Limitations of the Six Sigma System Approach

Although the Six Sigma approach has provided General Electric an effective means in evaluating its performance and thus greatly contributing positively to the company’s quality management, it should be noted that the approach also has its limitations. For one, the Six Sigma approach was designed to be effective for business organizations whose operations are involved in the manufacturing industry.

As such, the implementation of the Six Sigma System Approach in the quality management efforts of business organizations that are working in an industry other than the manufacturing industry may not be able to experience the same positive results experienced by General Electric. Another limitation of the use of the Six Sigma System Approach is that the system relies heavily on the Human Resource department of the company in order for the various methods and processes would be properly be executed and implemented in the different departments and divisions of the business organization (Bohlander & Snell 2007).

This is especially true when it comes to the part of trying to change the attitude and outlook of the employees of the business organization in order for them to accept the changes that are to be implemented in the organization to improve not just its productivity by the quality of the services and products being provided. Read how is six sigma defined SSD1

The reason why this is considered to be a limitation on the part of the Six Sigma System approach is because the guidelines provided by the Six Sigma approach are relatively broad, causing it to be vulnerable to subjective interpretation. This would eventually lead to the possibility of various interpretations of the guidelines being provided by the Six Sigma approach by members of management from different departments. As a result, this subjective interpretation would pave the way for friction between divisions and departments to occur.

Recommendations

This being the case, it is important that each performance evaluation plan should be based on a variety of criteria in order for such a plan to be experience the same success and progress as part of its manufacturing operations as well as other business operations and activities General Electric is currently involved in. Some of the criteria that should be included are the prompt delivery and servicing the needs and issues the target market of each of the divisions of General Electric’s conglomerate as well as periodic measures of the quality of services being provided to these target markets.