Amile Institute

Six Sigma is basically a philosophy and a methodology which aims at improving processes for the betterment of business results. This approach aims at achieving the least number of errors, leaving a chance for precisely only three customers among a million to complain.

Six Sigma has the capacity to refurbish the existing processes of a company. So, it can’t be denied that the line and staff should be well-coordinated if the company wants to meet the Six Sigma objectives. When talking about the HR department, below, we are mentioning the prime deliverable for meeting six sigma requirements.

• Selection and retention: Six Sigma black belts are the strength of a company and they are responsible for implementing the Six Sigma initiative at every level of an organization. HR professionals can help the company management to find the right people for Black Belt roles and ensure that they remain in those positions even after some years. For this, an HR professional needs to create a competency model that will help them to identify the right candidates who have the required skills and knowledge. Not only that, an HR should create a strong retention policy so that the Black belts can stay with the company.
• Rewards and recognition: Rewarding and recognizing Black Belts and other Six Sigma team members is a very complicated job. This is because the people selected for the six sigma are of every rank and order of the organization. So, an HR should handle this issue very carefully and strategically. An efficient HR should design the compensation and rewards in such a way that every team members will get motivated to take on further six sigma projects. Along with the monetary rewards, the HR should develop a non-monetary programme for the team members.
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• Knowledge management: When you are planning to implement Six Sigma on various projects, at that time, business processes are examined on a microscopic level, and their productivity is analysed on a numerical basis. If there is no data management, then the valuable and relevant information about the company will lose. The learning process needs to be collated and disseminated within the organization. The Hr team can become the prime knowledge resource centre which can enhance business capabilities.
• Can create a Six Sigma culture: Many top-level managers and leaders think that Six Sigma is a way which can change an organization’s culture and can make it more data-driven, proactive, and customer-oriented. HR professionals can help the executives for culture change in such a way that addresses the underlying business goals without creating organizational resistance. They can identify how Six Sigma can go well with the present culture rather than against the current trend.
• Change management: When a company plans to implement Six Sigma in their process, then many management procedures need to be overhauled. This can lead to a change in management thinking, working pattern and attitudes. It is true that a change can bring a lot of organizational resistance. In this context, the HR should play the role of a change agent and become the catalyst for change from old to new business trends.

These are some core roles of an HR in Six Sigma initiative. But the person should be deft and knowledgeable so that he can show Six Sigma executives the value that he can add to an organization.

Six Sigma has penetrated in the market in 1980s and it has already created a huge buzz for the manufacturing as well as service industry. Six Sigma has surpassed many other business management tools and has created its own niche in the business field. Though many naysayers are trying to tarnish the image and the usefulness of Six Sigma, still it’s future is very scintillating if you can use it wisely.

Let’s take a look at some of the future promises of Six Sigma

Applications for both large and small organizations: Despite the widespread use and success of Six Sigma on the corporate giant level, the full potential of the program still has not been realized. This is because the process has not been fully utilized by medium and small-sized companies. Though the resources are present within these companies, still they are reluctant to achieve final certification due to a belief that Six Sigma was only meant for large companies. Smaller businesses need to realize that Six Sigma offers the same end results for any size of business, with the main difference being in the volume of business. So, in the future, it can be expected that more and more small organizations will adopt Six Sigma methodologies to improve their efficiency and performance.

Six Sigma holds a better prospect than other TQM: Six Sigma may appear similar to other quality management tools such as TQM or Kaizen Events, but in reality, it is quite different. Other quality management programs often reach a stage after which no further quality improvements can be made. On the other hand, Six Sigma is different as it focuses on taking quality improvement processes to the next level. So, it can be concluded that Six Sigma has the potential to outlast other quality management programs in the future. Thus, the scope and the future of Six Sigma are much bigger than other quality management programs as Six Sigma can be applied to any business process of an organization.

