What can Six Sigma offer Small Businesses?

You’ve had a business for about five years now and are thinking about having Six Sigma implemented, but you’re struggling with a few questions: “Is it only for big businesses?” and “What can Six Sigma do for my business?”

Well, you’ll be glad to know that Six Sigma isn’t just for large businesses. Here are some of the improvements that training a team in Six Sigma can offer any sized organisation.

Strategic Planning

One of the main elements of Six Sigma is statistic tracking, allowing any Six Sigma certified employees to see where the business can save money by modifying or cutting out unnecessary areas of expense.

Strategic planning in this way will also allow you to make educated predictions, meaning your business is more flexible and able to adjust to any climate.

This could even lead to new strategies, resulting in a stronger competitive stance which in turn will draw in more customers.

Employee Motivation

Since Six Sigma is concerned with streamlining processes, time limits will feel less constraining for employees, because they will no longer have to jump through so many hoops in order to deliver the end product. This will result in increased employee motivation, as pressure will be relieved from the workplace.

With the introduction of improvement teams in your business, employees will be able to get actively involved in the direction of the business. Empowering employees like this will again lead to increased motivation, as they will feel like more than just a cog in a machine.

Increased customer satisfaction

Implementing Six Sigma will mean that all areas of customer service, from the quality of the end product to customer service over the phone, will be improved. Increased customer satisfaction will mean more revenue and a higher chance of new customers, since satisfied customers will tell their friends.

Reduced Cycle Times

Once your staff have been trained in Six Sigma, they will be able to determine which processes in your business are redundant and can therefore be cut to save time.

Your employees will also start asking themselves how best to make use of their time in order to achieve their goals, and be able to create an action plan accordingly. All this will result in the ability to deliver quality products more quickly.

Better Partnerships

As your business improves, any other businesses that are associated with it will also see some improvement as well. This will help strengthen your partnerships and potentially make them long-term, allowing you to get the best out of your partners and fully utilise the resources they offer.

Supply Chain Management

The streamlining aspect of Six Sigma can help drive down the amount of suppliers that your business uses, as well as keep an eye out on any changes your supplier has made, allowing you to react quickly and effectively.

Moving Forward

If you’ve implemented Six Sigma successfully and have introduced a number of Green Belts to your organisation, you may be wondering where to go next. Well, it could be time to turn one of your Green Belts into a Black Belt. Having a Black Belt in your organisation will mean you have a full-time change agent and an experienced professional to lead your Six Sigma team, meaning greater project success.