and receiving docks near the point of use, and basically remaking the place. The
dramatic savings led to great management attention, and helped spur the CEO
to invest in lean globally. We should note that an “event” is not necessarily a
successful event. The Tenneco Smithville events were well-facilitated by a veteran
lean coach who guided the plant and the event toward serious change. There are
also events led by “kaizen coordinators” who lack the deep expertise and aggres-
sive facilitation skills, and these can easily degrade into glorified 5S activities.
“Six Sigma” programs have some of the same strengths and weaknesses for
process improvement as the kaizen workshop approach. They are generally of
longer duration (e.g., several months), led by individuals who are earning or have
earned “Black Belts,” and focus heavily on statistical methods and measurement.
The origins of Six Sigma are in Total Quality Management (TQM), but advocates
argue that Six Sigma adds a bottom-line financial mentality. Projects are typically
expected to save the company several hundred thousand dollars. In fact, many
companies track dollars saved through Six Sigma and even report these figures to
stock analysts. Train 1,000 people doing $200,000 projects and in no time huge
savings pile up. While Six Sigma uses statistical tools that can be quite powerful
in the right hands at the right time, there are some serious traps in the Six Sigma
approach:
- Six Sigma focuses so intensively on analyzing data, picking the right sta-
tistical procedures, validating the statistical properties of the data, and
developing slick reports, that the analyst can get distracted from the true
purpose of the project and lose focus on the gemba. - Six Sigma anoints individuals as Green Belts or Black Belts and gives them
a special status in the organization, yet their main skills are the analysis
methods and not necessarily deep understanding of the processes they
are improving. - The Black Belts can do too much on their own, turning the projects into
technical engineering projects with minimal employee involvement. - The result is often lack of ownership by the people doing the work, and
thus the recommended changes do not stick. - There is no real philosophy behind the Six Sigma program except to find,
measure, and eliminate variation, and save a lot of money.
The find it and measure it, and analyze it and fix it to save dollars fast approach
often leads to point kaizen that may even be contrary to lean principles. We
have seen the following projects that are successful in saving money on a per
piece basis but actually led the organization away from lean and ultimately
increased total cost:
◆ Reducing changeover time, reporting labor savings, and increasing batch
sizes, instead of decreasing batch sizes (see “Case Study: Six Sigma
Changeover Reduction”).