You are planning to launch a new product. From creating the hype to announcing the launch event date and everything in between, you have done everything to make the product launch a success. Your product launch event made the headlines and received a great response from the audience.

As the marketing hype starts to settle after a few weeks, you start to receive customer complaints about defects in products. Whether it is through your social media pages, review sites or emails in your inbox, your brand is earning a bad reputation. Finally, you will have to discontinue the product and recall the remaining stock from stores.

This would not have happened if you have implemented lean six sigma or paid attention to improving the quality of the product. So what’s lean six sigma all about?

What is Lean Six Sigma?

Lean Six Sigma is a methodology used to minimize defects and errors and improve the process. It is one of the most powerful frameworks to develop better products and services. Six Sigma can be broken down into two sub methodologies.

• DMAIC (Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve and Control)
• DMADV (Define, Measure, Analyze, Design and Verify)

In this article, you will learn about seven sure-fire ways in which six sigma methodology can accelerate your business growth.

1. Improves Customer Satisfaction

Latest research suggests that entrepreneurs who implement six sigma methodology generate a 40% higher ROI as compared to those who adopt other methodologies. Since this methodology focuses on removing defects, your customers get a flawless product and a great product experience. This improves customer satisfaction. If you can deliver a great product experience consistently, you can turn your new customers into loyal customers as they keep coming back to your brand when they must purchase a product. What’s more, these satisfied customers will serve as brand advocates, sharing their positive experience with your products with the world.

2. Reduce Operational Cost

One of the worst things about defective processes is that they cost you money. With zero tolerance for faulty processes and products, Six Sigma drastically reduces the number of defects to 3.4 defects per million opportunities. This means that you will have to spend fewer resources on fixing glitches. Fewer defective product units also translate into less wastage. Combine that with improvement in overall quality and higher revenue and you will earn more and spend less with lean six sigma.

3. Boost Productivity

Time and resource management are critical to higher productivity. Smart task management tools such as TaskQue know that and optimize resource utilization to maximizes your productivity. TaskQue also supports six sigma as a standard workflow, which makes it easy to implement quality-centric processes in your organization.

Managing resources efficiently especially, when you have a large workforce spread across different geographical locations can be a daunting challenge. You can get over this challenge by using Six Sigma as it focuses on metrics such as time spent on activities. This helps you to identify your biggest productivity killers, which are having a negative impact on your productivity.

4. Efficient Time Management

In a lean six sigma environment, employees set SMART goals. SMART stands for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Time-bound. Employees start to critically analyze their day to day activities and identify activities they are spending their time on. This allows them to keep distractions at bay and stay focused on the goal. This helps them manage their time more efficiently.

5. Minimize Project Lifecycle Time

Time is one of the three key constraints of the project management triangle alongside, scope and cost. The longer your project takes to complete the more money it will cost. To complete your project before the deadline and inside the allocated budget, you will have to reduce the project lifecycle time.

This is exactly what lean six sigma helps you achieve. Create multiple teams with each team containing members from all the functional units of your organization and assign them a task to identify roadblocks that can hamper your project progress. Once they have identified the root cause of the problem, they must propose solutions to these problems. This will help you to shorten the project lifecycle.

6. Satisfied Employees

Richard Branson, the founder of Virgin Group, said, “Clients do not come first. Employees come first. If you take care of your employees, they will take care of the clients.” So, it is not all about making your clients happy, you should also focus on making your employees happy. You can easily do that by investing in their wellbeing and development.

Empower your employees by organizing six sigma training. This will broaden their horizon and help them learn new tools and techniques. Provide them with career growth opportunities so they can easily climb the corporate ladder. This not only motivates the employees but also satisfies them. When your employees are satisfied, they deliver their best.

7. Assist in Strategic Planning

Six Sigma is not just a methodology that helps in improving your business processes. It can also assist you with strategic planning. The key to success is to align your lean six sigma efforts with your organization’s strategic goals. This gives you direction and helps your team stay focused so you can achieve your departmental goals. The same happens with other functional units. When all the functional units successfully achieve their goals, the organization thrives.

What is your biggest reason for adopting lean six sigma? Let us know in the comments section below.