SSMI ASIA TV Episode 1: An Interview with an SSMI Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt from Canada
SSMI Asia Television is a product of Dr. Mikel J Harry Six Sigma Management Institute Asia (www.ssmi-asia.com) and this Youtube channel is dedicated to promoting the goodness of Organizational Excellence and Lean Six Sigma practices in the region. You will be able to enjoy insightful discussions conducted by our host Aroshi Munasinghe with various Industry Professionals, Practitioners and Subject matter experts on the use of Organizational Excellence and Lean Six Sigma in their domains to derive multiple insights including how to overcome unique form of challenges & best practices.
In our first episode of SSMI Asia Television, we feature Srinath Samaranayake, Lean Six Sigma Consultant & Trainer from Canada. Srinath is also an SSMI Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt and currently he is working in the Healthcare sector of Canada. He shares his experience on how Lean Six Sigma helped him in his career and on the current demand for Lean Six Sigma professionals in Canada with Aroshi Munasighe, Vice President, Dr. Mikel J Harry Six Sigma Management Institute Asia.
Given below is an excerpt of the conversation between Srinath and Aroshi.
Aroshi (Q1): How has Lean Six Sigma helped you in your personal life?
Srinath: Learning Lean Six Sigma helped me a lot, actually to find a job when I first moved to Canada. As you may know, people at least take six months to one year, depending on your qualifications, unless you are an IT guy, it takes longer to secure a job. Because of my Lean Six Sigma background, I was able to secure actually three jobs within three weeks. That’s one of the reasons why I continue to work. That itself is proof that Lean Six Sigma is one of the sort after qualifications in the world, at least in the western world.
Aroshi (Q2): What are the sectors you think that Lean Six Sigma is applied in Canada?
Srinath: That’s a good question. Actually, it’s applicable right now everywhere, especially in the banking sector, where the competition is intense. So, everybody wants to optimize their costs by eliminating waste or reducing the variation within the process. Not only in banking sector or telecommunication sectors, it is more and more getting popular in healthcare.
Primary reason for that is recently they have, basically the government of Canada changed their funding models to hospitals. The funding model before was called “The Global Funding”, where a bunch of money is given to a hospital, for them to manage. As a result of that, there could have been inefficiencies. So, the government of Canada wanted to make sure that the tax money is properly used and tax money is properly put in to effect. So, what they did was, they changed the funding model to “Quality Based Model”. In that, what they are looking for is, say if you want to do a Hip Replacement, and the average cost for Hip Replacement, say if it is 5000 dollars, if you do it in an efficient way. Now the hospital would only be paid 5000 dollars per a Hip Replacement. If you spend more, that’s your problem. So that’s when things like Six Sigma come into play, where they make sure that the excess fat is removed from the process. And they implement a methodology like Lean Six Sigma, so that you are achieving optimum level.
Aroshi (Q3): Would you like to give any advice for anybody who is willing to get into Lean Six Sigma in Healthcare sector?
Srinath: Well…my advice is that Lean Six Sigma is one of the most sort after qualifications in Healthcare sector, because of the funding model change, (a). And also, (b), now people want Lean Six Sigma, as an additional qualification to your designation, say you are an accountant and now having Lean Six Sigma would be an additional thing because you can improve your processes within that area. And that’s more and more becoming an additional qualification to get into a job.
