Six Sigma and the Disaster Response Process
Watch for an article, "â¦And Not a Drop to Drink, Water a Test for Emergency Managers" coming out this month in the Homeland Security Affairs Journal. Mike Byrne, ICF wrote the article about applying the Six Sigma and Lean Process Reviews to the disaster response process we have here in the United States.
In part he writes, "Good businesses in this country have learned the value of performance evaluation tools and there are many valid methods. One of which is Six Sigma and Lean process reviews, and these tools can help emergency managers as well. In its basic form, a Lean review begins with the steps of a process completely laid out on paper. Then a question is asked about each individual step: "Does this step add value; does it improve the process?" If it does not help our efforts, it is clear the step should be eliminated. The second question, if the step does add value, is "What is the cost in time and money?" and then, "Is the added value worth the cost?"
