The Impact of Lean Six Sigma on the Overall Results of Companies

Lean Six Sigma represents a management approach for driving innovating processes inside a company in order to achieve superior results. It involves a practical analysis based on facts, aiming the innovation and growth, not only the efficiency of processes. It is a long term process of gradual and continuous improvement. The application of Lean Six Sigma in companies led to attaining superior financial performance by addressing new needs, by differentiating the products and services or by adjusting the business lines to new processes. Quality is more than making things without errors. It is about making a product or service meet the individual perception of a customer about the quality or value. Therefore, in what regards Lean Six Sigma, the concern is not only to "do the things right" but also to "do the right things right". We focus on the impact of implementing the Lean Six Sigma approach on companies, seeking for what changes and benefits it brings. The key elements it aims at are achieving the best quality, the lowest cost, getting the shortest lead-time, stressing on waste elimination. The requirements of a company for its implementation and the strategy to obtain the maximum practical outcome are investigated. Furthermore, we conduct a comparison analysis with the other methods of the total quality management and see why Lean Six Sigma is a more desirable approach.Lean Six Sigma, fact-based analysis, innovation, strategy, quality, gradual and continuous process.

The application of a phenomenological framework to assess user experience with museum technologies

Six Sigma is a methodology that uses data and statistical analyses on business processes to measure and improve the conduct and the output of production and service-oriented processes. Derived from a variety of quality management and industrial engineering approaches, it has emerged into one of the most popular process re-design methodologies. This paper complements the rich body of knowledge on Six Sigma methods and techniques with insights into the actual adoption of Six Sigma. Sunstate Financials 1 is one of Australia\u27s leading financial organizations. Having recognized the advantages of Six Sigma, Sunstate Financials started their Six Sigma journey in 2001. The peak of Six Sigma deployment at Sunstate Financials lasted for approximately 2 years. Almost every person in the company was aware of the Six Sigma methodology, and many projects commenced under the Six Sigma banner. Although the use of Six Sigma has shown dramatic process improvements and cost reductions, Six Sigma is no longer in use at Sunstate Financials. This teaching case explores the Six Sigma experiences of one of Australia’s leading financial service providers, and why this methodology failed as a sustainable long term approach. It describes the key issues of Six Sigma and provides valuable lessons learnt

A Taxonomy Of Lean Six Sigma Success Factors For Service Organizations

Six Sigma is a business improvement strategy that aims to improve process performance using a structured methodology that identifies and removes the causes of defects in manufacturing and business processes, while implementing the lean concepts attempts to remove wasteful activities from those processes. In practice, the Six Sigma strategy and the Lean philosophy are combined and often viewed as one integrated philosophy, where the philosophy of Lean Six Sigma simultaneously removes wasteful activities from a process and reduces the variability of that process. This thesis research reviews the concepts and implementation of Lean thinking, Six Sigma strategy, and the integrated concept of Lean Six Sigma, with emphasis in service organizations. Most importantly, this thesis summarizes the critical success factors for implementing Lean Six Sigma within a service business environment and categorizes them within a proposed multi-level taxonomy that can be used by service business units and service providers to improve the .success of Lean Six Sigma implementatio

Meeting the challenge of supply chain integration: using six sigma for process improvement

Increased performance expectations, a more complex operating environment, rising costs, and declining operating margins have become every day challenges for carrier management. In order to meet these challenges, business-as-usual is not an adequate response. The time has come to take a new look at the way thing are being done and the results that are being achieved. One method of making such an examination, Six Sigma, has produced extraordinary results for many of the manufacturing and service companies, large and small, that have implemented it. The introduction of Six Sigma as a means of examining and improving carrier service delivery processes is discussed and illustrated

THE SIX SIGMA SYSTEM IN RELATION TO THE BUSINESS' STRATEGY AND PRIORITIES

Now more than ever, corporations the world over are scrambling to redefine the processes, techniques, and strategies they need to survive in an age of uncertainty. Businesses today seek an effective corporate performance measurement system to maximize the bottom line. With the advent of the Internet, ongoing globalization, and standardization in management systems, business leaders must focus on how to measure performance to monitor their continued viability and success. Many existing performance measurement systems were designed to support business practices and to monitor progress. With shrinking margins and competitive pressures, however, corporate performance measurement systems must do more than monitor. They must identify opportunities for optimizing profitability and growth, without pitting one against the other. The idea is to use performance measures to add value, instead of simply measuring for a formality. The Six Sigma method is not only a trendy "new solution", it is not a business whim linked to a single method or strategy - the study trying to draw attention to the fact that Six Sigma is a flexible system to improve the management and the performance of companies. The research paper seeks to demonstrate that the Six Sigma method refers to both the passion for customer service and a drive for new ideas, and to statistics and processing numbers, finding application in the fields of marketing, services, human resources, finance and sales, as well as in production and engineering.Six Sigma method, quality, performance measurement, profitability, growth

