Key Points

• Six Sigma is a great means of promoting sustainable practices at your organization.
• DMAIC improvement projects can be centered on sustainable outputs.
• Numerous organizations are utilizing sustainable practices alongside Six Sigma.

A culture of continuous improvement helps to make Six Sigma and sustainability a reality. The earth we live on is a precious resource. Beyond just the place we call home, it is also the environment we rely upon for food, shelter, nourishment, and even air to breathe. As such, it only stands to reason that some organizations seek ways to promote sustainability while keeping to the tasks at hand.

With that in mind, today we’re taking a closer look at Six Sigma and sustainability to see where these concepts intersect. Curiously, these are not disparate concepts. You might find that you can promote sustainable workflows at your organization without too many changes to the core mechanisms in place.

Sustainability: Keeping an Eye on the Future

Sustainability is one of those hot-button topics that has kept coming up over the last few years. Like it or not, the world is changing around us, and who knows if it’s going to be something that can be controlled or mitigated. As such, taking measures today to put some preventative means in place makes a substantial difference toward the environmental impact any organization has.

Now, sustainability isn’t entirely about changing the pollution or waste made from manufacturing and other industries. However, it is something to consider when you conduct any sort of work. Beyond the harm it causes to the environment, it also has ethical and economic concerns at the forefront.

With this in mind, it makes sense why many organizations are starting to steer their output toward sustainability. Further, governments are enacting new regulations to guarantee compliance with sustainability goals. So, it might behoove any organization to start the groundwork now.

Why Organizations Are Targeting Sustainability

Beyond the basic concerns like the environment, sustainability has been a driving force in businesses over the last few years because of several factors. First and foremost, you’d have to take a look at the planet. Global awareness has grown substantially in the last couple of decades, with the full impact of pollution, waste, and other byproducts known.

Additionally, customers are becoming aware of these concerns. As you can imagine, this leads to scenarios where customers vote with their wallets. Environmental concerns are also reaching the likes of investors and stakeholders in your organization, too.

That said, pursuing sustainability isn’t just a means of making these people happy. It is an ethically correct thing to do, regardless of your stance on the matter. There is one planet that we call home, and there is a small hope that more organizations are gearing up to do the right thing by it.

Six Sigma and Sustainability: Leveraging Principles for Environmental Impact

The tools found within Six Sigma are perfect for matching your sustainability efforts. It will require some legwork from you, as most of these things do. However, I’m confident that if you’re an experienced Six Sigma practitioner, you’ve got the means to make a lasting change.

Like all Six Sigma projects, sustainability is something that is best done in phases. While you could certainly upheave your entire organization at the drop of a hat, that isn’t a great use of time or resources. Instead, you’ll want to focus your efforts on specific areas, as we’ll explore a little further.

Six Sigma and sustainability are a natural fit, and things work even better if you start incorporating some elements from Lean into the mix.

Continuous Improvement

At its core, Six Sigma is concerned with quality above all else. I don’t mean just quality of outputs, but quality throughout the entire organization. One way this is accomplished is by establishing a corporate culture centered around the notion of continuous improvement. Essentially, you’re constantly working toward making something into a better version of itself.

When looking at Six Sigma and sustainability, this is exactly what you need. A culture centered around continuous improvement is the perfect bedrock for developing environmentally sound projects to carry your team forward.

Further, it helps to prep your team for the constant need to work on things. If they’re expecting a Six Sigma project, then it is going to be far easier to grease the wheels when it comes to working on your organization’s ecological impact.

Development of Sustainability Projects

There are a few ways you can go about developing sustainability projects. You could utilize principles and frameworks like DFSS to design whole new products or services with sustainability front and center. However, where does that leave your other processes? Well, that’s exactly what tools and frameworks like PDCA, DMAIC, and others are for.

A DMAIC project focused on minimizing harmful emissions in a factory setting is just one example of how you can use the tools of Six Sigma to your benefit. So, with that in mind, it helps to approach each project with the idea that you’re going to be working toward sustainable goals.

Just like Rome wasn’t built in a day, this is going to be a long endeavor. However, your customers, investors, and your organization will be able to sleep better at night knowing that you’re better year after year when it comes to how your projects are accomplished.

Elimination of Defects

Six Sigma is concerned with the elimination of variation and defects within a given output. When you have wild swings in terms of quality, that doesn’t instill customer confidence. The same applies to Six Sigma and sustainability, interestingly. If you’re striving for a Sigma level of 5 or higher in your production, the same sort of thinking applies to your environmental footprint.

This is where you can look at reducing waste, resulting in cleaner, more efficient processes. When you get down to it, eliminating the ecological impact of any organization is identical to eliminating defects. You’re instilling a sense of confidence in your output to your customer base while also making sure you have a profitable product.

The culture centered around the environment has changed substantially in just the last thirty years, and you’ll find that customer expectations have changed right alongside it. So, strive for fewer defects, fewer pollutants, and less waste, and you’ll have happier people lining up for business.

Steering Corporate Culture

Most initiatives work best when embodied by leadership. This holds when adopting Six Sigma principles into your workforce. The same will apply to those principles when steering your organization toward sustainable practices.

When the rubber meets the road, your leadership will need to be front and center regarding these new measures. If you’ve got managers that aren’t on board with sustainable practices within the office, then why expect the rest of the workforce to follow?

Driving Decisions with Data

The beautiful thing about Six Sigma is that you’re leveraging hard empirical evidence to make decisions. Data is collected, collated, interpreted, and finally used to steer organizations toward better results. As you can imagine, this same sort of thinking applies to the likes of Six Sigma and sustainability. You’ve likely got quite a bit of historical data regarding your efforts toward environmental regulations.

In the event of fines, violations, and so forth, your organization has a handle on just how far out of bounds things might have been. As such, this makes for a perfect opportunity to look at where you need to focus your efforts when constructing your next sustainability project.

Ideally, any organization should be looking to reduce its environmental impact over the next five years. With any luck, you can navigate these changes with informed opinions about the harder decisions your organization will need to make.

Other Useful Tools and Concepts

Looking for extra tips and tricks to get your morning rolling? We’ve got just what you need to get started. You might want to take a closer look at some keen insights from TQM practitioners. Practice makes perfect when it comes to guaranteeing higher quality goods across the board.

You might also want to brush up on the role of AI in Six Sigma. AI is a hot topic these days, and learning how you can leverage this technology for your organization might boost productivity.

Conclusion

Six Sigma and sustainability are concepts that work like peanut butter and jelly. That said, if you’re dealing with entrenched institutions, it’s going to be tough work to get the processes started. Might as well start when you can, as each step forward is progress.

The image featured at the top of this post is ©Ground Picture/Shutterstock.com.