Chances are, a part of your business is online. Right now. Floating “out there,” preserved somewhere on the internet. Even small businesses, these days, have entered the online arena – in some capacity. Everything is becoming one with the Cloud.

But what is the Cloud, exactly?

It’s an easy-to-remember metaphor for internet-based software and services.

Google Drive. Netflix. Dropbox. SharePoint. You get the idea.

These are services that allow you to access your data at any time, from pretty much any device with internet capability. It’s information, on-demand. And though there might be concern that the world’s new “always-on connectivity” isn’t healthy for society, it’s allowing humans to do some amazing and efficient things.

After all, the Cloud is all about information. Information leads to insight. Insight is the catalyst for improvement.

That’s why the Cloud – and Lean Six Sigma – fit together so well. The case studies are everywhere.

Case Study: A Startup Prevents Customer Churn

A small (unnamed) company created an app that allowed users to take a photo, annotate it and automatically upload it to specific documents already stored on the Cloud. The app was a hit. The customer base grew dramatically.

At first.

Every single month, data in the Cloud revealed that their robust user base dropped by 2.2% (which equated to a $5 million loss every single year). So, the team used DMAIC to define the problem and solve it.

  • The defined issue? A hemorrhaging customer base.
  • The measurement? Based on reviews and other feedback, customers left because the photo upload process wasn’t fast or smooth enough.
  • The analysis? The technology behind the app could be faster, and the user experience could be more streamlined.
  • The improvement? They automated a lot of the behind-the-scenes code to work faster and smarter and give the users fewer decision points. This provided the feeling of a quick, smooth experience.
  • The control? The customer churn dropped by 82%. And the team decided to apply DMAIC to the remaining 18% of department customers.

Case Study: UPS Trucks Don’t Make Left Turns

UPS has more than 100,000 trucks on the road every single day. Any little efficiency to their process could, in turn, save them millions of dollars. So, they installed trackers on each of their vehicles, and started uploading driving data to the Cloud – looking for small ways they could improve their processes.

What did they find?

If a truck was idle, it meant it was burning gas, but wasn’t advancing toward its next delivery destination (obviously). And that was bad.

When were trucks most frequently idle?

According to the Cloud software, it was when the trucks were making left turns.

So, UPS did something drastic. Using this Cloud-sourced information, they changed their routing system to eliminate left turns. And it saved the company 10 million gallons of gas that year.

Case Study: L6 Elite Uses Lean Six Sigma Principles to…Create Lean Six Sigma Software?

L6 Elite is a newly-public company, and its goal is to deliver some of the most useful, applicable and hard-hitting Lean Six Sigma content on the software market. It is literally Lean Six Sigma software, run through the Cloud, designed to walk users through Lean Six Sigma implementation.

It’s all web-based, so the user experience is as clean and smooth as possible (surprising for a Lean Six Sigma program, right?). It has a simple, guided step-by-step setup process, which serves users who are novices in Lean Six Sigma and its principles.

It’s a piece of Lean Six Sigma software, built with Lean Six Sigma concepts, constructed to help others with Lean Six Sigma.

How You Can Leverage the Cloud

The Cloud stores data. Data and information tell a story. That story explains a process. That process can be improved.

Lean Six Sigma is about improving outcomes, and the Cloud is a tool that allows you to track, study and alter those outcomes. It goes hand-in-hand with Lean Six Sigma.

Why not take advantage?