5S is a quality control technique of Lean that can improve productivity and reduce waste in a multitude of industries. The 5S technique was created in Japan and involves five Japanese words such as Seiri, Seiton, Seiso, Seiketsu, and Shitsuke. Seiri means separating the good and necessary tools and instructions from the useless ones to remove the latter. Seiton means arranging tools and instructions in such a manner that they are easy to use and find whenever they are needed. Seiso stands for clean-up campaigns, and Seiketsu stands for daily repetition of the three previous S’ to improve the workplace. Shitsuke resembles the creation of a culture in which all the other S’ are performed permanently with precision. Lean 5S principles can apply to the retail industry and improve the business.

Sorting

The first principle of Lean 5S that can be applied to the retail industry is Seiri, or Sort as it translates to in English. The retail application of this principle to both merchandise and fixtures, and involves sorting out items and tools that are useful from the tools that are not. In this way, a company can eliminate the useless items and keep their storages and work areas clean. The useless or not essential tools can be kept temporarily in other rooms until they need to be used.

Straighten

The second principle involves the creation of a storage area where needed items can stay. Retails should determine the perfect location for each tool so that it can be reached easily when it is required. Retails can tag or paint each tool and put them near others that do similar jobs or processes.

Cleaning

Cleaning is an important aspect of maintaining a retail store. It is an activity that forms the first impression to customers and clean places attract more customers. Systematic cleaning also means taking good care of the tools and equipment that are used. Cleaning should be done every day and to make the place shine the tools or equipment that are not working should be immediately repaired or replaced so that nothing remains obsolete.

Standardize

Standardizing means analyzing the processes and activities at the business to identify which work properly and increase productivity. This can help retails remove the processes and practices that no longer suit them and do not enhance the services provided. Retails can involve in this process all the participants at the firm as everyone can contribute toward creating better standard practices. Also, by collaborating with people that actually perform these tasks, firms can pinpoint easier what is working and what is not. One strategy that can be implemented to identify the working tasks is to make daily checklists to see if the requirements are being met.

Sustain

The final principle of Lean 5S involves checking if the other processes work properly, and repairing or replacing them if not. Lean 5S can help retails improve their business and productivity which results in increased revenues and more customers.

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Kaizen is a Japanese philosophical concept and Lean manufacturing tool which believes that processes can always change for the better and there are no limits to how much they can improve. Translated from Japanese, the word Kaizen is made up of two words, kai which means good, and zen which means change. Although the term and philosophy were designed to serve business and company services or products, it can also enable people to improve themselves and evolve.

1. Getting Started

To start growing and improving, the Kaizen philosophy reveals that a person only has to start doing something. That means that one step a day is infinitely better than no steps a day and that growth may eventually come out of just one simple effort made every day. This speaks about the power of habits and the power of daily activities as they are the ones that really turn things around and can shape a human being. For example, if a person wants to be more physically active, they can walk or run each day for 5minutes and when they feel prepared they can increase the amount of time. The same goes for people that want to write a book, one sentence or two per day are better than only imagining and thinking about doing something.

2. Simple Math

Daily improvement is achievable as the Kaizen philosophy teaches people that if they grow and improve with 1.01% percent every day, they will be up to 38 times better by the end of the year. Slow and steady wins the race as it is also showcased in the story of the hare and tortoise. The hare may be fast and can run 100 times faster than the tortoise but the resilience and steady progress of the tortoise eventually outruns the hare as they avoid tiredness and exhaust.

Another simple comparison can be done with normal habits and activities such as brushing teeth, while it may not change much in a person’s life, it sure as hell keeps dental health problems away.

3. Continuous and Infinite Improvement

One thing that Kaizen can teach people is that improvement is infinite and that there’s never a time when something or someone cannot further improve. This can keep people engaged and never let go of the healthy activities as success is a long ladder and falling from it is fairly simple. This means that even if a person improves nearly every day, they can still fail and fall as improvement should be a daily habit and one day of stoppage can mean very much, especially in the beginning.

4. Eliminating Bad Habits

Improving continuously means letting go of everything that is stopping the improvement. This means that to fully grow as a person and human being, a person should identify shat’s stopping them from achieving a certain objective. After eliminating the objective, a person can try and visualize what they have to do to improve and reach their target in detail and small steps that can be followed every day.

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Optimizing any process should start with a careful, critical look at its weaknesses. If you put your mind to it, you can probably identify many issues with pretty much every aspect of your organization. And when it comes to customer service, there is no shortage of things that can go wrong. What’s worse though, is that it can sometimes be very difficult to know that you have a problem.

Customers might be reluctant to speak up if they have issues with your services, and even when they do, you can’t trust the accuracy of the information. It will always be presented through a certain perspective that might not be completely aligned with the truth.

Placing Data Collection Points in the Right Places

Identifying weak points in your customer service should start with appropriate data collection practices. Data is all around us, and it’s important to harness it properly if you want to see good results in your operations. We’re more capable than ever to analyze the things that we work with and to identify interesting patterns in them. And it’s in your best interest to start collecting data from as early as possible.

At the same time, if you don’t know where exactly to place those data collection points, you risk generating a lot of noise. Just because certain data exists doesn’t mean that it has to be necessarily captured, and you’re going to have to develop a filter for the right kinds of data that you should be focusing on.

What Is a Weakness in Customer Service?

You might also discover that you’re not completely aware of the exact issues that can arise in customer service in the first place. This is especially true if you’ve never paid any serious attention to your company’s performance in this regard, and if you’ve just recently started to look for weaknesses, it can be difficult to filter out the good points from the bad.

It’s also highly individual, which is another problem that many companies face. You can’t simply follow what others are saying in this regard, and you have to pay attention to the individual needs of your own customers and organizational structure. A weakness in your company will not look the same in another context, and this can make it difficult to identify them correctly.

Addressing Shortcomings

Once you’ve identified the points that need work, you’ll obviously also have to think about how you’re going to address them. There are many ways to deal with the various kinds of issues you might experience on the customer service front. Improving the speed at which you deliver certain services is one of the best things you could do, but it’s far from the only one.

You should also communicate directly with your customers if you want to improve your results in this regard. You will never know if you’re making the right kinds of changes unless you actively seek out feedback from your users. They might sometimes be reluctant to provide it, and it’s important to give them the right kind of motivation if you want to see good results.

Gathering Internal Feedback

Feedback can also come from the inside, and that’s another important point that you should pay attention to. Your own employees will likely have a thing or two to say about the way you’re approaching your customer service, and you should not disregard their opinions, just because they’re not actual customers. Pay special attention to those who’re at the forefront of dealing with the issues of your users, because they will often have the most interesting insights into your situation.

With enough practice, you’re going to learn to spot weak points in your customer service very quickly. And while it can take some time to develop this kind of sense, it’s going to benefit you a lot in the long run when you’re trying to improve the quality of your operations. Because in the end, the way you’re dealing with the issues of your customers is going to be the main defining factor in the success of your company. Keep that in mind at every step, and you’re going to see good results sooner or later.

