Integrating Six Sigma with Business Process Management by Thomas Gomez

The concept of Six Sigma was first developed byinclude business systems, people and resources that
Motorola Corporation as an approach to address theare involved in the entire process. The functions
high defect rates within the company's manufacturingperformed by each of these elements are defined
processes. With the success of Six Sigma, Motorolaand utilized in the analysis stage.
has registered the Six Sigma brand name to theAnalyze
corporation. The concept of Six Sigma advocatesWith all data and information at hand, an analysis is
that data be collected from processes to measureconducted on the business process to determine
performance and determine the extent of variationareas of weaknesses. What are the key courses for
from target performance measurements.the deviation? How does this deviation affect other
This approach had been truly effective in ensuringprocesses? Which steps of the processes are too
quality in a manufacturing environment and was laterslow? Where is the backlog?
adopted by the services industry during the 90s.The key approach when analyzing existing processes
However, as the Six Sigma framework relied heavilyis to identify parts of the processes which were
on the collection and analysis of data of individualirrelevant or which does not add value to the
processes, synchronizing processes betweenprocess. Most of the time, these areas of
departments was ignored. This resulted inredundancy are the causes of delay within entire
improvement benefits being limited to specificprocesses. Apart from that, dependency on a
functions only, without taking into consideration thecross-functional process may also cause the current
integration with other processes. Another weaknessprocess to be inefficient.
of the Six Sigma methodology is the lack of controlImprove
used to sustain improvements achieved. This stemsOnce weaknesses are discovered, areas for
from the fact Six Sigma utilizes manual processes toimprovement to address these weaknesses will be
do this, an approach that lacks effectiveness.identified. This would incorporate the use of "what if"
In this sense, Business Process Management (BPM)hypothetical solutions in order to shortlist several
initiatives address areas that Six Sigma falls short of,possible scenarios that would work to improve the
in line with the purpose of achieving excellence incurrent process.
organizations. These two methodologies complementMany times, process improvements will include the
each other to compensate for areas of weaknesses.utilization of automated processes through the use of
Although BPM addresses process enhancements andtechnology. Human intervention will still be required,
monitoring from a holistic viewpoint, it fails to addressbut a form of integration between automated and
the analytical requirements required to solve complexhuman run processes will be developed.
issues.At this juncture, the utilization of machines or
Therefore, BPM approaches are used to defineapplications for greater efficiency will be customized
current processes and their role across multipletowards the particular business process. Data flow
functions, identify areas within the process thatbetween automated processes and human operated
affect critical success factors and develop processprocesses will need to be smooth. Therefore, all
improvements for these areas of weaknesses. Thevariables involved in a process will be taken into
identification of gaps between existing processes andconsideration during the design stage.
ideal processes are addressed with Six SigmaControl
initiatives. Finally, process monitoring, evaluation andA new process will have limited effectiveness to an
continuous improvement measures are implementedorganization if it is not constantly monitored for
with BPM techniques. These are carried out forsustainability. This is why a monitoring and tracking
inter-related processes across the organization.system needs to be put in place, most probably in
A step-by-step insight into how a BPM - Six Sigmathe form of a BPM monitoring system where
initiative is implementedperformance indicators are constantly measured. This
Defineway, the management team will be able to react to
The first step for such an initiative is to define thedeviations quickly, and make any amendments
current processes of a function, with outputs clearlywhenever necessary. Automated reports will be
determined. Data is collected to determine the healthtriggered to managers whenever a specific deviation
of the performance of the particular process asand review meetings are held to address any
compared to predefined targets. If there is aprocess issues.
deviation in the performance measured from theIn conclusion, Six Sigma and BPM when implemented
particular process, the effect of the deviation maytogether will produce outstanding results for the
be translated into monetary terms.purpose of organizational excellence. This is possible
Measurethrough the synergy achieved from these two
BPM process maps are developed which incorporateremarkable methodologies that help to improve
various critical elements of the process. These wouldorganizational performance the world over.