If your boss said the words “Six Sigma” in the course of a conversation, would you run screaming in the other direction? Does Six Sigma conjure up images from the movie “Office Space” complete with business buzzwords like “process improvement” and “outside-the-box thinking”?
Many facility executives are probably familiar with the concept of Six Sigma – essentially using data to analyze and improve performance – but not many use it in their own facilities organizations because it’s often perceived as incompatible or inapplicable. They may be missing an opportunity.
For the past several weeks, I’ve been working on an article on facility executives at Vanguard and learning how they manage with data. A cornerstone of their metrics strategy is Six Sigma – as both a philosophy and a benchmark. As a benchmark, Six Sigma means 3.4 defects out of 1 million opportunities, or 99.99967 percent success. A defect and an opportunity are whatever you define them as.
So, for instance, Vanguard uses building availability and security system availability as two metrics where Six Sigma is their goal. They use “time” as an opportunity and “downtime” as a defect. So if a building is unavailable – as a result of a false fire alarm, for instance – for any more than .00034 percent of the entire year, they don’t hit their target. Simple enough, right?
As a philosophy, Six Sigma really means using data to drill down into numbers to find out why they are the way they are and trim fat off of inefficient processes – something at which Vanguard is quite adept as well.
“Six Sigma is a natural fit for FM,” says Andy Hunsicker, Vanguard’s Manager of Administration and Technology, and a Six Sigma “Black Belt” (which just means the highest level of expertise). “It’s much more helpful than people think."
Look for the article on Vanguard’s metrics and Six Sigma initiatives in the May issue of Building Operating Management. And please email me or comment below about how you’ve used Six Sigma in your FM organization.