Six Sigma and its avant-garde application in the retail industry

Over the past few years, you have seen an unparalleled growth in the field of the retail sector. The retail sector also involves a chunk of operations that bring a product from the supplier’s warehouse to the customer’s cart. So, you can improve each and every stage of a process in a retail company by prudently implementing Six Sigma methodologies. Six Sigma in the retail industry is highly successful and is growing rapidly.

Let’s take a look at how can Six Sigma benefits the retail industry.

Know your customer in a better way: Let’s consider the example of McDonald’s Milkshake story. Rather trying to focus on the product, McDonald’s focus more on what their customers are looking for? They found that most people would like to have a milkshake in the morning to get rid of the boredom and it also helps them to control their hunger till lunch. Based on this story, McDonald’s adjusted their product and they marketed their products to the right customers. Basically, Six Sigma helps them to understand the customers’ desire with the help of various tools like the Kano Model. The businesses which ignore their customers may face a huge loss in the future. According to research which is conducted by Deloitte & Touche, customer-centric businesses are 60% more profitable compared to those that do not focus on building customer relationships.

Improves the quality and services of a product: These days, the customers are very demanding and freaky and they want high-quality either in products or services. Untimely services and low-quality products can disappoint customers. And they will shift their interest to your competitors and thus, the decline in profits. With the help of various Six Sigma tools, a retail business can implement statistical methods to turn data into high-quality products and services.

Better checkout process: If your customers are not happy with the checkout process, then they will divert their interest and focus. Some important parts that are associated with this process are engaging with customers, predict the demand, collect the information effectively, provide a personalized service, and customer satisfaction. By using Six Sigma tools like value stream analysis, Lean principles, analysis of store data, etc., you can solve the problems by focusing on your customers.

Cut the wastes: Six Sigma plays an imperative role in cutting the wastes. The eight areas of waste which you can eliminate by using Six Sigma are motion, waiting, unused employee talent, managing inventory, defects, overproduction, transportation, and non-value adding processing. The retail operations have many moving parts and thus, the challenges can arise in a wide variety of areas. By employing Six Sigma strategies wisely you can conquer all these challenges.

Helps in the documentation: Data and documentation are an integral part of the retail industry. If you want to run your business smoothly, then impeccable and flawless documentation are needed. Six Sigma tools help you to improve the fundamentals of data collection and analysis. Hence, your entire business gets benefitted from Six Sigma principles.

These are some ways where Six Sigma methodologies can get leveraged with the retail sector. So, you may conclude that Six Sigma in the retail industry can diminish the chances of variations, errors or faults and greatly increases sales and profits.

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