Deploying Six Sigma to an Enterprise

Deploying Six Sigma management to an entire company can be daunting. You need to change how people work at every level of the company.

We’ve seen examples of successful Lean Six Sigma applications in areas as diverse as fixing our public schools to product ownership to tech support.

But how do you start the movement toward enterprise deployment?

As you can imagine, this comes with several challenges. You’ll also need to consider a few questions before you even begin.

Is Six Sigma right for your organization?

This first question is one that a lot of companies skip. However, it’s vitally important that you answer it before going further. Will Six Sigma add value to your enterprise?

To test it, look at these criteria for a successful Six Sigma deployment:

• You want to improve your processes. (ex, Quality, speed, consistency, profitability, etc.)
• Decreasing variation in your output would improve your results.
• You have a consistent process (or set of processes) and you are prepared to map your processes to better understand them.
• Your staff is willing to take ownership of change management.
• You’re willing to empower your staff to manage change.
• Your organization can commit to full implementation of Six Sigma management.

If this sounds like your organization, you’re on your way.

How to Start a Lean Six Sigma Program in Your Organization

The answer is highly contextual based on leadership buy-in and in-house experience. However, I find it best to gain momentum by identifying one key organizational goal and creating a single project that can deliver value quickly in that space.

You can do this by clearly examining strategic organizational goals and picking the most critical problems that need to be solved. This is often done via an organizational dashboard, flywheel, or as a result of a Hoshin Kanri exercise.

Obstacles to Deploying Six Sigma

Organization Structure

• Flat organization: In a flat organization, decisions are made by people lower down the chain, leading to inconsistent choices. It depends on who’s making the call at that moment. Because there aren’t many levels of decision-making, losing key people can impact the organization’s performance.
• Vertical Organization: In a vertical organization, the individuals at the bottom have their decisions checked by the higher managers. This slows down communication. When more people are brought in to help with decisions, it adds extra layers of bosses or leaders, making things move slower. This kind of organization can get too bogged down in rules and processes.
• Functional vs. Process-Oriented Structure: Six Sigma is inherently process-oriented. Organizations with a functional structure may struggle with cross-functional collaboration, a key requirement for successful Six Sigma projects. Process-oriented structures align more naturally with the principles of Six Sigma by breaking down silos and promoting collaboration across departments.
• Team-based organization: In a team-based organization, picking an individual for a team setup is harder and needs more careful checking. The managers spend a lot of time helping and training the employees. Everyone in management, especially the middle managers or leaders, faces some risks. If some of these individuals leave, it would mean a tremendous loss of job knowledge and expertise.

Organization Culture

• Organizations with a customer-centric culture are more likely to see the value in Six Sigma projects as they align to deliver high-quality products or services to customers.
• Six Sigma is fundamentally about continuous improvement. An organizational culture that encourages and rewards continuous improvement efforts aligns well with Six Sigma goals.
• A culture that values and encourages data-driven decision-making is more likely to embrace Six Sigma principles.
• Six Sigma projects often require employees’ active involvement and participation at all levels. Employee innovation and collaboration are more conducive to successful Six Sigma implementation.

Common causes of Six Sigma failures

• Lack of Leadership Management Support: If top-level executives are not fully committed to the Six Sigma initiative, it is likely to fail. Successful implementation requires visible support from leadership.
• Project Selection: Choosing manageable projects that align with strategic goals is essential. Selecting projects that are too complex, lack data, or are beyond the organization’s current capabilities can result in project failure.
• Lack of Training: Insufficient training in Six Sigma methodologies and tools can lead to project failure and increased cost (this is very similar to the concept of Cost of Poor Quality.)
• Insufficient Resources: Six Sigma projects often require resources for skilled personnel, training, data collection, analysis tools, and process improvement implementation. A lack of an adequate budget can hinder the success of projects.
• Organizational Culture: A culture resistant to change can be a significant barrier. Employees may resist adopting new methodologies, leading to a lack of cooperation and enthusiasm for Six Sigma initiatives.
• Inappropriate Metrics: Using the wrong or ineffective metrics can lead to the project’s failure. It’s essential to select metrics that accurately reflect process performance and align with customer expectations.
• Lack of Communication: Failure to communicate the benefits of Six Sigma to employees and stakeholders can result in resistance to implementation. Clear and transparent communication is crucial to overcoming resistance.
• Six Sigma Culture: Successful Six Sigma implementation requires a cultural shift toward continuous improvement. The impact may be short-lived if the organization fails to embed Six Sigma principles in its day-to-day operations.

Deploying Six Sigma with other methodologies

While many businesses deploy only Six Sigma, others find that a combination works better. The methodology most commonly combined with Six Sigma these days is Lean.

Lean methodology focuses on just-in-time processing. You add resources to a project as they’re needed, not before. In a manufacturing context, this might involve having materials delivered just before you start to fabricate an item. In the world of IT, it might require scaling system processing as demand increases – not before. Using Lean methodology helps to cut waste and increase efficiency and is a natural partner for Six Sigma, where we seek to reduce variation and increase effectiveness.

Prepare for your deployment

You’ve decided that Six Sigma is right for your organization. You’ve decided on other methodologies to use with it. Next, you need to prepare for deploying Six Sigma in your business.

Get buy-in from key players

Cooperation from people who hold power in your business can make all the difference.

