GDC Total Business Solutions

Many organizations struggle with the decision to implement Lean or Six Sigma. We say you can do both— Lean and Six Sigma complement one another. Lean focuses on the entire system, and Six Sigma focuses on the process variations within the system that are causing you pain. By launching Six Sigma efforts, an organization is making a commitment to correct the process variation within the company. Specifically, to learn and adopt methods that will boost the performance of the organization.

The goal of Six Sigma is to reduce defects, manufacturing costs, and improve customer satisfaction. We believe your continuing success beyond Lean will directly relate to the integration of the Six Sigma deployments into the corporate value system.

In Six Sigma, customer focus becomes the top priority. For example, the measures of Six Sigma performance begin with the customer. Six Sigma improvements are defined by their impact on customer satisfaction and value. Six Sigma discipline begins by clarifying what measures are key in gauging business performance; it applies data and analysis to build an understanding of key variables and optimize results. At a more down to earth level, Six Sigma helps managers answer 2 essential questions to support fact-driven decisions and solutions:

1. What data/information do I really need?
2. How do we use that data/information to maximum benefit?

In Six Sigma, processes are where the action is. Six Sigma positions the process as the key vehicle of success. One of the most remarkable breakthroughs in Six Sigma efforts to date has been convincing leaders and managers that mastering processes is not just a necessary evil, but a way to build competitive advantage in delivering value to customers. “Boundarylessness” is one of Jack Welch’s mantras for business success. Years before launching Six Sigma, GE’s chairman was working to break down barriers and improve teamwork, up, down, and across organizational lines. Six Sigma expands opportunities for collaboration as people learn how their roles fit into the “big picture’ and can recognize and measure the interdependence of activities in all parts of a process. It demands an attitude that is committed to using customer and process knowledge to benefit all parties. No company will get anywhere close to Six Sigma without launching new ideas and approaches, which always involve some risk. The bottom line though, is that any company that makes Six Sigma its goal will have to constantly push to be ever more perfect (since the customer’s definition of perfect will always be changing) while being willing to accept and manage occasional setbacks.