The Cultural Change Of Six Sigma

What happens when you walk into staff meeting and announce that you have changes to make? Usually you have upset employees! People do not like change. Change means that there is something new and different that they need to adjust to. The unknown can be frustrating to understand and it's usually scary for a lot of people. Six Sigma is a process that does come with a complete cultural change. Your employees must be able to understand Six Sigma and they need to be able to believe in it's methodologies for it to work effectively.

Six Sigma is used to help reduce wastes and to increase production. When you implement it correctly you will be able to see a great improvement in just about every aspect of the company. No matter how large or small your facility is, you will see improvements with the correct implementation of Six Sigma. The belt system is one that is used to help train employees on how to search for success with the program. You will need to send them to training seminars and other things if you really want them to get the best information possible pertaining to Six Sigma.

It is also important that the correct individuals are chosen to become the leaders of the program. The Black Belt program is not an easy one and you will need to have an employee that can take on the large responsibilities and have the chance to attend numerous training seminars and other things.

Like anything new, it will take some time to adjust to Six Sigma and the various methodologies. There are 3 main goals that will be able to make Six Sigma into a success. These goals include the following:
1. Identification and complete elimination of product defects. Understanding of process systems and the variations that may occur which will help you in decreasing the problems or being able to eliminate the errors.
2. Improvement of overall quality of products. The goal is to acquire a defect ration of 3.4 per million opportunities. As you do this, there is a rare chance that you will have customers that are not satisfied with the quality of your products.
3. Improvement in efficiency of your processes, which will be able to enable you to save a lot of money for the company.

When you are introducing Six Sigma to the company, you want to really focus your efforts on helping them to understand it and to see the benefits. People want to have all the information clearly laid out before them so they can believe in it. You want to really research the program and come to the table with the right information so you can get your employees approval and to have their support.

Encourage your employees to take an active role in problem solving. The employees deal with the problems on a daily basis. They know what they are so they will usually have ideas of what can be done to solve the problems. You need to work on getting your employees involved in the identification of the problems and then having them draw up solutions. When you show them how vital they are to the success of the company and you are able to show them that their opinion really matters, it makes them feel valued and accepted.

Training is everything with Six Sigma. You need to spend money on training so your staff members know what they are doing! They need to be able to attend conferences and you should pay for all the additional costs if they choose to pursue their Master Black Belt. This is a big step for both the employees and for you as you are working together toward the success and future of the company.