How Is Six Sigma Valuable For The Service Industry?

Ever since Motorola created and implemented the quality improvement methodology of Six Sigma in 1980, it has gained high recognition and acclaim. Today, more and more companies are implementing Six Sigma into their processes and hiring professionals who have a Six Sigma Certification in India, in order to improve their outcomes. Some of the leading brands who have implemented Six Sigma into their processes and achieved success include Motorola, General Motors, GE, Dell, Kodak, Boeing, Ford Motors, and 3M.

Although all these industries belong to the manufacturing segment, Six Sigma success is not restricted to manufacturers alone. The methodology can be used effectively in the service segment too; and has in fact helped lots of service industries like education, financial services, health care, and many more with equal results. It is true that the historical roots of Six Sigma are in manufacturing, but service companies that have invested in this methodology have also been able to save lakhs and crores of rupees! After all, human-driven businesses also have a good amount of errors and insufficiencies to deal with; and Six Sigma helps eliminate all of that. Service companies often depend on people processes; and human involvement is the most common practice in the service sector. This is why team leaders of such service segment industries are trained to achieve Six Sigma Certification in India to balance their staffing expertise with statistics-based analytical tools.

However, to make Six Sigma implementation successful in the service industry, managers must shift their focus from thinking about numbers to thinking about aligning processes to business needs. Applying the right kind of metrics to bring about an improved business performance is very essential. Before implementing a significant Six Sigma implementation within your organization, you must prove to your people its benefits so that they ultimately give in to accept the change enthusiastically.

Six Sigma helps in improving on lots of processes like generating business expansion, improving customer service, and gaining knowledge about service sectors business processes. Six Sigma also helps to improve the processes involved with human resources, marketing, and sales. Using the DMAIC (Define – Measure – Analyze – Improve – Control) methodology, Six Sigma helps in implementing quality in any industry by reducing defects. The defects are first identified, data is collected as to how the defects occur, and then a new method of working is implemented to reduce errors in the future. This methodology has helped various financial sectors, insurance companies, educational institutes, management companies, state agencies, and high-tech companies to improve their quality.

Three principles of statistical thinking are required to be applied across service industries, which are namely – all work is a process, all processes have variability, and all processes create data that explains variability. Using the DMAIC model, aimed at reducing defects, the first step is to figure out the defects. The next step involves collecting data to find out why and how the defects occur. After the data is measured, a standard process is analyzed and announced to be used across the industry for improvement. And lastly, the improvement in customer satisfaction and increased business is maintained with those standard processes.

As Six Sigma becomes more and more valued, every organization can benefit from its implementation, and experience increased efficiencies and profits. You can have your team undertake professional Six Sigma Certification in India from a reputed provider like TQMI, who has been successfully training organizations since more than the past two decades.