Why six sigma?

One thing that people often wonder is why you should use Six Sigma for your manufacturing plant when there are so many other choices available. There are numerous manufacturing approaches out there for you to choose from, but what you might not be aware of is that not all of them are going to be able to get the job done. The reason for this is that while all of these approaches might have the same objective, which is to help improve your manufacturing process, they are all going to go about reaching this objective in a different way. Because of the variety of methods that each approach is going to use this means that not all manufacturing approaches are going to work for every manufacturing plant.

Here are the top reasons why you should use six sigma.

Number one: Save money
Six Sigma is designed to reduce the amount of waste that is created during your manufacturing process. How this work sis that Six Sigma will look at the different processes of your manufacturing plan one process at a time. In looking at these processes, Six Sigma will identify where you can make improvements or changes that will increase your productivity. While increasing your productivity you will be getting rid of waste and poor quality, which in turn means that you are producing quality products so you are not wasting time or resources on production costs. Six Sigma can also reduce your operational costs because it focuses on reducing the number of defects that are produced, reducing the cycle time, and other cost savings.

Number two: Quality
Six Sigma is a great process if you are trying to improve the quality of the products that you are manufacturing. Six Sigma will help you make quality your top priority. This is important to manufacturing businesses because the quality of your products is the foundation for your reputation. You do not want to have a reputation of poor quality products, if this happens chances are your customers will not be coming back to make future purchases. Not to mention that only manufacturing quality products will help you reduce the amount of waste, products that you are having to throw away because it is broken or been returned from your customers, which causes you to lose money.

Number three: Problem solving
Six Sigma is a popular choice because it teaches everybody in your business how to problem solve. How this happens is that everybody in the business is going to have to go through some kind of training for Six Sigma, whether it is black belt green belt, executives, or champions. During the Six Sigma training, they are going to learn how to approach a variety of problem situations and when approaching these problems they will learn how to solve the problems that they are facing. Learning how to problem solve can also increase the efficiency in your manufacturing plant because nobody is relying on somebody else to solve their problems.

Number four: Narrow focus
With Six Sigma, you are going to be looking at things differently than other approaches. Six Sigma requires you to take a narrow look at things rather than a broad look. With Six Sigma you are going to need to look at one section at a time, in addition to the quality standards, to see what needs to be improved in that area. Other approaches only require you to keep your existing standards and make improvements to meet these old standards. When implementing Six Sigma you are only going to do one section at a time, you are encouraged to select a small section at first so that you can see immediate results. This will help to boost your employees' morale, but it will also show people that the switch will work.

When figuring out which approach to use, just remember that not all approaches will work for your manufacturing plant. Take the time to do your research to choose the one that will fit your company best.