerful and popular business process improvement methodologies which are being rapidly deployed by a variety of service and manufacturing organizations across the world. The guide below investigates the relation of Lean and Six Sigma with the environment, offering advice on how environmental conservation professionals can use the principles of Lean Six Sigma in order to obtain improved operational and environmental outcomes.

Defining Lean and Six Sigma

Normally referred to as Lean manufacturing, the lean methodology refers to business methods and principles which were initially developed as the Toyota Production system by the Japanese car manufacturer. The lean methodology focuses on systematically identifying and eliminating waste or non-value adding activities that consume capital or resource time.

At many organizations, Six Sigma refers to a measure of process and production qualities that strive to achieve near perfection. It is a data-driven, disciplined approach to production that aims to eliminate process defects in a variety of fields that range from transactions and manufacture to service and product provision.

The Importance of Connecting Lean Six Sigma to Corporate Environmental Efforts

Both Lean and Six Sigma are heavily reliant on a culture of continuous improvement which is perfectly aligned with the environmental goals of sustainability and prevention of pollution. There are a number of compelling reasons why Lean Six Sigma methodologies should form a major part of corporate environmental improvement and sustainability efforts. Some of these are:

• Quick and Dramatic Outcomes: One thing that Lean does is produce quick results. This is because many lean events last only 2-5 days and, in this period, teams will enjoy dramatic reductions in cost and lead times, as well as corresponding improvements in customer satisfaction and product quality. Use of lean methodologies in resolving environmental issues can offer impressive and dramatic results as well.
• Continual Improvement Culture: Lean Six Sigma tools can be used to engage all employees at each level of the organization in efforts to identify and eliminate waste from processes. If environmental waste is included in these improvement efforts, Lean Six Sigma becomes one of the most powerful ways to develop a culture of continuous improvement and sustainability. Sustainability and environmental stewardship is becoming more valued in the new generation of workers.
• Avoiding Pitfalls: Integration of Lean Six Sigma in environmental improvement efforts is one way to minimize an organization’s environmental impact and risks, while navigating regulatory issues and avoiding penalties for non-compliance.

How Lean Six Sigma Implementation Provides Environmental Improvement Results

There is a whole host of ways through which environmental protection professionals and organizations can leverage the power of Lean Six Sigma to improve results. Lean approaches to the environment are strategies that incorporate environmental improvement efforts with the principles of the methodology. Some examples of such implementations include:

• Connecting of Lean Six Sigma and Environmental Improvement Efforts at Facilities: Safety and environmental health professionals can offer support for operations-driven Lean Six Sigma implementations, helping them to expand their scope, expose hidden sources of waste, reduce time to implement when permits and legal paperwork might be involved, and improve operational and environmental results.
• Delivery of Lean Six Sigma and Environmental Technical Assistance: By partnering with Lean Six Sigma experts, environmental technical assistance personnel can deliver environmental protection services more effectively, and better quantify those results for regulatory agencies.
• Using Lean to Boost Effectiveness Of Environmental Programs: The visual controls used in lean and other concepts that form part of the methodology can boost the effectiveness of environmental compliance efforts, and reduce the chance of mistakes, near misses and environmental disasters. In addition, environmental agencies can use lean to help reduce waste produced by various business processes. The State of Iowa launched a lean program in order to speed up the time it took to issue new air permits, in order to allow businesses to expand and grow.

It is essential that environmental professionals understand how to interface with Lean Six Sigma experts so as to develop successful and effective partnerships. Lean Six Sigma experts can also learn from environmental consultants and professionals, to better identify opportunities and capture cost benefits within the work processes they improve.

Did you know that environmental benefits can be achieved by accident?

The US EPA published a table showing the connection between reducing the lean wastes and the impact on the environment

By applying Lean and Six Sigma to their organization, companies can reduce their environmental impact without even trying. They probably already have, and not realized it, or captured the benefits. Learn more about Lean and the EPA at their website.

Conclusion

There is no single cookie-cutter approach to integrating lean efforts and the environment the only way to succeed is by trying it out. As Lean and Six Sigma implementations continue to increase alongside the growing realization among organizations of the importance of environmental sustainability in their operations, there is an exciting opportunity to use these methodologies to reduce waste and improve the environment.

If you like this topic, check out the website LeanSixSigmaEnvironment.org for more examples and free online training.

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Revenue leakage has become a very real concern for thousands of businesses across the world, costing them billions of dollars every year in lower net revenues. If these leaks are left unchecked, they could have a profound negative impact on your business, leaving your profit margins suffering a slow “death through a thousand paper cuts.” Your organization may also be burdened with the cost of taking care of your customers’ needs without being offset by sufficient incoming revenue.

With the business landscape becoming more competitive with each passing day, you cannot let margin compression compromise the financial sustainability of your organization. In spite of this, many businesses continue to allow their hard-earned revenues to escape through cracks within their revenue funnel. It is important to detect and patch the leaks in order to get instant financial relief and improve processes in the long term. The Six Sigma philosophy is one way to achieve this.

