Overcoming the Challenges of Implementating Six Sigma in Service Industries

Six Sigma has been a powerful and successful tool in manufacturing industries to reduce rate of rejects and to enhance productivity. The service industries are diversified and the features are different from manufacturing industries. Thus, the use of Six Sigma in service industries and its benefits are limited to some specific types of services like health care and banks. This paper focuses on key performance indicators of Six Sigma and elements to cover a wider range of services. From the analysis of the service models, service industries structures and also by comparing between the features of service and manufacturing industries, the main challenges in application of Six Sigma in service industries can be identified. Further analysis of these challenges showed that the proper implementation of Six Sigma in service industries requires not only the effective operational strategies, but also customers’ needs and satisfaction must be considered and designed into the implementation phase. The paper proposed that for the successful implementation of Six Sigma in service industry, instead of just DMAIC, a design phase should be included (DDMAIC). The main meaning of this new phase and its affection will be described.