I’ve written quite a lot about Cummins, Inc. here, and I can say that the company is a good example of an organization that has taken Six Sigma seriously and is enjoying the benefits of it.
Over at NetworkWorld, its National Correspondent Carolyn Duffy Marsan interviewed Gail Farnsley, Cummins CIO, and touched on how Cummins is able to cut down on IT costs using Six Sigma.
Some of the interesting points are:
- For employees who think they don’t have extra time to a Six Sigma project, encourage them to use Six Sigma in their tasks at hand.
- Six Sigma is about leading projects, doing analysis, and process improvement.
- You can do multiple pieces of IT stuff as Six Sigma projects.
- Six Sigma can be used for requirements gathering or reducing the cost of support or storage.
- Six Sigma should be the language of the whole organization.
Source:
NetworkWorld, a Six Sigma Zone featured link
*Photo from MorgueFile
I can’t agree more with this article. Six Sigma is about process improvement and leading a project in the most efficient manner possible.
Gathering requirements is a huge part of software development and by using six sigma to emphasize quality requirements, you can reduce costs and produce a better final product.
Six sigma should really be the primary concern of almost every service industry ranging from software development to real world tangible manufacturing products.
Well put, Jeremy!