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10 Ways Your Chamber of Commerce Can Help Your Business Grow
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Aren't Small Businesses Lucky?
Take care of your key target audiences and they'll take care of you.
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Small Business Tax Trap #1: Waiting To Incorporate -- What A Difference A Date Can Make
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Six Sigma Deployment in Smaller Organizations
Six Sigma is not just for large multinational corporations.
While there are difficulties inherent in implementing Six Sigma
in a small company rather than a large business they can be
overcome. Six Sigma can work in any size business because the
nature of Six Sigma is dependent upon characteristics inherent
in any business, not on the size of a business. Smaller
organizations frequently are short on resources and expertise in
change initiatives. However, they also have more flexible
process flows, a shorter decision-making chain, and higher
visibility of senior management. Smaller organizations can
actually effectively establish Six Sigma faster than large
businesses if deployment scope is correctly managed.
Scope of Deployment
Six Sigma is designed for all-inclusive deployment across an
organization. However, s maller organizations do have
constraints that limit their ability to initiate a large scale
Six Sigma implementation. If your organization does not have the
resources to create an infrastructure for organization-wide Six
Sigma deployment then start with a pilot program.
One of the beauties of Six Sigma is that its central methodology
is scalable. Six Sigma, emphasizes intensive training and
extensive analysis--qualitative characteristics that work
regardless of the size of the organization. Likewise, Six Sigma
DMAIC (design, measure, analyze, improve, and control)
discipline s work no matter the size of the organization or even
the size of the Six Sigma project. Even a small Six Sigma
project can yield significant results. Breakthrough improvements
in processes and bottom-line profitability come not from
quantity of resources, but the quality and the intelligence with
which they are employed.
Small and medium-sized organizations may not have the resources
of larger companies; however, in most cases, smaller
organizations can be more nimble, flexible, and focused on
results. Approaching initial implementation of Six Sigma through
a pilot program will yield tangible results without overwhelming
your resources from a small "quick-hit" project. These results
can then be replicated throughout the organization, in many
cases even faster than in a large organization.
Issues Critical to Smaller Organizations
When deploying a pilot Six Sigma project there are several
important issues to consider inherent to smaller organizations.
First, the choice of a project is critical. The pilot project
will set the tone for Six Sigma deployment, so it should be a
good one that can show significant and visible results
in a
reasonably short period of time. The project must clearly
address one or more business goals thereby contributing to one
or more core enterprise measures. Each project must also be
completable within three to four months, so careful upfront
scoping is essential. Projects must be continually tracked and
updated for line management during existing business reviews.
Another issue is training. In smaller organizations, training
budgets and especially time available to devote personnel for
training is limited. Thus, it is not always practical for
personnel to be absent from their day-to-day duties to attend
months of training. Fortunately, there are some Six Sigma
consultants who can deliver required Six Sigma training in an
accelerated format and even onsite. Thus, smaller organizations
can give their people the needed training with less disruption
to their normal business, improving internal synergy while
providing greater organizational flexibility.
Six Sigma implementation teams can encounter critical resource
restrictions, often due to a personnel limitation where people
are available for project functions only on a part-time basis.
It is essential at project inception that the right people are
involved, doing the right things. A small but committed force of
the right people with proper training, given the proper
authority will go far in getting things started. Good and fluid
communication is also critical.
Upon successful completion of the Six Sigma pilot, the scale of
the deployment is then expanded to other areas of the
organization, incorporating the lessons learned from the pilot
project. Just as it is much harder for a large ship to turn than
a small ship, smaller organizations can change and adapt more
quickly than large organizations. That does not mean that small
organizations will automatically be successful when deploying
Six Sigma, but making change take place and getting buy in to
the changes are easier. Peter Peterka is President of Six Sigma
us. For additional information on Six Sigma Deployment or other
Six Sigma Master Black Belt project programs contact Peter
Peterka http://www.6sigma.us/
About the author:
Peter Peterka Peter Peterka is the Principal Consultant in
practice areas of DMAIC and DFSS. Peter has eleven years of
experience performing as a Master Black Belt, and has over 15
years experience in industry as an improvement specialist and
engineer working with numerous companies, including 3M, Dell,
Dow, GE, HP, Intel, Motorola, Seagate, Xerox and even the US
Men's Olympic Team.
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