How Streamlined Processes Improve Revenue and Reduce Leakage

Six Sigma methods have been proven as a way to increase revenue for many organizations. Through streamlining the organization’s unique processes by the elimination of wasteful steps, delivery of products and services is achieved quickly and more efficiently without losing quality. The following steps improve the performance of a business and increase revenue:

1. Assess

Anytime a business process related to revenue management needs to be improved, the implementation team needs to start by carrying out an assessment of the workflow from the start to the end of the process. The assessment carried out will provide analysts with the foundation to create an optimal solution for process improvement.

Every business has its unique qualities. This means that the Six Sigma implementation team needs to have an intimate understanding of the organization’s challenges and ultimate goals in order to devise a workable and systematic plan to improve them.

2. Plan

Quite often, marketing teams operate in an isolated manner, executing and optimizing in a manner that is disconnected from the company’s revenue goals, corporate planning and revenue performance measurement. What naturally results is confusion regarding the best course of action to take when revenues fall short of projections.

In this case, teams need to hold brainstorming sessions aimed at identifying effective ways for the organization to achieve and design a customized Six Sigma method that will pinpoint revenue streamlining opportunities, eliminate waste and boost revenue. Due to performance tracking and attribution, the revenue data collected during these sessions can be used by an organization to come up with a strategic plan of action.

Once the best solution has been found, the next step is to lay down a plan of action, down to the smallest detail. The available resources can then be put to work on the implementation of the plan.

3. Implement & Optimize

After the brainstorming sessions outline strategic decisions and map out strategy, key workflows can be laid down to the smallest detail. The available resources can then be put to work on the implementation of the plan. The idea is to have the organization’s go-to-market team more effective through automating processes, eliminating unnecessary steps and reducing cross-functional tasks.

After implementing the plan, the various departments in the organization need to hone it down to a science by continually measuring, optimizing processes and challenging each individual involved to help make the processes better and faster.

Conclusion

Thanks to the implementation of Six Sigma methodologies into their business processes, many organizations today have been able to greatly increase their efficiency. These methods allow the organizations to continuously improve and successfully compete with their peers on a global scale.

While rapid advances in technology and emerging efforts have increased the opportunities available for new and innovative products to succeed by offering new ways to deliver to customers, innovation could strain already established processes, resulting in waste and increased costs. For a company to stay in the black now and remain profitable in the future, it is essential that it saves money and improves quality. Improving processes through Six Sigma methodologies is a way to achieve both of these aims.

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The company culture is what makes Six Sigma a success in the long run. The success rate in saving company costs speaks for itself. Just ask Toyota, Motorola, GE or any of the Fortune 500 companies who subscribe to the Six Sigma methodologies. These five benefits listed in the below infographic are just the beginning of how powerful Six Sigma is for your business or organization.

For more information on our Six Sigma training courses or services, please visit 6sigma.com.

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Simulation Modeling Overview

Simulation Modeling is defined as a customized model that simulates a real-life process. This process may be something such as an assembly line or an automated construction service. The model integrates input variables and operating parameters from the actual business process. Likewise, this allows for the user to manipulate and number of factors and see how they will affect the over simulation. Where Six Sigma comes into play is the desire to use the simulation model. The philosophy behind Six Sigma is to constantly improve a business process, increasing efficiency, raising the standard of quality, and deterring defects. Simulation Modeling provides an excellent insight to what changes you could and should not make within your corporation.

Benefits

Furthermore, Simulation Modeling is best when visualizing a complex, dynamic process. A working model of a complex process allows you to visualize parts and variables you would otherwise not notice. Additionally, this is ideal when discussing real-time reactions to minor (or major) changes to a process. Typically, Simulation Models display results quickly, allowing you to demonstrate a process change as it happens. Finally, it allows you to follow your project goal closely. For some, the aim of implementing Six Sigma is to achieve one specific goal, i.e. increasing production line speed by 20%. With Simulation Modeling, your project goal is the center of your variable manipulations. As you alter certain variables within a process, you’re provided with immediate results. When meeting with management, investors, or other project leaders, Simulation Modeling offers an organized, easy to understand visualization of your process, your goal, and how it can be achieved.

Risks

However, Simulation Modeling does have risks. For example, if you become overly depended on the model, you may lose your focus on your project goal. Suddenly, you begin to alter other variables that are independent of your project, which can impact your overall results. Additionally, it is easy to overuse a Simulation Model, which can form unrealistic expectations for your process. While something happens in a model, it is not a guarantee to happen in real-life. This expectation for a process to follow a simulation eye to eye can impact your overall analysis of the project and deter you from achieving your set goal.

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Once embraced, Six Sigma is worth its weight in gold. It’s not a secret that General Electric saved $12 billion in their first 5 years after they had implemented Six Sigma.

Today, General Electric continues to grow and is implementing the same Six Sigma proven methods into its GE Global Learning Team.

Virtual global learning will teach quality improvement through highly collaborative and integrated work processes using the same Six Sigma proven methods they used when they first started.

