"Good, fast, cheap – pick any two". Many of us are familiar with this aphorism and, if we were trying to take the customer perspective, it was probably used against us. But long ago, we at Viga were lucky enough to be exposed to business mentors who showed us that we could indeed have it all. While we are realistic enough to understand that trade-offs are real, we wanted good, fast and cheap. And we are just bold enough to agree with Jim Collins that there is a "Genius of AND". So, we set out to discover business improvement methodologies and approaches which did not begin by compromising between tradeoffs. This is how we discovered Lean Six Sigma.
"Lean" is a process improvement methodology which seeks to uncover work that adds no value and eliminate it, while ensuring that work does not spend time waiting for the next action to occur. Manufacturing companies have successfully applied the techniques of Lean to greatly increase the speed with which work is accomplished. At the same time reducing the amount of resources this work consumes. When successfully applied, these methodologies deliver both "Cheap" and "Fast".
For "Good" we were encouraged to look at Six Sigma, a rigorous and disciplined methodology that uses data and statistical analysis to measure and improve a company's operational performance by identifying and eliminating "defects". Commonly defined as 3.4 defects per million opportunities. Six Sigma offers a toolset of quantitative measures and representations of data which are very appealing to our predispositions about visually representing processes so that they can be improved.
As Michael George (a renowned business process improvement consultant) puts it, "You need to improve quality so you can achieve maximum speed, and you need to do the things that allow maximum speed in order to reach the highest sigma levels of quality. In other words, you need both Lean (speed) and Six Sigma (quality) principles and tools to drive improvements in ROIC and achieve the best competitive position.
When it comes to finding out a way to have it all (Good, Fast and Cheap), we think Lean Six Sigma holds a lot of promise. As we applied the techniques to the automation of document-centric business processes, we were even more convinced. One of the greatest things about Lean Six Sigma thinking is that it delivers on another important tenant of successful process improvement efforts. That is, Lean Six Sigma reinforces the concept of "Start Small – Grow Fast".
When we approach a document automation project, we can frequently identify some "low hanging fruit" to deliver a quick (however limited) return on investment. Maybe the improvement involves the elimination of a data entry process or it might be merely the elimination of print and mail costs. In any case, you are delighted because the project showed measurable results within a very short window of time. We like these "nine-iron" projects, because they satisfy our human need for accomplishment (and recognition). This is the "Lean" part. But, a funny thing also happens as a result of our automation of these document-centric projects. We begin to collect much better statistical information about what actually happens in the process. This sets up our "Six Sigma" efforts to use this data to gain a better understanding of where we take our next shot at continued process improvement. Maybe we need to make it easier for a customer to dispute a bill (especially after we learn that they already dispute 42% of their bills today!).
Now, please don't get scared, we aren't process wonks and we won't try to turn you into a Six Sigma "Black Belt" either. We have had success with these tools, and we plan to use them again. If it helps, we will refrain from using terms like "Value Stream Maps" and "Voice of the Customer" sessions – but you might have to remind us. We know that what you really care about is results. And in this, we are in complete agreement.