Our Mission

Quality Support Group is your one-stop resource for Continuous Improvement education and facilitation.

We are dedicated to exceeding the expectations of our customers by continuously improving your operation and quality systems. We have experience in many different industries among them the Automotive, Medical, Electronic, Healthcare, Semiconductor, Software, Chemical and Textile

History and Vision

Founded in 1993, Quality Support Group is headquartered in Peabody, MA with branch offices throughout the world. We are strategically placed globally to better serve the expanding multinational marketplace. Quality Support Group is a world leader in consulting and training; our unique integrated methodology is designed to continuously improve your business management systems and impact the bottom line.

Quality Support Group emphasizes producing cost savings in your business process improvements while meeting or exceeding customer expectations. This enables our clients to maintain and expand their existing business in the face of a more competitive world market.

Services

Quality Support Group specializes in Quality Standards Implementation, Environmental Management, Supply Chain Management, Global Sourcing, Health and Safety and Performance Enhancement consulting and integrated training to an extensive array of service and industry sectors.

Satisfied Customers

Quality Support Group customers are loyal and satisfied. With relationships as long as 15 years with us, Quality Support Group customers stay with us because we provide the business management expertise they need to improve their operations along with customized solutions to fit their individual needs.

Industries Served

Quality Support Group' broad experience encompasses thousands of companies in dozens of industries. Our consultants and trainers have held operational, managerial and executive roles at some of the most successful companies in the world, and they bring their experiences to each engagement.

We believe that systemic approaches to business excellence transcend industry boundaries. However, we also recognize that a deep understanding of a particular industry can be useful for certain types of engagements. Consequently, Quality Support Group consultants have deep expertise in their given industry, which is available to all of our consultants and trainers worldwide.

Quality Support Group has experts and capabilities in all the industries listed below:

Aerospace, Automotive, Chemical, Construction, Electronics, Environmental, Healthcare
Manufacturing, Medical Devices, Semiconductor, Technology, Telecommunications, Transportation

The Purpose Of The Group

The purpose of the Group is to carry out the initiatives of Lean Enterprise, Lean Sigma, Lean Health Care, Total Quality Management, Continuous Improvement, Lean Supply Chain, Supplier Chain Management and Assessment, Value-added Training, Benchmarking, Quality Function Deployment and others, as they evolve, by providing the skills, tools, and techniques to the industry's supply chain. Through training and sharing of the "successes and lessons learned", we will cooperatively assist the industry's supply chain in a process of Continuous Improvement becoming more responsive, innovative, low total cost and high quality producers. Our methodology has proven effective in many projects all across the world. The purpose is to have measurable goals where we will measure our performance as we work with our clients.

Why Use Quality Support Group? success

-Technical Expertise

-Leverage Other Experience

-Avert Pit Falls

-Provide Quick Wins

-Provide Proven Methodology/Techniques

-World Class Project Management

-Outside Resources (benchmarking/technical)

-Creativity/Analytical Skills

-Objective Advice

Key Metrics to Our Success Include the following:

Improved Business Operating Results

Improved skills for the employees
Job retention and creation
Increased quality, reduced cost structures and improved delivery
Increased profitability
Improved Customer Satisfaction

For our Membership organization, The Primary Mission Of The Quality Support Group of NE is to:

Assist member companies in their quest for understanding the standards, the registration processes, and bench-marking continuous improvement activities.
Help member companies come to the full realization of registration and continuous improvement benefits.
Provide an independent arena for discussion, advice and information exchange on current and future trends.

Support the need to constantly update the skills and knowledge of the quality professional by providing training on quality-related topics.

The Primary Mission Of The Quality Support Group of NE is to:

Assist member companies in their quest for understanding the standards, the registration processes, and bench-marking continuous improvement activities.
Help member companies come to the full realization of registration and continuous improvement benefits.
Provide an independent arena for discussion, advice and information exchange on current and future trends.
Support the need to constantly update the skills and knowledge of the quality professional by providing training on quality-related topics.

The purpose of any process is to satisfy its customers! We are equipped with a substantial “tool box” to use in analyzing and improving their processes including a set of guidelines for when and how to use those tools called the DMAIC approach.

