ABSTRACT
We started Chapter 4 off by briefly introducing Six Sigma as a fairly rigorous methodology for solving business process problems. Six Sigma tools are oriented to repetitive business processes, those that regularly produce outputs. It is data-based problem solving; it requires that we have very specific measures of performance and that we be able to quantify current performance with measurements-enough measurements to matter. Once we have quantitatively assessed current performance, we rigorously determine what the root causes are for unacceptable behavior, these are also confirmed with data, and then we systematically attack those roots until our system performs as desired as demonstrated by more data. ere is nothing magic in this. It is the straightforward application of measurements, statistics, and scientific problem solving. A scientist might look at Six Sigma and say “What is all the fuss about? We’ve been doing this for a hundred years.” And she would be right! However, businesses have not always been run with scientific methods. Businesses are created by entrepreneurs, people who have visions and leadership skills, people who have passion and endurance and sometimes great luck. As these businesses expand, the leader has less and less direct impact on the business and the processes that make it up so the company begins to rely more and more on the experience of their employees. Passion and vision are important but are not particularly useful at letting others know what to do in large groups. Also, passion and vision don’t normally help create repeatable processes. Repeatable processes are necessary to have a reliable business operation. Six Sigma problem solving is oriented around the creation and improvement of repeatable processes. It is a methodology that allows businesses to solve problems in a scientific way rather than relying on hunches, “experience,” or the way we’ve always done it. What is “experience” anyway? You know exactly what experience is: Experience is what is left after mistakes. Sometimes experience kills people but those who survive are considered valuable to
many businesses. Why should that be? Does experience make me a good problem solver? Does it make me a good leader? A good trainer? Maybe, but maybe not. Relying on employees with experience is dangerous when you need reliability and predictability and high performance unless you are happy with your systems running just the way they have in the past, because experience tends to make people want to repeat what worked for them in the past. Six Sigma gives us a way to use employees with normal experience and knowledge but harness what they know to solve problems and improve your business in ways that are predictable and better than normal. e Six Sigma system will make your process improvement efforts successful, not whether you happened to pick the right person for the job. You never have enough right people anyway, right?
