Six Simga and organizational change

 What is your strategy for using six sigma at work?

Your Rant: I thought I’d successfully dodged the whole Six Sigma fad. Then last week my boss announced that we were introducing a Six Sigma program. Can you give me the Cliff Notes version?

911 Repair,

Your question reminded me of a guy I recently read about who tried to take a short cut around a traffic jam on Interstate 10. He was in a hurry because he’d just stolen $60 of gas, without paying for it, and he wanted to make a quick getaway. His attempt to cut corners turned out to be a fatal mistake when he crashed into another car.

Unfortunately, many of us make the same mistake when we get involved in corporate change programs. We focus on cutting corners and taking short cuts and then we wonder why the effort crashes and burns. Six Sigma takes a lot of work and planning, but the results are often worth it, even if you are Greek or math phobic. I’ve listed three Do’s and one Don’t for implementing a program, below. For more information, check out “Six Sigma for Dummies” (Wiley, 2005).

DO-Dramatically reduce defects. The pot at the end of the Six Sigma rainbow is a reduction in defects or errors. The process is very methodical, but that’s the cost for dramatic change. And weighing in at 3.4 defects per million opportunities, qualifies for dramatic change in my book. This kind of methodical analysis has been around manufacturing for quite a while, but now it’s also making inroads in service industries.

DO-Y = f(X) + E. Okay, I was showing off with that equation. But it is at the heart of Six Sigma and chances are that by dropping it in a meeting you should be able to impress your boss. The equation reflects that any process contains a set of inputs that are transformed by a function or process into an output. The challenge is to reduce the variation in the process so that the company gets the outcome, product or service with the smallest possible number of defects. Not bad a summary considering the guy who wrote it barely passed his high school math class.

DO-Use a variety of tools. There are a variety of tools commonly used in Six Sigma: SIPOC (suppliers, inputs, process, outputs and customers), CT tree (displaying parts of the process according to its critical importance), modeling (defining processes, work flows, etc.), simulations, cause and effect matrix, fishbone diagram (breaking out each contributor to a process), FMEA (failure mode effects analysis), capability and complexity analysis and plans (determining how processes will be controlled and audited).

DON’T-See it as a quick fix. Six Sigma is the tortoise to the usual rabbit approach practiced by most businesses. On second thought it’s more like a glacier, but one that can make your company more efficient.

If anything is the antithesis of a short cut it would be-Y = f(X) + E. But for lasting change, the long way is often a better way.

Thought for the Week

“Why Six Sigma? The sigma scale is a universal measure of how well a critical characteristic performs compared to its requirements. The higher the sigma scale, the more capable the characteristic. (To qualify as six sigma, the defect rate would be 3.4 or below)”

Bob Rosner and Sherrie Campbell author the nationally syndicated workplace911 column weekly. Bob’s a best-selling author and award-winning journalist who has responded to over 50,000 emails from employees, bosses and entrepreneurs. Sherrie’s a relationship expert and award-winning comedian who has offered quick, intuitive and humorous responses to over 30,000 people. He’s been called “Dilbert, with a solution.” She’s the counselor with a kick. Together they’ve turned rants into raves via TV, radio, print and live on their website at workplace911.com.