Six Sigma - Not Just for Manufacturing
Although the Six Sigma methodology originally started out as a way to improve processes and products in a manufacturing environment, today it has grown to encompass a broad range of industries. As companies begin to realize the benefits a total quality improvement cycle can have upon the organization they are adopting Six Sigma and its practices into their own fold.
Organizations not only receive the quality benefit of Six Sigma in their products and processes, but also significant cash savings can be realized as part of adapting such a process. In one example, GE realized a savings of close to $300 million dollars in the first year of implementation of Six Sigma.
Health care organizations can see benefits that not only affect the bottom line of the company, but also affect the quality of care and overall recovery rate for patients. In one example a hospital used Six Sigma practices to significantly reduce the amount of time it took to get heart attack patients from ER to the cardiac care unit by close to 41 minutes.
As a result the fatality rate of heart attack patients dropped significantly and the quality of care for those patients improved over 300%.
Financial institutions are using Six Sigma as a way to manage both their customer satisfaction expectations as well as risk management initiatives. By using the methodologies and improvement cycles of Six Sigma Bank of America realized close to $2 billion dollars in benefits as well as a 25% increase in customer satisfaction.
The construction industry can sometimes be paralleled to the manufacturing industry. Instead of producing the end-product in a factory the construction industry produces the product at various job sites. As such many of the same improvements the manufacturing industry has seen have also been adapted to the construction industry.
Savings of man hours and costs across various projects have not only resulted in lower costs but also in higher quality buildings and infrastructure.
The Insurance industry is one of the most paper-intensive industries in the world. Claims processing, underwriting and adjustments all take significant amounts of time to collect data and process it in order to make decisions and assist customers.
By utilizing the Six Sigma approach major players in the industry including CIGNA and American Family have seen claim processing times be reduced by up to 50% as well as more analytic assignment of risk factors based on underwriting data.
So how can Six Sigma benefit your particular organization? Start by looking at what your organization produces - be it a service or a physical product. Then look at areas that are known to have defects or are in need of improvement.
By realizing that any product or service is a continuous cycle of improvements you begin to understand the Six Sigma approach. Instead of drastic changes all at once, Six Sigma provides a process by which small changes are constantly adapted to projects and then measured against past data to judge the quality of the improvement.
D. David Dugan personally helps to maintain the Consulting Information site http://consulting.divinfo.com which has great information like http://consulting.divinfo.com/what-is-six-sigma.php.
Tags: business consulting, consulting, lean manufacturing, lean six sigma, six sigma7 Affordable Marketing Strategies for Small Business Owners
“Build it and they will come” only works in the movies. If you’re a small business owner, relying on people finding you will most likely end in disaster. Actively pursuing clients predicts success, but many entrepreneurs simply don’t know how to do that.
Let me assure you though that marketing is easy IF you have a plan.
The best plans are written down in a notebook, or maybe they’re on your computer. Even a scrap of paper will do. But studies show when you write things down, you’re more likely to succeed.
Sometimes new business owners are wary of any talk about marketing because they think marketing must be expensive. Yet can you afford not to market your company? And usually they’re thinking of advertising rather than marketing. Although many think so, the two terms are not synonymous. Advertising is merely one form of marketing.
Here’s a few.
- It all starts with image (and yes, image is part of marketing as is pretty much everything you say and do). To show the world a professional image, consider the impact of having everything that represents your company match perfectly - be it business cards, brochures, and your web site to name a few.
- The single-most affordable marketing strategy is networking and requests for referral. In fact, not only is it the most affordable, it’s also the most effective. A client coming to your through a referral is likely interested in your product or services 60% of the time. You simply can’t beat that.
- Direct mail is an excellent strategy for reaching your target market one-on-one. Direct mail works for both business-to-business and consumer markets. And while writing for both markets has certain aspects in common, there’s also important differences when copywriting for the two.
- If your town has bulletin boards or storefronts that allow it (most do if you look hard enough), post a notice free of charge. The only cost bulletin board notices have is your time.
- Join your local business groups and offer to speak during their next meeting. Although public speaking is one of our most common fears, speaking to a group quickly establishes expert status.
- Find a business that offers complementary services to yours and split the costs of your both your marketing. For example, if you own a graphic design business, join forces with a printer.
- I can’t end this discussion without mentioning web sites. There is no other way to reach as many people at the same time (except maybe advertising, but advertising on the same scale can be very expensive). The problem with web sites is putting one up is just the beginning. Marketing your site takes a lot of hard work, but it’s worth it.
Small business marketing doesn’t need to be difficult. Nor does it need to be expensive. These 7 strategies are just the tip of the iceberg. Really, you’re only limited by your imagination, and of course your budget.
Eve Jackson offers marketing services to small business owners. If you’re an entrepreneur who’d like to increase your sales, give her a call at 306-373-1459 or visit her web site at detailssbs.com/services.php where you’ll find all sorts of information to help your small business succeed. You’ll learn about small business image, marketing strategies, direct mail and small business web site development from start to finish.
Tags: affordable small business marketing, direct mail, entrepreneur, referrals, web site developmentSurviving Survival
Aren’t you tired of sitting around waiting for something to finally happen?
I just got off the phone talking with my friend James. We spoke about how his business was doing, and I asked what he planned on earning this year. His response surprised me:
‘Making money’s not my focus now. I don’t really think this is the right time–I’m planning to just hold on until things get better.‘
James is usually pretty optimistic and ’survival’ is not part of his normal vocabulary, so I started wondering about others I know: my consulting clients, people who take my DYBO business-doubling e-course, people I meet speaking.
