Are you using Six Sigma? Is it worth the return on investment for a small business?

We had a small business client that was required to use Six Sigma as part of a contract with a car manufacturer and they underestimated the expense of establishing a practice.

I do not think it is worth the return on investment unless your clients require it or you are a manufacturer

I agree with Boston I am skeptical that for a service industry it is worth the investment. If you read most of the books on SIGMA it is based mostly on the manufacturing and processing industry.

We helped a client achieve a 28% increase in productivity as a result of using six sigma we are a big believer in it. The process can help any company whether or not it is a service or manufacturing company. I cannot think of a reason not to do it you will definately get your return back on your investment.

If you want to work with the US governement right now you will probably have to have some kind of Six Sigma Training (perferable Lean Six Sigma). It may seem like Six Sigma and Lean Six Sigma are just buzz words but there has to be a reason why it has lasted almost 2 decades and hasn't been swept to the side with other less popular Process Improvement Methodology.

Just to clear this up Six Sigma is the practice of removing variation from a process so that it can be repeatable and keep a certain level of quality. Lean is the process of removing waste to decrease the defects from a process.

If you combine the two Methodologies you get Lean Six Sigma which is more applicable to the service industry because of it ablility to reduce the possiblity of mistakes that may happen in a process. Think of it from a Training firm if you could reduce the amount of mistake that are made in the process of providing the materials to the class you could in essence reduce the cost of teaching the class. Or maybe you could reduce the number of error that the registration office may make so that the instructor knows what to expect from a class they teach.

So if you ask me Six Sigma may not be as applicable to a service company but I definatly think that Lean Six Sigma is applicable.

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Chris
www.mhc-net.com
1-877-502-HOME (4663)

I think for the reasons stated above for a small manufacturing firm it is invaluable. I am still not convinced that it is worth the investment of time and effort in a service firm unless you are doing a lot of repetitive tasks

Well just think about it. You don't have to use Six Sigma on your top level processes you can use it on subprocesses. All companies whether manufacturing or service will have small repetitive tasks that can be optimized for better use. Even if it only saves a little amount of money it saves something in the long run. You see in my profession you can't apply Six sigma or Lean Six sigma to the main processes. Each training (main process) event is different and you can't calculate all the changes. But you can how ever apply lean six sigma to the process of sending the books (subprocess) to the classroom or students.

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Chris
www.mhc-net.com
1-877-502-HOME (4663)

I think anyone should take a strong look at their operation and see whether or not six sigma should apply - but especially for service companies you have to determine whether the investment in time is better served elsewhere.