While all these aspects of Six Sigma are quite true, they still do not provide the complete picture because they fail to highlight the indirect yet more vital aspects of the Six Sigma quality improvement technique. In effect, concentrating solely on cost reductions and other direct benefits will be just like “missing the woods for the trees.”

Discussed below are some of the indirect, yet more vital aspects of Six Sigma.

Improved Competencies

This aspect may not be as clearly visible and verifiable as cost reductions, but the reality is that six sigma does help in achieving improved competencies; i.e., competencies in a given business domain wherein a company’s performance is far better than that of the nearest competitor.

The performance difference may not be much if both of the competing companies successfully deploy Six Sigma. However, if only one of the competing companies deploys Six Sigma, then the difference will be huge and clearly visible in terms of sales, revenues, profitability, and market share.

Now, since it is quite clear that the lack or presence of competencies goes a long way in determining the overall health of a business, it would not be wrong to classify “Improved Competencies” as one of the indirect, yet more vital aspects of Six Sigma.

Improved Customer Satisfaction

Six Sigma implementation projects that involve new product development or product modifications provide special consideration to the Voice of The Customer (VOC), something which enables the company to do proper justice to the specific needs, requirements, and expectations of targeted customers.

When VOC is employed, the probability that the new or modified product will fail to deliver is reduced significantly. The most significant benefit comes in the form of improved customer satisfaction because customers get exactly what they might have desired. Achieving improved customer satisfaction is vital because it helps the company to build the ready customer base necessary for maintaining existing levels of sales and profitability.

It can also help in cornering a bigger market share because it is the satisfied customer who is most likely to recommend the product or service to his friends, family, and associates. All of these are reasons enough for classifying “Improved Customer Satisfaction” as one of the indirect, yet more vital aspects of Six Sigma.

There are many other indirect, yet more vital aspects of Six Sigma, but the two explained above are probably the most important. So businesses that want to assess the effectiveness of their ongoing Six Sigma implementation projects just need to concentrate on these two vital aspects. That is to say that if a business achieves  “Improved Competencies” and “Improved Customer Satisfaction,” it would imply that the ongoing Six Sigma implementation project is a grand success.

If not, then obviously it would mean that the business needs to do a re-check and put in extra efforts for achieving the desired goals and objectives.