Six Sigma will firmly establish its effectiveness in the market: A lot of companies have observed a great success after Six Sigma implementation. Still, there are controversies over the overall effectiveness of Six Sigma and the opportunities. There are many top-level managers who claimed that the analytical and statistical tools used in Six Sigma only expose flaws in the execution, failing to account for processes which have numerous defects themselves. On the other hand, Six Sigma adherents claimed that Six Sigma has been highly successful as far as the stated goal of reducing all defects. Even Six Sigma has got more preference than TQM because it is seen as a way to provide continuous improvement rather than a one-shot process improvement initiative.

The future of Six Sigma is very bright and dazzling because it continues to be effective in improving processes and helping businesses to get a better ROI and customer satisfaction rating.

Introduced in 1986, Six Sigma has prompted a revolution in how business dealt with quality control and project implementation. Six Sigma is a path-breaking methodology which helps a business to reach the zenith of success. But like everything, this approach has also some upsides and downsides which you should evaluate before implementing this method.

Advantages of Six Sigma

• Proven success: A plethora of statistics has claimed that Six Sigma can uplift a company’s sales volume, stock value, and employee growth if it has been implemented the method properly. An eminent company like GE enjoyed $8 billion in savings during the first three years because it has adopted and used the Six Sigma program wisely.
• Improves customer satisfaction: Six Sigma is driven by the customer and thus, it helps a company to achieve maximum customer satisfaction by minimizing the errors. It targets the customer delight and provides the company with the innovative ways so that it can meet the requirements of the customers.
• Enhance the profit: By implementing Six Sigma methodology, you can uplift your profit and at the same time can reduce the costs. Thus, improvements achieved are directly related to financial results.
• Prevents the errors: It is true that Sigma is a prospective methodology as compared to other quality programs. So, the primary focus of Six Sigma is to prevent the defects rather than fixing it.
• Improves entire business process: It is attentive to the entire business processes and training is integral to the management system where the top-down approach ensures that every good thing is capitalized and every bad thing is quickly removed.

Now, take a look at some of the weaknesses of Six Sigma approach.

Downsides of Six Sigma

• Prevents innovation: Six Sigma gives priority on the rigidity of the process which basically gainsays the innovation, kills and the creativity. The innovative approach implies deviations in production, the redundancy, the unusual solutions, insufficient study which are opposite to Six Sigma principles.
• Expensive: If you are planning to implement Six Sigma approach to your company, then you need to spend a humongous amount. Because you need to provide training to your employees specially related to Six Sigma methods. This training is quite expensive and will burn your pocket.
• Complicated: Six Sigma model requires a significant amount of statistical data gathering and analysis. The process is intricate and time-consuming. That’s why smaller businesses are not very much inclined to this approach because they find it is very complicated to sustain for long periods of time and give up on six sigma as a potential business model for their company.
• Total participation is required: If you want to employ Six Sigma, then the total cooperation of the company is needed. If the entire company is not on board, success is not likely. In large companies, getting the entire staff on the same page can be a difficult process.

These are some strengths and weaknesses of Six Sigma which you should know before implementing this approach for your organization.

The Six Sigma approach has set a new paradigm of excellence in the industrial field and over the past few years, it’s growth is simply astounding. Six Sigma method has been used worldwide to bring about improvements in processes by eradicating all the errors. However, in spite of this factor, there is a chunk of myths that remain about Six Sigma. Let’s take a look at some of the popular myths of Six Sigma approach.

Six Sigma is applicable for big companies only: Most of the people think that the eminent companies like Motorola, Samsung, GE, etc. can get benefitted by implementing Six Sigma approaches in their businesses. But the beauty of Six Sigma is that its utility is not only limited to big companies. Six Sigma principles are equally applicable for the small companies also. Not only small companies, even entrepreneurs can use Six Sigma methodologies to make their business more effective in the long run.

Six Sigma is only for the manufacturing industry: This is another popular myth for Six Sigma. Though the principles of Six Sigma were created in manufacturing, it doesn’t mean that they are not applicable to the other industries. Six Sigma is equally applicable to all the sectors including healthcare, software, banking and insurance, etc. and any company can get benefitted by properly using Six Sigma principles.

