"Does Six Sigma Work in Service Organizations?"

Fred Patton

Quality Progress

September 2005, pp. 55-60

Six Sigma is beginning to take hold in service organizations. Two prominent practitioners are Home Depot and GE Capital. Both organizations have a link to General Electric and its Six Sigma effort, as the CEO of Home Depot formerly worked at General Electric. Another organization that has invested heavily in Six Sigma is Bank of America.

The author argues that "The majority of practices and methodologies used in Six Sigma are every bit as applicable to service organizations as manufacturing. By focusing on process improvement, the use of the DMAIC model and many of the more relevant tools such as VOC [Voice of the Customer], QFD, value added flow charting, process measurement and root cause analysis, Six Sigma can be usefully and easily adopted by service industries."

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