HOW DO I APPLY LEAN SIX SIGMA?

Today, businesses face enormous pressure to maintain operational performance to compete in the global market. To keep up with the competition companies conduct regular training to upgrade skill sets of their staff. With the application of the Lean Six Sigma methodology, the quality management technology can help the companies to meet their business challenges. Lean Six Sigma helps to reduce waste, eliminate defects, and improve customer satisfaction. Overall, it is a highly effective methodology for the organization in general and while managing projects.

The Lean Six Sigma methodology dates back to 1986 when it was developed to compete with the Kaizen Japanese business model. It was produced to compete with Japanese products which were of higher quality. Lean Six Sigma training and certification can help your staff enhance their skills which in turn will help your business grow.

There are several stages of Lean Six Sigma which are called belts and Six Sigma professionals, exist at different levels. There are mainly three levels, Lean Six Sigma Yellow, Green, and Black Belt. A few people also opt for a fourth level which is the Master Black Belt.

Application of Lean Six Sigma methodologies are not only limited to your manufacturing operations but can also be applied to service and other business functions. By implementing the Lean Six Sigma techniques, you can help your organization to reduce risk and enhance operational performance. Let us see a few ways you can apply Lean Six Sigma techniques to your business.

1. Educate and train your staff on Lean Six Sigma concept to help them understand and recognize how Six Sigma methodologies improve customer satisfaction by reducing defects. By applying Lean manufacturing techniques, you can reduce the wasteful activities and enhance product development which will help you run a more efficient and productive business. There are many institutes which provide Lean Six Sigma training and certification to corporates to help them increase the overall business efficiency.

2. Identify the business processes needing improvement based on nonperforming operational metrics. Use methods such as the fishbone diagram to show the cause and effect of people, materials, devices, methods, data, and the environment on the development of your product and service. The fishbone diagram will help you to figure out how to address the problems in the process.

3. Reduce costs by optimizing your processes and eliminate defects by controlling the process inputs. Monitor and track the progress-achieving these goals. For example, apply the Lean Six Sigma techniques to human resources activities, modify your processes to reduce the time it takes to interview, hire, and orient a new employee by standardizing your processes.

4. Automate and streamline your processes to reduce errors. To maintain a high level of quality in your system, conduct regular audits. For example, centralize your database operations so that when your sales staff enters orders, forms pre-populate with existing customer details, available inventory and the customer’s approved credit line. Capture knowledge for troubleshooting customer support calls into a database accessible by all support personnel so your support teams can reduce the time it takes to solve customer-related problems.

Businesses are in a new type of competition. Companies are under constant pressure to reduce the costs and improve the quality of products and services to ensure customer satisfaction. Today, companies have significant challenges in this new environment, but the approaches and tools of Lean Six Sigma can contribute to the solution.