Page 50 - Lean six sigma demystified

Chapter 1 What iS Lean Six Sigm a ? 29

Lean Six Sigma down everybody’s throat with endless training, changing the
culture can get hard, if not impossible.
Lean Six Sigma will not fix everything about your business. It won’t fix
suppliers. It won’t fix customers. It won’t fix morale. It won’t fix boring
products. It won’t fix poor leadership. But it is a management system that
can improve morale, leadership, and products indirectly. Learning Lean
Six Sigma will help you choose and improve your suppliers. It will help
you understand and better serve your existing and undiscovered
customers.
Take some time to test drive each of the improvement methods and tools.
Apply them to your business and your processes. Use the QI Macros tools
to Focus, Improve, Sustain, and Honor your progress. You’ll be surprised
how easy it can be to find and make dramatic improvements. Best of all,
these methods and tools have stood the test of time. You’ll be able to use
them in any business and any job you ever have. And you will be recognized
because you’re the employee who can find the hidden gold mine in the
business.
The May 3, 2004, Business Week reported Xerox’s savings from using Lean
Six Sigma.

• Reducing the loss of toner during production saved $240,000.
• Improving software for translating user manuals into foreign languages
saved $1 million.
• Xerox helped Bank of America save $800,000 by consolidating document
centers.

In 1999, the story was a little different. Customers started receiving
incorrect bills that had incorrect prices and extra equipment they’d never
ordered. As customers started to defect, Xerox turned to GE Capital to
handle its billing. Using Lean Six Sigma, GE showed Xerox how to find and
fix problems as well as eliminate steps from their processes to save time
and boost profits.
In 2003, Xerox boasts a $6 million return on their investment with
more expected for 2004. And, while sales are down 20% from 1998 peaks,
profits are up. 2003 net income was $366 million, up 50% from the previ-
ous year.
Starwood Hotels introduced Six Sigma in 2001 to great employee skep-
ticism. In 2007, Six Sigma delivered over $100 million in profit to the