What are your greatest business challenges in retail?

For many, these include a need to reduce costs, increase customer satisfaction, improve process efficiencies, decrease risk, develop resilience and grow at the same time.

If the above challenges describe what your business and your employees face, why not consider using the Lean Six Sigma methodology to address them.

Lean Six Sigma (LSS) has been, in many ways, a part of the business world for decades. Over time, the concepts have moved from shop floors into back offices within manufacturing sites, and eventually to pure transactional and service environments. Today, LSS has become common in financial services, insurance, health care, and many other industries, even spreading into government and the US military. In recent years, another major industry has begun to join the LSS movement: retail. 

Lean Six Sigma is a continuous improvement methodology that combines two of the most powerful improvement engines available to business today. Lean provides mechanisms for quickly and dramatically slashing cycle time and waste in any process, anywhere in an organization. Six Sigma presents the tools and organizational guidelines that establish a foundation for sustained, data-based improvements in strategically important, customer-critical targets. 

Today, LSS has grown beyond these problem-solving roots and now encompasses high-level analytical tools and deployment guidelines that give companies the means to establish and maintain strategy-to-execution links. Some leading retailers, such as Amazon, are discovering the value of implementing LSS to provide a disciplined, proven methodology to solve problems, execute planned, methodical changes and make process-change decisions. 

What are the Benefits of Adopting Lean Six Sigma?

As retailers become interested in building continuous improvement capabilities, such capabilities help them become more competitive, grow, and ultimately, achieve high performance. The benefits to retail organizations of adopting Lean Six Sigma include: 

• Higher client satisfaction scores

• Lower operational costs

• Lower indirect costs

• Reduced administration

• Greater responsiveness

• Lower material waste and rework

• Better use of time and resources

• Lower internal process and supply chain risk

• Faster time to market

• Enhanced brand reputation

• Greater engagement by the workforce

• Enhanced skill set available to the organization

To learn more about Lean Six Sigma, click here.

How to Apply Six Sigma in the Retail Industry

Retail outlets, such as clothing, sporting goods, and home improvement stores require excellent customer service, timely delivery of products, and proper inventory counts to be successful. Using Six Sigma in retail provides a proven strategy for improving these vital elements.

The methodology utilizes statistical analysis rather than guesswork to improve processes within the organization. The areas that require improvement could include maintaining accurate inventory levels to decreasing delivery time. 

Standards can help retail organizations implement LSS into their processes:

Standard BS ISO 18404:2015 specifies competency requirements for organizations looking at Six Sigma and Lean implementation.

(Methodologies for dealing with waste and reducing variation.). Much debate has been had on the nature of Six Sigma and Lean, their commonality, and their differences. Various combinations of the two approaches exist, many under the umbrella title of ‘Lean Six Sigma’, with the Lean approach focusing on the reduction of chronic waste and Six Sigma aiming at the reduction of variation and its adverse effects. BS ISO 18404:2015 clarifies the required competencies in Six Sigma, Lean, and Lean Six Sigma for individuals and for organizations.

BS ISO 13053-1, part 1 gives you recommendations on how to conduct each phase of the DMAIC method (define, measure, analyze, improve and control). By specifying exactly what roles and responsibilities are required and what each stage of the DMAIC methodology should include, organizations can confidently specify what they need to make the most out of their return on investment. If you are spending money to make yourself more efficient, make sure you save money and time implementing it, by getting it right. This standard also provides users with clarification on how best to manage Six Sigma projects by defining the roles, expertise, and training of the people involved in Six Sigma projects. 

BS ISO 13053-2:2011, part 2 helps organizations save time and avoid possible mistakes. This standard describes the tools and techniques to be used at each phase of the DMAIC approach. By knowing exactly what tools or techniques are required at every stage of the DMAIC method, why you need to use them with step-by-step instructions on how this should be done. 

These standards and over 100,000 more internationally recognized documents are available with a BSI Knowledge subscription, which can help to develop a resilient model for your business. Our tailored subscription service provides flexibility, access, visibility, and control over the standards and insights your team needs to achieve your objectives. Build your own collection and keep updated with any relevant changes to your standards strategy. Request to learn more.

Experience the benefits the Lean Six Sigma principles can bring to your retail organization by adding these standards to your collection today.