Since teamwork is essential to the success of a Lean Six Sigma project, we provide a set of “team tools” to help team members work together effectively. Participants will apply what is learned in the workshops to their own projects. Our model for Customer Satisfaction is as follows:

Quality Support Group will work with you to understand your key Business Objectives and setup an Implementation plan the meets your needs!

The Case for Lean Six Sigma

The Need

American businesses are facing one of the most trying times in history. There’s incredible pressure to do more with less and do it better. The economic climate, the regulatory climate and the customer climate are all growing increasingly challenging. Clearly, a new model for management is needed. That model is lean six sigma.

Rising Costs of resources and materials
Revenues are being squeezed – customers constantly demanding price reductions
Difficulty recruiting and retaining good employees
Need to be nimble
Rising customer expectations
Increasing international competition
Increasingly complex regulatory environment

What is Six Sigma?

Six Sigma is an approach to management that embraces five basic tenets.

Customer Focus – The purpose of any organization is to satisfy its customers. This means that planning must begin with an understanding of the needs of their various customers. Most hospitals have both patients and doctors as customers whose needs they need to consider.
Process Perspective – Looking across an organization at processes instead of focusing on functional silos improves understanding of operational issues, teamwork, and efficiency.
Continuous Improvement – Processes are continually improved to meet changing customer needs and reduce costs.
Empowerment – Employees are empowered to improve their processes to reduce costs and increase customer service.
Data-Based Decision-Making – Decisions are made on the basis of facts rather than precedent, hunches, or political machinations.

Six Sigma focuses on improving the quality and reliability of a process, and this makes it especially appropriate for quality issues. The heart of the six sigma process improvement methodology is the DMAIC process which is based on the scientific method. It lays out a systematic and logical approach to improving processes. The Define phase entails chartering a project team, identifying customer requirements, analyzing stakeholders and developing a plan to communicate with them, and finally mapping the current process. The Measure phase involves gathering baseline data and the data required to understand the root causes of poor performance. In the Analyze phase, the data is used to determine the root causes. All decisions about process changes are based on data – not guesses, conjecture, or suspicions. During the Improve phase, solutions to performance problems are developed and implemented. The Control phase is critical to maintain performance gains. It entails putting appropriate measures in place, documenting the process, and training process participants. Clearly, this is a rigorous approach based on the scientific method.
Six sigma provides the framework, DMAIC, and tools required to enable people to improve their own processes. It is intended to tap into the talent, expertise and knowledge an organization already possesses. The primary roles of the six sigma consultant are to help an organization get started and prepare employees to continue the effort on their own.

What is Lean?

Lean embraces many of the same basic tenets as six sigma but focuses primarily on reducing cycle times by removing waste or non-value-added activities. This approach drives simplicity and efficiency and tends to produce the most immediate reductions in cost, increases in capacity and improvements in quality and service. Lean methods are effective for reducing mistakes, wait times, and turn around times or for increasing capacity. Experience indicates that fifty percent or more of all workers’ time in the typical process is devoted to the non-value-added activities which are the target of lean methods. These activities add to costs, waiting, and frustration but not to productivity, or customer satisfaction. They certainly don’t contribute to revenue. Imagine the dramatic improvements in effectiveness and profitability a company could achieve if it realized just half of this potential opportunity. The classic approach to six sigma does a poor job of tapping into this opportunity, but it is the strength of lean. Lean also leverages the effectiveness of six sigma by clearing away the ‘underbrush’ and making it easier to see the root causes of problems with a process.

In lean six sigma, the lean tools are integrated into the six sigma DMAIC model. Experience has shown that streamlining processes makes them robust, reliable and customer friendly. They are especially important in the improve phase but value stream mapping and identifying waste are critical pieces of the measure phase.

The Synergy

Since they have a common heritage and philosophy, and use many of the same tools, lean and six sigma fit together like a pair of puzzle pieces. For instance, they both emphasize customer focus. A process orientation and employee empowerment. Whether it’s called a value stream or process map, both build their analysis on a “model” of an operation. Lean focuses on identifying waste and improving cycle time, and six sigma focuses on identifying sources of variation and reducing defects. However, this diversity provides synergy since removing waste from processes also removes the sources of many defects, and a considerable amount of waste in processes is caused by defects.

