As one goes by various comments, it becomes clearer that Six Sigma is not just a fad created by top management but an effective tool to fix gaps in performance which play a role in making improvements to the bottom line and customer satisfaction.

But is it enough for companies to have the ‘gaps’ closed just once? Does it ensure that ‘normalcy’ will not return to the daily scheme of things? Does Six Sigma need to be continued in order that the momentum gained is never lost? What would be the financial impact of continuing Six Sigma beyond complete implementation?

The Robust Nature of Six Sigma

Six Sigma’s intrinsic strength lies in its structured questioning ability which, when rationally executed, bring forth the inherent shortcomings in any process. The implementation methodology allows for comparing the prevailing procedure against what is defined to being the most suitable one at reducing error-producing subroutines. For example, removing errors from the preparation stage will have a positive impact on subsequent processes.

At certain levels, this is called as Customer Value Creation (CVC). CVC is a two stage method which comprises Customer Value Analysis and Operational Excellence or OE. Both of these are driven by a thorough understanding of customer values and the excellence in operation needed to achieve that. OE, as such, is a thorough fact based and analytical approach to removing bottlenecks.

Looking Beyond Six Sigma

Preparing the mindset for looking beyond Six Sigma requires a continuum plan for the road ahead. It is said that Six Sigma brings the objectives of companies to a winning stage; it is sustained for the future when a quality approach is adopted as a culture by the entire organization. Having set the stage, preparing for growth thereafter requires an ‘outside in’ approach and a retrospective view.

The “outside in” approach: The “outside in” approach begins with looking inside from the perspective of the customers. This is different from that of a mere marketing slogan. With a strong footing in science, taking into account behavioral economics across customer demographics, it covers the infrastructure support, after-sales service and supply chain management. In a way, the “outside in” approach paves the way for operational excellence (OE).

Operational Excellence is said to be focused on execution. If the “outside in” perspective works toward dispelling myths and wrongly conceived notions about customer needs, OE on the other hand, by using powerful analytical and measuring tools, prepares the ground for returning what the customer data revealed.

For looking beyond Six Sigma, a long-term vision is expressed and it can be summarized as a ‘growth cube’. The vision seeks to place the customer on top on a continuous basis. It comprises and emphasizes customer profitability and customer share with the number of customers. The growth cube is framed with a view to long lasting growth in terms of the three components instead of growth volumes.

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Tony Jacowski is a quality analyst for The MBA Journal. Aveta Solution’s Six Sigma Online offers online six sigma training and certification classes for lean six sigma, black belts, green belts, and yellow belts.

Typically, yours is a 3-5 year old company on the threshold of expanding your operations to meet the growing customer expectations but is cornered to optimize your resources on generating more sales than anything else. Small companies in the bracket of 50-100 employees (most of them being non technical) and revenue of $10-15 million find themselves in this fix. The predicament at this stage is one of a person who is caught between a tiger and cliff.

Finding A Way Out Of The Jam

The situation needs to be given a rational thought concerning how many resources can be afforded and whether the time has really come for Six Sigma. The cost of hiring consultants being hardly affordable, you have to explore options like hiring a Black Belt and having some of your employees trained in-house for Green Belt positions.

What you probably don’t want to miss out on in hiring an experienced Black Belt, although expensive, are the benefits you get because of her/his domain knowledge and experience. Her proven track record will have the best chances of outweighing the initial cost benefit of grooming in-house Black Belts. An experienced Black Belt helps by bringing the focus immediately into a pressing issue on hand which is crucially important to the organization. Alternately, your best man with brilliant analytical and leadership skills may be trained as a Black Belt, and you may enroll in a Champion Session.

The trouble with this kind of an arrangement is whether you can afford to lose your best person from his current job. Enrolling Black Belts, can be an option for you, but you must realize that it takes some time before the new Black Belts get acclimatized with your scheme of things. At the same time, Green Belts, most often being part-time, don’t need to be of high skill. Choosing a few reasonable persons from your organization will suffice. A great Black Belt can take minor shortcomings of Green Belts in stride and things will eventually balance out.

