《Corporate Sigma 10》.pdf

9 Conception and Development An organization’s reason for being, like that of any organism, is to help the parts that are in relationship to each other, to be able to deal with change in the environment. Kevin Kelly Executive editor, Wired The human body is organized into a system consisting of a coordinated arrangement of organs and tissues combined to perform the complex functions needed for life. Each organ can be considered a subsystem, com- prised of billions of microscopic parts, each with its own identity, working together in an organized manner for the benefit of the total being. These systems are interconnected and dependent on each other. Our heart, which is part of our circulatory subsystem, is controlled by the brain which is part of our nervous subsystem through the vagus nerve. Our skeletal sub- system depends on our digestive system for nutrients. Our muscular subsys- tem needs our respiratory and circulatory subsystems to supply energy, in the form of oxygen and nutrients, and carry away carbon dioxide. It takes all the subsystems for human growth and development to occur. Each subsys- tem must be working for the success of the entire body. So too are corpora- tions composed of subsystems. Each organization or department must work well within itself and interface with other organizations and departments while providing information and responding to change. The optimization of corporate functions has been addressed in detail in other writings, and will not be repeated here. We stress here, though, that Six Sigma is a powerful method by which to achieve optimization. We have seen that some organizations are not amenable to Six Sigma methodology. We believe that when leadership creates the environment, all subsystems will benefit from the application of Six Sigma. In this