Uwe H. Kaufmann, assistant vice president with Rath & Strong Management Consultants (a division of Aon Consulting based in Lexington, Massachusetts) and former quality manager with GE Capital, Germany, said in his article that most companies implementing Six Sigma go through four phases.
At phase one, management hopeful of increased income and huge savings decides whether to go for Six Sigma or not. If management goes for it, they test the waters so to speak by undergoing some training and a few improvement projects. With their first projects, they either assign business-related projects within the leadership team or delegate the tasks to their Black Belts or a quality team.
At phase two, management set up a steering committee—often called a “quality council.” The council decides on projects, especially about incorporating them to business strategy and customer needs, implementing improvements, reward and recognition. This is the time also that results are communicated to the entire company. It’s critical to sell Six Sigma internally, otherwise, the company won’t be ready for the next phase.
As projects get pretty underway during the first and second phase, it is now time to come up with some measures to track results and ensure that the improvement lasts. Successful companies add these measures to their internal dashboard and customer loyalty tracking system. Some companies even share those results with their customers, which builds trust. Customer satisfaction measures are key for project selection.
For phase four to really run its full course, all deparments in the organization must be involved. Six Sigma includes a powerful tool set that helps improve all key business processes in the company. More importantly, there are a few key departments that must support the Six Sigma initiative. For instance, finance should track costs and benefits; marketing and sales should gather voice- of-the-customer data and track customer satisfaction levels; and human resources must support communication, Black Belt and Green Belt selection and development, reward and recognition, and employee satisfaction tracking and analysis.
