'Adopting Six Sigma concept need of the hour for SMEs'

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Namrata Kath Hazarika | 29 Oct, 2009
Indian small and medium businesses (SMEs) need to update their skills at the ground level to adopt the concept of Six Sigma, said K. Kulbhushan, Senior Vice President, Business Excellence & Organization Development, Jubilant Organosys Ltd.

Kulbhushan told SME Times on the sidelines of the 6th National Convention on Six Sigma in New Delhi on Wednesday, "Six Sigma helps a company to keep an analytical eye to judge and identify areas of opportunities."

Explaining the advantages of Six Sigma strategy, he added that Six Sigma is an improvement program which helps in achieving the strategic objectives of an organization.

"It (Six Sigma) creates a momentum on how the business objectives can be met. When a few people are working for achieving the objective then the entire employee set gets engaged in achieving the same goal." he said.

Six Sigma helps the organization to create many skilled people. Stating this he added, "A lot need to be done for upgrading the skills of SMEs. There is more people in the ground level who requires skill development."

He suggested that a dedicated approach is required in forms of organizing workshop, forums, etc. for spreading awareness about Six Sigma amongst SMEs.

SMEs have lesser manpower capacity which is another hurdle for implementing the concept of Six Sigma, Kulbhushan added.

Enumerating views on the concept of Black Belt he said, "I think in SMEs it is worth having functional Black Belt. People who can devote at least 20 to 30 percent of their time in doing improvement. In fact, we can take out few people from their normal jobs and make them focus to achieve specific objectives."

Black Belt is basically the concept of bringing together the best people from within the organization in order to work on specific projects and achieve objectives.

Sanjay Rai, Vice-President-Training, Samsung India Electronics Ltd said, "Through the concept of Six Sigma, we are trying to resume the defects, which helps in satisfying the customers. In that way, we are also generating customer satisfaction, revenue, etc."

"Basically, it is a method of problem solving." he added.

When asked how can SMEs be benefited from Six Sigma, Rai said, "Six Sigma is easy to implement in smaller companies. I think the vital thing required is the top management's commitment. They should identify the issues of the top customers and work on them. There is a requirement for dedicated work force or full time Black Belt."

SMEs fails to devote full time people in the application of Six Sigma concept, he added.

He said, "What is important for small entrepreneurs is to build the credibility, which helps organisation."

Six Sigma detects the defects and prevents from reworking on particular projects which thereby saves money, Rai added.