Category Archives: Six Sigma

A business management strategy originally developed by Motorola. Six Sigma seeks to improve the quality of process outputs by identifying and removing the causes of defects (errors) and variability in manufacturing and business processes. Each Six Sigma project carried out within an organization follows a defined sequence of steps and has quantified financial targets (cost reduction or profit increase).

Are Lean and Six Sigma still valid concepts?

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After all the hype about how beneficial these methodologies would be in reducing costs and improving production, it seems it was all just that – hype. And now they have got to that critical point in their own life-cycle where they have become “the Norm” – If you are not using them, supposedly, you will fail or be shipping out cash by the truck load in inefficiency and waste.

Then again there are attributes that are worth using, they worked for Toyota and GM – that must carry some weight.

It seems that the old adage “…all your eggs in one basket” can be used here too. If you put all your resources into improving the systems, you are probably missing the people aspect. Does your company have someone that integrates all improvement opportunities or is this left for the CEO,Dir,GM?

Has your company had issues with processes and wondered why the Improvement Plans did not work? Did your company have people that feel dis-enfranchised, or have a grudge or actually want to feel they own their job but the process has taken it away.

Any improvement program must FIRST deal with the staff, the workers, the ones that can make it work – or fail. Yes the improvements are to all about making money but this can only be done with the staff on your side.

If all improvement plans are coordinated and integrated including staff participation and engagement to the full then culture changes, improvements happen, customers come back.

So the point is: tools do work but you need to ensure the workshop has the right culture and the right people are taught how to use the right tools – from the top to the bottom.

Get the right change for your dollar.

Cheers
Mark

Do all the programs and improvement tools work?

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It has always amused me how far we have come with our knowledge of how things work, or more appropriately how to make things work and having the technology to do this faster and better.

Yet even with the lastest computers and methodologies such as Six Sigma, Lean, Value Stream Mapping and more, we still hear individuals and companies say that they still have problems or the “tools” did not perform as they expected or their company/product profile is different and is not like any other, or they say they are performing as good as they ever could so do not need to improve or change.

It was obvious something was missing that tied it all together.  The tools do work, the computers can help speed up the process – The impression I get is involvement. Sometimes the involvement of ALL  stakeholders was not requested, other times it was rejected and yet others were due to fear of BEING involved.

In reading on this I found that most experts in these areas actually do state up front – involve all the stakeholders or your improvements will not work.

It is the big picture that often gets missed, so much emphasis is placed on “fixing” the immediate problem that the real problem is missed.  So much can be achieved by making sure everyone has their say.  I am not saying they will all agree and that is the next challenge.  But with people feeling they have not been heard, there is no way that you can get anyone to stand behind any percieved improvement process, especially if they disagree with it before it even started.

The crazy thing is, when everyone is clear about an issue AND they all feel safe enough to talk, improvements happen organically and when the right tools are used, absolutely great things can happen.

My own journey is to involve people, get them engaged and to learn to use as many tools as possible to help build the future (as the saying goes – if you only have a hammer, everything looks like a nail!).

Get the right CHANGE for your dollar.
Mark