Managing a business entails a wide variety of responsibilities and project managers have to be up to the task. Fortunately, there are Business Process Management technologies in place to help processes run more smoothly. However, Six Sigma does more than just help processes run more smoothly. Six Sigma is a methodology. It allows for continuous of improvement of processes, on a project-by-project basis.
Implementing Six Sigma into your business takes a high level of commitment, because it does not go project-to-project. There needs to be 100% commitment from all levels of management, especially upper management. Six Sigma is intended to be a methodology that is implemented throughout the entire organization, and without full support from the very top of the management chain down, the resistance to the change that is inevitable in any organization will triumph and Six Sigma will just be another business management project that had limited success.
What Makes Six Sigma Truly Different
Six Sigma is truly different from the average BPM technology because it is a methodology and a program of mentorship that begins with top management and funnels down to the people who really make things happen in an organization. With the full support of upper management, business managers are able to support their own teams of managers to learn and implement the Six Sigma technology.
There is intensive training involved prior to the deployment of Six Sigma and through out the process. Six Sigma likens the leaders of the implementation process to the belt levels in martial arts, because to implement Six Sigma properly requires dedication and training to ensure success. Greenbelts are those who have undergone two weeks of training in the Six Sigma methodology. Blackbelts undergo four weeks of training and they are able to oversee the Greenbelts. Then, the Master Blackbelt is highly trained to be the Six Sigma program manager for the entire organization. There is a chain of mentorship from top to bottom that will ensure that the deployment goes smoothly and that there is continued success with the program. In fact, deployment does not even begin until the appropriate people are trained to the Greenbelt level.
The business leaders become the Champions, and are there to support the Master Blackbelts. One key with Six Sigma is that the Champion does not just sit back and take a passive role. They are concerned with how the processes are managed. They are concerned with the method of implementation, not just the end results. And this is how Six Sigma intends it to be. They want to create a BPM that is designed from the needs of the business, by the Champions, based on hard numbers.
Six Sigma Methods
Six Sigma has two unique methods through which their product is deployed. The first one is called DMAIC – Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, and Control. This is ideal if a business has an undefined problem within existing products, services, or processes. The second is DFSS – Design for Six Sigma. DFSS is still in the developmental stage. The aim of DFSS is to create a new product, service, or process that is defect-free in the eyes of the customer.
An organization determines its objectives in terms of numerical value to the company and then they take this information and the method they have chosen to the training table where the belt trainees will use these to amass knowledge and learn to put these objectives and methods into deployment.
Summary
Six Sigma's client list speaks volumes for the effectiveness of the Six Sigma method. These clients include Honeywell, Sears, GE, 3M, Home Depot, the Bank of America, and JPMorgan Chase. Six Sigma is also moving into the public and health care sectors.
Six Sigma is not a company that moves in and takes charge, deploying BPM technology based on what they see as the needs of the business. Instead, they allow the business leaders to tell them what they need Six Sigma to do and they essentially design Six Sigma to tailor fit the needs of their business. Not only do the allow this approach, but they train the business leaders and the staff of the company in the knowledge they need to see what needs to be done. Only then is Six Sigma deployed.
Business Process Management The Third Wave
Companies have taken length of time in acknowledging the challenges after realizing that the old ways of managing infrastructure won't get them where they need to go. Their infrastructure is best left to the third-parties as they often come to the conclusion ultimately. Over the years, there have been three essential waves of IT infrastructure outsourcing:
-Cost-driven outsourcing
-Competency-driven outsourcing
-Predictive and process-driven outsourcing
The first wave was chiefly to do with the cost. This wave covers payroll and transaction processing comes in back office operating process. Companies have grasped the understanding that they could reduce back-office operating costs by turning to service providers who could arrange their own infrastructure.
The second wave has taken place in the early 1990s at the apex of re-engineering. It was concerned with making of greatest use of the core capabilities or competencies. The outsourcing options available to them continue to require labor-intensive and relatively unproductive solutions. While resumes were often scrutinized, little heed was paid to introducing new, more productive approaches to infrastructure management.
The third wave was actually formed in the late 1990s. There was a shift towards predictive and proactive infrastructure management in areas such as network support, messaging and help desk management. The newest areas that are being targeted for this kind of approach are security and database administration. As the operational demands of enterprise IT infrastructure increases, gains associated with low-cost labor in the short-run can't be maintained over time.
The moot question is whether companies will attempt to continue to deal with these infrastructure challenges on their own or whether they will make a move to specialized service providers. The prior waves of outsourcing were based on asset shifting or global labor arbitrage, whereas third wave players base their businesses on systematized processes and IT automation.
One national retailer turned towards its financial fortunes which had let the company to work on very thin margins and to better manage its data assets.
Another large Midwestern research hospital has developed a service-oriented architecture to unite both clinical and research sides of the enterprise. IT infrastructure comes together at the point of patient care to enable hospital to securely manage their huge amounts of patient data and provide higher levels of service.
If companies are looking forward for these benefits of infrastructure outsourcing, they must seek to partners which will not only address the concerns of cost and core competency, but process automation and improvement as well.
Both Peter Peterka & Bharat Jain are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
Peter Peterka has sinced written about articles on various topics from Six Sigma, Leadership and Six Sigma. Peter Peterka is President of us. For additional information on
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