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The Growing Importance of Customer Service

Customer service has always been at the center of many companies’ work, but it was not until recently that we started to truly comprehend its important in the grand scheme of things. As a result, many companies have started to completely change their approach to servicing their clients, and various new trends have cropped up on this market as a result. It’s not only interesting to follow those developments but important too if you want to see your company growing properly in the long run.

Markets Are Changing Fast

A lot has happened on the general market in the last few years, and we’re probably just seeing the tip of the iceberg too. Various developments are coming up on the horizon that could have major implications on the way the market will work in the future.

Customers now demand faster, more precise and personalized services, and this demand will likely only continue to grow in the coming years. It’s especially problematic when you consider certain sectors that did not have practices of immediate response rooted into their work, but have had to rearrange that in the last years.

The Internet Has Improved a Lot on Both Sides

Still, the advance of the internet into our lives has changed a lot, and it’s enabled companies to be even better and more precise in the services that they deliver. There have been various improvements for both users as well as the companies themselves.

While people are now able to find information that’s relevant to them more easily and filter it for the things that they truly need, companies can also use these technologies to provide a more direct, personal approach to their customer support. And the fact that it’s now completely reasonable to expect the average person to be constantly connected to the internet and aware of the important trends online has been very helpful as well. As a whole, the situation is moving in the right direction for both companies and their clients.

Immediate Service

The rise of the on-demand market is also hard to ignore. People are now used to getting their hands on their newly purchased products and services much faster and without any intermediate hassle. Streamlining these processes has become the main activity of a large number of companies, and many of them have already started to see remarkable results in this regard. But it will likely take some time before immediate services start to become truly commonplace on the market.

Until then, it’s still important to work hard on evolving your services in this direction, and ensuring that you’re able to provide your customers with an immediate response to their queries. It will not only save time in your support it will play a huge role in improving the impressions people have of your business.

Outsourcing or Expanding?

Outsourcing customer support services is becoming increasingly commonplace for many companies. It’s easy to see why too it can significantly optimize the way a company utilizes its resources and can open up various new possibilities for them in their regular work. At the same time, outsourcing customer support comes with an inherent cost you’re sacrificing some of the control over the process. Consider carefully if that’s worth it in your specific circumstances.

But the benefits of outsourcing are hard to ignore as well. You will get access to much faster, more competent service providers who know exactly what your customers expect to get from their support inquiries and know-how to deliver the right answers. This is something that you can develop internally as well, sure but it will take a lot of time and effort to get there, and outsourcing is a great shortcut through all that.

Make sure that you measure your progress as much as possible as well. It can be difficult to know that you’re moving in the right direction sometimes. Unless you’re actually measuring your data and confirming that you’re hitting the right milestones, you might have some serious misconceptions about how well you’re doing at the moment. There’s a reason why some companies put so much focus on their data collection practices, and it’s not a bad idea for you to consider that as well.

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4 Concepts of Six Sigma That Can Help You Achieve Your Objectives at Work

Trying to achieve your objectives at work without a proper roadmap or plan in place is pure insanity. This is the same as going into a battle expect to emerge victorious without taking any weapons with you.

There are 4 concepts of Six Sigma that will help you emerge victorious in battle and this article will talk about them. Not only can these concepts be used to make improvements in how a person works, but they can also be used to achieve personal objectives as well.

1. Have a clear picture of the necessary improvement you need to make

When you say to yourself that you want things to be better this year, just simply saying it won’t cut the mustard. Some tough questions need to be asked like what areas do you want to improve? You have to set a realistic goal that has a starting point as well as an end.

If you are working in an organization, do you want to increase revenue? If you are very specific with what you want to achieve, you give yourself a big chance of achieving your objectives.

2. Don’t have a tunnel vision, expand your mind

There is a very famous expression that says knowledge is power and for anyone who wants to achieve their objective, having a tunnel vision doesn’t help. It means that you won’t be able to see the bigger picture and by expanding your line of sight, one is able to gain more knowledge.

If you are running a successful business, you should be able to measure things like labor cost, revenue as well as customer satisfaction metrics. If the goal of the business at the end of every year is to make more profits than previous years, you need to be in a position to evaluate all the things that will make you achieve that objective.

This includes things like offering customers good quality service, retaining existing customers and offering them discounts on products or services.No matter the chosen method, it has to be broken down into factor that will drive you to get the results you are looking for.

3. Make sure everything is put in a logical way or manner

Take ATM machines, for example, their main purpose is to give customers money after they have made a withdraw. When a large number of withdrawals are made in a day or the money runs out, the bank moves quickly to put the money back.

This is the same approach one needs to have to achieve their objectives. Just like how things move smoothly with the bank, one has to aim to follow suit and make sure everything is done in a logical way. Applying six sigma gives you the biggest chance to achieve your objectives.

4. Reduce any waste that’s in the way

A major goal of Six Sigma as a method is to cut downtime that is wasted while trying to achieve your objectives. When waste is reduced, you will notice that the way that things are done in your organization will speed up. It is used to make things better with the help of what is known as the 5S.

• Sort – Look around the workplace to see if everything is ok and if something is off, dispose of it very quickly.
• Set in order – When that is dealt with, look at what you have left and place each item in its place.
• Shine – This involves systematically cleaning the space you have whether on a weekly, daily or even monthly basis. If you are low on stock, make sure you restock because the two goals in this step are to keep things clean and have a clear view of inventory.
• Standardize – You have to make sure that you put things where they belong after using them while making sure that work colleagues do the same.
• Sustain – Make sure that you schedule a 5S review all the time so that it comes naturally to everyone.

Conclusion

The 4 concepts of six sigma when used well will easily help achieve your objectives at work because you will go into things prepared. Going back to the analogy of going into a battle expect to emerge victorious without taking any weapons with you, Six Sigma ensure you are armed and ready for battle.

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Customer Service and Six Sigma The Fundamental Link

With all the talk about Six Sigma and its benefits for various organizations in the last few years, it’s important to understand its implications on some specific areas, like customer service. There is a lot to gain from optimizing your processes with the help of Six Sigma methodologies, and if you’ve never put any thought into streamlining your customer services before, you have a lot to gain.

Keep in mind that this is a gradual process though, and it’s going to take a while before you see proper results. But as long as you’re persistent and keep your eye on the prize, you should be able to leverage the potential of Six Sigma for some pretty impressive results.

Modern Customer Service Requirements

The requirements for customer service have changed a lot in recent years, and they are quite different today from what they used to be in the past. Various new trends have come up on the market, and all of them have to be addressed carefully if you want to ensure that you’ll stay relevant to your customers. For example, you will often have to think about improving the speed at which you provide that service, or give your customers alternative options for getting through to your support.

