SIX SIGMA: A Measure of Quality

Business owners are always looking for something that can impact their company’s bottom line and increase the efficiency of their business processes. Six Sigma (a registered trademark of Motorola Inc.) is one of the options. It is an organization-wide approach to drive breakthrough business improvements linked directly to the bottom line and strategic goals.

Unlike other programs, Six Sigma specifies exactly how the project is to be set up and how teams will use the tools, to achieve measurable results. The effort requires data collection, usage of statistical tools, highly trained project leaders known as black belts and green belts, a project selection approach based on organization strategy and a dramatic goal of reducing defects or errors to 3, 4 defects per million opportunities.

Sigma is a measure of a person’s variation the Six Sigma methodology will squeeze  process variation and produce lower count of defects. For example, a power distribution organization is said to be at ‘Six Sigma’ level when it provides power to all its consumers with no more than seven seconds of power interruption each month.

If you would like to run a focused project for a three-to-six month period to reduce your processes cycle time, reduce customer complaints and reduce variation in any major process from the production floor to headquarters, a Six Sigma project would provide a structured approach to achieve your goals.

The structure of Six Sigma goes beyond the improvement process and tools. Projects selected and approved by the organizations leaders drive the improvement to ensure the relevance to an organizations goals and their impact on stakeholders. The Six Sigma approach will ensure that all success factors are present before organizations can launch any project; clear guidelines for establishing and leading the effort, top management support and a team blueprint for effective usage of quality tools.

Jack Welch, former CEO of GE, once said, “The best Six Sigma projects begin not inside the business, but outside it, focused on answering the question – how can we make the customer more competitive? One thing we discovered with certainty is that anything we do that makes the customer more successful inevitably results in a financial return for us.” During the first five years of Six Sigma implementation, GE was able to save $12 Billion and add $1 to its earnings per share.

Can Six Sigma really increase your organization profits?

Many are wondering if Six Sigma can really impact their business bottom line and increase the efficiency of their business processes. This question is often left unanswered and often creates a very unclear perception within organizations.

 To start with, Six Sigma* can be defined as an organization-wide approach to drive breakthrough business improvements linked directly to the bottom line and strategic goals. Unlike other programs, Six Sigma specifies exactly how the project will be set up and how teams will use the tools to achieve measurable results. The efforts will require data collection, usage of statistical tools, highly trained project leaders known as Black Belts and Green Belts, project selection approach based in organization strategy and a dramatic goal of reducing defects or errors to 3.4 defects per million opportunities.

 Sigma (written with the Greek letter σ) is a measure of a process’s variation. Six Sigma methodology will squeeze process variation and produce lower count of defects. For example, a power distribution organization is said to be at six sigma level when it provides power to all its customers with no more of 7 seconds power interruption of each month.

If you would like to run a focused project for a 3-6 months period to reduce your processes cycle time, reduce customer complaints, and reduce variation in any major process from the production floor to the headquarters offices then a Six Sigma project would provide you with a structured approach to achieve your goals.  Six Sigma prescribes an improvement structure known as DMAIC: Define Measure, Analyze, Improve, Control.

• Define the improvement project’s goals, deriving them from customer needs or wants and organization strategy.
• Measure the current processes and establish metrics to monitor progress towards goals.
• Analyze the current process to understand problems and their root causes.
• Improve the process by identifying and piloting solutions to the problems
• Control the improved process with standardization and ongoing monitoring

 The structure of Six Sigma goes beyond the improvement process and tools. Projects selected and approved by the organization’s leaders drive the improvement to ensure the relevance to organization’s goals and their impact on stakeholders.  Six Sigma approach will ensure that all success factors are present before organizations can launch any project: clear guidelines for establishing and leading the effort, top management support, and a team blueprint for effective usage of quality tools.

 Jack Welch, former CEO of GE, once said “The best Six Sigma projects begin not inside the business but outside it, focused on answering the question—how can we make the customer more competitive?.... One thing we discovered with certainty is that anything we do that makes the customer more successful inevitably results in a financial return for us.”  During the first five years of Six Sigma implementation GE was able to save $12 billion and add $1 to its earnings per share.

 In summary, Six Sigma can provide organizations with a clear roadmap to plan and execute a project that will have direct impact on their bottom line.

* Six Sigma is a registered trade mark of Motorola, Inc.

To Complain or not to Complain? That is the Question?

When was the last time you were inclined to make a complaint? Was your complaint met with a smile? Was your compliant acknowledged, logged, investigated and replied to in a reasonable time frame?

It goes without saying that the way a service organization handles customer complaints can determine whether it has a competitive advantage in the market. As a matter of fact, a well established system to manage customer complaints will serve well to enhance customer loyalty and the improve companies bottom line.

No company can avoid complaints. They are like taxes and death, inevitable. Complaints can be used to identify flaws in systems and help rectify the causes. Research findings show that customers with problems who did not complain were less loyal than those who did and had their issues resolved! It is also proven that 1 to 5% complains to management or head office. 45% complain to agent, branch or frontline representatives and 50% encounter a problem but do not complain. In another word we need to start aggressively soliciting complaints to keep the company profitable.

Customer complaint is defined as A customer complaint is ‘any expression of dissatisfaction by a customer, whether justified or not.’ Definition from BS 8600.Now called ISO 10002.

British Standards Institution has created the Complaints Management Assessment Specification CMSAS 86:2000, to meet customer needs and feedback. By adopting the Specification organizations are able to demonstrate to customers, stakeholders and the wider market that they have a real commitment to managing customer care issues and that procedures are in place to handle complaints. The Complaints Management Assessment Scheme is a systematic approach giving guidance to organizations on how to react when customers are not satisfied. It offers assistance on giving effective response, whether it is simply a case of saying "sorry" or whether larger actions involving compensation are involved.

The complaints management system is entirely supportive and complimentary to ISO 9001:2008, in particular how customer care is demonstrated. The scheme can help organizations capture crucial customer feedback, establish mechanisms and procedures for responding to customer complaints and queries. It can help organizations in their pursuit of wider organizational excellence through continuous service, product and process improvement. Much like ISO 9001:2008 the specification requires senior management commitment. The main requirements that are addressed in the standard are: policy, planning, management reviews, fairness for staff and customers, establishing procedures to acknowledge, log, analyze and respond to complaints, confidentiality, measures and audits. In a nutshell, the standard will provide your company with a road map to achieve higher level for customer care, retention and loyalty.

The following are some recommendation for companies who want to pursue a customer complaints culture:

1. Consider complaints as golden opportunities for improvement
2. Encourage your customer to express their dissatisfaction
3. Simplify the process of complaining and acknowledge your customer’s point of view
4. Build a documented system and maintain records
5. Train your employees
6. Use a world-class standard as a benchmark for your system or even consider getting certified against that standard.


Meirc Training & Consulting (www.meirc.com) currently offers a program that focuses on building a world class system to manage and implement a customer complaints system. Participants are introduced to the main concepts in customer satisfaction, requirements to address when establishing the system and real case studies on implementation of complaints management systems.

Does Quality pay?