Page 43 - Six Sigma Advanced Tools for Black Belts and Master Black Belts

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28 August 31, 2006 2:53 A Strategic Assessment of Six Sigma
should be applied. As an approach to organizational excellence, Six Sigma, as it has
been practiced, can certainly be enhanced. For example, methodologies of systems
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engineering can be fruitfully used to break away from the narrow attention span of
the ‘here and now’. The systems perspective is effective in handling multiple CTQs so
that, with a macro-view, suboptimization due to rigid concerns in specific projects can
be avoided. Scenario-based planning is another useful approach for coping with dy-
namic market demands, latent needs, transformed living conditions, varied cultures
and changing CTQs. Indeed, a CTQ valid today is not necessarily a meaningful one
tomorrow; shifting social, economic and political scenes would make it imperative
that except for immediate, localized projects, all CTQs should be critically examined
at all times and refined as necessary.
In a mature organization, employees grow with organizational successes. In people-
centered operations, in particular, staff development should go hand-in-hand with
prevailing Six Sigma applications. This will help reap the benefits of continuous learn-
ing, knowledge accumulation, group innovation and creativity. At the collective level,
conscious efforts could also be made to meet the requirements of the organization’s
social mission and obligations. The synergy of such endeavors and Six Sigma based
activities and programs could lead to results larger than the sum of isolated or uncon-
nected efforts, and help ensure maintenance or improvement of overall organizational
performance in uncertain times.
As the scope of Six Sigma widens in the years to come, it is highly probable that
new and more comprehensive variants of the framework and methodologies will
gradually emerge, overcoming the possible shortcomings raised here. It is particularly
important that suitable adaptations be developed so that Six Sigma can make itself
relevant in the face of the very nature of a knowledge enterprise or knowledge-based
economy. That indeed would be in line with the ‘change’element in Six Sigma culture
and an exemplification of continuous improvement in the most useful way, an outcome
all stakeholders of Six Sigma would be happy to see.

REFERENCES

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Engineering, 12(3), 317--326.
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