In the early 2000s, Amazon’s business had become much more complex. We were no longer just a bookstore. We were selling electronics, DVDs, toys, apparel and more. We had six fulfillment centers in the United States instead of two. Additionally, we had expanded internationally to the UK, Germany, and Japan. We had grown from a startup selling books in the US only to a multi-product international company.
Jeff Bezos and the S-Team (the senior leadership team at Amazon) faced the difficult challenge of maintaining the intense attention to detail and customer focus that had propelled the company to early success. We needed to develop a process and methodology to measure and monitor our complex variety of products and operations while seeking to improve our operational rigor and excellence.
Because the problems we faced were typical of any company that had grown into a complex, large business, we looked to the outside world for proven solutions. This led us to adopt Six Sigma, a framework that enables companies to improve their business operations, reduce variation, improve the mean or average values for key metrics, and ultimately, achieve better results. Six Sigma emphasizes the DMAIC approach, an acronym for “define, measure, analyze, improve, and control.” This approach improves any process or system.
Take our online course on Input Metrics Mastery to learn how we implemented DMAIC at Amazon and how you can do it at your company, too. https://lnkd.in/gCuWZkHZ
