Misunderstanding about Six Sigma

The problem is, that in all of the sales pitches, long explanations of the methodological approach, and months of training, this fundamental principle seems to get buried, neglected, overlooked, or poorly explained.  I’ve worked with numerous people in Six Sigma organizations that never really understood why all the discussion of variation was important.  At best, they were told that variation is bad, and they played along, but when push came to shove and long-term decisions needed to be made, the goal of investing in lesser variation lost to short-term costs.

 

This makes a good launch point into discussing my second bullet.  Ultimately, at a fundamental level, all of the Six Sigma tools, problem-solving methods, and language around variation serve a single, fundamental purpose.  It gives us the ability to make informed, data-driven decisions.  It is a decision-making methodology.

 

This is critically important, like wheels on a car critically important, yet in my many years as a Six Sigma specialist, I’ve never heard anyone say it.  This lack of insight is also, I believe, a root cause for failed Six Sigma programs.

 

Play along with me.  We’ve established that the enemy of Six Sigma is variation.  Well, to truly identify, map, quantify, and understand variation, we need a solid understanding of statistics and statistical tools.  Unfortunately, most of us entered our professions with little or no statistical background. 

 

                                                                                   Therefore, a great deal of intense training and education is required.

Many businesses look at the intensity of the training, and the consequential investment and start seeking a pragmatic and affordable way to introduce the methodology.  This often leads to select members getting the training, and the rest of the business receiving an introductory, crash course that focuses more on the language or dictionary of Six Sigma than on understanding how it works or saves money.  (When I say, “how it works,” I don’t mean DMAIC, I mean how variation wastes money and how the statistics will make decision-makers wiser).

 

As a result, only a very few people in the business may truly understand.  Now those few people must constantly negotiate with everyone else, who may or may not understand, for data, information, permission to alter processes, and resources for experiments.  It’s tiring.  Believe me.  Worse, these specialists will spend hours trying to figure out how to explain what they observe to a manager or executive so that leader can make an informed decision.  Most times they must explain what took them months to learn, and days to solve, in 30-seconds or less or they lose the leader’s attention.