Companies have started to experiment with some interesting approaches to improving their customer service in this regard, but many have realized that Six Sigma is one of the best ways to go about that.

The Evolution of Six Sigma

Six Sigma itself is not static far from it. It’s gone through some serious development in recent years, and it looks quite a bit different today from what it used to. That said, the core principles remain the same, and it’s still a great tool for optimizing and streamlining processes. One thing that Six Sigma does especially well these days is wrangling processes with lots of unknowns in them.

That’s because the system is more universal and developed to be used in a broader set of circumstances. A lot of effort has been put into this specific aspect of it in recent years, and we’re already seeing some great result.

Connecting the Dots

Putting everything together, it’s easy to see why Six Sigma enjoys so much popularity among companies looking to improve their service quality and to connect better to their customers. It’s a great methodology for optimizing an arbitrary system, and considering the complexity of your typical customer service situation, it’s a perfect fit for addressing some of the common problems in this area as well.

You have to be careful though you will need an experienced approach for this. Six Sigma is a complex field in itself, and applying it incorrectly can easily backfire on your operations if you’re not prepared. Make sure that you’re aware of the implications of utilizing Six Sigma in your workflow fully, and only work with specialists when you’re trying to integrate it into your own company.

Anticipating the Future

A lot can happen in the future, especially judging by the current state of the market. And while it’s impossible to predict tomorrow with complete accuracy, you can certainly pay attention to the way some trends are evolving and establishing a position on the market. When it comes to customer service, the trends are already pretty obvious, and it’s just a matter of following them and integrating them into your own workflow correctly. And with the help of Six Sigma, you can focus on the aspects of that workflow that truly matter in the end. It will likely take some time, but you’ll eventually be in a situation where you’re completely prepared for the developments of tomorrow.

The link between Six Sigma and customer service is starting to become more and more obvious, and many companies have started to realize this recently. If you want to be at the forefront of these developments, you should take some time to study what Six Sigma has to offer, and how it can be integrated into your own workflow. You’ll likely quickly come to the realization that it carries more benefits than you can initially see on the surface, and you’ll find many ways to integrate it into your company’s work.

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Developing Proper Relations with Your Customers

Some entrepreneurs underestimate the importance of developing the right kinds of relations with their customers. And in the end, this only comes back to bite them at some point when they realize that they’ve undermined a significant portion of their company’s potential. Developing those relationships is like a fine dance, and you have to be very careful in the moves you’re making on your end.

But if you do this right, it can benefit you a lot in the long run. There’s no substitute for having good relations with your customers, and if you apply the right techniques to those situations, you can see some significant improvements in the future.

It Starts Slowly

You have to be patient. Developing good relations with your customers is a time-consuming process, especially at first when there’s little trust on both sides. You have to give them some space to determine whether they are actually interested in working with you. On the other hand, you have to also make sure that anything you do is aligned with the idea of improving those relationships in the long run.

Small things can matter a lot in this regard. Don’t underestimate the potential of random acts of kindness, especially if you want to ensure that your customers will keep coming back to you after checking out your business once. And once the pace has picked up, you’ll find that every small action can contribute a lot to the grand scheme of things.

Anticipating Needs

Sometimes customers themselves won’t know what they need. This is completely normal, and it’s up to you to address that problem by helping them make the right choice. This can be done in various different ways, but using modern AI technology to its full potential is probably one of the most effective approaches. You can get a lot out of trying to anticipate your customers’ needs with the help of advanced analytical tools, and you can potentially learn various important details about the way your organization works in the long run as well.

Keep in mind that you’re also going to need the right underlying system for actually acting on those needs once you’ve discovered what they are. This is an important detail that sometimes gets overlooked. But it doesn’t make much sense to be talking about addressing problems when you don’t have the capacity for that in the first place.

Gathering Feedback

It should go without saying that you aren’t going to get very far without the ability to gather enough feedback and to analyze it appropriately. You can learn a lot from what your customers have to say, but sometimes their feedback will also generate a lot of noise that you’ll have to learn to avoid. This is also something that can largely be addressed with the help of modern solutions.

But on the other hand, you can also learn to spot these invalid comments on your own, and this can go a long way towards helping you improve the quality of your customer service, and connecting to your customers on a deeper level.

Opportunities for Improvement

You’ll likely spot various opportunities to make things better here and there. You should take your time and plan your approach for each of them carefully though because you can waste a lot of resources trying to address points that are largely irrelevant to most of your users. The best approach is to figure out exactly what your customers want, and improve on those areas. This might sound obvious, but there is no shortage of companies that are following a more brute-force approach in these situations.

The more effort you put into this, the more it’s going to pay off in the long run. Improving customer relations is not just about making your current customers happy. It can also have some great results on your operations in the long run, generating more traffic as word starts to spread. People love to comment on positive experiences they’ve had with businesses, and you’re going to get a lot of exposure by just ensuring that you’re doing things right when working with your customers. All the initial effort will be more than worth it once you get the final results.

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4 Concepts of Six Sigma That Can Help You Achieve Your Objectives at Work

Trying to achieve your objectives at work without a proper roadmap or plan in place is pure insanity. This is the same as going into a battle expect to emerge victorious without taking any weapons with you.

There are 4 concepts of Six Sigma that will help you emerge victorious in battle and this article will talk about them. Not only can these concepts be used to make improvements in how a person works, but they can also be used to achieve personal objectives as well.

1. Have a clear picture of the necessary improvement you need to make

When you say to yourself that you want things to be better this year, just simply saying it won’t cut the mustard. Some tough questions need to be asked like what areas do you want to improve? You have to set a realistic goal that has a starting point as well as an end.

If you are working in an organization, do you want to increase revenue? If you are very specific with what you want to achieve, you give yourself a big chance of achieving your objectives.

2. Don’t have a tunnel vision, expand your mind

There is a very famous expression that says knowledge is power and for anyone who wants to achieve their objective, having a tunnel vision doesn’t help. It means that you won’t be able to see the bigger picture and by expanding your line of sight, one is able to gain more knowledge.

If you are running a successful business, you should be able to measure things like labor cost, revenue as well as customer satisfaction metrics. If the goal of the business at the end of every year is to make more profits than previous years, you need to be in a position to evaluate all the things that will make you achieve that objective.

This includes things like offering customers good quality service, retaining existing customers and offering them discounts on products or services.No matter the chosen method, it has to be broken down into factor that will drive you to get the results you are looking for.

3. Make sure everything is put in a logical way or manner

Take ATM machines, for example, their main purpose is to give customers money after they have made a withdraw. When a large number of withdrawals are made in a day or the money runs out, the bank moves quickly to put the money back.

This is the same approach one needs to have to achieve their objectives. Just like how things move smoothly with the bank, one has to aim to follow suit and make sure everything is done in a logical way. Applying six sigma gives you the biggest chance to achieve your objectives.

