Today’s customers and corporate stakeholders demand more than just affordable products produced at a profit. These interested parties are not just concerned with prices and performance, they care about the quality of the organization’s products and services and the impact the organization has on the environment.
Organizations address these concerns by employing environmental health and safety managers to tackle environmental issues. They also use Six Sigma tools to reduce variance and errors in their production processes.
Traditionally the demands for Six Sigma quality improvement and environmental health and safety have been pursued separately. However, recent studies indicate that combining these two efforts can make it easier to achieve both objectives.
The Peanut Butter Cup Solution
The old tagline for Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups can be applied to joining Six Sigma and environmental improvement, “Two great tastes that taste great together.” Even though Six Sigma methodology and environmental management efforts enhance business operations when they are applied separately, combining the two creates even greater impact.
Merging Six Sigma with environmental management gives businesses notable benefits.
- Reducing costs
- Decreasing production lead times
- Increasing value to customers
- Maintaining organizational stability
READ: College Students Use Six Sigma to Solve Food Waste, Recycling Challenges
Vision for Expanding Six Sigma
Combining these two disciplines runs the risk of offending Six Sigma purists who may fear that seamlessly integrating environmental considerations into Six Sigma may water down Six Sigma’s effectiveness. Purists need not fear; Six Sigma is robust enough to expand its scope without losing its power.
For example, safety concerns have gradually become integrated into Lean efforts so that safety has become a part of the Lean methodology. Six Sigma can follow the same example with environmental concerns.
How to Make Six Sigma Green
Six Sigma and environmental improvement efforts are often housed in different corporate silos, and in spite of the benefits of joining them, they usually work in isolation. These two efforts can work together and create a synergy when organizations provide the right encouragement to Six Sigma teams and environmental health and safety experts. Here are a few tips to help get started.
Meet often – A face-to-face meeting between Six Sigma and environmental improvement leaders is the first step in making the two efforts work together. This opportunity helps teams find common ground and identify improvement opportunities.
Share terminology – Six Sigma and environmental improvement are compatible efforts separated by different languages. While a common vocabulary can bind a Six Sigma team together, it can act as a barrier to exclude the uninitiated. Exchanging glossaries helps Six Sigma and environmental safety managers eliminate the barriers of language and find common ground.
Join each other’s projects – When environmental improvement professionals participate in Six Sigma training and group projects and vice versa mutual understanding grows, relationships are formed and working together becomes a natural outcome.
Environmental health and safety and Six Sigma process improvement may at first seem miles apart. But organizations that are willing to make the effort to bring these two disciplines together stand to gain major benefits. Integration reduces cost, eliminates waste, and improves performance.
