Re: Early References to Six Sigma
I've come across this, which might be of interest to historians:
"I have heard enough undeserved credit being given to Mike Harry and Richard Schroeder, who claim they invented Six Sigma, the DMAIC methodology and the Black Belt concept. In reality, these concepts were first developed and implemented by Mario Perez-Wilson at Motorola in the Semiconductor Sector, where I used to work.
Mario (as I knew him personally) came out with the idea of training and developing Statistical Methods Engineers (SME) to be coordinators on each facility of Motorola (PHX, C.E., METL, KLM, SBN, MPI, GDL, MKL) in 1987, when he started at Motorola Semiconductor. The SMEs were trained in the US by him for 6 months and some were trained in Malaysia by B. Rigg who reported to Mario. We were taught the M/PCpS methodology - the first DMAIC approach and Motorola's Six Sigma methodology - and we had to implement it in engineering projects and characterisation studies. The projects were assigned to us before we started the training. We were responsible for the Six Sigma projects, the teams, couching, training, implementing and interfacing with the champions. We had monthly presentations, deliverables, responsibility and accountability. The SME approach for continuous improvement was brilliant, very methodical and worked great. Prior to him, we were using control charts for continuous improvement and occasionally we would do a DOE, GRRs were not even talked about.
Mario's methodology was a 5-Stage approach (you can see it at ***DEAD LINK REMOVED***
1. Process Delineation 2. Metrology Characterization 3. Capability Determination 4. Optimization 5. Control
The success of the SMEs was unbelievable in Motorola, we had saved millions of dollars already by 1991. These were the first truly Black Belts at Motorola. Prior to Mario Perez-Wilson working in Motorola Semiconductor, the implementation of continuous improvement was not methodical nor organized and we were fixing the same problems year after year. He changed all of that with his methodology and the SMEs approach.
Then, years later, Mikel Harry claimed (circa 1994) his Six Sigma Methodology is called DMAIC, a 5-Phase approach.
Look at the similarities between Mario's 5-stage and DMAIC:
1. Define 2. Measure 3. Analyze 4. Improve 5. Control
If this is not a copy, I don't know what is! How come Harry did not invented a 3-stage or 6-stage approach?
How did Mikel Harry got all of this information to come up with DMAIC and the Black Belts?
In 1991, Mario, Glenn Kirk and B. Rigg coordinated the first SME symposium in Seoul Korea (27-May-1991 - 31-May-1991), where we all presented the projects we were coordinating in our sites. Mario could not attend the symposium because he took a leave of absence from Motorola. Just prior to the symposium, B. Rigg invited Mikel Harry, who had become Director of Six Sigma Research Institute to the symposium, to witness what we were doing and to present his approach. His approach made no sense to us. He did not even talked about characterising gauges prior to collecting data. Most of the stuff he presented we had been doing for years already, and it was a disaster. He then criticize everything we did and started bad mouthing Mario. Nothing positive came out of his mouth. It was very counterproductive. During his presentations we asked him tough questions and he could not answer. Months later we were told his PhD was in psychology and not in engineering. No wander he could not answer our questions.
Later on, Mikel Harry announces they are doing some publications with Motorola University and the Six Sigma Research Institute and we are asked to change our presentations to fit his format otherwise the projects would not be published. It bothered me, because they took out all references to M/PCpS, which is what started all the projects of improvement in the first place. But, they missed erasing one reference of M/PCpS, which is proof of my account.
At the end of the SME Symposium, we were all given the proceedings, a two-inch thick book with all the characterisation studies and improvement projects we presented. This is another proof (data) of my account.
Our entire efforts as SMEs, fell under the success story of the Six Sigma Research Institute and Mikel Harry, when in reality, Harry nor the Institute contributed in any way, shape or form to our success. Later, we were asked to go through the Black Belt training program and they taught stuff we already knew and gave us roles we already had.
I kept a few copies of the SME Symposium Proceedings. If anybody wants a copy send me your email address.
I know that in this forum a lot of posts are doubtful. I read the one Mario posted about the first company outside Motorola trained in Six Sigma. The company Carsem is here in Malaysia, and that is a true fact. I also liked the fact he included the names of the people as facts or data, so I will do the same here.
Some of the people attending the first SME Symposium in Motorola, Seoul, Korea in May 1991, were:
Glenn Kirk, Bryan Rigg, Adi Bhote, Vincent Tang, Todd Yang, J.J. Lin, Kevin Chiao, K.H. Tan, Baharom, C.C. Shue, Sahidin Kardi, S.J. Lim, Ronnie Manubay, Al Calicdan, Eduardo Bustamante, S.S. Kang, J.H. Suh, A.S. Suk, J.H. Choi, N.K. Seong, T.H. Jung, Y.D. Kang, K.W. You, Mikel Harry, Jim Robertson and Eric Maass.
The credit for Six Sigma should go to Mario and not to Harry. Mikel Harry just wrote articles and took all the credit of other people's work, only because he worked high up in the company and had the power to claim everything for himself. Mario is the guru who taught us his approach to Six Sigma, his methodology, his vision to the SME implementation and he wrote a book just to teach us.
On April 26, 2003, another person made similar allegations to SMEs being the first Black Belts, the post reference is: RE: Black Belt History by MMBB:
***DEAD LINK REMOVED***
I do not work for Mario or his firm. I am just tired of Richard Schroeder's offensive language and allegations "I trained everybody" and Mikel Harry's I invented everything related to Six Sigma. When we all know that both were so high up in their companies, probably all day long in meetings, while my colleagues and myself were doing the true black belt work."