4. Reduce any waste that’s in the way

A major goal of Six Sigma as a method is to cut downtime that is wasted while trying to achieve your objectives. When waste is reduced, you will notice that the way that things are done in your organization will speed up. It is used to make things better with the help of what is known as the 5S.

• Sort – Look around the workplace to see if everything is ok and if something is off, dispose of it very quickly.
• Set in order – When that is dealt with, look at what you have left and place each item in its place.
• Shine – This involves systematically cleaning the space you have whether on a weekly, daily or even monthly basis. If you are low on stock, make sure you restock because the two goals in this step are to keep things clean and have a clear view of inventory.
• Standardize – You have to make sure that you put things where they belong after using them while making sure that work colleagues do the same.
• Sustain – Make sure that you schedule a 5S review all the time so that it comes naturally to everyone.

Conclusion

The 4 concepts of six sigma when used well will easily help achieve your objectives at work because you will go into things prepared. Going back to the analogy of going into a battle expect to emerge victorious without taking any weapons with you, Six Sigma ensure you are armed and ready for battle.

The post 4 Concepts of Six Sigma That Can Help You Achieve Your Objectives at Work appeared first on OpEx Learning Resources.

How to Build Relationships With the Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing Model

The Forming, storming, norming, performing model was created by Tuckman and it is a concept that is used by many Six Sigma professionals across the world. They use it to predict as well as explain how their team is performing. Each of the 4 steps plays a massive role in team development.

How is this model applied to build relationships on an organization

1. Forming

This is the first stage and it is where people in a team are getting used to each other as well as the idea of working together. The team is still in its teething stage and are yet to establish any level of cohesion. As a team leader, you might notice that the team will not respond as expected and will need to be motivated.

This comes with the territory when it comes to dealing with teams, members will need to be pushed and inspired to work together. Being a team leader of a team that is forming is not easy, however, you can deal with things by giving the members space and time to settle, introduce them to one another and not delve into any important details from the get-go.

2. Storming

The step that follows forming is storming and when this stage rolls around, the team members know each other a bit better and take the first few steps towards working as a unit. As the members all start to understand each other pros and cons, there will be conflicts, egos will be hurt, communication breakdown and tempers flarings.

When you are leading a group of people, you have to anticipate these things as it is inevitable when a group of people are told to work together in a team. To calm the storm, as a team leader you need to know what everyone brings to the table in terms of their strengths and weaknesses.

When you fully understand the good and the bad of each person, it is time to educate them.  Lead by example and help them understand the importance of tolerance and encourage them to settle conflicts in a civil way.

3. Norming

Acceptance is very important when it comes to this stage and team members here start to accept, encourage and tolerate one another. The team even goes as far as encouraging the behavior and thought of each other because they are all aligned to a common goal.

The realization that they are in it together makes the contribute wholeheartedly to make the team better. During the norming stage, it is important for a team leader to have a good feedback system where thoughts are discussed openly and everyone feels important.

Team members need to know their roles by having defined roles assigned to them by the leaders as well as promoting a culture that encourages the team to think outside the box. If a team is given a level of freedom to think outside the box, they are able to come up with diverse ideas to deal with any work-related problems.

4. Performing

Performing is the final stage and it is where the team starts to carry out their duties and are able to achieve goals without being supervised.all the members are motivated to do well, are very created and knowledgeable.

In order to see massive success during this stage, leaders need to take a back seat and not monitor and control their team constantly. It allows them to stand on their two feet makes them feel valued and will do everything they can to perform tasks assigned to them properly.

Conclusion

It is important to remember that Six Sigma is not just a method, it is a state of mind as well. When all the four steps above are followed religiously, one will be able to create a team that pulls in the same direction and deals with conflicts in a civilized way when they arise. The principles of this model should act as a building block for success.

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Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, Control is better known by its acronym DMAIC and this is a 5 phase problem-solving technique that is part of Six Sigma. DMAIC allows management in an organization to plan their projects well in advance and have a series of steps that will help things go smoothly.

DMAIC history

When Motorola came up with Six Sigma, DMAIC was not part of the original concept way back in the 1980s. They called it Six-Step to Six Sigma back then and the steps included

• Highlight the service or product being provided
• Know who the customers are and what matters to them
• Highlight the things needed to provide them with good service
• Know the process needed to get the job done
• Make improvements while eliminating anything that brings about waste
• Always seek to improve all the time by controlling, analyzing and measuring

While the steps above do have similarities to the process of DMAIC, it is clear to see that it is a very important component of Six Sigma. This method has played an important role in helping organizations across the world maximize their production, improve what they offer to customers and most importantly, achieve long term results.

Advantages of DMAIC

1. Increase revenue

When an organization manages to cut out production processes that are not needed thanks to DMAIC, they will experience high levels of production. When production is increased, mistakes are few which brings in plenty of profits

2. Reduction in cost

An organization that is not on top of things will not realize the number of resources and time they are wasting until it’s too late. The process of DMAIC helps an organization to reduce wasted resources and time which ultimately saves them plenty of money long term.

3. Max production

The main reason why organizations use Six Sigma is to reduce cost and this will increase how much an organization produces because they are able to use fewer resources.

How does the process of DMAIC help an organization maximize production

1. Define

During this very important phase, an organization has to ask themselves some very crucial questions like what are the flaws in the production process and what how have any problems affected business operations.

When these two key questions have been properly addressed, an organization can define its goals and make sure their production process is effective. They do this by looking at all their available resources and formulate a plan.

2. Measurement

An organization here needs to look at their production system and see what’s working and what isn’t. When everything is measured up, an organization is able to know what the root cause of their production problem is and start looking for ways to solve it. Having a data collection plan is very useful when conducting this phase.

3. Analysis

During this phase, an organization needs to analyze what they have gathered during the measurement phase about their production process. When data is analyzed by the management, an organization is able to narrow down the cause of their production problems and figure out ways to maximize things.

4. Improvement

When the production problem is well understood by everyone, it is time for everyone in the organization to start brainstorming ideas on how to make things better. This is the stage where an organization tests and implements all their ideas in terms of improving production and makes any changes if needed.

5. Control

Implementing the chosen solution to the production problem is only the beginning, an organization has to make sure that they maintain it. This is the last stage of the continuous improvement process and it is all about coming up with strategies to maintain high levels of production all the time.

Conclusion

Overall the process of DMAIC is all about improving while making as little mistakes as possible. Six Sigma wouldn’t be the world-renowned model it is today that delivers concrete results if it wasn’t for DMAIC.

It helps businesses find solutions to their problems as it acts as a roadmap. When a business uses DMAIC the right way, their production quality improves and customers, the cost is reduced and revenue is increased.

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The process of Lean Six Sigma helps an organization highlight the 8 main kinds of waste that delay or slow down the production process. Finding out what they are and getting rid of them enables an organization to streamline their methods of production and get the best results while saving plenty of time.