Success Factors and Benefits of Six Sigma Implementation in Hospitals: A Systematic Review

This review explores critical success factors of Six Sigma implementation in hospitals and identifies the benefits. Data sources and Methodology: Prior studies on Six Sigma (SS) totaling 100 were selected from more than 100 journals. These studies came from numerous databases and are classified based on the year of publication. Journal names with corresponding number of papers selected are reported. The review reveals 25 critical success factors (CSF) necessary in the implementation of Six Sigma, encompassing numerous aspects of an organization such as managerial, statistical, and technical aspects. Twenty benefits derived from SS’s implementation are identified, including various improvements in terms of the organizations’ processes, financial performance, and quality of service. The success of Six Sigma implementation depends on several critical factors, some of which are best considered before its introduction, while others must be addressed during the process itself. Other factors are external and should be considered during and after its implementation. Not all Six Sigma initiatives are successful nor result in great benefits. Therefore, organizations must analyze their need for Six Sigma projects and base their decisions on the availability/presence of the CSF. Organizations, including hospitals, can gain numerous benefits from Six Sigma implementation but must first evaluate Six Sigma’s introduction and implementation against their abilities to achieve desired outcomes

Aligning Six Sigma and ITIL: Implications For IT Service Management

Today’s executives are challenged to deliver value to their shareholders in a global market place. Technology organizations must deliver interoperation of processes, people and technology to the entire enterprise. To design, deliver, and manage IT services to meet an agreed level of quality, Organizations are implementing IT Service Management (ITSM) and creating quality standards, which uses the best practices of IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL). ITIL tells IT management what needs to be done and how it will get done from the process perspective. When under- taking an ITSM a project to implement ITIL, ITIL does not provide a method for measuring quality or identifying and completing process improvement projects. By integrating Six Sigma, which is a quality methodology, IT management will have the methodology and tools for measuring quality and improving processes. Adopting Six Sigma principles also will help IT focus on their customers and the business strategy, manage proactively based on facts, and reinforce collaboration across the enterprise. The purpose of this paper is to introduce the reader to the concepts of ITSM, ITIL and Six Sigma individually. Additionally we will make the case for leveraging ITIL and Six Sigma with ITSM in practice and opportunities for future research

Effectiveness and Best Practices of Lean and Six Sigma Methodologies in Hospitals

Healthcare quality and costs are a growing problem in the United States. Healthcare organizations are facing increasing costs combined with declining quality (Schoenbaum). This unsustainable trend is putting a great burden on the health care system as a whole. The improvement of quality within the healthcare system would increase the value of the care (Schoenbaum).Improving healthcare quality, and thereby lowering the costs, is critical for the sustainability of healthcare organizations. There are many different ways that organizations can use quality to reduce costs and increase the quality of service to their patients. There are also various ways an organization can implement quality. The processes can lead to different results and focuses. The potential processes include lean based A3 Report, Kaizen events, and Six Sigma. These processes focus on continuous improvement of quality within a process. The ideal situation would utilize these processes to create a high quality environment while lowering costs. This report will investigate the impact of projects utilizing the A3, Kaizen, and Six Sigmamethodologies in order to improve processes efficiency,increase quality, and reduce costs of care.These methods can be applied in many different organizations, including the health care industry. The impact of these process improvement projects should be substantial and essential to the health care industry. The impact of the methodologies will be analyzed to see if they substantially reduce the costs and increase the quality. The focus of this research is on hospitals and will compare hospitals in a quality position, as defined by the 100 Top hospitals list and the MalcolmBaldrigeQuality Award recipients nationwide, and other regional hospitals in the Northeast not currently on the 100 Top lists or a Baldrige award winner. The goal of any organization should be to increase the quality of their service. An ACPE Quality of Care Surveyfound that 18.5% of respondents utilized Six Sigma to improve quality, 13.3% utilized Lean processes, 12.2% used vendor-provided systems, 26.7% used other methods including homegrown, and 29.2% did not utilize any programs (Martin). This project looks to identify if there are trends between those that utilize the programs and positioning as a top quality performance hospital and if so what quality management programs had the biggest impact at the different types of hospitals. While this project focused on hospitals as the health care organization to be surveyed and examined, similar principals would be expected to hold true for any patient facing organization

Customer service improvement

Diplomová práce se zabývá zlepšením zákaznického servisu v podniku poskytujícím finanční služby. Službou se v tomto případě rozumí převod peněz do celého světa. Pro jeho zkvalitnění jsou použity principy metody Six Sigma a doplněny o poznatky z dalších moderních metod jakosti či řízení podniku. Není snahou zavedení Six Sigma do podniku jen její použití při řešení tohoto problému.Diploma thesis put mind to improve of a customer service in a company that offers some financial service. Service means international money transfer in this case. To analyze the whole processes in the company, methods Six Sigma is used together with knowledge of other modern methods of quality and of operation management. The Six Sigma method is only used for the analyses of the procedures and not for an implementation it in the company.