Approaches to implementing Six Sigma

In large companies with global supply and manufacturing operations, implementing Six Sigma is no small feat. There are generally two ways it happens.

One way is through a separate organization that provides Six Sigma services to the main business. In this model, all Six Sigma projects run through the independent organization, making it easy to measure the impact of the changes. However, this arrangement can create a "we versus them" mentality that can undermine the effectiveness of the Six Sigma initiatives.

To avoid this tension, other companies take a more integrated approach. In this model, Six Sigma is incorporated into every employee's job, with a few highly trained experts acting as facilitators. This makes it more challenging to measure the impact of Six Sigma, but it helps create a culture in which a commitment to quality and excellence is pervasive.

Either way, Six Sigma relies heavily on teams of people working together, not on individual effort. A team can vary, but it will often include Six Sigma experts, process experts, data specialists, communicators and customers.

A customer, in this case, refers to any person, internal or external, who is affected by a process or product change. This could be a person on the production line, someone in sales or marketing, a distributor or the ultimate end-user of a product or service. In fact, the customer may be the most important person on the team, because it is the customer who defines quality. It is his or her expectation of performance, reliability, competitive prices or on-time delivery that sets the bar.