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Six Sigma originated with Mitsubishi, but because the actual practice and implementation of the training has such wide reaching applications, many Fortune 500 companies adopted it, including GE under Jack Welch. The basic idea is, if you can measure it, it can be improved. Six Sigma training helps to identify the areas that need improvement, and creates quality standards on how to reach the improvement.

This has far reaching effects within any organization. Take customer contact for instance. Many companies fail in the customer service category. In an effort to save money and cut costs, numerous companies implement complicated phone trees in an attempt to automate customer service.

This was the result of measuring call volume and studying exactly what problems customers were calling about. By applying Six Sigma training to the problem, many companies determined that the vast majority of customers were calling with problems that could be handled quickly and efficiently through an automated process. Six Sigma allowed the company to identify an area where they could make an improvement, and then gave the company the tools with which to make the improvement.

The results are an easily trackable system that measures each step of the process. How many customers make up total call volume? Which numbers are customers selecting the most often and how Six Sigma training can help further improve the process once the step is selected? It can even measure where customer’s hang up, and determine frustration level by identifying numbers with multiple calls.

By measuring every step of this particular customer service issue, and applying Six Sigma steps to the problem, the company can institute an immediate solution to the vast majority of customer problems. Those problems that exist outside of the average can be identified and addressed through further measurement and application.

Six Sigma training focuses on two process improvement systems, known as DMAIC and DMADV. DMAIC stands for define, measure, analyze, improve and control and is used for existing systems looking for incremental improvements. The second process known as DMAIC stands for define, measure, analyze, design and verify.

It was created for developing new systems and processes. Six Sigma training can help any type of business improve, because that which can be measured can be improved. Even small changes of one or two percentage points in improvement can lead to large overall improvements in the whole organization.