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Many SMEs struggle to maintain a consistent corporate focus as they expand their product lines and their markets. The increase in operational complexity sometimes obfuscates the goals of the organization. The first step in Six Sigma is to define the goals, and the overall corporate-wide goal definition is going to remain consistent even as the company grows and the amount of smaller goals increases.
Additionally, Six Sigma is a system that brings everything back to the bottom line. Other management systems have value to an organization, but do not necessarily integrate focus on processes with bottom line results. For an SME, this is a critical advantage to Six Sigma, in that it is one total program that can be used throughout the organization, rather than a hodgepodge of different quality programs through different parts of the company, with no focus on how each impacts the bottom line.
In a smaller company, Six Sigma will permeate through the organization more quickly. The owner/CEO is more visible and the culture often more open to change. Thus, the benefits of Six Sigma often will be realized more rapidly in SMEs than in larger firms, which lends the SME a distinct competitive advantage.
Six Sigma offers many unique advantages to SMEs. The all-encompassing nature of Six Sigma along with its bottom-line focus not only yield financial results but make it easy to implement for SMEs. It professionalizes their operations and allows them to grow more easily than their competitors. Six Sigma adherence results in more managers being able to contribute, whereas many other SMEs are guided by only a small handful of managers.
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