Six Sigma without Black belts - Sheer Common Sense

[Govind]

No Complex Operations Research Logistic equations

No Advanced Statistical Tools

No Advanced Analytical Models.

No Multi Million Dollar Training programs

Yet, Quality of Service exceeding Six Sigma

How is this even possible?

Sheer Common Sense.

It is almost impossible believe that 5000 lunch transportation workers with Semi literacy would setup a logistic model that produce a service Quality of 1 defect in every 6 million transactions. Yes it is true.

As I would describe, "Six Sigma without Black belts". I came across these interesting series of articles recently. Can't wait to share with our fellow Covers.

http://edition.cnn.com/2004/BUSINESS....dabbawallahs/

http://www.successfulmanagers.com/51...s1_51issue.htm

http://web.mid-day.com/news/city/2003/october/66240.htm

http://www.sixsigmaquality.com/India..._Six_Sigma.pdf

http://www.sixsigmaquality.com/Chemi...ng%20May04.pdf

Regards,
Govind.

Feel Free to share your thoughts.

[Jennifer Kirley]

What a splendid story!

One thing I am squeamish about with 6S is a sense of elitism for the Black Belts.

Is the 6S company also maintaining a clear conduit for the line worker to input his or her suggestion for savings? Toyota does. A BusinessWeek article on this company mentioned a worker's suggestion to simply install the radiator later in the line sequence. The very appreciable savings includes time (not having to work around the installed radiators) and back injuries from improved access of the engine compartment.

In contrast, I recall a local company that clinched a decision to hire an ex-GE manager solely based on his Black Belt. But after a couple of years the people I spoke with were not at all impresed by this man. 6S was not the cure at that place; the man didn't last more than a few years.

I don't know if he had management support, or support of people besides those I spoke with, but I maintain that an inclusive, responsive management system can still dance circles around a fancy method like 6S.

[Jim Wynne]

My company hired a BB from GE not long ago. He asked me if I would look over some control charts he was dealing with and offer an opinion. I immediately noticed a run on one side of the centerline and pointed it out. He asked me what I was talking about. I told him that it was a sign of instability--assignable cause variation. He said, "Oh, I'm not worried about that--the Cpk is over 2."

I predict that someday it will be considered legal to strangle these people with their black belts.

[Govind]

I understand the frustration due to some bad experiences with few black belts. Iam a SSBB myself. I have lots of respects for my fellow Black belts. Learning is a continual process. Sometimes we learn proactively from others mistakes. Sometimes we learn from our own mistakes.

Six sigma methodology has been accepted by leading Quality Professionals and proven to work.

I just wanted to point out through that story that if any one can get to that root of an issue/objective, even with basic common sense approach, problems can be solved and objectives could be achieved.

Team work, coordination of activities, trust among team, knowing their process makes this massive logistics effort successful. I was just told by my college this story was aired in 60 minutes sometime back.

This is an excellent example for organizations to study the process steps and perform a “Process Benchmarking”.

Regards,
Govind.

[Jennifer Kirley]

Originally Posted by Govind

I understand the frustration due to some bad experiences with few black belts. Iam a SSBB myself. I have lots of respects for my fellow Black belts. Learning is a continual process. Sometimes we learn proactively from others mistakes. Sometimes we learn from our own mistakes.

Six sigma methodology has been accepted by leading Quality Professionals and proven to work.

I just wanted to point out through that story that if any one can get to that root of an issue/objective, even with basic common sense approach, problems can be solved and objectives could be achieved.

Team work, coordination of activities, trust among team, knowing their process makes this massive logistics effort successful. I was just told by my college this story was aired in 60 minutes sometime back.

This is an excellent example for organizations to study the process steps and perform a “Process Benchmarking”.

Regards,
Govind.

Yes, I agree completely.

My quarrel is not with 6S in itself, but its oft-misapplication. My understanding is that 6S is, in fact what quality engineers are presumably trained to do when certifying. Why make it seem as though they are not? ASQ does not appear to be addressing this with well-marketed streamlined bridge training that makes it clear there is a wide availability of this skill. The misunderstanding is perpetuated infinum. I once interviewed with a fellow who said quality engineers were too nerdy. I have bever met a nerdy quality engineer; I responded that perhaps we need to change our image? He agreed.

Perhaps I am just confused or feeling ornery.

That some companies think they must have a whole new program, with outsiders achieving intensive, but dare I say limited training in the methods, and then inflate expectations and not view results on an organization-wide basis, is unfortunate and threatens 6S the way TQM was maligned.

[Jim Wynne]

Originally Posted by Govind

Six sigma methodology has been accepted by leading Quality Professionals and proven to work.

I'm not sure what that statement means. I think a lot of people use tautology in defense of SS--it's been "accepted by leading quality professionals" and the "leading quality professionals" referred to are proponents of SS. It's a self-fulfilling prophecy. In fairness to all, I think that any system or program or methodology that has improvement as its sole purpose can't be all bad. I just think it's sad that it feeds into the corporate fantasy that product quality is a commodity that comes prepackaged and can be purchased off the shelf.

[Govind]

Valid discussion points.

Even the CQE and SSBB have heavy overlap in the Body of knowledge. You are making good point wrt ASQ. can you please describe further. ASQ always survey member populations when they start a new certification or revise an existing Body of Knowledge. I recieved a survey for Green belt certification from ASQ.Any of your inputs can be useful to them.

6S or any Continual improvement program, if an organization did not understand properly and train properly, there is no debate about the outcome of that program.

There are few massive threads in this Six sigma topic of this forum with over 50 posts each talk about these issues already. These are beaten to death,
http://elsmar.com/Forums/showthread.php?t=3823
http://elsmar.com/Forums/showthread.php?t=7324

My intent was to share the lessons learned from the example and discuss in detail.

Regards,
Govind.

[Jim Wynne]

Originally Posted by Govind

You are making good point wrt ASQ. can you please describe further.

I made no mention of ASQ; I'm not sure what you're asking.