RE: Terez on Sloganeering and again Six Sogma

["Bill Woodall" <bwoodall@vt.edu>]

Has Six Sigma been a failure?  A recent article in Quality Progress points
out that it has been around for nearly a decade, whereas most management
fads last five years on average. Interest still seems high with, for
example, more books being published on the topic now than five years ago.

Process thinking is a key aspect of Six-Sigma.  In "Leading Six Sigma" by
Ron Snee and Roger Hoerl (p. 7), the authors list process thinking as the
"first key method" of Six Sigma.  The SIPOC model
(supplier/input/process/output/customer) 
is used in every project.  This seems like systems thinking to me.

Again, I don't understand the negative attitude toward Six-Sigma within the
DEN.  Any program can be abused, but I think Six-Sigma provides a great
opportunity to implement many of Deming's ideas.  Wishing it to fail because
Deming didn't start it or endorse it seems like a bad idea to me.  What will
ever be a better opportunity? 

(I teach a Six Sigma course, but have no financial ties in it.  Again, other
than the Six-Sigma metric, which is nonesential, I see no conflicts with
Deming's fourteen points.)   

Bill Woodall 


Department of Statistics
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