07/ 18/ 2007
by Maggie Flynn
Chances are you've heard about classes, seminars and Web sites devoted to the Six Sigma principle. Maybe you've even heard that it's a management tool used by companies like Motorola and General Electric. But you might not have heard a concise definition of exactly what Six Sigma is.
"Sigma" is a statistical term measuring how far a given process deviates from perfection; the governing philosophy of Six Sigma states that if you can measure how many defects are in a process, then you can systematically eliminate those and get closer to perfection.
Companies that adapt the Six Sigma management style use specific techniques to produce less than 3.4 defects for every 1 million "opportunities," or steps in the process where a problem could occur. These companies hire Six Sigma quality managers and implement a more complex hierarchy of methodologies than could ever be practical for a small business. However, parts of the Six Sigma model can still be a useful management tool, no matter the size of your company.
One quality-control methodology in particular, known in Six Sigma text as DMADV (define, measure, analyze, design, verify), can be a useful model for business improvement. Let's look at each part:
Define
In the greatest amount of detail you can, write down the goals for your project. For example, if you own a restaurant, you might set the goal that your servers sell dessert to 60 percent of their tables, as opposed to the vague, immeasurable goal "servers should sell more desserts."
Measure
Designate a time period over which you'll track your goal and your method for doing so.
Analyze
Let's say you calculate the number of tables that ordered dessert for one week, and the total number is only 40 percent. Come up with all the reasons this might have happened. Are your servers remembering to offer dessert to each of their tables? Are your portions so large no one has room for dessert? Are you serving the same frozen cheesecakes from the same food supplier that half the other restaurants in your town serve? Go over every possibility.
Design
Once you've analyzed the problem, design your plan for correcting the situation. Retrain servers to offer desserts to every table. Put together a dessert tray to show each table after the main course is finished. Hire a local bakery to prepare pastries especially for your restaurant. Inform your employees about the plan and put it into use.
Verify
Once again you'll want to measure the results to see how your new plan is working. If you're not getting the results you want, you may have to reanalyze and redesign. Perhaps the problem wasn't the servers, but the limited choice of desserts. Your next plan could be a simple as adding sorbet to the menu. Keep up with this process until your original goal is met.
As you can see, behind the complicated numbers and processes of Six Sigma are old-fashioned, commonsense principles. And while most small-business owners can save their money and skip the next Six Sigma training seminar that comes to town, it may be worth looking through a book or two and seeing what you can adapt for your own business improvement techniques.
