Practice of six sigma

PART 1 of Assignment 4

“Applying Systems Thinking to the Practice of Six Sigma”

Question A: Determine from your own research a working definition of the term: Six Sigma. Describe the relevance of this concept for helping human systems become sustainable.

Six Sigma is a methodology that utilizes information and statistical analysis to measure and improve the capability of the business processes. These increase in performance and decrease in process variation leads to defect reduction and vast improvement in profits, employee morale and quality of product. As companies work to become more environmentally sustainable, they’re finding that the tangible benefits are hard to calculate, creating a potential conflict between sustainability goals and more traditional objectives of profitability and efficiency. By broadening Six Sigma to include sustainability goals, companies can leverage a powerful and well-established performance improvement methodology to jump-start new sustainability programs or substantially boost existing ones. In this way, companies may well be able to marry together the critical goals of being good corporate citizens while improving their bottom line. Six Sigma offers a well-established framework for exploring sustainability initiatives and the necessary rigor to carry them out.

Question B: Based on the content of the article, explain the limitations and the risks of relying solely on linear, cause and effect thinking as an approach to solving organizational problems. Frame your answer in the context of the Web-Based Laptop Company discussed in the article.

Profitability has dropped, customers are starting to complain about product quality, and more customers are finding it difficult to get on the company’s technical support helpline. Calls to the helpline have increased by 300 percent in the last year and the call center is only able to handle about 50 percent of the calls.

Question C: When systems thinking