1. Waste as a result of defects

This is waste that comes from things like employing low skilled laborers to do a job, poor communication, incorrect information being as well as defective processes. Waste caused by defects can easily be dealt with by having an open line of communication, dealing with the correct information, employing skilled labor and updating equipment or tools used during work.

2. Waste as a result of overproduction

When an organization is overproducing, it simply means they are making more than they should at a fast pace. This causes an inventory mess as they will have a massive pile of stock that isn’t being used. An example of overproduction can be buying a bulk of perishable products and not using them all to a point where some of them rot.

The best way to deal with overproduction is by making sure that there is a balance between supply and demand. This requires the doors of communication to be open as well as an organization making sure that make, purchase and produce products based on accurate estimates.

3. Waste a result of waiting

This is the most common form of waste as it deals with things like waiting for deliverables, at queues or even transport. Waiting causes a great deal of stress and significant delays can make an organization and even people lose revenue. An organization can deal with waiting by hiring private transport for their deliverables and if someone is waiting for output on their co-worker, they can move on to other tasks.

4. Waste as a result of not using talent properly

This is often called the 8th form of waste, in addition to the original 7 developed at Toyota. An organization can have a huge amount of waste on their hands if they don’t use the talents of their team properly. Not performing well in this department brings about what is known as opportunity costs. An organization might choose to retain such talents over upgrading its infrastructure and being competitive in their field. The best way to deal with this is by making sure that every team member knows their jobs and has something they are working on which suits their talents.

5. Waste as a result of transportation

This is brought about by unnecessary placement and movement of materials or people from one place to another. One of the best ways of dealing with transport waste is removing any form of wasteful transportation. If a particular job can be done at home, for example, employees should be allowed to do it there. If a meeting can be held over Skype via video conferencing, let it be done.

6. Waste as a result of poor inventory management

Inventory waste is any materials that have no purpose or haven’t been used during the production process. An example of inventory waste can be ordering 70-floor tiles to upgrade a bathroom while only needing 35 tiles. Dealing with inventory waste is very simple, money should only be spent on things that their utility and purpose can be justified. Another way is by estimating the requirements and need accurately to avoid breaking the bank.

7. Waste as a result of motion

A bit similar to transport waste as it involves an unnecessary moment of equipment and people to various workflow processes. This causes things like a waste in resources, delays, and consumption of energy. The best way to bypass this problem is to have a plan in place, creating a checklist of all the tasks that need to be done does help in getting things done systematically.

8. Waste as a result of processing methods

This is where plenty of time, effort and money is spent on achieving something that brings very little result. An example of waste processing can be cleaning and washing a car for hours for no logical reason. An organization can prevent excess processing through a method called parametric estimation. Before any task is done, questions like how much effort is needed to get the job done need to be asked. If the effort needed is not clear, management can base it off tasks that are similar to it.

Conclusion

It is clear to see that the process of Lean Six Sigma helps an organization highlight the 8 main kinds of waste that delay or slow down the production process. When each of the 8 types of waste is dealt with the right way, an organization is able to streamline their methods of production and get the best results while saving plenty of time.

Like this topic? Learn more by downloading our free 7 Forms of Waste guide at:

You can also download some Powerpoint slides of the 8 forms of waste, based on the acronym TIM WOODS

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If you’re not paying attention, issues with your customer service can quickly slip past you unnoticed and cause a lot of problems for your organization. And while it’s true that they are generally not that hard to deal with if you have a planned approach in the first place, it’s also important to know what kinds of actions you need to take when something like this occurs, and how to minimize the potential impact of the situation.

You should also keep in mind that the below advice is more general in nature. In reality, there will be various unique circumstances that you’ll have to deal with on your own, developing an approach that works properly for your specific situation.

Don’t Delay

The biggest mistake you can make in customer service, by far, is to ignore problems until they’ve become too big. This is the fast track to ruin in this area, and many companies put a lot of effort to ensure that there’s minimal delay between an issue being communicated to them and taking action to remedy it. This is especially true today thanks to the internet, people expect even faster and more reliable services these days. And it’s important to satisfy them in this regard. Because if you don’t, someone else surely will.

Not All Feedback Is Useful

You’re going to get a lot of feedback on the quality of your customer service, and you will have to take some time to sort through it properly. And always keep in mind that not all feedback is equally useful. In some cases, you’re going to gain a lot from simply ignoring what people have to say instead. But to get to that point, you’ll need to develop a good intuition for spotting actual problems and telling them apart from the rest.

Some modern analytical systems can prove helpful with that, especially on the AI side. You will have to feed them enough data about your operations before they get to that point though. The way most of these systems work is based on training, and until you’ve gone through that period, the reliability of that feedback will likely be lower.

Be Proactive

You should also try addressing problems before they’ve even arisen in the first place. This is another area where modern tech can be very useful. In some cases, you will get alerted that something might be wrong with one of your users, and it will be very easy to follow the trail and figure out what’s wrong. Do it right, and your users won’t even know anything was out of the ordinary in the first place!

Of course, try to prioritize to some extent as well. You will have limited resources for these proactive solutions, and you should only use them for cases where it really matters.

Analyze Past Incidents

No good business has evolved without learning from its past mistakes, and yours is not going to be an exception to that. You’ll have to study your shortcomings in detail and ensure that you’re always on top of any problems that you’ve dealt with in the past. Keep a database of the issues you’ve already addressed, and try to leverage that knowledge to its full potential the next time you have something to deal with.

With time, you’ll find that you can likely categorize a large number of the problems you’re dealing with on a regular basis, and you’ll be able to learn a lot from some of them. Using that knowledge correctly and putting it towards your future progress is going to be one of the biggest boosts you can get.

You’ll keep running into various issues with your customer service over time. The important thing is to always stay on top of them, learn something from them, and learn how to anticipate future problems of the same type. This is the only way you’re going to see good results in the long run, and it’s one of the most important lessons for you to learn in the course of developing your company. On the bright side, you have lots of resources available for that purpose as well, so make good use of them.

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While there are so many concepts out there that businesses and individuals can adopt to get better, there is no denying that Six Sigma is one of the most popular ones. Just like any other concept out there, it has its fair share of benefits for people in a particular organization. Below is a look at some of the personal benefits one will experience when they use Six Sigma.

1. Six Sigma makes a person more effective at their job

No one wants to be a failure at their job, we all want to excel in our field of work. When you implement Six Sigma as part of your business practices, it gives you a robust problem-solving methodology. It doesn’t matter what the problem is or how complex it is, you will find a solution to it thanks to six sigma.

When a person has the ability to solve a wide range of problems effectively, it puts them in a position where they can work for any industry in the world and excel. Six Sigma is a process that steers a person in the right direction by making sure they are organized, come up with creative solutions and enhances their analytical skills.

While you can apply different techniques to deal with work-based problems when they arise, there aren’t many better techniques that produce the same results as six sigma. You are always in full control when you use six sigma.

