Who hasn’t initiated a Six Sigma program to improve performance and bottom line results? It’s not uncommon to find companies where literally every employee is trained to some belt color and a dozen projects are always underway.  Yet just when DMAIC (Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, Control) is viewed as the “silver bullet”, we find rapidly increasing and more strongly worded discontent not only with the programs but with Six Sigma itself.  What’s happening in your company? If your program isn’t delivering promised results, take a look at the people, projects and profit. Minor program adjustment may be all that’s required to realize investment return. 

Successful Six Sigma programs are the result of executive leadership. Without leadership, there will be no effective followership. A Six Sigma program is a change initiative and must be legitimized, supported, and actively overseen from the top down. Likewise, each successful project demands the effective engagement of management sponsors, team leaders, and team members. Each role carries very different responsibilities. Individuals selected must be the right fit, properly trained in that role – not just in a belt – and appropriately empowered to carry out those responsibilities. And each project team must truly function as an effective team. Team members must decide who they are, why they’re there, what they’re doing, and how they’ll do it. Slogans, banners, logos, press releases, T-shirts, certificates, and more meetings don’t cut it. Otherwise, you’re probably just building resumes.

The heart and soul of Six Sigma is the project: a temporary framework of interrelated resources managed so as to develop and deliver a unique result. The program involves actively managing a portfolio of projects. Your methods and tools must effectively screen, select and prioritize each project. It’s not uncommon to find just about any business task reformulated as a Six Sigma project. Having a great “hammer” doesn’t make everything else a nail. Six Sigma tools are designed to reduce variation in the performance of your process. Your process – whether you have characterized it or not – is comprised of the methods and tools, and the skills of those who use them, to do useful work and satisfy a customer. Obviously if you don’t have well-defined processes, or they aren’t consistently implemented, process performance variation – were you able to measure it at all – couldn’t possibly be reduced.  Six Sigma projects are by nature quantitative. The right kind of data must be high-quality, verifiable, repeatable measures, generally expressed in defects per opportunity. The right projects employ the right data to produce a useful result.

Six Sigma is an investment; shareholders expect a sizeable return. Yet companies still buy training, do projects, and then leave all their change on the table. Of course, miracles do happen. But closing a project without enacting the change and verifying the intended outcome is achieved invites disaster. Outcomes should solve the problem, the whole problem and nothing but the problem. Process changes must be effectively piloted, deployed and transitioned into use. Sound business cases tied to the program goals, portfolio priorities, project criteria, the critical process under investigation, the specific variation being reduced, and the measured resulting business improvement should help you ensure continued profitability.