Resolving The Issue Of The Master Black Belt

Even an experienced Black Belt will need the support of a Master Black Belt. The vacuum can be felt typically when the Black Belt finds herself in a logjam. A typical case could be one of technical or organizational reasons. But hiring Master Black Belts is a costly proposal. Secondly, growing and training Master Black Belts in house is also impractical. You will have to hire a consulting Master Black Belt.

But getting a professional is not easy, especially when many of them are more interested in increasing ‘their-hours-in-work’ than in the task. You can consult your state’s ‘Manufacturing Extension Programs’ or a trusted contact to refer you to a consulting Master Black Belt. In any case, with you at the helm of affairs, you will know when to pull the plug when something is not working out.

Caution Is The Word

Probably you would want to go one project at a time. Assessing your progress at intervals should direct the course of action. Brainstorm with your internal team to decide on activities to go for Six Sigma and which of the activities are measurable. Establishing measurability and metrics beforehand is important.

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Tony Jacowski is a quality analyst for The MBA Journal. Aveta Solution’s Six Sigma Online offers online six sigma training and certification classes for lean six sigma, black belts, green belts, and yellow belts.

Fortunately, there are Business Process Management technologies in place to help processes run more smoothly. However, Six Sigma does more than just help processes run more smoothly. Six Sigma is a methodology. It allows for continuous of improvement of processes, on a project-by-project basis.

Implementing Six Sigma into your business takes a high level of commitment, because it does not go project-to-project. There needs to be 100% commitment from all levels of management, especially upper management. Six Sigma is intended to be a methodology that is implemented throughout the entire organization, and without full support from the very top of the management chain down, the resistance to the change that is inevitable in any organization will triumph and Six Sigma will just be another business management project that had limited success.

What Makes Six Sigma Truly Different

Six Sigma is truly different from the average BPM technology because it is a methodology and a program of mentorship that begins with top management and funnels down to the people who really make things happen in an organization. With the full support of upper management, business managers are able to support their own teams of managers to learn and implement the Six Sigma technology.

There is intensive training involved prior to the deployment of Six Sigma and through out the process. Six Sigma likens the leaders of the implementation process to the belt levels in martial arts, because to implement Six Sigma properly requires dedication and training to ensure success. Greenbelts are those who have undergone two weeks of training in the Six Sigma methodology. Blackbelts undergo four weeks of training and they are able to oversee the Greenbelts. Then, the Master Blackbelt is highly trained to be the Six Sigma program manager for the entire organization. There is a chain of mentorship from top to bottom that will ensure that the deployment goes smoothly and that there is continued success with the program. In fact, deployment does not even begin until the appropriate people are trained to the Greenbelt level.

The business leaders become the Champions, and are there to support the Master Blackbelts. One key with Six Sigma is that the Champion does not just sit back and take a passive role. They are concerned with how the processes are managed. They are concerned with the method of implementation, not just the end results. And this is how Six Sigma intends it to be. They want to create a BPM that is designed from the needs of the business, by the Champions, based on hard numbers.

Six Sigma Methods

Six Sigma has two unique methods through which their product is deployed. The first one is called DMAIC – Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, and Control. This is ideal if a business has an undefined problem within existing products, services, or processes. The second is DFSS – Design for Six Sigma. DFSS is still in the developmental stage. The aim of DFSS is to create a new product, service, or process that is defect-free in the eyes of the customer.

An organization determines its objectives in terms of numerical value to the company and then they take this information and the method they have chosen to the training table where the belt trainees will use these to amass knowledge and learn to put these objectives and methods into deployment.

Summary

Six Sigma’s client list speaks volumes for the effectiveness of the Six Sigma method. These clients include Honeywell, Sears, GE, 3M, Home Depot, the Bank of America, and JPMorgan Chase. Six Sigma is also moving into the public and health care sectors.

Six Sigma is not a company that moves in and takes charge, deploying BPM technology based on what they see as the needs of the business. Instead, they allow the business leaders to tell them what they need Six Sigma to do and they essentially design Six Sigma to tailor fit the needs of their business. Not only do the allow this approach, but they train the business leaders and the staff of the company in the knowledge they need to see what needs to be done. Only then is Six Sigma deployed.

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Peter Peterka is President of 6 Sigma us. For additional information on Six Sigma Black Belt or other Six Sigma Online Training contact Peter Peterka.