• Six Sigma can help you grow as a leader

When an organization is carrying out its various projects, it is only right that they use Six Sigma. Implementing Six Sigma as a project is being carried out gives you a chance to showcase your skill to management as well as colleagues.

It can be a moment in the spotlight you were looking for at work. This can let them know that you have the ability to deal with problems when they arise in the organization. Constant interaction with management and colleges does improve ones communication as well as decision making skills.

When communication and decision making is improved at a workplace, fewer mistakes are made as everyone is pulling in the same direction. This makes an organization operate effectively like a well-oiled machine.

The way in which Six Sigma is structured helps a person get better when it comes to their project management skills. One is able to lead by example, have better time management and motivational skills on top of good communication and improved decision making.

Whenever you improve your skills, you can add them to your CV to make you an attractive employee if you happen to move on from the organization you are working for in the future. You can even earn a promotion within the organization you work for should you impress management with how much you are progressing on a personal level.

• Six Sigma can land you a better paying job as well as promotion

Many organizations, especially the ones in the construction industry will always prioritize candidates who have six sigma credentials during their recruitment and selection process. Expanding from the point above, when one has these credentials, it makes them attractive and opens the doors for a good salary and promotion in the future.

When one shows leadership during a six sigma project, it lets human resource management, as well as senior figures of the organization, know that an employee is ready to embrace more responsibilities. In the United States of America, being an expert in six sigma means you are looking at a salary of $100,000 per year.

Conclusion

Based on the points above, it is clear to see that Six Sigma does help a person be more effective at work by improving their decision-making process. Everything is done in a systematic way and solutions to problems are found quickly. Six Sigma helps one to become a good leader.

One is able to direct people working under them to achieve goals and objectives or get a project done. Lastly, having Six Sixga credentials makes you attractive as an employee to potential suitors and you will be looking at a salary of around $100,000 a year

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The Agile Manifesto has become an extremely handy tool for any software development team. In it, there are four values that help teams produce software that not only works but is also of the highest quality. As long as an organization is using Agile development, these four principles should be used as a guide in one form or another.

1. Individuals and interactions over processes and tools

Without people, there would be no one to use the processes and tools to drive development forward. So this is why the first value in the Agile manifesto is to place more value on people over processes and tools. When you focus on the latter instead of the former, your team will be less responsive not only to each other but to the customer as well.

Communication is heavily emphasized with this value. When you value individuals and interactions, communication among team members is more free-form – flexible and happens whenever something important needs to be communicated. However, when you value processes and tools, communication becomes a rigid process – topics for discussion are set in stone and must be discussed at a specific time.

2. Working software over comprehensive documentation

While documentation is an important part of software development, it shouldn’t be done at the expense of working software. Indeed, in the past, this would have been a strange thing to say, as the road to project completion was bogged down by rigorous documentation. In the end, the development of the software was delayed because developers were being taken away from their primary focus to the point they weren’t able to complete their deliverables.

In Agile, the documentation process has been streamlined. It is now done through user stories, which describe the software’s features (based on customer requirements) in a more informal and natural tone. Customer stories allow the developer to not bother with getting into too much technical detail during documentation and just work on implementing the features. The deliverables are what matter the most.

3. Customer collaboration over contract negotiation

Negotiations are a natural part of any contract. In the pre-Agile days, contract negotiations happened before the work started and after the work was completed. The customer was left out of the loop until the delivery of the contract. There was no room for change after the initial terms had been agreed upon. This, however, would lead to wasted time and effort if the team did not deliver according to customer specifications.

To prevent this from happening, Agile keeps customers in the loop. If the team is going off course, customer feedback will allow them to course-correct. This leaves room for changes that cater to the developing business needs of the customer. The end result will be a product that will meet (maybe even exceed) the customer’s expectations.

4. Responding to change over following a plan

In the old days of software development, changes from the customer were rarely accommodated during development. The belief here is that they were regarded as an expense that must be avoided. This meant that a comprehensive plan was created that needed to be followed to the letter with no deviations.

Enter Agile development, where the customer can chime in with changes after every iteration to better improve the software so the team can tailor it to their needs. While traditional software development focuses on tasks that had the same priority and needed to be completed in a specific order, Agile is more flexible. Priorities are reshuffled and some tasks are labeled as more important than others, allowing the team to deliver working software that satisfies the customer 100%.

Wrapping up

These four values are the core of the Agile manifesto. As you can see, the emphasis here is to move away from rigidity and slowness and move towards flexibility and speed. With Agile development, organizations can do this without sacrificing quality and customer satisfaction. In fact, these values can only serve to improve these things, making Agile development an opportunity for an organization to achieve its full potential.

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Even though Agile development has been gaining traction as of late, it has existed since the mid-90s. Agile is a software development methodology, but with the impressive results it has produced in that field, other companies started using it outside their IT departments. Now many companies across various industries, such as automotive, construction, engineering, pharmaceutical and any industry where project management is crucial, use it.

So what is Agile development? To put it universally, it is a development methodology where the project is delivered in incremental steps rather than waiting for full development to take place. This allows for a less rigid approach to project delivery, allowing for more adaptability and speed. This is crucial for survival in an ever-changing and fast-paced business environment.

To further understand Agile development, we are going to look at its key features and how it works.

Key Features of Agile development

Here are the key features that Agile development cannot do without:

• Sprints: A Sprint is a concept that is at the core of Agile and allows for faster project delivery with little frustrations. Basically, this is where the team breaks the project down into small, manageable chunks. The team then meets regularly to refine them and, possibly, further break them down.
• Scrum meetings: Scrum meetings are held every day and after each Sprint. Scrum is a framework that allows for highly-collaborative teamwork. These meetings are often held at the beginning of the workday to better orient the team for the day’s work.
• Open interaction: This is where an open and honest interaction about the project management process is held between the team and stakeholders. The point is to have transparency in the process. The team can use Agile project management tools for this, such as Trello, Asana, Jira and Kanbanzie, among others.
• Review of products and services: This is a continuous process where the project is inspected and any adaptation needs are identified. All stakeholders (internal and external) are involved in the review. This is done throughout the lifespan of the project and on a regular basis.

