Reaching a point where you need to expand your business is often thought of as a very fortuitous event for any company since it indicates that it has sufficiently weathered the various ups and downs of the business world and has come out of it bigger, stronger and ready to take on the world at large. However, expanding your business is more complicated than simply hiring more workers and buying more machinery. Expansion comes with it the need to determine whether the current processes utilized by your company are sufficient or if new methods of product are needed in order to make operations more cost effective. It is based on this that this article will delve into the different aspects that a business needs to take into consideration when it comes to expanding their operations.
Examine Current Processes
Process examination can be described as an evaluation of the manufacturing or service side of a business in order to determine whether changes need to be implemented prior to expansion. For instance, if a company has a production line and it continues to rely on manually weighing each box then this can be considered as an ineffective method of production that adds in unneeded manpower and time. One solution that a process examination would recommend comes in the form of utilizing load cells in the production line in order to measure the weight of boxes as they go down the conveyor belt. Since load cells are an automated method of measuring weight and can do so in seconds, this helps to streamline production to help get rid of unneeded wasteful processes.
Implementation of Six Sigma
Six Sigma methodologies in production can be considered as one manifestation of process examination wherein after determining that the company is losing money due to ineffective methods of production, new processes are implemented in order to prevent current losses and to minimize future losses by the company as much as possible. The need for Six Sigma can be traced to the production methods of various companies where in one or two batches there are 4 to 10 “bad” outputs. However, when taking into consideration that a company can produce thousands of batches annually, these bad outputs can result in thousands of wasted products. Six Sigma helps to correct this by examining present day processes and implementing the necessary changes so as to reduce waste whenever possible.
