"Ensuring Optimal Success With Six Sigma Implementations"

George Byrne

Journal of Organizational Excellence

Spring 2003, pp. 43-50

The author of this article identifies three major reasons why Six Sigma initiatives sometimes fail:

1. Companies "do not always provide these initiatives with the strong and visionary leadership they require to truly take hold in an organization and fundamentally change how people do their everyday jobs."
2. Top-level business leaders, "who may be accustomed to operating by dictate and fiat, mandate that Six Sigma methods be quickly implemented and that results from the projects quickly follow. This can be unrealistic."
3. Six Sigma projects can fail "if Black Belts—the individuals actually tasked with leading a company's Six Sigma projects and achieving specific financial targets—receive neither the coaching, training, nor top-leadership mentoring they need to succeed in their jobs."

To effectively deploy Six Sigma and avoid these three pitfalls, the author recommends the following steps:

1. The top leaders—including the CEO—must become highly visible and vigorous champions of Six Sigma;
2. To build broad-based commitment to Six Sigma principles, a company's top business leaders must play a strong, hand-on role in cascading Six Sigma knowledge and work practices to others in the organization;
3. As leadership of Six Sigma initiatives is cascaded to individuals at successively lower levels in the company, it is critical to enlist the active support and engagement of business process owners in Six Sigma project implementation;
4. Select Black Belts that have the competencies necessary for the job;
5. At the appropriate time, provide Black Belt training that addresses the needs of the individuals as well as the requirements of the job.

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