Six Sigma works well with data. So in cases where data is not easy to get or gather, you need to have a system that will do it.
In an article on RFID Journal, the example given where customer data is not easy to gather and measure, is the retail business. When a customer gets in the store, for example, the store employees won’t always know if the customer is able or fails to locate, on shelves, the products they want to buy. Or for their supply chain there is a discrepancy in the supply and demand.
For these cases, radio frequency identification (RFID), can help.
By capturing data regarding the movement of goods at every point in the supply chain, RFID can provide information that indicates only 95 were shipped. And by taking daily inventory counts, the retailer knows that units are being stolen, and can therefore inform suppliers to replenish more quickly, thereby ensuring that fewer sales are lost. Moreover, companies can analyze data to see where problems occur in the supply chain and in the store, so that corrective actions can be taken.
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If all items had been tracked with RFID and the data had been analyzed properly, the retailer would have had a clearer picture of demand, based on more accurate in-store inventory counts. And armed with that information, the company would have then been able to provide more accurate data to its partners, thus enabling them to replenish more effectively.
According to the article this is one of the ways to achieve Six Sigma retailing.
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