Re: Six Sigma & Deming Philosophies!

[John <jsdwd@ispwest.com>]

On 11/18/03 10:38 PM, "ralferr@lycos.com" <ralferr@lycos.com> wrote:

> I’d like to make a few comments based on my experience with Six Sigma since
> ’95.

Reduction of variation will reduce costs whether you call it six sigma or
not.  Picking projects because they can be tied to a cost reduction is
backwards.  It 'justifies' the project based on predicted cost reduction and
many of the biggest opportunities are not even thought of as problems.
Moreover, what is the basis of this prediction?

Cross departmental teams have been advocated long before six sigma as have
the use of mentors and change agents.  In my consulting with clients back in
the early 80s I was using these ideas in my 'implementation' models.  Indeed
Peter Scholtes and I put together a conference that ran successfully for
several years based precisely on those themes (conference was called Teaming
for Quality).  All of this pre-dated six sigma.

My purpose is here is not to say those are bad ideas.  They're not.  My
question is that other than some very sketchy statistics (1.5 sigma shift
comes to mind), what has six sigma added and what's all the noise about?

It certainly has been well promoted by Welch and others, but I suspect it's
lots of sizzle with not a whole lot of steak...

John Dowd
jsdwd@ispwest.com