Below are Lean Six Sigma success stories in the Retail industry organized alphabetically. For success stories in other industries, please visit our Lean Six Sigma Success Stories page.
All Workplaces
Machine Guarding Solution With Lean Six Sigma
Used in almost every setting from multinational corporations, distribution, government, to small private companies, the pedestal/bench grinder tool remains among the top 10 in Occupational Safety and Health Administration cited violations. But by combining Job Hazard Analysis, Six Sigma Process Failure Mode Effects Analysis, Pareto, and Lean Autonomation, safety risks and hazards can be eliminated along with lost productivity from job hazard injuries. And with a great safety culture comes a robust quality, robust quality enhances delivery, enhanced delivery lowers costs.
Amazon
Lean Innovation at Amazon
“Amazon is a natural place that applies lean principles.” Since the day that Amazon was created by Jeff Bezos, Lean has always been part of the business culture and spirit. In this article, Geovanny Romero shares with readers that, Amazon has more people working in the fulfillment centers and customer-service centers than it does computer-science engineers. In addition, Kaizen is the center philosophy in the fulfillment center.
Croatian
Croatian Companies Hoping to Improve Business Management Operations
Croatian business blogger, Vedran Pavlic states that “Croatian companies significantly lag behind when it comes to ways to improve operational capabilities.” Successful foreign companies and many Western companies use advanced methodologies such as Lean Six Sigma. Is Croatia joining the Lean Six Sigma train, next?
Nike
Nike on a Winning Streak
Nike is a popular seller of athletic footwear and gear. The company sells its products in nearly 190 countries around the world. While the company focuses on offering athletic gear for all ages, genders, and sports they also focus on generating value for shareholders. Nike reports billions of dollars each quarter and to continue growing, Nike’s five-year plan includes Six Sigma qualities.
Non-Industrial Organizations
Lean Six Sigma For Non-Industrial Organizations
Compared to the past, Lean Six Sigma is now making way into hospitals, banks and municipalities very often. The industrial industry primarily utilized Lean Six Sigma methods to produce and deliver products. It’s going beyond product delivery and straight into customer satisfaction. Non-industrial organizations want better than mediocre service!
Small Businesses
Small Organizations Optimize Procurement Efforts by Getting Lean
For small- and mid-sized businesses, leveraging Lean practices can help improve the bottom line and ensure a smooth operation. By striking the right balance between value-added services and the cost of goods and services, these organizations can generate huge savings in terms of both costs and time.
Staples
Staples: Lean Six Sigma
Accenture’s help with the Staples Lean Six Sigma program has been the impetus for dozens of improvements that have generated tens of millions of dollars in benefit for Staples and produced a 10-fold return on the company’s investment in the process improvement program:
- Rebalance lease negotiations and improve architectural and construction processes—efforts that shaved four weeks off the time needed to open a new store, leading to increase in sales equivalent to eight new stores annual sales.
- Streamline the item-order cycle and have promotional items arrive at stores closer to sale dates—efforts that freed space (especially in smaller stores) and generated inventory savings of $3.3 million.
- Reconfigure the loading dock layout, eliminate extra handling of merchandise, and establish a “receiving and put away team” within one fulfillment center—efforts that improved On-Time to Due Date performance by 21 percent.
- Consolidate freight moving from suppliers to Staples’ distribution and fulfillment centers, which achieved 50% of the budget reduction stretch goal for the year.
- Overall the NAD supply chain budget was ahead by $30M.$13M of that is attributed to LSS; with $5M – $ 7M being realized in FY2007.
- The Lean Six Sigma program has been the impetus for dozens of improvements that, together, have generated tens of millions of dollars in benefit for Staples and produced a 10-fold return on the company’s investment in the process improvement program.
Target Corporation
Six Sigma Makes a Comeback
Target (TGT) claims more than $100 million in savings over the past six years from the Lean Six Sigma program.
Zara
How Zara Used Lean to Become the Largest Fashion Retailer
ZARA is one of the world’s most valuable brands, worth $9.4 billion. Other fashion retailer might ask, what’s the secret? In this article, blogger Nathan Robinson shares the CEO of Zara’s secret, “There is no additional secret apart from the business model and the execution.” The business model and execution models Lean techniques: Just In Time, Agile, Kanban, Customer Value and One Piece Flow.
