How Successful Financial Companies Use Lean Six Sigma Services to Achieve Business Process Excellence

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Lorenzo Del Marmol

March 25, 2014

Lean Six Sigma Services - Lean Six Sigma Belgium

How Successful Financial Companies Use Lean Six Sigma Services to Achieve Business Process Excellence

We think that any industry can benefit from Lean Six Sigma services and business process management. Financial service companies, which offer products that depend largely on their customer service can benefit a lot from these management systems. With the constant change and flux and all the other competitors, intern lean six sigma services can differentiate your firm from the others and let you lead the pack.

So what is Six Sigma?

Motorola developed Six Sigma to improve manufacturing. Even if financial institutions don’t really manufacture anything, their products have to be lean and without defects since you’re dealing with money. Six Sigma came about because Motorola wanted a manufacturing process that deviated from the mean by no more than six sigmas, which meant it had better quality/services than everything else and close to perfection. Motorola wanted to reduce costs, variation and defects in its production line but at the same time create value for all its stakeholders.

Essentially, six Sigma uses scientific management principles, metrics and change management to transform production lines and manufacturing processes. These processes, at the end of a Six Sigma campaign, should give a company excellent, error-free services or products.

Lean Six Sigma services came about in the 1950s when Toyota wanted to create something beyond Six Sigma. Lean takes Six Sigma a bit further and breaks down the production line into something that produces quality at very low cost without variation. Lean Six Sigma services espouses the following concepts:

  1. Everything in your process should add value, for either you as the company or the customer. If it doesn’t add any value, eliminate it.
  2. Create and maintain flow. Don’t let anything stay sitting for too long. Satisfy customer demand with the appropriate number of items in inventory; no more, no less.
  3. Produce items when you get an order for them. Don’t rely on projections or broadcasts. Instead, write up your contracts with clear demand schedules so your stocks are always pulled.
  4. Always meet your customer’s expectations. This means that you should always strive for perfection based on what you have learned from your customers.

But how do these apply to financial industries? Unlike other firms, financial firms have to create even more value than what the money being invested in them is actually worth. They have to be able to meet these challenges:

  1. Customer satisfaction.
  2. Sustainable shareholder value.
  3. Compliance with regulatory requirements.
  4. Scale and complexity problems.
  5. Extended operation enterprise.
  6. Finding technology that can accelerate and empower them.

Lean six Sigma Services can help financial firms face all those challenges by concentrating on the following areas:

1. Process leadership.

This involves you as a leader developing a vision for your financial firm as well as a sound strategy as to how you’re going to lead your industry. You should also own and embody whatever vision and strategy you want to implement. Your CEOs and other high-level managers should be supportive of whatever approach they have, whether it’s Lean, Six sigma or business process management.

2. Process knowledge.

Your capabilities, architecture and metrics mean a lot to your company. These form the knowledge you use in your daily operations. You have to train your team in whatever approach you use.

3. Process execution.

This is where your monitoring and controls come in. Lean, Six Sigma services and other management approaches need daily catch-ups and meetings to ensure that everything is moving forward. Rely on the process knowledge you’ve amassed to know what to do during these meetings about the things that came up during the day.

Here are other related articles:

VOC - Lean Six Sigma Belgium

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