Many people today will tell you that "Six Sigma" and associated programs are the cat's meow in product quality. While I can use the tools well, I've got my doubts, as I'm using things my grandfather purchased, but throwing away quite a few things I purchased for myself. Seems to me that our grandfathers knew a bit about quality and reliability that we've forgotten today.
Perhaps a couple of stories might make clear what's going on.
First, the standard example of Six Sigma quality is the failure rate airlines have of getting you off the plane alive; about four per million, or 4.5 Sigma. Our grandfathers would have hesitated at such a bait & switch, don't you think? Something about the 9th Commandment being the real start to quality?
Next, a wonderful quality success story told me had to do with an eight factor (variable) designed experiment done to figure out what caused high failure rates in transmission chains. After a lot of wonderful quality work, they found out what any competent machinist could have told them; they were using the assembly tools long after they were worn out.
In other words, they ended up fixing a problem they'd likely caused by extending the replacement intervals to save money, and at a massive cost to the company. Somehow (9th Commandment again?), my instructor didn't see fit to share that side of the story.
Don't get me wrong; statistical methods have a lot to offer. However, my experience is that too often, they're used to replace the expertise of craftsmen and high quality materials with unskilled labor and plastics. If you wonder why you're making good use of a lot of product warranties, you might find that your difficulties ironically have a lot to do with the manufacturer's quality program.
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7 comments:
I don't quite get your first reference to the Ninth Commandment. My understanding is that no one holds out Six Sigma (little though I know about it) as perfection, bur rather something along the lines of "as close as we can get." And no one in his right mind is susceptible to believing that perfection is being claimed, such that undeceiving is necessarily called for to preserve integrity on the part of those claiming the Six Sigma standard. What am I missing?
Simple; the very name of the program is a lie. They call it Six Sigma, but their example of a Six Sigma process is only 4.5 Sigma.
Nobody outside of the Almighty has ever demonstrated a failure rate in the 1 part per billion range that would be an honest "Six Sigma" spec.
In the same way, a lot of "quality" work is actually devoted to making things cheaper, not better.
See what I'm getting at?
I am on the brink of getting involved in this "discipline" not by choice, but by compulsion (my employer), but what I have already figured out is that not everything can be subjected to a process evaluation....
Terry, they're generally great tools, but too often applied to override other areas of expertise. That's the main thing you've got to watch out for.
That said, if you're doing the HR side SS instead of the engineering side SS, I take back what I said about "great tools." The HR side just subverts logic.
BB, I think that your statement about our Almighty's failure rate needs some clarification in that He doesn't have one... ;^)
Zero is a failure rate below 1ppb, is it not? :^) Well said.
I am with you on this.
Six-sigma uses some excellent statistical tools, but makes for a lousy corporate religion and mantra. I agree with you on the 9th commandment and the supposedly observed 1.5 long term six sigma shift. I’d like to share my first experience of six-sigma which after years of subsequent experience still seems to encapsulate its practice in the modern workplace for me:-
I began training in six-sigma on my first day with a major company that also happened to be the world’s biggest manufacturer of light bulbs. Nine years ago they were still using OHP’s for the six-sigma training presentation.
The highly trained expert six-sigma “blackbelt” switched on the OHP. Nothing happened. The light bulb needed replacing. A call was made to the Stores department downstairs to see if they had a spare bulb. They didn’t. A major hardware store was about 500 yards down the road. Rather than use petty cash and go there they got someone to drive over with another OHP from the neighbouring facility, a 40 mile round trip and toll-booth away.
Towards lunchtime someone arrived from Stores in the other facility and delivered the OHP to the training room. On his way out he said “I don’t know why you want it though, it’s got no bulb”.
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