How do I Apply Lean Six Sigma? (Part 1)

Companies competing in a complex global marketplace face enormous pressure to maintain operational excellence. Applying Lean Six Sigma, the quality management technique used to reduce waste, eliminate product defects and improve customer satisfaction, involves focusing on customer needs and detailed data analysis in order to meet that challenge.

Transforming your company to utilize more efficient processes depends on executive sponsorship and trained personnel. Apply Lean Six Sigma techniques not only to your manufacturing operations but also your service and other business functions.

1. Train your staff on Lean Six Sigma concepts so that all employees can recognize that Six Sigma techniques improve customer satisfaction rates by reducing defects to no more than 3.4 per million. Lean manufacturing techniques reduce wasteful activities in order to improve product development. Together, they help you run a more efficient and productive business. The Motorola website provides free lessons on Six Sigma topics. The American Society for Quality offers certification to qualified applicants as a Black Belt, typically responsible for project management or Green Belt, often responsible for team contributions.

2. Identify processes needing improvement based on nonperforming operational metrics. For example, if customer satisfaction rates for a particular product consistently fall, examine the customer support logs to isolate the problem, such as raw material used in manufacturing or a flaw in the initial design. Conduct focus groups or interviews with customers, production specialist and other personnel to gather data.

3. Use tools, such as a fishbone diagram, to show the cause and effect of people, methods, equipment, materials, data and the environment on the development of your product or service. To make a fishbone diagram, draw an arrow from the left to the right in the center of a page. On the left end, draw lines above and below the line, like fish scales, and list the causes. On the right, describe the effect or problem. Add additional lines to list sub-causes. Use this information to figure out how to address the problems.

4. Focus on reducing costs by optimizing your processes. Control process inputs so you can eliminate defects. Monitor and track your progress achieving these goals. For example, to apply Lean Six Sigma techniques to Human Resources activities, adjust your processes to reduce the time it takes to recruit, interview, hire and orient a new employee by standardizing your processes and training personnel effectively. Apply Lean Sigma to your finance organization by eliminating unnecessary approval workflows, reducing the time it takes to complete transactions, such as paying vendors or processing your payroll.

5. Focus on reducing errors by streamlining and automating the processes for completing work. For example, centralize your database operations so that when your sales staff enters orders, forms pre-populate with existing customer information, 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 problems.

6. Inspect and audit processes regularly, such as on an annual basis to maintain a high level of quality in your systems.

Source: Smallbusiness