Top 3 Lean Six Sigma Benefits to the E-commerce Industry

With the emergence of internet and widespread acceptance of online payment mechanisms, E-Commerce Industry has seen an exponential growth in its size in the last few years. Its profitability can be gauged from the fact that world’s richest man today, Jeff Bezos, is the owner of an E-commerce company called Amazon. 

Amazon which started as an online bookstore is arguably one of the most famous companies in the world and makes up around 40 percent of all online sales.

E-commerce businesses first started their operations with replacing the traditional brick and mortar shops in the form of online retail outlets and have since then added new services that they offer. The industry has branched out to offer Digital Advertising services as well as Business-to-Business solutions in the form of networking and infrastructure companies such as Oracle Corporation, Cisco and Alcatel.

However, in such a competitive industry, to start out a new business or to make your existing business grow is becoming increasingly challenging. To survive, E-commerce businesses would have to implement smart management solutions that have helped companies cut down waste and bring down costs in other industries. Lean Six Sigma is one such program that has allowed managements to achieve elimination of waste and prevention of errors.

Lean Six Sigma can also benefit the E-commerce Industry in the following 3 ways:

​Promotion of Customer First Mentality

Lean Six Sigma programs are built upon a “customer first” mentality. The spirit of Lean Six Sigma requires the business to identify the customer’s perception of value and gear everything toward optimizing that value; it requires retailers to think beyond standard sales and marketing tactics. The bedrock principles of Lean Six Sigma are designed to develop a comprehensive e-commerce business model and maximize the chances of success. Because of the importance it plays on the experience of the customer, and how it practically embeds customers’ value into its operations, Lean Six Sigma is a natural fit for the e-commerce industry.

​Quicker Delivery of Products and Services

A major dimension of the deployment of Lean Six Sigma is the enforcement of a standardized work procedure. One problem that many e-commerce companies face is that workers’ assigned tasks are very vague; it’s up to the worker to figure things out. Lean Six Sigma programs implement a well-defined standard process in the work flow, tracks all abnormalities, and assigns kaizen teams to eliminate deviances.
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Such changes help make sure that all processes are completed as quickly as possible and that unnecessary processes are removed. Therefore Lean Six Sigma facilitates in ensuring that sales orders get placed efficiently and fulfilled more quickly.  

​Improvement in Supply Chain Operations

An E-commerce business’ supply chain must be agile and quickly responsive to the changing needs of its customers. Companies that are attuned to their customer’s changing needs have completed a vital first step in creating a supply chain that fulfills these needs. Lean Six Sigma programs require businesses to measure their progress in terms that customers consider to be critical to quality (CTQ) and steer the management on a path towards continual improvements in supply chain operations.

If you wish to learn more about the system of Lean Six Sigma, please check out LearningManager Lean Six Sigma.