Plain and Simple: Bright Business Insights April 2016 | Page 5

IS YOUR BUSINESS SUFFERING FROM WASTE & INEFFICIENCY? Lean Six Sigma Could Be Just What the Doctor Ordered When times are good, it’s easy to ignore symptoms of waste and inefficiency with the rationale that focusing on growth opportunities will result in greater value creation for the business. In periods of slow growth or economic decline, organizations often focus their efforts inward to ensure they are fully capable of responding efficiently and effectively to new market opportunities when they are created or when they arise. What Are Your Symptoms? Symptoms of waste and inefficiency take many forms and impact all types of businesses – and can cost you time, productivity, internal and external customer satisfaction and money. Some common symptoms include: • Overproducing parts or material simply because equipment and people are readily available, or producing excess amounts of data that never leads to actionable information. • Over-processing parts or adding unnecessary steps in a process that don’t add value to internal or external customers or enable your organization to realize value for products or services delivered. • Storing or purchasing unnecessary amounts of inventory. • Reworking parts or reports as a result of defects or poor quality. Like a riverbed during a drought, symptoms of waste and inefficiency often do not appear until growth has slowed or the market has turned. If your riverbed is starting to show any of these symptoms of waste and inefficiency, now may be the time to do something about it. • Routinely sending out “search parties” to locate tools, information or documentation due to poor organization. Lean Six Sigma Is The Solution • Excessive physical motion, movement of paperwork or transportation (e.g., material handling, etc.). • Process variation and complexity that often leads to errors and delays internally and externally. • Limited functional responsibilities by team members or simply not utilizing their true talents. • Over-flowing in-boxes or bottlenecks resulting from traditional batch processing. • Idle time, delays or continually waiting for information. • Simply working harder, not smarter. by: Kyle Stemple CPA, CGMA, Principal, Lean Six Sigma Green Belt & Director of Manufacturing & Distribution Services 122 Fourth Street NW | PO Box 1020 New Philadelphia, Ohio 44663 (330) 339-6651 Lean Six Sigma is a continuous improvement methodology designed to help you identify and eliminate waste and inefficiency throughout the enterprise – from the manufacturing floor to office and administrative processes. Moreover, Lean Six Sigma is a powerful management tool that leading organizations across all industries use to increase operational efficiency and capacity, improve processes and quality, and increase profits. Above all, Lean Six Sigma leverages subject matter experts within your business – your people – to ensure that the “voice of your customers” is satisfied by the “voice of your processes.” World-class organizations use Lean Six Sigma and key problem-solving tools to eliminate waste, improve efficiency, increase quality and make more money – and you can too. Call me to see how Lean Six Sigma can help your business.