SIX SIGMA: A Review...
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There are some books that you love and there are some books that you absolutely hate. "Beyond Six Sigma" is the one that I love.
Having watched so many organizations adopt Six Sigma as the solution to all of their problems, I absolutely love the pronouncements, Six Sigma as currently defined has limited ability to improve a companys position in its customer-driven demand chain. And, Whereas Six Sigma tools are used with an idea of achieving Six Sigma accuracy (99.99%), the reality of the customer interaction does not allow for that level of accuracy. If you let the philosophy of no errors into the realm of customers, then no customer-related decision will ever be made.
I love the ground work that is laid by the authors in explaining that Six Sigma is about controlling an internal process and thereby improving product quality and in turn costs. I love the recognition that Six Sigma is a tool for controlling internal, mechanical processes. I love that the authors recognize that, Continuous cost improvement and enhanced efficiencies are not the formula for long-term profitable growth." Growth comes from the external. Growth comes from the interaction of people and people dont always act in a reliable, statistically predictable fashion.
I love that a book with Six Sigma in the title has a chapter about The Outside-In Perspective that includes the statement, too often companies do not spend enough time thinking about business decisions from a perspective other than their own. The authors then jumped from the statistical Six Sigma process to LEAN without explaining the difference to the reader. The part I loved here was the idea of creating a LEAN value chain but in reverse. In other words, building what the authors call a demand chain from the perspective of the customer rather than a supply chain from the perspective of the manufacturer. This to me is the gold nugget in this book. Everything else is downhill from here.
The authors then proceed to tell us that we need to apply the same disciplined approach used in Six Sigma to our marketing. They go into detail about the process they suggest followed with, Conducting detailed Demand Chain Economics and Customer Economics analysis requires countless hours of research, data collection and customer interactions. Ultimately, this work must be completed on all major value chains that a company participates in, but the operational reality is that most companies will not have the available resources, access to customers, breadth, or market research capability to assess multiple demand chains simultaneously. I really appreciate their emphasis on the customer perspective, especially the end customer perspective.
Finally, I recommend this book because it is concise and to-the-point. I feel that the fluff and/or Machiavellian advice in many of the other books just feed into people's healthy skepticism and distract people from the beauty of Six Sigma: the challenge to strive for near-perfect quality and the sanction to use statistics to cut through the inertia in our work lives.
Having watched so many organizations adopt Six Sigma as the solution to all of their problems, I absolutely love the pronouncements, Six Sigma as currently defined has limited ability to improve a companys position in its customer-driven demand chain. And, Whereas Six Sigma tools are used with an idea of achieving Six Sigma accuracy (99.99%), the reality of the customer interaction does not allow for that level of accuracy. If you let the philosophy of no errors into the realm of customers, then no customer-related decision will ever be made.
I love the ground work that is laid by the authors in explaining that Six Sigma is about controlling an internal process and thereby improving product quality and in turn costs. I love the recognition that Six Sigma is a tool for controlling internal, mechanical processes. I love that the authors recognize that, Continuous cost improvement and enhanced efficiencies are not the formula for long-term profitable growth." Growth comes from the external. Growth comes from the interaction of people and people dont always act in a reliable, statistically predictable fashion.
I love that a book with Six Sigma in the title has a chapter about The Outside-In Perspective that includes the statement, too often companies do not spend enough time thinking about business decisions from a perspective other than their own. The authors then jumped from the statistical Six Sigma process to LEAN without explaining the difference to the reader. The part I loved here was the idea of creating a LEAN value chain but in reverse. In other words, building what the authors call a demand chain from the perspective of the customer rather than a supply chain from the perspective of the manufacturer. This to me is the gold nugget in this book. Everything else is downhill from here.
The authors then proceed to tell us that we need to apply the same disciplined approach used in Six Sigma to our marketing. They go into detail about the process they suggest followed with, Conducting detailed Demand Chain Economics and Customer Economics analysis requires countless hours of research, data collection and customer interactions. Ultimately, this work must be completed on all major value chains that a company participates in, but the operational reality is that most companies will not have the available resources, access to customers, breadth, or market research capability to assess multiple demand chains simultaneously. I really appreciate their emphasis on the customer perspective, especially the end customer perspective.
Finally, I recommend this book because it is concise and to-the-point. I feel that the fluff and/or Machiavellian advice in many of the other books just feed into people's healthy skepticism and distract people from the beauty of Six Sigma: the challenge to strive for near-perfect quality and the sanction to use statistics to cut through the inertia in our work lives.
26 Mar 2007 02:19
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