{"id":15,"date":"2009-08-25T09:09:19","date_gmt":"2009-08-25T03:09:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/prhconsulting.com\/blog\/?p=15"},"modified":"2009-12-02T00:35:51","modified_gmt":"2009-12-01T18:35:51","slug":"why-six-sigma-is-annoying","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/prhconsulting.com\/blog\/2009\/08\/25\/why-six-sigma-is-annoying\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Six Sigma is Annoying"},"content":{"rendered":"
Posted on October 12th, 2007<\/span> by Pete | Edit<\/a><\/div>\n
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Ok\u2026I am all for quality improvement and a systematic approach to in. So in a way, I am actually a fan of Six Sigma\u2026but sometimes it just gets annoying.<\/p>\n

1. For one thing, they get all the cool projects. Before there was Six Sigma, you could identify a way to improve things, figure out the cost\/benefit to the company, and do the project. (In fact, Human Performance Technology was based on this approach and predates Six Sigma\u2026it just didn\u2019t get the visibility\u2026) But now, with Six Sigma, in many companies if your business case is any good, your idea\u00a0may end up being turned into a Six Sigma project. So some blackbelt gets all the glory and you go back to the same old same old.<\/p><\/div>\n

2. Based on personal experience as well as comments from others, there are a lot of Six Sigma practitioners who really don\u2019t know what they are doing. Clearly, many are\u00a0quite competent.\u00a0But just having the certification does not mean that you necessarily have the capability. Once, while doing a performance analysis meeting, a Six Sigma person observing from the back came up and said that he could see at least ten projects\u00a0after observing just one day of our meeting. No kidding\u2026we identified them!!! (Well, technically, the meeting participants, the master performers from the client organization,\u00a0identified the opportunities\u2026we just facilitated and documented their thinking.)<\/div>\n
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3. Companies may use Six Sigma as a way to avoid really paying attention to the details of the business operation. Instead, they designate people as Six Sigma experts and then figure process improvement is \u201chandled\u201d and they can \u201ccheck it off.\u201d<\/div>\n
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4. Fixation with process instead of results. A standard process only provides a logical template for actions. But, if you think it through, you may just as well come up with a sound process without having to add the extra structure and formality that Six Sigma may entail. Sometimes that structure helps. But sometimes it just creates needless bureaucracy.<\/div>\n
Remember when process mapping came out and suddenly everybody had to map every process? Teams were running around mapping processes all over the place\u2026instead of getting work done!! Six Sigma, like anything that becomes a fad or trend, is in danger of the same thing, as is lean manufacturing. Instead of improving the business, the risk is that you just add another layer of work processes and more overhead.<\/div>\n
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5. In most cases, Six Sigma teams find cost reductions. When used for innovation, there is less success. (Some would argue that targeting innovation is an inappropriate application for Six Sigma\u2026but it happens.)<\/div>\n
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6. Of course the worst problem with Six Sigma is the same as happened with Y2K and many SAP initiatives\u2013it drains budget and attention that could be used for other important consulting\u2026like human performance improvement, curriculum design, training development!!<\/div>\n
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Posted on October 12th, 2007 by Pete | Edit Ok\u2026I am all for quality improvement and a systematic approach to in. So in a way, I am actually a fan of Six Sigma\u2026but sometimes it just gets annoying. 1. For one thing, they get all the cool projects. Before there was Six Sigma, you could […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"_s2mail":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-trends-and-fads"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7FCNy-f","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/prhconsulting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/prhconsulting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/prhconsulting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prhconsulting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prhconsulting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/prhconsulting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37,"href":"https:\/\/prhconsulting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15\/revisions\/37"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/prhconsulting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prhconsulting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prhconsulting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}