I invite you to join as a member of the PEX Network Group http://tinyurl.com/3hwakem, you will have access to Key Leaders Globally, Events, Webinars, Presentations, Articles, Case Studies, Blog Discussions, White Papers, and Tools and Templates. To access this free content please take 2 minutes for a 1 time FREE registration at http://tiny.cc/tpkd0 Process Excellence Network: A division of IQPC, (formerly known as Six Sigma IQ) provides access to a treasure chest of relevant content for Process Excellence practitioners. Providing critical knowledge on the development of Process Excellence including Business Process Management (BPM), Lean, Change Management, Operational Excellence, Six Sigma, Risk Management, Customer Experience and more, we provide the forum where key industry experts and organizations share their experience, knowledge and tools, and your practitioner peers connect with one another all over the world, both face-to-face and online. The Process Excellence Network is enhanced by an active online community of your professional peers, as well and face-to-face Summits and events that take place across the globe. Collectively we help you discover what the best are doing to get measurable results through Process Excellence and to seek actionable solutions to specific process problems through worldwide mass collaboration. None of us has the time for continuous trial and error learning. We must learn more and more from the experiences of others. Learning is nothing more than thinking with other people's ideas. We bring you the best ideas in a variety of media forms from outstanding academics and practicing professionals. In short, Process Excellence Network, (often known as PEX Network) enables you to advance your own process excellence journey by increasing your idea sources, widening your contacts and friendships and participating in ongoing formal and informal learning opportunities. In Summary: Process Excellence Network is uniquely positioned to provide a comprehensive library of both online and face-to-face content, including first-rate columns, articles, webinars, podcasts, video presentations, and of course globally renown industry events. Through every medium we strive to make your learning an exciting, dynamic, interactive experience. We are constantly striving to improve our content delivery methodologies. In 2011 we will be introducing many new ways for you to learn. Stay updated. The best is yet to come. Become a Process Excellence Network member today and you'll have continuous exposure to new and timeless tools, techniques, and technologies to extend your performance capacity and your organization's productivity. We also invite you to visit e-Zsigma for Lean Six Sigma Training and certification. e-Zsigma is Canada's leader in strategic Lean, Six Sigma and innovation deployment, project management, consulting and change leadership. http://www.e-zsigma.com

1. Six Sigma
WIIFE...What's in It for
Employees?
Contributor: Bryan Camoens View Linked In Profile
Posted: 05/23/2011 12:00:00 AM EDT
Dumidu Ranaweera, Process Excellence & Lean Six Sigma Manager, for Sri
Lankan telecommunications service provider Dialog Axiata, spoke to PEX
Network’s Bryan Camoens on the importance of. the methodology He also
debunks the idea that Lean Six Sigma cannot be applied in an environment of
low mix models and that it requires continuous flow for its application.
Bryan Camoens: Could you please explain how the
deployment of lean Six Sigma can keep you ahead of
competition?
Dumidu Ranaweera: As Jack Welch use to cite, just implementing Lean Six
Sigma does not assure you great market share nor number one position in the
market, but it can help in the strategy of assuring the desired, sustainable
competitive advantage of an organization. Lean Six Sigma in simple terms is
a powerful problem solving methodology that act as a catalyst in the journey
of organizational excellence.
In other words Lean Six Sigma thinking itself can help organizational leaders
in taking vital market/customer related decisions with more confidence than
the competition. As its application provides the decision makers to take more
customer focused decisions justified by data and forecasting where
applicable, Lean Six Sigma has become a vital element in marketing
decisions.
Especially in the time of recession that was passed, many companies fell the
importance of Lean Six Sigma more than ever and used it to gain more
assurance in the decisions that they had to take in the shrinking market
space.
Outsourcing becoming more popular in the agenda of management
discussions, Lean Six Sigma application and practices also emerged as a key
differentiator for outsourcing companies as it was essential to show case their
ability in value creation post outsourcing a function/operation for its clients
Bryan Camoens: Creating a corporate culture to motivate
employees comes from the top, but how can you get effective
buy-in on the benefits of Six Sigma from employees?

