The Six Sigma Strategy for Businesses
The Six Sigma strategy is a business approach that seeks to improve quality of process outputs by identifying errors and removing them to come up with products that are near perfect. Reducing these errors often also leads to a reduced cost of production. In this plan, it is a common belief that if the defect can be pointed out, then it can be corrected.
The Six Sigma implementation methodology involves definition of goals, measurement of process, and analysis of the present processes to see how to improve and control them. This forms a methodology abbreviated as DMAIC that is used for improving existing products. For new product processes, businesses usually define consistent goals, followed by measurement of Critical to Qualities, analytical evaluation of goals and detailed study of designs in order to verify them. This results to an acronym DMADV, for designing new processes to make new products or services.
To implement this model, a business will need trained and certified professionals to carry out different roles involved. Other than a valid certification, they should have proven leadership skills as the organization depends on them to spearhead positive changes to bring positive effects in implementation of the model. The team leaders must be good communicators and able to influence those below positively, with the aim to make sure all goals are achieved.
In business today, the competition in the market leaves no room for errors. A customer’s delight is paramount and the means to exceed customer expectations all the time must be put in place. This is why this line of approach is crucial for many businesses. However, there are times when the desired results in this strategic plan are not attained. This may be as a result of various causes which come as main challenges facing implementation of the six sigma Methodology. Strategic planning is critical for a business in meeting its objectives. But this must be coupled with proper follow-up to ascertain that implementation procedures are carried out to the letter.
The above outlined model is not an improvement to an existing plan but a complete change in strategy. It is common knowledge that not many people like change and this poses a great challenge to many businesses. Most employees are either lazy or too comfortable such that adopting different ways of doing things is totally disturbing to them. This creates resistance, a great challenge especially to the team leaders and vision bearers. This slows down the implementation of the entire plan.
Another challenge is in its adoption by businesses that are service oriented. This model was originally developed for the manufacturing industry. It is easy to point out a defect or an error in a manufacturing process and correct it to give a near perfect output. In service provision, the business depends on customer feedback to know the quality of their product and this can result to erroneous statistics. Quality is easily defined for tangible products than for services.
In conclusion, adoption of the Six Sigma strategy completely revolutionizes a business’ organization and culture, allowing the chance for optimal success for the business. It is also a modern approach to process and product improvement through use of statistical methods with the aim of delighting the customer. Once properly implemented, its results are tremendous and documented.
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