Find your methodology coach

This needs to be someone who understands the methodology (or methodologies) you’re using. They also need experience in helping organizations to transition to these methodologies. This person might be a current employee or an external consultant. Depending on the size of your deployment, finding additional change agents will be key.

All projects or phased?

Will you implement Six Sigma across the board? Will you limit it to a single department or project? Typically, Six Sigma deployments work best when applied across an entire organization.

However, you might be running several projects concurrently, and using Six Sigma for a new project may work better than changing the methodology of all partway through.

Additionally, running Six Sigma projects is a skill that can be improved over time. Thus a phased approach – where you start small with a single Six Sigma project to learn and improve before extending throughout a portfolio – can help organizational success.

Identify your first project

This will typically involve key processes that are heavily impacting your bottom line. If you’ve decided on a phased approach, you want easy wins that will deliver impressive results. Why? Because early success will improve commitment across the organization.

Set expectations early. Ensure that your first project is clearly defined in its aims. Scope creep is the scourge of many new implementations.

However, your organization identifies and decomposes its chief strategic goals into tactical projects, ensuring that the first-wave projects are aligned with those necessary outcomes. Six Sigma has many techniques for this, but I recommend launching an inaugural DMAIC project with real strategic business value for your organization.

First-wave projects MUST generate results, or your program may be in trouble. Choose projects that strongly fit the core concepts that Six Sigma is well-suited for addressing.

I would further recommend that the project be time-boxed into 30, 60, and 90-day tollgates with the expectation of delivering value at the end of that time.

Educate your staff

Everyone needs at least a basic understanding of the changes and their purpose. The employees involved in the first project need more than that. They need to completely understand how their work will change and how this will benefit them. This is your opportunity to create change advocates: people who have experienced your new methodology and encourage others to give it a go.

Also, beware that the first wave of projects is when resistance to new ideas and organizational change will begin. Education and communication are key here.

Listen to your staff

Your employees will almost certainly be anxious or concerned about the changes. This is natural. Ignoring those concerns won’t make them go away. And there’s always a chance that some of them identify valid roadblocks you need to know about. It will also help you to reassure your staff about the methodology, increasing buy-in.

Plan the deployment

Before deploying Six Sigma, you need to plan how you’ll do it. Make sure you have a firm plan of action. This should include your deployment model.

If you’re doing a phased release, include:

• Who and what will be involved in the first phase.
• How you’ll enlarge it to the entire organization.
• What your schedule is for the full deployment.

If you’re doing a whole organization deployment, include:

• Your schedule for the deployment.
• How you’ll switch each project or department to Six Sigma.

Begin your deployment

You’ll be ready to begin your Six Sigma deployment once you’ve:

• Gathered support from people on all seniority levels in your company.
• Engaged your Six Sigma coach.
• Identified and scoped out your first project.

Next, you need to go through the stages of the DMAIC process:

• Define the current situation.
• Measure to gather baseline metrics.
• Analyze to identify core problems.
• Improve the situation.
• Control the results in the long term.

Key points to keep in mind

Commitment is key

A half-hearted conversion to Six Sigma will have issues from day one. Use education and communication to ensure that key stakeholders are on board. And don’t forget the lower level staff. They’ll be working under the new framework. If they understand and trust it, your deployment will be stronger.

You do you, not someone else

You need to work with your organization’s goals and strengths when deploying Six Sigma. It can be tempting to simply copy another company’s successful deployment. However, when you do this, you lose one of the key strengths of Six Sigma – empowering your business to work better in its own ways.

Change is scary

People don’t like change, generally speaking. Help them along by becoming an effective change agent.

Pitfalls to Avoid in Implementing Six Sigma

Managing products and services

It’s easy to fall into familiar patterns and focus on the output. However, Six Sigma is about your processes. Improve those, and the output naturally improves. Don’t get caught up in the output.

Focusing on tactics

While tactical choices are important later on, your first projects are about simple improvements. Focus on getting the methodology correct. DMAIC. Don’t over-complicate.

Misrepresenting Six Sigma

You might find it tempting to offer shorthand explanations of Six Sigma. For example, it’s a ‘quality program’. Don’t do it. Quick explanations might be easier, but they can lead to a lot of confusion and chaos down the track.

Saving money only

While decreasing defects in a process usually will save money, a Six Sigma project shouldn’t only be about decreasing costs. After all, there are a lot of short-term cost-cutting measures available, and a lot of them will lead to long-term quality issues.

Skimping on your coaches

When deploying Six Sigma, it’s important to have experts involved. Many companies flirt with the idea of having a Six Sigma coach who also has a couple of other jobs. This doesn’t tend to work out well. Typically, your black belt should focus on Six Sigma as a full-time job. If you also have a green belt, this can be a part-time position.

A narrow focus

If you’re spending a lot of time looking at a single process, you might be missing the bigger picture. For example, say a department optimizes a manufacturing process and increases output. But nothing around that process – for example, marketing or sales – has been modified to allow for increased output. Now the company is dealing with surplus inventory. Ensure that you keep your projects in the context of the organization as a whole.

Key Success Factors in Deploying Six Sigma

When deploying Six Sigma in an enterprise, there are also a lot of things that you can do right that contribute to a successful release. Here’s a brief summary of the key factors; for more information, see Critical Success Factors for Six Sigma.

• Focus
• Relevance
• Commitment
• Buy-in
• Consistency
• Fact-based decisions
• Manager involvement
• Early success
• Bottom-up communication
• Progress reviews
• Countering resistance