Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Lean Six Sigma in perspective

Many people think that Lean Six Sigma is strongly influenced by Japanese companies like Toyota. That may be so, but Lean Six Sigma has strong American roots. Industrialists like Henry Ford and William Edwards Deming, who after the Second World War was heavily involved rebuilding the Japanese industry, have been great pioneers of the philosophy. Lean Six Sigma consists of two combined methods: Lean Thinking and Six Sigma. Both are focused at improving business processes and customers.

The Lean Thinking philosophy is aimed at those elements that do not add value to be eliminated from the process. As a result the final product improves in quality, which has positive effects on revenue streams. The Six Sigma philosophy focuses on the quality per element in the process and has a strong customer focus.

The Lean Six Sigma philosophy is a way of doing things. It indicates what an organization should and what it should not do. Now, let’s take that to the playing field of customer contacts and customer contact processes. Organizations which manage their customer contact processes well, will be financially rewarded by its own customer base.

Unfortunately customer contacts are dynamic and subject to continuous change. For an optimal performance in this dynamic environment, organizations must facilitate their customer contact employees with the right tools. Customer contact processes extent departments and people. This means different systems, underlying databases and different people with different roles are working on the customer contacts.

Organizations own a lot of customer data. This includes financial information such as invoices, credit history, rate, account number, method of payment. Contact information such as name, address, city, phone number, email and date of birth. Commercial information such as contract term, ecological products, which services the customer uses, customer history, customer will receive newsletter? Demographic information such as family situation, age and gender. Would it not be great to make use of this?

There is an answer to that, it is called Customer Process Management. CPM will ensure that customer contact processes are managed flexibly, effectively and efficiently. As a result the Average Handling Time drops significantly. Customer Process Management Software bridges the gap between the customer contact point and the internal organization. CPM Software facilitates customer contact employees in such a manner that customers, contacting an organization, are being served instantly and correctly. All actions that follow from the initial customer contact point, are properly logged, stored and executed. Customers will be satisfied. Excellent service.

Most organizations do have the possession of resources and infrastructure to facilitate multimedia customer contact processes. But all too often there is a missing link between real-time customer contact and internal organization. So when everything is already there, why not erase this missing link? Connect the dots and create customer satisfaction and more profit.

3 comments:

  1. SIX SIGMA is a strategy for improving shareholder and customer satisfaction. Having taken the world by storm over the last decade and a half, Six Sigma is both a business philosophy and goal, as well as a comprehensive set of business analytics, tools and methodologies that lead to exponential increases in efficiency, innovation, competitiveness and profitability.

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  2. Great description of "respect for humanity." Remember also, even if your core strategy isn't necessarily focused on growth, the focus on delivering greater value for you customer will bring growth.
    When a business out performs their competitors the growth comes. In the meantime use the opportunity to invest even more in your greatest asset, people.lean six sigma

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  3. community members who go through the auditing process–which can be anxiety inducing–but you make a great point about how strong systems and dedication to continuous improvement are what management systems are all about. Thanks for sharing.lean six sigma

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