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PROCESS IMPROVEMENTS: A STUDY OF THEIR EFFECT ON SODEXHO ALLIANCE

INTRODUCTION

Business process improvement is necessary for on organization to develop, improve quality, and foster and environment to facilitate change management. Process improvement is defined as " a series of actions taken to identify , analyze, and improve existing processes within an organization to meet new goals and objectives." Process improvements can include reengineering, benchmarking, total quality management, six sigma ISO 9000 , and lean thinking. Most process activities are basic and simple, but allow for a better understanding of organizational design. Total quality management is defined b the International Organization for Standards as "a management approach for an organization, centered o quality, based on the participation a all its members and aiming at long-term success through customer satisfaction, and benefits to all members of the organization and to society." Many companies had already implemented total quality management in their organization before placing a more detailed focus on processes with the six sigma approach. It is suggested that companies can better implement six sigma if they already had total quality management or another process improvement previously in place. Six sigma has had tremendous success in increasing quality and customer satisfaction. The six sigma wave of implementation began with Motorola in 1986 with the basic methodology of DMAIC (define, measure, analyze, improve , and control). Their success with this process improvement has led to many other companies effectively implementing this as well.

DEFINE WHAT SODEXHO IS AND THE SERVICES THEY PROVIDE HERE!!!!! The purpose of this research is to display how Sodexho has implemented various process improvements, including six sigma, into their company and the outcomes they have occurred. Sodexho watched on of their majot clients, GE, successfully take on process improvements including six sigma, and decided to do the same in their company to increase efficiency , improve quality of products, and provide superior service to their customers. Sedoxho has made it a corporate objective to continuously improve their quality of services they provide their clients. They have implemented process improvement programs sucg as "Clients for Life", to increase efficieny and quality throught their organization.

The following section contains a literature review pertaining to process improvements and six sigma implementation in various industries. The literature involves case studies, advantages and disadvantages of six sigma, and the future of process improvement.

LITERATURE REVIEW

There is a general theme in many practitioners' journals that discuss the future of six sigma, process improvements, and total quality management, and that is that they need to be combined with other process management ideas or morph into the next level in order to continue to be successful.

In "Process Management and the Future of Six Sigma", the author discusses the challenges that companies have faced in conducting too many process improvement projects, that cold ultimately lead to what they refer to as "process proliferation" (Hammer 2002). The article suggests that these projects be positioned under a process-management umbrella to ensure and display how the projects are related. Companies such as Johnson & Johnson and Merck & Co. are taking measures to ensure that their efforts and projects complement to avoid such process proliferation. But how does affect the future of Six Sigma? One cannot simply rely on Six Sigma alone for operating and managing a business. The article suggests positioning six sigma in a larger context of process management, where six sigma is a part of process management, not vice versa. Extensions such as those made at GE (DMADV: define, measure, analyze, design, and verify) are merely stretching the definition of six sigma to include process management and process redesign. As companies continue with six sigma, they will experience challenges and will be in need of a broader approach. Putting six sigma under the process-management umbrella allows companies to benefit from the success of these implementations while, at the same time, avoiding those areas where it will not be successful.

"How Constraints Management Enhances Lean and Six Sigma" addresses the need to combine lean/six sigma with constraints management. The reasoning is that by including constraints management with lean/six sigma, companies will be able to identify where to focus lean and six sigma efforts to obtain maximum results. Constraints management "looks at the business as chains of dependent events and focuses improvement efforts on the weak links in the chains" (Spector, 2006). Lean thinking focuses on the elimination of waste in every area of a business, and six sigma essential goals to achieve defect free products 99.9997 percent of the time.

The lean approach includes:

-Define value f

-Identify the entire value stream

-Make value flow.

-Pull to customer demand.

-Pursue perfection.

Six Sigma is comprised of the themes listed below:

-Define

-Measure

-Analyze

-Improve

-Control

The steps of constraint management include:

-Identify constraint

-Exploit constraint

-Subordinate processes

-Evaluate constraint

-Repeat step 1

By combining constraints management with lean and six sigma, it provides a framework for measuring these iniatives to bottom-line measures such as shareholder value, and ROI. The result of the combinations is focus on the problem, process, and the system. These three ideas are complementary to each other and should be utilized in that manner when implementing process improvements.

"Six Sigma to Fit Sigma" addresses the evolution of six sigma and what the next step for it might be. The author breaks down the evolution into three waves: as is to TQM, TQM to lean sigma, and lean sigma to fit sigma. The idea while TQM