Lean Six Sigma in Purchase/Supply chain Services
It is well understood that a customer finally pays money for the efficiency of not just the manufacturer/ service provider but the efficiency of the entire supply chain (also called value chain in service sector). This means we expect high efficiency to be delivered through the entire Chain.
A Manufacturer can provide a quality which is highly dependent on –
The Suppliers and the suppliers of suppliers (reaching sometimes upto mining or extraction of a natural product)
Clients and clients of clients. (going through value addition by clients, and moving through Distributors, Stockists and Retailers finally reaching the end user)
Somebody who is managing the supply chain has to manage the issues of quality and delivery across supply chain. This means he has opportunities if doing DMAIC and DFSS projects involving suppliers and intermediaries.
Some industries impose certain certification programs on suppliers – for example an automotive component supplier needs to have TS 16949 certification and his suppliers need to be ISO 9001 certified.
Similarly some other companies (as in electronic industry) have supplier approval and supplier assurance programs.
Some other industries are keen to know about labor practices, ethics, environmental and safety consciousness of their suppliers (example – pharmaceutical industry)
All such programs can be complemented by Six Sigma because Continual Improvement is a requirement in all such programs. Six Sigma has now become synonymous with continual improvement.
Video Description
Karthikeyan shares some of his powerful Lean Six Sigma assignments in Supply Chain Management.
Case Study Description
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- One of the world’s largest sellers of office products found that in its various product delivery models (including stores, direct mail, contract delivery, internet and b2b deliveries), the requirement of 99% timely and correct delivery was not being met. The errors were classified as oversight, transcription and conceptual. Lean and Six Sigma techniques led to vital decisions that brought about 99% quality.
- At a large automobile company, it was found that pricing of new parts had big inter commodity variation within a similar product category. This led to the purchase process having poor predictability in timelines. A Six Sigma project was carried out which finally led to 50-80% reduction in inter commodity variation.
Feedback from participants
The instructing style and knowledge of the instructor were very effective.
-Abhijeet Ramesh Bhatt, Supply Chain Program Manager, Cisco Systems India Pvt Ltd
The faculty’s clarity & lucid way of communicating the concept in one of the USP of Benchmark six sigma certification programme. Combination of understanding powerful concept of six sigma from expert faculty is a win-win combination and is excellent value for investment.
-Rajeev Luniyal, Head Supply Chain, Roma Group