Five Important Benefits from Implementation of Six Sigma

• Increased Productivity
• Improved Quality
• Reduced Operation Costs
• Higher Customer Satisfaction
• Improved Communication among Team Members

DMAIC: The All Mighty Acronym

D= Define
M=Measure
A=Analysis
I=Improve
C=Control

The Tactics of Six Sigma

It’s elementary, my dear Watson. The Six Sigma tactics are based on the scientific method we all learned in elementary school, which is:

• Defining the problem
• Measuring the impact of the problem
• Finding the root causes of the problem
• Determining and testing hypotheses

Six Sigma works! It has been proven over and over again by major players in the Fortune 500 as well as other elite lists of top globally rated companies. It works because there is an organized etiquette that is followed, that is both universal and specific to each and every type of business or organization in every industry.

The genius is in its simplicity…

Learn more information about 6Sigma.com’s Lean Six Sigma training, available as a classroom, onsite, or online options. We have several new classes coming up, so be sure to enroll now!

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What constitutes a good system of measurement? It must be data driven, it must measure the right things, and it must be visible to everyone associated with the process (directly and indirectly).

We’ll look at all of these in turn.

The Definition of Effectiveness

The basic definition of effectiveness in the context of Six Sigma implementation is as follows:

Measurements that show how well process output(s) meet the needs of customers, both internal and external.

In other words, a process output that meets the Critical-to-Quality Trees (CTQs) of the customer and creates customer satisfaction that contributes to the effectiveness of the process. Those outputs and the actual level of performance can be measured and in fact, must be measured to ensure that the process conforms to Six Sigma requirements.

It should be noted that some Six Sigma experts disagree about the appropriateness of using the term “customer satisfaction” when defining effectiveness. They argue, among other things, the following:

• Satisfaction is not a data-driven business measurement
• Satisfaction is an emotional state
• Satisfaction does not take into account other aspects such as price, brand or quality
• Satisfaction has no relation to business goals and strategies

These practitioners opt instead to focus on customer value, as they consider it a more objective and measurable standard of performance. We are not going to go into a detailed discussion of the relative merits of each of these viewpoints, but it is important that you at least have some awareness that differences exist.

Regardless of which definition you prefer, to determine effectiveness you must decide what level of performance is required. Think in terms of:

• Target value – How big, how long, how wide, and so forth.

• Variation – How many are bigger or smaller, how many are longer or shorter, how many are wider or narrower, and so forth.

• Range of Tolerance – What is the maximum acceptable amount bigger or smaller, maximum acceptable amount longer or shorter, maximum amount wider or narrower, and so forth.

When you have determined what level of performance is required you can then select the appropriate measurements to ensure that the specific level is consistently achieved.

Key Measurements of Performance

The key measurements of performance that you select when measuring six sigma implementation efficacy will vary depending on things like:

• The customer CTQs
• The product
• The service
• Market share
• Competitive Pressures

In all cases, the performance measurements of six sigma implementation must be data-driven and objective rather than qualitative and subjective. Examples might include:

• On time delivery
• Accuracy
• Defects
• Returns
• Added/optional services or features
• Number of sales
• Close rate for sales leads
• Weight of product
• Quantity of product
• Market penetration
• Number of distributors/retailers
• Repeat sales

Once you have made a list of several performance measurements to track regularly, you are ready to move on, right? Wrong!

Determine the Right Combination of Measurements

It takes more than just a list of performance measurements to properly measure the effectiveness of Six Sigma implementation. Each individual measurement may be useful and have some value, but to measure the overall effectiveness of process improvement activities it is critical that you put together the right combination of measurements.

You have to measure the right thing to get the right results. For instance, if you measure the speed of production but not the quality of production you can quickly end up with the fastest production line around that is churning out low quality products. Or, if you measure the dollar value of sales but not the repeat sales from each customer, you can end up with high-volume sales people who don’t pay close enough attention to customer service, leading to customers who take their business elsewhere.

If you measure the wrong things, or measure individual things out of proportion to each other, you will create results that are not in line with your expectations and that do not fulfill the requirements of Six Sigma process improvements.

Visibility is Important

Remember that the people who use a process have a strong need to understand how and why their efforts are essential, and to track their performance. The key measurements you select to determine effectiveness of your six sigma implementation are also valuable for communicating this important information to them. This is a powerful way to motivate the right behaviors that will institutionalize Six Sigma process improvements.

The best methods of communication are those that are accessible, visible, and clearly illustrate performance levels at a glance. Some of the most common tools for making measurements highly visible include:

• Charts
• Graphs
• Tables
• Illustrations

Some organizations print large copies of such things and post them in various places around the office or facility. Others place them on the home page of their company intranet or web portal. Still others push them out to employees via e-mail, newsletters, video monitors, broadcast announcements, and similar methods. Choose the method(s) that work best for your business and your employees for an effective six sigma implementation that’s measurable to boot.

Learn more information about 6Sigma.com’s Lean Six Sigma training coursework, available as classroom, onsite, or six sigma online training options.

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