In 1995 I started a student job as an Agent in a Call Center and I was captivated by the dynamics and hectic nature of Customer Service. Listening carefully to the expectations and experiences of customers and employees has become a common thread in my career. Fifteen years ago I didn’t know that this turned out to be the basis of Lean Six Sigma (LSS). I only found out about this over 9 years ago. I have since led a large customer contact organization and started projects aimed at improving customer experience and internal processes. I was able to make use of Lean Six Sigma specialists and I became acquainted with the power of the methodology. The razor-sharp analyzes and conclusions seemed logical in retrospect. The recommendations were practical to implement and had a major impact on Customer and Employee Satisfaction and also resulted in major financial savings. The involvement of employees and the enthusiasm that arose within the improvement team left us wanting more. I also wanted to be able to do this myself!
From that moment on I started to delve further into the methodology and finally decided in 2010 that I only wanted to work on process improvement based on Lean Six Sigma. By doing projects myself as a Black Belt, my enthusiasm and confidence in the methodology grew. When Paul Suijkerbuijk asked me in 2013 to come and work for The Lean Six Sigma Company, I did it right away. The combination of doing projects, giving training, coaching and advising on the implementation of Lean Six Sigma is varied and so much fun to do!
The power of Lean Six Sigma: The principles of LSS can be applied to any type of organization. I have now applied the method in Hospitals, Call Centers, Service Companies, Governments and Industry. The strength of the method lies in making a big problem small. This creates a supported image at all layers within an organization of what the problem actually is, what the real causes are and what we really need to change. Changing in a traditional way often results in a long list of things we can change. Using Lean Six Sigma, you know which things really need to change to solve a problem.