How Is Six Sigma Valuable For The

Service Industry?
Author : Deepak Bansal

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.