Supply Chain Projects and Triple Bottom Line Performance
For companies looking for cost effective ways to boost triple bottom line (TBL) performance, Six Sigma methodologies offer a proven set of tools to help accomplish corporate sustainability goals. Managers looking for a place to start a Six Sigma project may want to consider the various levels of their organization’s supply chain.
Often minor changes can make a big impact. Because the supply chain affects so many different layers of an organization, multiple stakeholders can be encouraged to engage in the process, thus increasing the project’s success rate probabilities from the onset.
Six Sigma offers leaders at all levels the opportunity to encourage and develop TBL goals across the various parts of the supply chain. Let’s take a look at a few ways this can be done.
Key Factors to Consider in Your Supply Chain
Supply chain processes are often taken for granted. Don’t make this mistake.
Because of rapidly evolving markets and easier accessibility of goods and services, periodically examining an organization’s supply chain should be a standard procedure in any organization, and can be a profitable opportunity to set Six Sigma strategies in place.
Six Sigma metrics can help business leaders analyze which parts of the supply chain may contain ineffective components or inefficient processes that can be streamlined, getting you closer to your TBL goals. Additionally, sourcing goods and services from more sustainable businesses can help decrease a manufacturing company’s overall environmental footprint.
Other areas of the supply chain that can be looked at for the potential to increase TBL performance include:
- Reducing or substituting materials for more sustainably-derived or more carbon neutral alternatives
- Looking at excess and waste as potential raw material for other products and innovations
- Decreasing total steps in the supply chain, with the goal of decreasing emissions (either manufacturing or transportation)
- Reducing packaging
- Examining areas in the supply chain that consume the most water and energy and to mitigating the challenges in those areas
- Increasing the amount of recycling and upcycling done throughout supply chain processes
- Choosing supply chain partners that share the TBL vision and commitments of the organization
Most managers and corporate leaders are familiar with the basics of Six Sigma methodology (Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve and Control) to create effective manufacturing systems aimed at producing a high-quality, error-free product at a competitive cost. With increased pressure on businesses to be more transparent in their organizational goals and more responsible toward the environment and communities in which they operate, Six Sigma methodologies have been adapted to bring about successful sustainability TBL goals across industry.
Organizations as diverse as Amazon, 3M, The United States Army and Ben & Jerry’s have all successfully implemented Six Sigma strategies to improve business processes, save resources and inform more sustainable supply chain decisions.
No matter the size of an organization, managers who are well-versed in Six Sigma strategies can build a more effective supply chain and put metrics in place to measure other performance ratings that can be used to improve overall profitability and corporate sustainability.
As experience and skills improve through progressive Six Sigma belt-level training, managers can become more involved in driving organizational goals that lead to greater success for the company and for the individual.
Do you have other ideas about using Six Sigma in your supply chain to help reach TBL goals? Do you have a story about how you made your supply chain more streamlined? Let us know in the comments below.
Part 2 of this article will get into more of the details of sustainability opportunities at each Six Sigma belt level.
