http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/09_38/b4147064137002.htm?chan=rss_topDiscussed_ssi_5

Dear All,

This article in Business week says "Six Sigma makes a comeback" I don't agree with this theory of comeback. It did not go anywhere. What are your views?

Regards,

VK

In one form or the other, the principles of Six Sigma have been employed by most of the organizations... Incidentally, the only company that has retained its position consistently on the Du-Pont index is GE which has made six sigma a part of everything they do... Call it anything, Six Sigma has always been around and is here to stay!!

From a bird's eye view, Six Sigma is a collection of the best standards, best problem solving approaches from across the world, across industries. The names by which they were called could be different, but ultimately, these concepts were used and will be used in the years to come.

Six Sigma is there to stay!!

Because it is not just a methodology, it has become an integral part of all the processes in an organisation.

You name an organisation, they might not be quoting Six Sigma directly as one of their areas, but indirectly they use it in one of following areas :

1. Process improvement
2. Data Driven Decision making or
3. Problem Saving

So, In my opinion, six sigma has always been there, as it fits well in almost all the functional areas.

This article was posted on 10th September 2009. I think it was the same period where whole quality world started looking at Lean + Six Sigma combination.

 

I felt this article focused on how industries were looking at quick returns from Six Sigma. This thought was a trigger for combining Lean principles with Six Sigma tools. As mentioned in the article, most of the organizations were looking for benefits within 3 months from the time of project initiation. As six Sigma need to be stabilized data to study and proper implementation of the tools & techniques, it is not always possible to get benefits within 3 months. Though organizations were expecting the quick benefits, they were not ready to move out of the SS for that.

 

Lean can give quick returns based on VA & NVA analysis in the process, what if Lean and SS works together...?

Organizations can start realizing the benefits within a short frame of time by converting process NVAs and at the same time, they can continue with SS to re-engineer and sustain the benefits for a long time. On the face of it, the article is looking like it is focused on re-entry of SS, but in my view, it is focused on changes in SS.

It has been pointed out correctly by my friends above, that Six Sigma is applicable almost everywhere and it has always yielded results. Six Sigma is no longer a domain/sector specific approach, whereas it is a structured approach for process improvements, problem-solving and data have driven decision making. We have huge databases available in all the domains and it is very important to have a proper analysis of the data. Data does speak a lot, but not on its own! We need to make the data speak and it can do wonders!

 

In my opinion, Six Sigma is being applied in all the domains, it is just that people are not accepting it as Six Sigma.

I am sure that in the times to come, Six Sigma would be accepted in all the domains and all the sectors.