Six Sigma is one of the most publicized and well-known improvement programs in recent years, its fame is well deserved given the large number of benefits that many companies that have used it have achieved.
However, it is very common to find organizations that have totally failed in their implementation of Six Sigma or that are obtaining much lower benefits than they predicted when starting to implement the Six Sigma program in their company.
The objective that I have when making this short list is to comment on characteristics that many of these failed programs have in common, without being a scientifically compiled summary, it is a short summary of personal experiences and professionals from the Six Sigma area.
1 - Not having a clear vision of the reasons why the company is implementing six sigma.
Before starting to implement any change in an organization, the management of the company must be very clear about the reasons why we are going to carry it out and must be the main promoter of these changes.
It must be possible to answer the question: why are we doing this? In a clear and concise way, since it will be very difficult to involve staff in an effort of this type if the reason why such change is being made is not clear.
If the reason for the change is unclear, the staff is going to figure one out and we definitely don't want you to think it was because our CEO read a 20-line article on this topic on "USA Today" while waiting for his connecting flight.
2 - There are no result indicators that are linked to the six sigma program.
Due to the presence of point # 1, the following situation occurs: the results to be obtained are not clear.
A Six Sigma program, as well as a Lean Manufacturing program and even a Staff Motivation program, must be justified on the basis of the improvement they are going to make in a set of key indicators for the company's strategy in a determined period of time.
The success of a Six Sigma program is in the results that it generates for the company.
3 - Not having a previous selection of the projects to be assigned to the program.
The consequence of having points # 1 and # 2 is that when starting the training program there is not a group of projects to assign to each candidate and a greater number of people were sent to train than the number of available projects.
A simple way to detect this situation is when we see, one week before the training begins, the candidates for training desperately visiting the offices of the different managements of the company requesting a problem to solve, of any type, from any area, to be…..
4 - Measure the success of the program by the number of black belts, green belts.
As points # 1, # 2 and # 3 accumulate, point # 4 occurs quite frequently, deciding to measure the success of a Six Sigma program by the number of "Green Belts" and "Black Certified Belts ”.
This way of measuring is very misleading, since it generates a need to “certify” personnel in the most “efficient” way possible, and unfortunately this causes the certification criteria to be increasingly “flexible”, since we are not so interested in results of the program (point # 2) but the number of graduates.
Something similar to what happens with some ISO-9000 certification houses, where in order to get a job ($$) they must lower their acceptance criteria because if no one hires them…
5 - Make everything become a “six sigma project”
Another negative effect of points # 3 and # 4 is that of wanting all and absolutely every activity carried out in the company to become a "Six Sigma Project", as it is necessary to generate an annual quota of "certified personnel" so All kinds of activities are accepted as a Six Sigma project.
Taking this to the extreme, you end up with people who all they do is "Six Sigma" and lose the line that separates the responsibilities of a job and participating in an improvement project.
Here the phrase "He who only has a hammer, sees everything with a nail face" applies a lot.
6 - Send training to people who "their absence does not affect the operation of the company"
When points # 1, # 2 and # 3 are present, it is highly likely that Six Sigma projects are of little importance to the company's management staff and can easily detect that what is "really important" is happening outside of the Six program. Sigma, therefore it will be very difficult for you to send your best people to the Six Sigma program.
This causes double damage to the program, first it will be quite clear to the rest of the organization that the program does not have the real support of the management, since by defining it in soccer terms they are sending the “substitute” team and not headlines".
Second, the Six Sigma program is not a system that by “divine touch” turns bad elements into people who are productive and committed to the success of the organization, it is more like one of those famous MBA programs (Harvard, Yale, MIT, etc.) where the people who enter the program have been previously selected and are known to be valuable people who, with good training and practical experience, can achieve great results for the organization.
7 - There is no formal system for monitoring the results of the implemented projects.
This seems a bit strange for some people, why follow up on something that is already implemented? Well, the reality is that in most cases once certification is achieved and any type of recognition has been given to participants in the project, the focus of all of them will be on the next project and everything done in the previous one will only be part of the story.
If the Control phase was carried out correctly this should not affect the operation of the project that has already been implemented, but a perfect implementation is rarely achieved. The project needs to be followed up after implementation, for at least two reasons:
- Verify that the annual savings projected by the project are actually realized, many times by leaving the project alone "falls" and the projected millions of dollars are never actually given. Achieve the integration of the new form of operation implemented by the project within the "natural" operating procedures of the company, understanding "natural procedure" to be that which is normally carried out and which is not just a list of good wishes.
I hope this little “treatise” helps you in your initiatives to implement Six Sigma in your business.
