Lean Sigma Methods and Tools for Service Organizations

Book excerpt: Every business aspires to be competitive and profitable in its market. To do this, an organization needs to offer customers value propositions, which may be manifest in the product it produces or the service it provides. This in turn will create customer loyalty and growth. There are a number of organizational philosophies and strategies used by businesses to help accomplish this goal, among which are the concepts of Six Sigma and Lean. This book proposes to integrate the best practices from each of these philosophies and apply them to a customer-focused organization—a cruise ship—whose overriding mission is to deliver superior service to its customers. The authors demonstrate in this book how key components of both Six Sigma and Lean—such as identifying and removing defects, elimination of waste, metrics, speed of delivery, and the seamless integration of these concepts and practices throughout the operation—serve to enhance the kind of value propositions that customers recognize and that allow an organization to be successful.