What is Six Sigma?
Six Sigma is an important quality assurance initiative that has enabled Cleveland Brothers to continuously improve how we conduct business, delivering greater value for our customers, greater satisfaction for our employees, and greater return for the organization.
Six Sigma is a philosophy that focuses on eliminating mistakes from all business processes; therefore increasing customer satisfaction. It is also a methodology whereby all decisions are based on facts and data rather than intuition. Six Sigma gives us common processes that we use to solve our business and transactional challenges. It helps us understand what we need to do to improve.
Cleveland Brothers Six Sigma Implementation
Six Sigma has been an important part of establishing a new level of excellence at Cleveland Brothers Equipment Company. As our Six Sigma logo indicates, we've imbedded this methodology (symbolized by the sigma) into our traditional business. The circle symbolizes unity within all of our divisions. The Company with headquarters in Murrysville, PA, serves as a supplier of Caterpillar construction equipment and engines as well as many other product lines. Services include sales and leasing, parts supply, rebuilding, and repair of machinery and equipment for earth moving, conditioning, material hauling and handling.
Cleveland Brothers Equipment Company actually embraced Six Sigma methodologies prior to it's endorsement by Caterpillar. Continuous improvement to better serve customers has always been the focus at Cleveland Brothers Equipment Company.
To begin the Six Sigma process, Cleveland Brothers Leadership Team assembled to develop Critical Success Factors (CSF's) and our Strategic Areas of Improvement (SAI's). Full-time dedicated Black Belts have been assigned to the task of implementing continuous Company improvement using Six Sigma methodologies. Pat Hays, Vice President of Technology has responsibility for the entire Six Sigma initiative.
Six Sigma Black Belts are selected based on skill sets necessary to facilitate teams, analyze data, and present recommendations. Our Cleveland Brothers Black Belts receive four weeks of intense training on the use of statistical tools and modeling. Team members participating on the projects are categorized as "Green Belts" and have received training from their respective Black Belt. "Yellow Belts" are those employees which have received awareness training and potentially participate as local process experts for a given project.
Customers and vendors wanting to learn more about Six Sigma or participate in a training session are encouraged to contact Carl Tinkham at (717) 561-3340.