While both approaches share many tools, those that are peculiar to one or the other are complimentary. For instance, six sigma provides a wide array of process analysis tools, but very few that relate to actually implementing process improvements. On the other hand, lean provides very few analytical tools but does provide a wonderful array of process improvement tools. One implication of this is that, because less time is spent gathering and analyzing data; projects that are primarily lean (those focused primarily on reducing cycle time) can often be completed more quickly than most six sigma projects. One important implication of this is that lean oriented projects can be useful for providing the “quick wins” so important to building support for a new LSS program. These projects also tend to “clear away the brush” and make it easier to see the more serious problems requiring the more rigorous six sigma analytical tools.

The Pay-Off

The bottom line is always the bottom line. LSS contributes profits in two ways. First, it reduces operating costs. The lean dimension of the methodology does this primarily by eliminating non-value activities and the resources associated with them. The six sigma dimension does it by reducing the cost of quality, the cost of identifying and fixing defects. The second and most important way, LSS drives profits is that it increases sales. Companies with effective LSS programs consistently deliver their products or services reliably and responsively and with high quality. This makes them preferred suppliers.

The only reason to implement lean six sigma is to achieve strategic goals such as improve profitability or reduce operating costs. LSS based process improvement dramatically reduces costs. The average LSS team delivers over $200,000 in annual savings (An LSS program involves multiple teams.). Six sigma companies are receiving $500,000 to one million dollars in annual return for each full-time Black Belt. The point is that, lean six sigma makes economic sense. For instance, Glaxosmithkline reported a net $1.2 billion in savings in 2002 out of a $5.1 billion operating budget. General Electric Capital Services reported $500 million net savings in 2000. McKesson Corporation stated it is expecting a 370% Return on Investment in 2003 on its six sigma program. Eastman Kodak gets $100 million in savings annually. One of the large international banks reported over a billion dollars in savings in 2002 due to six sigma. Quality Progress reported in the April 2003 issue that there are over $5 billion of potential savings in the health care arena.

Is Lean Six Sigma Appropriate for My Organization?

People often think that Lean six sigma doesn’t apply to their type of industry because of unique characteristics of that business. However, the data shows that six sigma-based process improvement increases profitability for all kinds of organizations. One assumption frequently is made that six sigma is only for a manufacturing organization. Data shows otherwise. A Quality Progress study reported that low capital intensity (i.e.: service) companies with effective six sigma type systems demonstrated almost three times the improvement in operating income as high capital intensive (i.e.: manufacturing) companies with similar six sigma systems achieved over the same period of time. Service companies also experienced nearly three times the growth in return on assets and return on sales.

A second assumption about lean six sigma is that it is just for large organizations, the General Electrics of the world. However, data shows this is not the case. The Quality Progress article mentioned above reported that among firms with six sigma type programs; smaller firms had almost three times the improvement in operating income as the larger ones and more than twice the growth in return on assets and return on sales as the larger ones.
Smaller organizations do have special problems they have to work around, but they also have advantages. For instance, they are much more adroit at changing direction. Research on diffusion of innovation shows that, once a belief or practice is adopted by 25% of a population; it becomes a permanent part of the culture. It’s obviously much easier to get to 25% of the population in a small organization than it is in a large one. It’s also much easier for top management to influence a large proportion of the people in a smaller organization than a larger one. Furthermore, people in smaller organizations are more used to working with a relatively wide range of people and tasks than those in larger organizations are, and this facilitates adopting the process oriented approach to work associated with six sigma.

Lean Six sigma is a rigorous and systematic approach to process improvement and problem solving. It is appropriate for nearly any organization. The implementation plan simply has to be tailored to meet the specific needs and conditions of each organization. It can be implemented in a way that makes it self-sustaining while it provides long term strategic and operational advantages. There’s nothing remotely risky about it. It has a long track record of success in virtually every industry imaginable. What are you waiting for?