Practical Process Improvement: Is Doesn’t Have to Be a Manhattan Project

Many years ago when I worked for a Fortune 500 publishing company, I got into a six sigma discussion with one of our contractors.  His firm was much smaller and this individual had a few decades of ‘in the trenches’ experience in operations.  The conversation continued until one point where he said six sigma is a good idea but like too many other initiatives he had been through, we would turn it  into another ‘Manhattan Project’ which wasn’t necessary for the situation.

After many years’ experience, I tend agree with his assessment at times.  There’s an old saying that when you give someone a hammer, everything looks like a nail.  Many of us trained and experienced with the application of six sigma take the same approach as someone with that hammer.  We treat every process improvement opportunity as a situation which requires a full blown six sigma project with complete treatment of DMAIC.  That isn’t always necessary.

A situational, scaled approach is better.  Long before six sigma, quality professional used the Shewhart/Deming ‘Plan/Do/Check (or Study)/Act’ improvement cycle approach to problem solving.  You remember that don’t you?  Baseline performance at the plan step and test those ideas at the do step.  At the check step, compare performance before and after, then if successful, act to standardize performance.  Deceptively simple but from my experience very effective.

Six Sigma’s DMAIC framework is appropriate for many process improvement projects but not all.  A more basic approach can do wonders in the right circumstances.  Remember you don’t have to take a bazooka to an anthill.