Lean Six Sigma principles are as applicable in the Marketing Factory as they are in the Widget Factory. In fact, the concept of a factory is an excellent way for marketers in many companies to position their operation in a context that can be understood and appreciated by most around the boardroom table.
While marketers may recoil at the idea that they run a factory, the very idea is an imperative today. Standardized work, standard tools, waste reduction, cycle time improvement and a set of metrics that connect those activities to business goals – that’s the stuff of lean manufacturing and lean marketing. Most marketing organizations have standard work processes in place. Procedures and work instructions help insure that. However, many continue to struggle with wasteful and interruptive requests from clients, incomplete information and limited ability to leverage existing assets or past work products.
A standard Lean Six Sigma tool that can help a marketing organization move from job shop to efficient factory is the SIPOC. An acronym for Suppliers, Inputs, Processes, Outputs, and Customers, the SIPOC provides a framework for any process or operation. Typically used in the Define phase of a Six Sigma improvement project, the SIPOC can help a marketing organization not only bound its own operation, but also provides an excellent framework to help clients understand how to most effectively work with the marketing organization. Use the SIPOC chart to list:
- Processes: If you are using the SIPOC to frame your entire operation, then this section represents the collection of standard work processes you execute to generate the output of your department. If you don’t have standard work established, then you should start here. It is difficult to credibly require standard inputs into non-standard processes. Think factory.
- Outputs: These are all the discrete results of your work processes – direct mail campaigns, literature, websites, tradeshows, leads, information, etc. This is another opportunity to use the SIPOC to create more structure in your operation. Just like a factory cannot efficiently produce unlimited custom variations of a basic product, a marketing department with limited resources can’t either. It is important to determine and document those outputs that meet the needs of your business and standardize on those offerings. Your business probably has a structured process for adding new products to its offerings to the market. Treat new offerings from marketing with similar rigor. Don’t offer a new variation on standard literature, for example, based on one request from one product line.
- Customers: For the sake of this exercise, it is most helpful to think in terms of internal customers – those who use the outputs of your operation to drive commercial results for the business. Of course, your outputs must be relevant and useful to external customers to be effective. In the context of internal customers, you can establish the full SIPOC framework to drive factory-like efficiencies.
- Inputs: Define here the inputs needed for marketing to do its work. As in manufacturing, take this opportunity to establish specifications and quality parameters for the inputs you must receive. Inputs such as demographic or firmographic data, value proposition, audience targeting parameters, product background, etc. are candidates for this list.
- Suppliers: These may be internal and external suppliers. These individuals or groups have information or tools the marketing organization needs to perform its work. Market research, product management, sales, list vendors, and others are likely suppliers to marketing. They supply the inputs into your process.
With the SIPOC framework established for your marketing operation, you have the ability to engage your entire organization. Establish standard specifications and quality requirements for inputs from your suppliers (internal groups and external vendors), and communicate the scope of your output offerings to your internal clients. With the parameters of your marketing factory established, measurement and continuous improvement become more straightforward.
Filed under: Marketing Operations, business, communications, marketing, marketing operations, six sigma
I know this is an ongoing discussion in which some pretty smart people have contributed. In our quest to address this business pain, we seek a definition of just what we’re tackling. I want to continue to explore the position that this is not a problem to be solved, but rather it is a state of effectiveness and productivity in an organization’s end-to-end commercial engine.
Brian McGuire is a senior Marketing and Sales alignment leader (read bio 
