Are you thinking about bringing Lean, Six Sigma, or similar methodologies to your organization but concerned with their effectiveness? Starting with three questions will help increase your chance of success or return on investment.
For more than a decade, I have led, supported, and observed Lean Six Sigma deployments in many organizations in life sciences. As a result of varying degrees of success, some people praise the transformative power of Lean Six Sigma, whereas others view it as an outdated management fad. While these perspectives are understandable, it is not helpful to organizations searching for the right path to business improvement.
Lean Six Sigma, or more generally, Operational Excellence, is a management methodology or a set of principles and tools. By itself, it is not sufficient to achieve desired outcomes. It requires know-how. Failure to achieve intended goals often has more to do with how we use it.
“Using the right tools for the job” sounds obvious. But when it comes to sophisticated tools and complicated jobs, it’s not. That’s when we ask professionals, e.g. a doctor or lawyer, who will help diagnose the problem and evaluate options to enable us to make an educated decision.
Similarly, before we jump on the Lean Six Sigma bandwagon, ask these questions:
- What is the reason to bring in the methodology?
- What are the specific and measurable goals to justify the investment?
- What is the organization’s experience in managing change?
Do we want to solve a problem we have today, or develop a new and sustained organizational capability or culture? Lean Six Sigma is very effective in delivering quick wins, e.g. reducing waste and resolving some quality issues. Building a quality culture, agility, and continuous improvement capability is an entirely different game. In my opinion, both objectives are valid but they require very different implementation methods.
Depending on the goal, the financial investment and organizational commitment required vary greatly. The more we can specify and quantify the goals, the more we can plan for the right resources and set the right expectations. We often underestimate or are unaware of the investment required to create the desired organizational change. It is not surprising that when the results do not come quickly, many are disappointed and give up.
If the goal includes developing a new capability or culture, it is imperative to assess the organization’s readiness for change. Operational Excellence requires a different mindset and behavior that many organizations do not have. If the organization lacks the experience or resources to manage change, there is a high probability that the change initiative will fail. In this case, it would be better to take a stepwise approach to allow the organization to develop change capability gradually as it improves the business.
There are obviously more questions to consider before and during the deployment. Answering these three questions from the start will help leaders clarify and communicate their vision, gain support, and prevent some common pitfalls in Lean Six Sigma implementation.
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