Why Lean &

Six Sigma Fail

Matt Rigerman

Director – Operations & Quality

Reichert, Inc.
Overview for the night
“Why Lean & Six Sigma Fail”

For many companies that start down the path of

implementing the Continuous Improvement tools of Lean
powered with Six Sigma, early wins and great intentions
are not enough to sustain the program.

Far too often, these tools for improvement are left by the
wayside only to become the famous “jargon” or “flavor of
the month” that lead to failure.

The material presented during this dinner meeting will

focus on common pitfalls many organizations see during
implementation of Lean Six Sigma and learn some key
ways to sustain the movement.

As we will learn, Lean Six Sigma is not a sprint but a

marathon, requiring management support and full
organizational buy-in. Presentation content
provided by Thom Marra
and Matt Rigerman
 Lean Background
Began as Lean Manufacturing:
Also known as the Toyota Production System
In its most basic form, the systematic elimination of waste (muda)
Implementing the concepts of flow and pull into production
systems

Benefits of lean production systems can include as high as 50% lower production
costs, 50% less personnel, 50% less time to field new products, higher quality, and
higher profitability.

Lean Enterprise “Tools”:

5 S’s, Visual Workplace
Waste Elimination

Continuous, One-Piece Workflow
Quick Changeover

Customer Pull, Kanban
Kaizen

Mistake Proofing
 Traditional vs. Lean:

Traditional Enterprise Lean Enterprise

Infrequent set-ups  Quick set-ups

Long runs  Short runs

Functional focus  Product focus

If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it  Fix it so it doesn’t break

Specialized workers,  Flexible – skilled
engineers and leaders employees

Good enough to meet  Never “good enough,”
requirements continuous improvement

Run it, repair it  Do it right the first time

Layoff  New opportunities

Management directs  Leaders teach

Penalize mistakes  Re-train

Make the schedule  Make quality
What does it take to be ‘Lean?’
 Six Sigma Background

Origins of Six Sigma:

Started at Motorola

Set of tools to solve complex problems

Focused on MSE, Defect Reduction, Variation Reduction

 Six Sigma Background

Origins of Six Sigma:

Focused Problem Solving Methodology – DMAIC

Management Methodology - DMAIC

 Relationship Lean & Six Sigma

Comparable goals
• Reduce cost and waste
• Add value to bottom line
• Satisfy the customer
• Reduce defects and errors
Critical involvement at all levels
• Management commitment, supports effort
• Technical expertise involved
• Predominantly team-based
Similar/common methods
• Process maps (value stream mapping)
• Evaluate current processes
• Benchmark/consider alternatives
• Develop alternatives
• Implement and evaluate effects
• Review and improve
Lean Pitfalls

Oversimplifies complex processes

Has no tools for defect detection and elimination

Speeding up a process without reducing the
defects does not improve the process

Speeding up one part of the process without
looking at the rest of the process can result in
failure of the entire system

Example:

Non-Conforming Material Process
Non-Conforming Material
Non-Conforming Material
Six Sigma Pitfalls

Management

Lack of executive management
support and direction

Six Sigma Black Belts / Green Belts
maintain their current jobs with added
project work (e.g. two systems)

Lack of process owner support

Every improvement effort treated as a
Six Sigma project
Six Sigma Pitfalls

Projects

Lack of a deployment strategy

Project selection is not driven by
corporate strategies and therefore
lacks full management support

Teams and duration of projects are too
large and long respectively

Scope creep
Six Sigma Pitfalls

Training, teams and culture

Lack or insufficient training

Wrong tool selection / incorrect data
analysis (normal v non-normal)

Incorrect measurement

Inappropriate selection of team
members

Teams don’t meet frequent enough

Strong cultural bias against
improvement
Is this data NORMAL?

Data Set 1
Anderson-Darling Normality Test
A-Squared 1.44
P-Value <0.005
Mean 6.9918
StDev 0.5226
Variance 0.2731
Skewness 0.207860
Kurtosis -0.221422
N 538
Minimum 5.7000
1st Quartile 6.6000
Median 7.0000
3rd Quartile 7.3000
Maximum 8.4000
95% Confidence Interval for Mean
6.0 6.4 6.8 7.2 7.6 8.0 8.4
6.9476 7.0361
95% Confidence Interval for Median
6.9000 7.0000
95% Confidence Interval for StDev
0.4931 0.5559

95% Confidence Intervals

Mean

Median

6.900 6.925 6.950 6.975 7.000 7.025 7.050

Graph by Matt Rigerman

2 Sample T-Test vs Test of Variance
2 Sample T Test
9.0
T-Test of difference = 0 (vs ≠):
8.5 T-Value = -2.35
P-Value = 0.019
8.0
DF = 1073
7.5
Data

7.0

6.5

6.0

1 2

Graph by Matt Rigerman

So how do we Sustain?

Gain Top Management Support

Start Small – build upon success

Management Review process -
Report regularly at all levels of the
organization
So how do we Sustain?

Engage outside help to start, sustain

/ build from within

Benchmark other companies or
internal businesses

Make part of the daily rhythm of the
organization
MDI
Manage for Daily Improvement

Daily stand up meetings across the

entire organization

Increases cross-functional and vertical
levels of communication

Engages all members of the
organization

Platform for Visual Management

Ties in Lean Six Sigma efforts
Why Implement MDI?

Linkages

Provides clarity of goals and objectives

Cascades key performance measurements

Links activities at all levels of the organization

Communication

Promotes daily 2-way communication

Enables real-time visibility of performance

Continuous Improvement

Encourages problem-solving in the moment

Focusses on improving performance every day

22
MDI Tiered Structure

Tier 3 Site Wide

Tier 2 Cross Functional Report

Outs

Tier 1 Cell Cell Cell Cell Cell Cell

MDI Process

Culture

View problems as opportunities

Employees are accountable for their tier level performance

Drive problem solving to the lowest level (challenge what gets
escalated)

Communication flows up and down the tiers

Leaders coach appropriately

Employee development
MDI Process

Meetings

Stand-up format

Located at the MDI Tier Board

Daily, always at the same time

Brief (15 minute max)

Defined agenda and participants

Content is updated prior to the meeting

Come prepared and start on time
MDI – Getting Started

Determine tier structure

Just start - don’t spend days or weeks
trying to get it right the first time

Design with the intent to change

The tier process will evolve over time

“Good, better, best. Never let it rest. 'Til your good is

better and your better is best.”
Wrapping it Up

Lean Six Sigma can yield

tremendous benefits

There are pitfalls that can be
avoided

Utilize the MDI Process - visual
management and continuous
improvement