Top 10 Lies Six Sigma Consultants Tell You

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Jay Arthur
888-468-1537
303-756-9144
KnowWare International, Inc.
DBA LifeStar
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Denver, CO 80224

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1. Culture change takes massive effort. Nonsense! Culture change is easy when you give employees what they need to do a better job and don't waste their time. By working on the top 4% of your business problems, then the next, and the next, your ongoing success will convert the rest of the organization to Six Sigma. You will maximize your benefits and minimize your costs. Remember the dark side of the 80/20 rule: 80% of your business will produce only 20% of the benefit. Don't waste your time!
2. You need blackbelts. Nonsense! Most successful companies hover around 3-3.5 sigma (1-6% defects,10-60,000 defects/million). I have found that you can get to 5 sigma (233 defects/million) with plain old root cause analysis. That means you need a few capable greenbelts. Meanwhile you'll save a ton of money and add it to the bottom line. When you get to 5 sigma, you'll have the money, time and desire to train blackbelts to take you to the next level.
3. You need greenbelts. Nonsense! You need people who can help you successfully start making dramatic improvements in your business. If you tried TQM, you may already have the expertise you need right in your organization. Or you might hire someone who has a proven track record of making dramatic improvements. Once you start making progress, you'll discover the employees who are adept at employing Six Sigma processes and delivering results. These are your greenbelts and future blackbelts.
4. You have to train everyone. Nonsense! You don't want training, you want what you hope training will do for you. Less than 4% of your business creates over 50% of the waste, rework, and cost (the 4-50 rule). Never commit more than that 4% of your people to eliminating those costs. Besides, restricting participation helps build desire among the rest of the work force.
5. It takes days or even weeks to train team members. Nonsense! No one has time to spend eons in training anymore. Using Just-in-Time training, you can train team members in as little as two hours and throw them right into root cause analysis with a skilled facilitator. They will learn more from a timely introduction and 4-8 hours of real experienceThe secret to instant training is in the Six Sigma Instructor's Guide.
6. Teams can figure out what to work on. Nonsense! As a leader, you wouldn't let teams define their own work projects, so why would you delegate focusing the improvement effort? Besides, I have found that if leadership, assisted by a experienced professional, can't narrow the focus to the 4% of your business that causes most of your problems, your teams can't do it either. Don't waste their time! Every Six Sigma project should deliver $250,000 in savings that fall straight to the bottom line.
7. Setting big goals may prevent the success of Six Sigma. Nonsense! Set BHAGs-Big Hairy Audacious Goals-like 50% reductions in cycle time, defects, or cost. Big challenges make you focus in a big way. In my experience, teams often meet or exceed these goals.
8. Solving problems takes time. Nonsense! You want results! Properly focused by trends and pareto charts developed by leadership, a facilitated team can identify the real root causes of key problems in anywhere from 4-8 hours. Not weeks, months or years.
9. Teams can implement their solutions. Nonsense! Robust solutions often cross organizational boundaries. Leadership needs to manage the implementation of identified improvements. It may take time and money to make all of the changes in people, process, and technology required to maximize your benefit. The implementation team may involve members of the root cause team, but don't get the two teams confused.
10. Six Sigma is totally new! Nonsense! Six Sigma is "TQM reborn" with a focus on radical defect reduction, results, and return on investment. They changed the names to confuse the unwary. PDCA became DMAIC. Don't be fooled by changes in labels. If you failed at TQM, it's probably because you followed similar advice the last time around. It's not the tools or process of Six Sigma, it's how you implement it that counts. So start by leveraging what you already know and applying it with ruthless focus to drive big benefits in your company. Don't wait; start today. Download our FREE starter kit and get going.

Reader Comment

I am the president of a firm consulting firm that helps companies with Six Sigma and other forms of organizational improvement and we also have some Six Sigma centric software products. We are looking into buying your Macros and came across the ten lies. I feel compelled to comment. You are in many ways right on the money. I appreciate your willingness to post such comments. I am a former TQM person and have seen most of what there is to offer in the Quality realm. It makes me nuts how companies feel they must spend millions on training Black Belts to improve their situation. I see it all the time. This self promoting nature of Six Sigma professionals is pure hypocrisy and may ultimately be the downfall. After all, how many companies are going to waste millions on training with no results even though it is the fault of the leadership for thinking that Six Sigma training is all they need, they will blame it on Six Sigma.

Good job.

Greg Sieber
6 Sigma Technology Group