Six Sigma is a quality management initiative: Very often, Six Sigma is considered just to be another quality management system which has similarity with TQM. But in reality, both these systems are different. Six Sigma teams generally build up actionable plans which ensure the involvement of everyone, from top management to process owners and operators. In Six Sigma approach, the high-level involvement is required if you want to approach the desired result.

Six Sigma can replace the current system: Many organizations think that Six Sigma can replace their current system, but basically Six Sigma is an initiative, this is not a replacement for the existing system. Six Sigma basically eliminates the waste in processes by removing non-value adding activities, thus leading to improvements to the existing processes. So, by employing Six Sigma approach, a company can achieve the profit on a long-term basis.

Six Sigma is solely data based: Data plays an imperative role in Six Sigma because it shows the ways that need to be improved. But Six Sigma also looks at the customer and reviews, complaints as well as compliments. Six Sigma is basically a systematic approach which is done through analysis and measurements of all the important elements.

Six Sigma experts are statisticians: Very often, Six Sigma experts are considered as statisticians because they need to work with the data. But Six Sigma belts are required to understand and use data and statistics in addition to tools like the fishbone or cause and effect diagrams, quality function deployment and process mapping.

These are popular myths of Six Sigma. When you embark on the path to Six Sigma, you should be open-minded and not pre-judge the process before you learn everything about Six Sigma.

Healthcare industry is one of the valuable and precious industry where everyone wants zero defects. Six Sigma is a programme which aims at improving the overall quality of the business by eliminating all the defects and helps them to achieve their desired result. Six Sigma allows healthcare industry to break through the status quo and achieve real process improvement. By employing six sigma principles, healthcare organizations have improved their service level, minimized costs, improved customer satisfaction, and elevated clinical excellence.

There are a plethora of reasons which can prove that why the healthcare industry needs six sigma. Let’s discuss it with the examples.

Six sigma minimizes patient wait time: The North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset had experienced high wait times in their emergency room. It has been found that a patient needs to wait for 187 minutes to see an emergency room doctor. Most of the people believe that the department was short-staffed. By employing Six Sigma techniques, the hospital was able to determine how patients were progressing through different points of the process. By evaluating the data, they have been found that the delays were caused by the physicians, the registrar on duty, and the batching charts. Six Sigma helps them to find out the root cause and that is not inadequate staff, but the prime reason was an inefficient process. Six Sigma helped them to solve the issue and the wait time was decreased by 37%.

Improves the process: In this healthcare industry, the factors which determine the quality and efficiency are basically the flow of information and interaction between the people. Six Sigma helps a healthcare organization in streamlining the flow of information. The core focus of Six Sigma is to improve the process rather than just concentrating on the task. In this way, an organization gets the scope of improvements. Six Sigma provides all the necessary tools and methodologies which will help a healthcare organization in analyzing and transforming human performance. So, by implementing six sigma, a healthcare organization can improve its performance on a long-term basis.

Reduces medication errors: Very often, a healthcare organization suffers from medication errors which will not only help them to lose their businesses but also tarnishes their brand image. Virtua Health was suffered from the medication management process. They need to manage nearly 70 million Americans with some form of cardiovascular disease. The hospital implemented Six Sigma programme and set the standard for patient chart review. Based on these new standards, they have identified that the errors are associated with the documentation processes. With the help of six sigma methodology, the hospital improved their coordination, enhanced the knowledge of the staff, and initiated a better documentation process.

Where Six Sigma can be applied in the healthcare industry

Below, we are mentioning some of the areas of healthcare where Six Sigma can be applied.

• Purchasing and Supply chain management
• Clinical Research
• Billing, coding, and reimbursement
• Laboratory Efficiency
• Radiology cycle time
• Scheduling
• Patient Education
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• Emergency department patient flow
• Referral authorization

These are some ways where six sigma can be used and implemented in the healthcare industry. The healthcare experts should try to integrate some new methods into the six sigma process to improve effectiveness. So, it can be concluded that indubitably six sigma is a realistic goal in the healthcare industry.