One client wrote they had ’survived’ last year, but had ‘done the unpardonable — cut marketing.’ Another told me, ‘Well, we made it. But we cut half our sales force.’ And a service provider I know reduced her total payroll from 130 to 75 people in the past six months.
Even though Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan has pronounced the recession over, many businesspeople are taking about one thing only: survival. They are hunkered down trying to weather the storm, but they’re doing it at the expense of building their businesses. And I believe many companies are unwittingly sacrificing their future.
Here’s the typical survival strategy:
- Cut marketing.
- Lay off marginal employees.
- Cut sales travel expenses.
- Lay off good employees.
- Lay off salespeople.
- Fire ineffective management.
- Reduce your prices hoping to attract business.
- Fire effective management.
Hope for anything. Pray for business. Wait for the recession to end.
Does any of this sound familiar?
Of course survival is not all bad–not by a long shot. There’s a ’statistic’ reputed to come from the US Small Business Administration, which says 9 out of 10 new businesses don’t last five years, or something like that. The details vary with the telling but the point is well made–it is hard to keep a business profitable over the long haul, which is why so few of America’s largest companies from 75 years ago even exist today.
The good side of survival makes you ‘lean and mean,’ scavenging the landscape for sharp opportunities and playing for keeps.
But the dark side just ends up like a strategy for playing it safe, putting off decisions and delaying action.
Of course, you may still be around when ‘things get better, but will you be in a position to take advantage of your opportunities? Perhaps–if you’ve conserved cash and preserved your ability to generate new business.
But if instead you’ve so reduced your ability to go after new deals - or if you’ve let your product languish to the point where it is no longer up to snuff–are you going to be viable? Will you be able to compete? Will you be ready to grow during the next expansion?
Transcending the Survival Mindset
We are entering what may be the greatest business building opportunity of the next decade. While most of your competitors are still in the warm sleep of survival it is time for you to prepare for bold action.
Here are some tips which will help you survive survival and climb back up the ladder of success. Note that this is not a tip list on *how to survive*, you’ve already done that. This is about transcending survival and thriving again.
First, recognize that your goal of survival is not a real goal–it’s a staging zone. A holding pattern. Survival is not something to commit yourself to–a commitment to survival is a commitment to a low level of existence. Think of homeless people who survive by scrounging dumpsters for food. They survive–but at what level? And for how long?
Your real commitment must be one to prosperity.
Next, recreate your vision of life beyond survival. Okay, you are still in business–congratulations. Pat yourself on the back because many aren’t. But despite the SBA statistics, this is not a cause for celebration–not yet, anyway.
Ask yourself–what are you surviving for? What will you do when the survival period is over–when you decide it’s okay to start thriving again? What will you accomplish then? What do you want it to look and feel like next year and the year after that? If your vision is simply one of staying in business, you really should think twice about why you do all that hard work.
Once you have a clear picture of where you are going–the most important thing is to increase your level of action. You may have slowed down during this survival period - making fewer sales calls, reducing your marketing and promotional efforts, retarding product development.
Now it’s time rev up the engines and get moving again.
How much effort does your business plan call for? What does your strategic plan say?
If you don’t know, or if those plans are no longer relevant, you need to freshen the business plan or create a new strategic plan. It doesn’t have to be a perfect plan, but don’t just lurch into action. Don’t move forward without a plan!
Detail the measures of activity and performance for your company. In my business these include leads generated, sales conversations, relationship and networking conversations, articles written and published, new customers signed, consulting contracts, course registrants, web hits, press releases sent, press mentions, radio interviews, key notes and speaking engagements, and of course, revenues, profits, and cash-in-bank.
Your measures may be different but the process is the same:
- Make a list of each key measure. These will include both what I call results goals and activity goals.
- Establish a performance goal for each, by week, month or quarter–whatever is most appropriate. Then, up the ante–you’ve most likely slowed down and the whole point here is to increase your activity. So take whatever your goal is for these items and stretch it. Reawaken the action habit.
- Set up a system for measuring and reporting on each of these keys, and then try to get rid any shortfalls.
- If your need to spend is still greater than the cash coming in, cut back everything that is not revenue related, but don’t hurt your current–or future–revenue streams. Look for ways to reduce overhead–but not sales and marketing expenses.
Here’s a special word about marketing: Most likely you have cut back. Mistakenly, this is often the first area cut when people think their survival is threatened. Now is the time to bump it back up. If you don’t have cash available there are a whole host of guerilla marketing strategies which call for limited spending.
Finally, get a coach or a mentor. Get someone to be an unbiased and insightful sounding board, someone who can both critique your plans and present objective counsel.
Now–envision your next growth spurt. Envision your business expanding profitably. Figure out what it’s going to take, and get busy again.
© Paul Lemberg. All rights reserved
Paul Lemberg is the president of Quantum Growth Coaching, the world’s only fully systemized business coaching program guaranteed to help entrepreneurs rapidly create More Profits and More Life(tm). To get your copy of our free special report with detailed steps on how to grow your business at least 40% faster, even when you aren’t sure what to do next, go to Paul’s business coaching website.
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Tags: business coaching, business planning, business strategies, goals, marketing strategies, success, vision