Thursday, December 4, 2008

Six Sigma Results Quantified by Case Study on GE

By Craig Calvin

Many people who are considering implementing Six Sigma in their companies are curious as to how it has been used in larger corporations. One example of Six Sigma training success is General Electric, which went from a wasteful, bureaucratic conglomerate to a lean, streamlined business through the Six Sigma training process. For GE, Six Sigma certification has made the difference between success and failure.

GE was the average American company, run by a bureaucratic board and line of corporate management. This was their downfall, and they needed a major change to keep them from becoming a company defined by waste and greed. The first thing they did was Six Sigma training. Corporate levels went through the black belt certification while the lower levels went through Six Sigma training. Once that was done, they went on to apply the six Sigma principles to the business.

All processes were boiled down to quantifiable steps. Waste was eradicated by evaluating over and over the processes. The executive levels were shown to ask for input from all levels of employees, opening lines of communication. Thus, maximum efficiency, customer service and creativity emerged. This greatly improved company morale, not to mention productivity, and now this is what sets GE apart.

The process of Six Sigma being able to create such changed is actually pretty simple. The employees that have gone through Six Sigma black belt training can identify areas that are Critical to Quality (CTQ's). Defects are then identified, then they will measure the process capabilities to see what the process can deliver.

After the data is gathered, Six Sigma then teaches people to identify variation- which is the time when a process doesn't deliver what was desired of it. Then a process is redesigned and controlled to prevent variation. This is what Six Sigma is all about.

Does maximum customer satisfaction and higher efficiency sound good to you? If so, Six Sigma training may be the single factor that turns your company around. With so many companies finding new and unprecedented levels of success with Six Sigma, this may be training you cannot do without. - 16738

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