Lean Six Sigma – Top 10 Criticisms

Lean Six Sigma is often criticized. Good management is about making choices, so a decision not to do something should be analyzed as closely as a decision to do something. When considering the decision to invest in Lean Six Sigma training, a sponsoring organization needs to overcome the following;

Top 10 Criticisms

1) We don’t manufacture anything!

2) Isn’t this another “flavor of the month” business initiative?

3) We’ve already done this!

4) We’re different!

5) We’re too busy!

6) We don’t have the money!!!!!

7) We don’t have processes!

8) It’ll never work here, these terms Green Belt and Yellow Belt.

9) Our processes only happen “on demand”

10) We’re not broke; we don’t need fixing!!!!

Lean Six Sigma is NOT…

Another management program …… It is about learning and implementing the methodology and skills to address and correct problems.

A justification for buying new equipment, spending more money, or hiring/firing people ……. It does require supervisors, managers and leaders to make good decisions.

A substitute for good leadership ……. It is a low-cost approach to identify and implement appropriate changes to meet specific goals.

A one size fits all solution ……… It is a scalable colloborative process to capture, prioritize and address all concerns of customers, suppliers and stakeholders.

To conclude, Lean Six Sigma is not just a set of tools and techniques, more than anything it’s a mindset and an attitude which requires top down leadership and visible support as a matter of course. Until this critical success factor is realized most efforts will be limited to ad-hoc improvements  and fail to realize the benefits initially envisaged.

The following quote captures this point succinctly.

“Faced with the choice between changing one’s mind and proving that there is no need to do so, almost everyone gets busy on the proof”.

~John Kenneth Galbraith