Page 42 - Six Sigma Advanced Tools for Black Belts and Master Black Belts

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Six Sigma: Improving The Paradigm 27
In fact, administratively, conformance is required in Six Sigma not just with respect
to process output but also in terms of employee participation. Regimentation via a
hierarchy of Master Black Belts, Black Belts, and so on would go against the very
culture in a community of academics and researchers, even students. The bottom-line
approach taken in Six Sigma cannot be the driving factor in the pursuit of academic
excellence. Cynicism, well before anything else, would be the first reaction if the
leadership of a university were to tell everyone ‘Take Six Sigma -- or this organization is
not for you’, a proclamation made famous by Jack Welch as CEO of General Electric. It
is little wonder that, to date, no university has proclaimed itself a Six Sigma institution.

2.7 SIX SIGMA: IMPROVING THE PARADIGM

Six Sigma has been widely publicized in recent years as the most effective means to
combat quality problems and win customer satisfaction. As a management initiative,
Six Sigma is best suited to organizations with repetitive operations for specified out-
comes. It aims at preventing non-conformance to defined formats and contents of
outcomes, generally identified as defects in products and errors in transactions. The
success of Six Sigma applications is reported in terms of sigma levels and the benefits
reflected by some financial bottom line. A number of high-profile companies have
attributed to Six Sigma the substantial gains in the few years over the turn of the
century -- coincidentally also a high-growth period for the broad US economy.
Several facets of Six Sigma have been analyzed in the previous sections, with high-
lights on success factors and possible limitations. In the face of overwhelming voices
on the merits and power of Six Sigma, the fact remains that Six Sigma is most effective
when an organization already has a firm idea of what forms of products and services
are in alignment with the organization’s goals and customer expectations. Six Sigma
is suited to problems in which the output can be readily measured. The methodology
is meant to be implemented by a hierarchy of specially trained personnel -- the ‘Belts’
of various colors. Thus there is now a fast-growing industry of Six Sigma consul-
tants and training programs, with widespread certification activities conducted in an
unregulated variety of ways.
It could be argued that Six Sigma is relevant when consistency of performance
is valued and its maintenance desirable. Six Sigma is called for when avoidance of
non-conformance is of higher priority than breakthrough and creativity. Thus, while
Six Sigma has its place in securing predictable product and service characteristics in
businesses, its very nature would run counter to the culture of creativity and innova-
tion in any vibrant, innovation-oriented enterprise. Six Sigma is commonly applied
to address what has gone wrong, but not what is beyond the current perception of
what is CTQ. Nor does the Six Sigma framework explicitly deal with the worth of
knowledge, imagination, innovation, passion or dedication. It is all too easy to avoid
mistakes or failures by not trying anything novel: when obsessed with error avoid-
ance, one’s attention and energy would tend to be diverted from exploratory pursuits
and endeavors for value creation.
It may be said, in conclusion, that instead of unreserved raving about ‘all things
Six Sigma’, a balanced view of the strengths and weaknesses of Six Sigma is in order.
It is important to be aware of the nature of situations in which Six Sigma could or