Chapters authored
Services Six Sigma: Knowing the Debates and Failure Modes to Drive Better
The challenges in lean Six Sigma implementation start from terminology to applicability to actual application and finally in terms of experiencing the change. Six Sigma projects are being used as an event response antidote rather than as a culture in organizations. Could there be a debate on your “X sigma” versus my “Y sigma”? Should lean practice be the front end or the back end or somewhere in the middle embedded in the Breakthrough Strategy has been a matter of debate among practitioners for many years now. Ego centric debates, a reason to justify failures, a failure to identify the purpose are contributors to the dilemma. Historically, the genesis of Six Sigma carries a setting of manufacturing yards, so should that be a reason to brand it as unsuitable for services, or is there a need to “dilute” the rigor in methodology or search for alternative techniques to facilitate application in a pure services context? Now, in an era of Industry 4.0 and Big Data Analytics, does Six Sigma continue to have a relevance? Should machine learning algorithms remain in the ever evolving list of tools and techniques within the Six Sigma book of knowledge? This chapter aims to address the above questions and more number of questions that we experience on a day-to-day basis in Six Sigma applications in the real world.
Part of the book: Lean Manufacturing and Six Sigma
Analysis, an Anathema: Is That a Fervent Diatribe of Lean?
Should there be an understanding that rigor in analysis must be out-of-bounds for Lean initiatives? Will this rigor not facilitate a benchmarking of Lean initiatives? Why not a Lean initiative cause-consequence assessment not performed for building future fault tolerance? The effectiveness of a company’s strategy is critical to its success or failure. Lean strategy seems to be claimed as a widely recognized factor for business success and competitive advantage. However, empirical evidences do not promote the idea that Lean has delivered results every time. Study results indicate that success or failure of lean initiatives strongly depends on how companies approach it and on whether company has created their own curated philosophy towards Lean. Then, success is not dependent alone on a strategy, but on how daily operations are aligned to strategy. This chapter aims to address the above questions and a greater number of questions that we experience on a day-to-day basis with regard to Lean applications in the real world. Chapter Learning Objectives: Understanding Lean, Lean failure modes, and Lean initiative precautions.
Part of the book: Lean Manufacturing