What's next for Six sigma? An established culture? The Future of Six Sigma

W

WALLACE

What's next for Six Sigma?
My sister in-law is a master BB with GE and, she indicated to me that, Six sigma at GE is moving more towards lean tools and techniques. She also mentioned that SS is more or less, an established culture at GE for the most part and, a natural progression or assimilation to and with other business tools and techniques is being infused into the mainstream.
What does the group have to say?
Wallace.
 

Wes Bucey

Prophet of Profit
WALLACE said:
What's next for Six Sigma?
My sister in-law is a master BB with GE and, she indicated to me that, Six sigma at GE is moving more towards lean tools and techniques. She also mentioned that SS is more or less, an established culture at GE for the most part and, a natural progression or assimilation to and with other business tools and techniques is being infused into the mainstream.
What does the group have to say?
Wallace.
Interesting.
Certainly, paid staff and elected officials at ASQ seem to be much more Six Sigma-centric than in the past. In addition, I belong to an ASQ interest group (on its way to becoming a Division or Forum): ASQ's Advanced Manufacturing Interest Group (AMIG) which has lean manufacturing as its central focus.

Therefore, I can report that ASQ seems to be echoing what your sister-in-law observes at GE.
 
W

WALLACE

Maybe the fact is that, we in the west have at last decided to cut through the BS of quality initiatives. Maybe, just maybe, we have come to the realization point that, Lean tools and techniques have all along been the potential panacea for the ills of standardized western quality management.
Hmm, I wonder.
Wallace
 
B

Bill Pflanz

WALLACE said:
What's next for Six Sigma?
My sister in-law ... also mentioned that SS is more or less, an established culture at GE for the most part and, a natural progression or assimilation to and with other business tools and techniques is being infused into the mainstream.
What does the group have to say?
Wallace.

It didn't take very long after Jack's departure for GE to decide that maybe there was something else besides Six Sigma. Since SS is now part of the established culture they are probably replacing their SS training with lean manufacturing. I just saw a book on Lean Six Sigma which combines the two methodologies.

Since we are getting leaner, maybe they could have black and green suspenders to hold everything up and differentiate between the various grades. ;)

Maybe I shouldn't have made the last comment and trademarked it first. :D

Bill
 
W

WALLACE

The other parallel is that, TOYOTA has lean as their established culture and they use statistical tools that are merely part of the SPC tool box.
There's lots of lessons to be learned there for sure.
Wallace.
 
D

Darius

Here also, in the company that I work with, It began to work with Kaisen and now trained some in SS and Lean Manufacturing.

It's a tendence.
:bonk:
 

Mike S.

Happy to be Alive
Trusted Information Resource
WALLACE said:
Maybe, just maybe, we have come to the realization point that, Lean tools and techniques have all along been the potential panacea for the ills of standardized western quality management.

Wallace
Lean a panacea? Not likely IMO unless some lean tools and techniques involve reprogramming grey matter in the brains of Management. As I have said in another thread, IMO much of today's Management does not lack the right tools, they lack the will to use them.
 
W

WALLACE

Mike S. said:
Lean a panacea? Not likely IMO unless some lean tools and techniques involve reprogramming grey matter in the brains of Management. As I have said in another thread, IMO much of today's Management does not lack the right tools, they lack the will to use them.

The word Panacea may have been misapropriately used in my post, It was the best I could come up with though. I firmly believe that, we in the west do indeed need a tool box of management tools that would act as a panacea for the ills of management practices.
Mike, why do you believe management lacks the will to use the right tools?
Wallace.
 

Mike S.

Happy to be Alive
Trusted Information Resource
WALLACE said:
The word Panacea may have been misapropriately used in my post, It was the best I could come up with though. I firmly believe that, we in the west do indeed need a tool box of management tools that would act as a panacea for the ills of management practices.
Mike, why do you believe management lacks the will to use the right tools?
Wallace.

Way too much personal experience, plus research and observation, leads me to believe that much too often management lacks the will to use the right tools, Wallace. IMO there are tons of tools that would do the job, and many Q practitioners who are aware of them and able to put them into use, but there are many fewer companies who will put them into use. Even basic common sense if often missing. Figuratively , management walks by garages full of fine tools and mechanics, ignoring them, and instead employs hopes, wishes, and witch doctors to solve their problems, lamenting the lack of success all the while. They are often prime examples of the definition of insanity -- doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different result. And it frustrates the heck out of me. :bonk:

I realize there are some very fine and well-run companies out there. There may even be a few who have reached the end of the capabilities of the tool set they have employed and may need new and better tools to move forward. God bless them! But they are few and far between, IMO.

Should you doubt that the lack of tools is less a problem than the will to use them, I'd be happy to post a poll of the Cove members asking their opinions. I'm pretty sure I know what the result will look like, but I've been wrong before.
 
R

Rob Nix

I couldn't agree more with Mike. :agree1:

If you polled me, I'd say the same; plenty of outstanding tools, plenty of outstanding quality people that know how to use them, but a scarcity of management buy in.

A good test is to list those who are sent to the seminars on all these tools. If it is not TOP management, but rather the middlings of the organization, it ain't gonna have lasting success.
 
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