Six Sigma – for the Quality Conscious

The days of quality have been upon us for a long time now, and quality certification has become a way of corporate life.

The early days of quality certification were more of the 'apply and display' variety - The kind where the certification hangs prominently on the wall of the board room, and is a part of all the promotional literature of the company. However, quality consciousness has become more than that. It is no longer a matter of prestige to display the quality certificates on the wall. It is a way of business life to implement quality oriented practices today, to ensure that their own processes are beyond reproach. Since most of the competing companies have some sort of quality rating, it is no longer a fad to apply and display.

Six Sigma is the certification that sets your business apart from the rest of the ones out there. And to help you get going, you need a world class Six Sigma consultancy to audit your processes and point you in the right direction. Six Sigma is more of a practice than a certification, and the effects of Six Sigma are evident in every single aspect of your business. By definition, Six Sigma is the perfect business model - where there is not more than one error in a million transactions. The whole business model that your business has is scanned thoroughly and the potential places for mistakes are first identified. Once those are done, Six Sigma consultants get on the job and chart out a game plan for the complete set of improvements that are to be put in place; and the effects that they will show as in your business model. If there are any long term changes that are required to be done in the organization, lean Six Sigma consultants will put them up for you to analyze.

Actually, Six Sigma consultancy is not a complete process. Six Sigma Consultants only kick start the change. The rest of the work will automatically be done when there is an adherence to the quality guidelines, and the results will start showing almost from day one. An effective Six Sigma consultancy would also ensure that there are no major changes required unless it is absolutely unavoidable. The most obvious outcome of the Lean Six Sigma consultants' work is cost cutting. Quality in operations is to also result in a cost cutting exercise. If the company ends up spending a lot of money on upgrading the quality, then it does not make sense as the end user will have to pay noticeably more for the quality in the providers' operations.

The rating of Six Sigma can be identified by their belt program, and a Black Belt in Six Sigma is considered to be the top of the line, as far as quality processes go internationally. If you have not yet approached a Six Sigma consultancy, you should do so immediately!

By Judith Kraus
Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/management-articles/six-sigma-for-the-quality-conscious-641822.html