Six Sigma and beyond

“Six Sigma has galvanized our company with an intensity that I have never seen in my 40 years at GE.” Jack Welch admitted this in GE’s 2000 annual report. As one goes through the various comments, it becomes clearer that Six Sigma is not just a fad created by top management, but an effective tool for correcting performance gaps that play a role in improving the bottom line. background and customer satisfaction.

But is it enough for companies to close the ‘gaps’ just once? Do you ensure that ‘normality’ will not return to the daily scheme of things? Is it necessary to continue with Six Sigma so that the momentum gained is never lost? What would be the financial impact of continuing Six Sigma beyond full implementation?

The robust nature of Six Sigma

The intrinsic strength of Six Sigma lies in its capacity for structured questioning that, when executed rationally, generates the shortcomings inherent in any process. The implementation methodology makes it possible to compare the predominant procedure with the one defined as the most suitable for reducing error-producing subroutines. For example, removing errors from the preparation stage will have a positive impact on downstream processes.

At certain levels, this is called Customer Value Creation (CVC). CVC is a two-stage method that includes customer value analysis and operational excellence or EO. Both are driven by a deep understanding of customer values ​​and the operational excellence required to achieve it. OE, as such, is an analytical and fact-based approach to de-bottlenecking.

Looking beyond Six Sigma

Preparing the mindset to look beyond Six Sigma requires an ongoing plan for the way forward. Six Sigma is said to bring business goals to a winning stage; it is sustained for the future when a quality approach is adopted as a culture throughout the organization. Having set the stage, preparing for subsequent growth requires an ‘outside-in’ approach and hindsight.

The “Outside In” Approach: The “outside in” approach begins by looking inward from the customers’ perspective. This is different from a mere marketing slogan. With a strong foundation in science, taking into account behavioral economics in customer demographics, it covers 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 focus on execution. If the “outside-in” perspective works to dispel myths and misconceived notions about customer needs, OE, on the other hand, by using powerful measurement and analytical tools, sets the stage for giving back what the data revealed. the client’s.

To look beyond Six Sigma, a long-term vision is expressed and can be summed up as a ‘growth cube’. The vision seeks to continually put the customer at the top. Understand and emphasize customer profitability and customer engagement with number of customers. The growth cube is framed for lasting growth in terms of all three components rather than growth volumes.