What CIOs and CTOs need to know about Lean Six Sigma?

Indubitably, information technology has transformed the way businesses undertake, manage and measure their processes and work output. However, when it comes to aligning IT systems to suit the project requirements of Lean Six Sigma implementations, most businesses fail to achieve the desired results. The CIOs and CTOs are responsible for all the managerial operations but very often they used to face a chunk of issues from corporate realignment to growth to dwindling budgets. Though they have a knowledge of Lean Six Sigma, they fail to understand its importance and benefits. They believe that the implementations of Lean Six Sigma will be an unnecessary effort and thus, they try to convince the top management to forego or waive the implementations.

But if they follow such conservative approaches for the businesses, then it would be very difficult for them to survive in this competitive world. Here, we are mentioning some of the common misconceptions regarding Lean Six Sigma that today’s CIOs and CTOs have and what are the realities.

Need to spend a chunk of money for Lean Six Sigma implementation: This is one of the most common misconceptions that a company needs to invest a humongous amount for Lean Six Sigma implementation. Though an organization needs to expand its budgetary allocations, still the additional funds required would never exceed beyond a level so that an organization can’t manage it. This is something that most CIOs and CTOs fail to understand. According to them, such implementations will lead to a resource crunch situation and this can create a negative impact on the company’s production targets and also tarnish the overall quality. But they often forget that Lean Six Sigma implementations are carried out according to a detailed plan. This plan is designed in close consultations with the production department. So, this will hardly create a negative impact on the production.

Required experienced people: This is another misconception that today’s CIOs and CTOs have. They often think that they need Six Sigma professionals like Greenbelt, Black belt, etc. to implement Lean Six Sigma approaches. But every organization have limited funds and thus, they can’t afford them. Fortunately, there is an alternative to this which CIOs and CTOs need to understand. These days, professional Six Sigma and Lean Six Sigma training are available at a moderate rate, so that can train their own employees who will help the organization in Six Sigma implementation. The CIOs and CTOs should consider in-house Six Sigma training to achieve the main objectives.

This is not a quick fix or solution: These days, most of the organizations are hungry for a quick fix for their problems. But they need to understand the implementation of Lean Six Sigma and Six Sigma is a time-consuming process and they can’t give a solution on a quicker basis. So, these approaches are ideal for the long-term basis and thus, you need to keep patience.

Many companies are getting benefited from Lean Six Sigma approaches. Today’s CIOs and CTOs should consider the long-term goals and objectives of the company. That’s why they should keep faith in Lean Six Sigma implementation rather than contesting it.

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