Contents

• Introduction 3
• Benefits, Costs and Risks of Six Sigma Program 3
• Approach to include Functional Areas in Organization in the Six Sigma Initiative and Role to be played by Senior and Middle Management 5
• Role Six Sigma plays in Corporate Strategy 6
• Human Resource Implications for deploying Six Sigma 7
• Impact of Six Sigma on Innovative Culture at 3M 8
• Action Plan 10
• Conclusion 11
• References 13

Description

Every task in organizations is cross-functional and operations is one of the most important function in every organization. Successful organizations have the ability to identify the value of the products or services it offers to its customers. Such companies deploy this understanding to make crucial decisions that affect the production and delivery of the products and services. The decisions made directly impact design, execution and performance of various tasks within operations. Six Sigma is an effective and widely used method, which provides organizations tools to improve capability of their business processes and directly impact the operations. Six Sigma is a methodology for carrying out continuous improvement in customer satisfaction and profit by improving efficiency and reducing defects in the respective process or product. The main focus of Six Sigma is on reducing process variation and then improving process capability. 3M has benefitted by applying Six Sigma wherein it has been able to achieve consistent growth and focus on three areas, which are cost saving, growth and generating cash. The company finds Six Sigma useful as it provides common approach to achieve common goals, develops transferable skills and enhance business performance and customer quality. The company under its Six Sigma program focused on improving many of the processes, which include supply chain. Six Sigma has plays an important role in corporate strategy as it would enable the organization to align the processes and resources effectively to achieve certain strategy. Six Sigma practices are implemented based on the data-driven approach, which will help in successfully implementing corporate strategy. 3M would be able to achieve growth and sustainability with Six Sigma practices as it has enabled the organization to improve its processes and also continue innovation. But to ensure that Six Sigma does not affect he innovation culture it should be implemented on a limited basis in research and development department.