Six Sigma Survey for November Quality Digest article

[Marc]

Quality Digest or InsideQuality.com subscribers - Has anyone taken this survey?

To: Six Sigma Manager or Quality Manager
Re: Six Sigma Survey for November Quality Digest article

As a valued Quality Digest or InsideQuality.com subscriber, you have been chosen to participate in Quality Digest's Fourth Annual Six Sigma survey, which will collect and analyze data related to the demographics of companies that are using Six Sigma methodologies and on the implementation and impact (value) of their Six Sigma program. Your input is critical. The data will be analyzed and presented in the November issue of Quality Digest.

Why: With the reported success of companies such as Motorola and GE and dozens of best-selling books on the topic, Six Sigma has become big business and thousands of companies are paying big money to start Six Sigma programs. But is it worth it? What kinds of companies are implementing Six Sigma and in what processes? Are they seeing a significant impact on their bottom line? How to participate: Take the survey online at: *** DEAD LINK REMOVED ***

All responses are confidential.
Thank you in advance for participating in the Six Sigma Survey.
DEADLINE: Friday, Sept. 10, 2004

[Govind]

Yes, I saw that survey some time back, started to eagerly fill up until question #3.
“Does your company location have a Six Sigma program? If the answer is "No' or "Don't know," check the appropriate box and then click the link that takes you to the last four questions on the survey.”

This survey assumes that if a company does not have a “Six sigma Program”, Black belts may not exist in this organization or projects may not use Six Sigma methodology. This is not accurate and limits the participation to few organizations.

There are many questions from #4 to #32 that SS Black belts like me could answer even though we do not have an official “six sigma program” in our organization. I consider the survey is not designed keeping all these practical scenario in mind.

I did not fill up after reading Question #3 and existed out of the survey.

Regards,
Govind.

[Marc]

Ah! Sounds like a 'bad' survey design!

[Graeme]

Marc,

I saw the survey and went through it, even if I do have only a limited perspective of the organization I work at (as a contractor).

I have done a few surveys before and I have an idea how hard it is to make them unbiased. However, it appeared to me that this one might have been designed with the desired results in mind. While that is good in some endeavors (goal setting: Covey's 'begin with the end in mind') it is not a good idea for collecting objective evidence for a fact-based paper or article.

I did note the problem mentioned by Govind. Fortunately (?) I could answer "yes" and proceed because the organization does have a named SS program, anemic as it is ... and is now stumbling into the process called Lean ... in olden times physicians called it "bleeding the patient" ... I also noticed that the implicit assumption is that IF the organization has a SS program, THEN the person answering the survey IS deeply involved in it. Excuse me, but that ain't necessarily so. It might apply at companies like ** where one must be a SSBB in order to get promoted out of the slave ranks, but other companies don't have it as well entrenched. (Out of several hundred people I can say that I "know" here, there are two active SSBB's and two SSGB candidates who can't complete because the budget has been axed.)

Graeme

[Bill Ryan]

I also submitted the survey and got to skip #s 4-32. I did the same last year. I have not seen any results regarding how many participants had to skip the major portion of the survey. Maybe it's time for an email to Quality Digest - hmmmm.

[reigelser]

Hi,
could anybody please tell me where I can find the results of this anual survey? I think I have the 2001 result in this article http://www.qualitydigest.com/nov01/h...maarticle.html
or is this a different survey? And could somebody eventually provide the questionnaire to the survey?
Thanks for the info.