2. Dumidu Ranaweera: It’s clear that Lean Six Sigma
deployment needs to be a Top down approach for it to leap
and generate accelerated results, but its sustenance is heavily
dependent on the commitment of its talent pool.
Employees desire intrinsic and extrinsic benefits to be attached to a concept
or a long term deployment strategy, hence the first thing to define is ‘WIIFE-
What’s in it for employees?’ and identify change leaders who can drive,
communicate, WIIFE towards employees. Change leaders should be the
employees that have the highest influencing power in the organization who
are convinced first, that Lean Six Sigma is a Win-Win solution.
It is important that the leadership always highlight that lean six sigma is
nothing but a problem solving methodology that entails great value to self &
organization and not another management fad. Employees should always see
recognition by generating results from its application.
Most of the time innovative competitions on Lean Six Sigma can create hype
(e.g. most helpful Black Belt, Poster competitions etc.) and continued
attention. Lean Six Sigma application to new areas is also used by many
organizations to create continued interest (e.g. Green Lean Six Sigma).
At a maturity level when most of the employees perceive value over Lean Six
Sigma application and when believes it’s a part of their DNA, generating
results from Lean Six Sigma can be made part of their day to day deliverables
(e.g. including in performance appraisal).It is also essential that Lean Six
Sigma gradually becomes a key element in employee wow sessions i.e.
Induction programmes, to inculcate interest from the inception.
Bryan Camoens: When it comes to implementing low mix
models with Six Sigma to maximize output quality, what are
some of the common challenges faced?
Dumidu Ranaweera: It’s a common misconception that Lean Six Sigma
cannot be applied in an environment of low mix models and it requires
continuous flow for its application.
The common challenges faced in this regard in terms of defining value stream
for low mix products and determining the ideal quantities to produce the timing
of the inventory and load leveling. Take time for a shared product family with
varying demand is also considered as a challenge for low mix model products.
Bryan Camoens: What are some of the yet to be explored
untapped opportunities in Six Sigma that have yet to be
explored?

3. Dumidu Ranaweera: Lean Six Sigma has been applied and
tested in many areas of late and still keeps proving its
potential. Green Lean Six Sigma (application of Lean Six
Sigma towards reducing environmental impacts), Lean Six Sigma in
Marketing, Lean Six Sigma Accounting, and Lean Six Sigma for SME are
some new emerging areas of Lean Six Sigma application.
For the future there can be also grown interest on how Lean Six Sigma tools
can be used in Socialnomics i.e. mainly to enhance leverage of companies
operating based out of Social media. There are many blue oceans in the
Asian and African terrain that still needs to be explored even by the promoters
of traditional methods of application. Lot of interest has also generated
towards applying the concept in College education and making Lean part of
the standard student curriculum.
It’s an area that many organisations can think of venturing out from their
normal operations. There is also huge potential and growing demand on
academic programmes (i.e. specialized degrees) on Lean Six Sigma and
online education and open source training material.
Bryan Camoens: Going forward how do you see Six Sigma
evolving over the next decade?
Dumidu Ranaweera: I believe Lean Six Sigma will evolve further by adding
on more tools and concepts & linking itself with other tools/standards (e.g.
COPC, CMMi etc) like in the past. Lean Six Sigma has great potential in
becoming a part of children education and a mandatory topic in all
management education.
There is a great chance that Lean Six Sigma application in the Green (e.g to
support carbon trading) and Social context becoming more popular than ever
as the world itself placing more effort and importance on Environmental
protection and Social responsibility.
About Process Excellence Network
Process Excellence Network is a free to join online community, providing
critical knowledge on the development of Process Excellence including
Business Process Management (BPM), Lean, Change Management,
Operational Excellence, Six Sigma, Risk Management, Customer Experience
and more. We provide the forum where key industry experts and
organizations share their experience, knowledge and tools, and your
practitioner peers connect with one another all over the world, both face-to-
face and online. Membership is free, the content is priceless.
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