How Agile development works

How Agile development works is different for every organization and industry. However, here is a general picture of how it works in software development:

• A cross-functional team, made up of developers, analysts and testers, is created. A Scrum master is then picked (that is if Scrum is being used), who will act as the main liaison between the product owner/client and the rest of the team.
• The team holds a Sprint planning meeting where the critical steps and projects are fitted into a development cycle of 2-4 weeks. A path to project completion is charted out by breaking down the project requirements into tasks and assigning hours.
• During the previous step, the requirements of the project are moved from the “product backlog” and into the “sprint backlog”. As the needs of the business change, stakeholders provide feedback after constantly reviewing and re-prioritizing the “product backlog”.
• All the “work in progress” is then reviewed during a daily Scrum for 15 minutes. Each team has stand-ups that  focus on these three main goals:
  1. What was achieved yesterday?
  2. What is to be achieved today?
  3. What hurdles are you facing?
• In the Daily Scrum, the focus is usually on “task boards” with columns and swim lanes, allowing for better organization. The team can create as many columns as needed and customize them in whichever way makes sense to avoid getting “boxed in”.
• The teams hold Sprint Retrospective and Sprint Review meetings. The main point of the Sprint Review is to “show the world” what has been completed so far and show the completed users stories so that the Product Owner can accept them. The Sprint Retrospective is held to inspect the whole process and then adapt or improve it.

Wrapping up

Agile allows for organizations to become fast and adaptable in highly-competitive and evolving business environments. And by looking at the key features, it is easy to see why. It is no wonder then that Agile development has become extremely popular in and out of software development.

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In 2001, the Agile manifesto was created and proved to be a game-changer in software development. Basically, it is a set of four values and 12 principles that guide software development teams in using Agile development to maximize productivity and collaborative work during a project. They can also be adapted for almost any project across various industries.

 Here, we are going to talk about the 12 principles of the Agile manifesto.

1. Early and continuous software delivery

This is the highest priority principle, as its main aim is to satisfy customers. The reasoning behind this principle is that it is extremely important to customer satisfaction that the time between releases is frequent. The more customers get working software regularly, the happier they are.

2. Change should be welcomed

In an ever-evolving business environment, change is the only constant. It is not wise to stick to a rigid development cycle, without allowing room for change. If customer requirements change, the team should be able to accommodate without delaying the deadline.

3. Frequent delivery of working software

Provide software that works on a regular basis. This can be between a couple of weeks or months. However, preference should be given to the period that is the shortest. This allows for constant feedback and earlier identification of bugs.

4. Stakeholders and developers must work together

Throughout the lifespan of the project, the developers and stakeholders should work together on a daily basis. Both are working towards the same goal, which is why it makes sense for them to be in alignment. 

5. Motivated individuals

Projects should be built around motivated individuals. Individuals should work in a supportive environment where they aren’t micromanaged. They should be trusted to self-organize and do the work without someone constantly looking over their shoulders. Micromanagement benefits no one and is counter-productive in Agile.

6. Face-to-face conversation

For information to be conveyed effectively in a team, it must be done through face-to-face interactions. For this to happen, team members need to be co-located. However, in today’s world, development teams are usually disbursed. If that is the case, efforts should be made to increase the frequency of communication using the appropriate conferencing tools and software.

7. Measure progress with working software

The biggest measure of progress is providing the customer with working software. Always keep your eye on the ball – working software – instead of getting bogged down in the specifics of the plan. You will end spending too much time doing secondary tasks, such as documentation, instead of the primary task.

8. Consistent development pace

Once the project hits the ground running, the team and stakeholders should maintain a consistent pace. This speed should be maintained for every release without delays and crunch time.

9. Technical excellence

To enhance agility, there must be a continuous focus on technical excellence and good design. This makes it easier for the team to embrace change, maintain a consistent development pace and update or improve the product as needed.

10. Simplicity

You don’t need the software to have all the bells and whistles to be classified as working software. Some features are considered to be non-essential. The team should focus on those essential features in order to produce working software.

11. Self-organizing teams

When teams are self-organized, they are able to bring out the best architects, requirements and designs. A team can deliver its best work when it is fully in charge of how it wants to work and owns every decision it makes.

12. Regular reflection and adjustment

The team will regularly reflect on its current effectiveness and identify room for self-improvement. Afterward, it will adjust its behavior to ensure self-improvement is achieved.

Wrapping up

With these 12 principles of the Agile manifesto in mind, software development teams can become more efficient and effective at creating working software. Any organization stands to benefit from having high-performance teams that collaborate with ease. This is the best strength of these principles and can be applied to almost any project.

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We have many process analysis tools in Lean, but the poka-yoke is one of the most popular ones. In any given process with human operators, mistakes and errors are bound to happen. These lead to defects, which are part of the eight wastes of lean. Poka-yoke, also known as mistake- and error-proofing, helps eliminate mistakes entirely.

We will discuss what poka-yoka – pronounced as poh-kah yoh-keh – is, its history, the benefits and some examples. This should briefly introduce you to the concept and why it is useful. While it is mostly used in the manufacturing and service industry, its application is universal.

What is Poka-Yoke?

Poka-yoke is an automatic mechanism, whether it is a device or method, that prevents anyone from making a mistake or error. But if the mistake or error can’t be prevented, a poka-yoke will make it obvious that it has occurred. That way, the source can be identified and eliminated.

A Brief History of Poka-Yoke

The person who coined poka-yoke is Shigeo Shingo in 1960. He was a Japanese industrial engineer who worked for Toyota. Shingo was one of the top experts on manufacturing practices at the time. And apart from the poka-yoke, he is mostly known for standardizing the Toyota Production System (TPS), which is a popular manufacturing methodology for eliminating waste and increasing efficiency.

The term poka-yoke itself literally means “mistake-proofing.” Interestingly enough, it was originally called baka-yoke or “fool proofing.” But it was later changed, considering it had negative connotations and the Japanese have a culture that highly favors politeness.

The Benefits of Poka-Yoke

One of the biggest benefits of poka-yoke is that it minimizes the chance of human error in a process. It ensures that all conditions are right before the next step in the process occurs. The end result is that the process will produce little to no defects.

Other than that, poka-yoke also comes with the following other benefits: 

• Increase in quality: With the poka-yoke making sure that the process doesn’t produce defects, the quality goes up. This means stakeholder and customer satisfaction goes up as confidence levels in your process consistently producing quality products increases.
• Reduction in costs: The biggest problem with defective products is that they increase the amount of waste. And since they need to be replaced, the costs of production rises as the number of defects rise as well. Fewer defects mean fewer costs.
• No high-skill requirement: if a process has a bigger margin for error, it needs operators to be highly skilled to operate it. If the operator doesn’t have the skill, the organization has to spend resources to either train them or hire a more skilled worker. With a poka-yoke automatically preventing mistakes and errors, the skill requirement goes down significantly.
• Increases safety: Safety is a major concern in the workplace, especially when workers handle hazardous materials. With poka-yoke eliminating human error, safety in the workplace goes up by a great margin.
• Reduces the need for quality checks: With an error-eliminating device or method embedded into the process, there’s no need for extensive quality checks. The poka-yoke will detect or predict any problems without relying too much on inspectors.
• Speeds up the process: With less manual inspections needed, work progresses at a faster rate without sacrificing quality. Moreover, the workers focus on what they do best, which makes the work less boring and repetitive.

Example of a Poka-Yoke

You don’t need to go far to see an example of a poka-yoke – they are around us all the time. One example is charging your phone with a USB. When you try to plug it in the wrong way, the USB does not enter. It only enters when you flip it and plug it in the right way.

