Although the Six Sigma methodology originally started out as a way to improve processes and products in a manufacturing environment, today it has grown to encompass a broad range of industries. As companies begin to realize the benefits a total quality improvement cycle can have upon the organization, they are adopting Six Sigma and its practices into their own fold.
Organizations not
only receive the quality benefit of Six Sigma in their products and processes,
but also significant cash savings can be realized as part of adapting such a
process. In one example, GE realized a savings of close to $300 million dollars
in the first year of implementation of Six Sigma.
Health care
organizations can see benefits that not only affect the bottom line of the company,
but also affect the quality of care and overall recovery rate for patients. In
one example a hospital used Six Sigma practices to significantly reduce the
amount of time it took to get heart attack patients from ER to the cardiac care
unit by close to 41 minutes.
As a result, the
fatality rate of heart attack patients dropped significantly and the quality of
care for those patients improved over 300%.
Financial
institutions are using Six Sigma as a way to manage both their customer
satisfaction expectations as well as risk management initiatives. By using the
methodologies and improvement cycles of Six Sigma Bank of America realized
close to $2 billion dollars in benefits as well as a 25% increase in customer
satisfaction.
The construction
industry can sometimes be paralleled to the manufacturing industry. Instead of
producing the end-product in a factory the construction industry produces the
product at various job sites. As such many of the same improvements the
manufacturing industry has seen have also been adapted to the construction industry.
Savings of man
hours and costs across various projects have not only resulted in lower costs
but also in higher quality buildings and infrastructure.
The Insurance
industry is one of the most paper-intensive industries in the world. Claims
processing, underwriting and adjustments all take significant amounts of time
to collect data and process it in order to make decisions and assist customers.
By utilizing the
Six Sigma approach major players in the industry including CIGNA and American
Family have seen claim processing times be reduced by up to 50% as well as more
analytic assignment of risk factors based on underwriting data.
So how can Six
Sigma benefit your particular organization? Start by looking at what your
organization produces – be it a service or a physical product. Then look at
areas that are known to have defects or are in need of improvement.
By realizing that
any product or service is a continuous cycle of improvements you begin to
understand the Six Sigma approach. Instead of drastic changes all at once, Six
Sigma provides a process by which small changes are constantly adapted to
projects and then measured against past data to judge the quality of the
improvement.
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