Another famous example is the automatic car. Manual cars allow you to start your car while in gear, but in doing so the car will move and accidents can happen. An automatic car, however, will not start unless it is in neutral or park – hence eliminating the error.

Conclusion

With poka-yoke, mistake-proofing is built into the process, significantly reducing or eliminating human error. While we’d all like things to go smoothly all the time, when humans are involved things can go wrong. This is why the poka-yoke has become one of the most popular process analysis tools in Lean.

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One of the most impressive operating companies is Amazon and how they fulfill orders and ship to their customers. Their processes are considered state-of-the-art, and they need to be with all the volume of items they handle.

We’ve discussed Amazon many times in the past, including founder Jeff Bezos.

With COVID-19 risks, they have discontinued their tours, but decided to create a video showing their latest technology, including robots that bring the shelves to the packers (instead of have the workers go to the items).

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Six Sigma is becoming increasingly popular with each passing day. Organizations around the world are using it to reduce waste and process variation. In doing so, they are giving customers more and consistent value. In turn, this has allowed the organizations that have successfully implemented Six Sigma to increase both customer satisfaction and their bottom line. 

As with anything popular, there are bound to be myths. These are just misunderstandings that appeal to common sense but fall apart when closely examined. When deciding whether Six Sigma is the right methodology for your organization or not, it helps to separate facts from myths. 

Let’s look at six common Six Sigma myths and find out if there is any truth to them.

Myth #1: Six Sigma is a Fad

If you are hearing about Six Sigma for the first time, you might think it is a fad. However, Six Sigma has been around since 1987. It was introduced by Motorola to compete with Lean manufacturing. The methodology, which is a set of process improvement tools and techniques, has proven so successful that it has seen widespread adoption since its conception.

Myth #2: Six Sigma Causes a Lot of Stress

Six Sigma requires a dramatic shift in organizational culture, which many people think is hard to do. They think change can cause unnecessary stress on employees who have become accustomed to working a certain way. While you might face some initial resistance, when communicated clearly and implemented gradually, people will find it easier to adapt to change.

Myth #3: Only Manufacturing Companies Need Six Sigma

When you hear that Six Sigma is the brainchild of Motorola, a manufacturing powerhouse, you might think it has little use outside the assembly line. That can’t be further from the truth. Six Sigma is an industry-agnostic methodology that works on any process with repeatable steps. This can be anything outside manufacturing, from restaurants and hotels to house cleaning and hospitals.

Myth #4: People Will Lose Their Jobs

Six Sigma was designed to improve processes, which can trigger anxiety in people who think they may no longer be needed once it does its job. This is a myth because employees who know how to use Six Sigma become instantly valuable to the organization. Six Sigma professionals are in high demand, and becoming certified is a good way to not only retain your position but move on to bigger and better Six Sigma projects.

Myth #5: Six Sigma and Total Quality Management are the Same

People in business circles also like to conflate Six Sigma with Total Quality Management (TQM). Yes, both Six Sigma and TQM are methodologies that aim to improve the quality of products (as well as services), but there is a difference in which each one is approached. Six Sigma seeks to improve all processes throughout the entire organization, while TQM seeks to improve only a single process within a respective field.

Myth #6: Six Sigma Needs a Lot of Resources

When talking about Six Sigma and its ambitions, it is natural to wonder just how much time and money it will take to make it a success. Unfortunately, Six Sigma does take a lot of time and money to make it successful. This begs the question: why even do it at all? Well, simply because the benefits outweigh the costs. 

Six Sigma organizations consistently deliver quality products. This means customers are perpetually satisfied and eager to do business, which drives up profits considerably. And with an efficient process on hand coupled with extremely low defects per million opportunities (DPMO), the cost of production goes down significantly as well.

Conclusion

Anything that is widely discussed in the business world as Six Sigma is bound to have myths spreading around. You will probably come across the above-mentioned myths in one form or another. If not armed with the right information, they can turn you off to a methodology that can take your organization to the next level.

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Every organization undertakes projects. To an organization, a project is essentially an endeavor that is carried out by an individual or a team for the purpose of producing something valuable to benefit the organization in some way. It could be an internal information technology system that increases productivity or a product or service for customers that will make the organization a profit.

Projects are temporary. They have objectives that need to be completed within a set amount of time. Most importantly, projects have limited resources that need to be managed properly in order to achieve success. All this brings us to the concept of project management.

What is Project Management?

Project management is a way of managing and organizing the resources of a project in order to meet all its objectives within a specified amount of time. Every project needs a project manager. This is the person with the skills and knowledge to lead team members and coordinate the resources of the project in order to achieve success. 

Basically, a project manager ensures the project is running smoothly. This way, there are fewer headaches for stakeholders – the people the project manager relies on and/or reports to. The stakeholders of a project include senior managers, team members, investors, company owners, end-users, clients, customers, suppliers, contractors and vendors.

Elements of Project Management

For project management to go smoothly, there are four elements that each project manager needs to establish. These are:

• Scope: The scope of a project encompasses everything that is needed to complete the project. This includes the project’s size, objectives, requirements deliverables, milestones, deadlines and costs, among other things.
• Resources: Resources are things the project manager will rely on for the project to be completed. Resources include materials, capital, tools, equipment and the people required during the execution of a project.
• Time: Since projects are temporary or finite in nature, the project manager needs to set a start and end date (duration). On top of establishing that, he or she also needs to arrange the tasks in chronological order, clearly outlining their duration as well.
• Money: When it comes to money there are three considerations. The first one is cost, which can be paying for labor by the hour or buying raw materials. The second one is contingencies, which is money set aside in case costs were underestimated. The third one is profit, which is the amount of money to be made from the project. The project manager’s biggest challenge is to make the company profits while making sure to keep costs down and avoid any contingencies.

Benefits of Project Management

When project management is done right, the organization can experience the following benefits, on top of a project that is completed on time and on a budget:

• Increased customer satisfaction: If the project is being done for a customer, completing it on time and within budget is bound to make the customer happy. It is much easier to turn happy customers into repeat customers (more profits for the organization).
• Increased productivity: Efficiency is something that is at the heart of project management. It is the job of the project manager to create an optimized and structured workflow. This can be documented and reused to speed up future projects.
• Reduced costs: Since project management increases efficiency, resources are used wisely, leading to cost savings and more revenue for the organization.
• Better risk management: A big part of project management is identifying risks and coming up with avoidance or mitigation strategies. This prevents avoidable delays from happening or unavoidable problems from completely derailing the project.

Conclusion

Project management is an essential component of every successful project. If a company hires a savvy project manager, they can experience a range of benefits besides delivering the project on time and on budget. These include increased customer satisfaction, increased productivity, reduced costs and better risk management. Project management is something every organization should take seriously.

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