The Medicine of Lean Six Sigma: And the 5 Side Effects to Avoid

By Hayden Barker

Business management improvement methods like lean and Six Sigma have been prescribed to many organizations throughout the world as the cure-all for the diseases of organizational inefficiencies, non-value-adding processes, and struggling product quality. Many promises are made, describing a bridge we can walk across that connects the introduction of improvement methods into an organization on one side of a chasm to a successful transformation on the other side. Then why are there so few organizations that have gotten to the other side of the chasm?

 

While lean and Six Sigma can help organizations become leaders in their industry, many of the tools and principles are misapplied into organizations, analogous to taking medicine that results in unintended side effects. This book is the result of a research study that found 5 leading side effects that organizations should avoid when implementing lean or Six Sigma. Discover how each side effect can be avoided while guiding your organization on your continuous improvement journey.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Continuous Improvement Journey
• Release date: May 15, 2021
• ISBN: 9781736442715

Hayden Barker

From the time I first learned about lean manufacturing principles, I developed a never-ending thirst for learning all I can about organizational change and continuous improvement. Doing so shaped my background as a manufacturing engineering and continuous improvement manager, and helped me guide organizations in applying teachings from lean, statistics, theory of constraints, continuous improvement, and the business management principles of W. Edwards Deming.

Book preview

THE MEDICINE OF LEAN SIX SIGMA

AND THE 5 SIDE EFFECTS TO AVOID

Hayden J. Barker

Continuous Improvement Journey™

First Edition

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form without prior written permission from the copyright owner.

General Release: If any teaching(s) or method(s) from this book are used or applied in your organization or as an individual, you automatically release Continuous Improvement Journey™, its owners, and employees from any cause of disruption, errors, or damage to your organization or as an individual.

Typeface: EB Garamond (body), Oswald (headings), and Indie Flower (handwriting) licensed under the SIL Open Font License.

Names: Hayden Barker, author

Title: The Medicine of Lean Six Sigma: And the 5 Side Effects to Avoid

Description: First Edition, published in 2021

Identifiers: ISBN 978-1-7364427-0-8

Subjects: Lean, lean manufacturing, Six Sigma, continuous improvement, industrial management, industrial productivity, operational excellence

© 2021 Continuous Improvement Journey™, LLC

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Table of Contents

Preface

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Glossary

Chapter 1: Trending Downward

Chapter 2: #1 Misunderstanding and Misapplication of the Original Purposes

Chapter 3: #2 Poor Implementation and Minimal Employee Involvement

Chapter 4: #3 Top Management Delegating Lean

Chapter 5: #4 A Hope for Instantaneous Results

Chapter 6: #5 Copying and Pasting Lean Tools

Afterword

References

Preface

I have had many fantastic opportunities to lead continuous improvement initiatives before and after graduating as a manufacturing engineer and while earning my Six Sigma Green Belt and Black Belt certifications. In reflecting on my academic learning related to continuous improvement, it seems as if I was given rose-colored glasses that created a clear and easy path for me to help companies become lean like the Toyota Production System (TPS). With my rose-colored glasses in place, I attempted to become the cheerleader, mentor, and change agent all rolled into one and implement into any organization everything related to continuous improvement—Six Sigma, lean, theory of constraints, and so on. Yet, each time, the project did not hit a home run as everyone had promised if only I implemented the XYZ continuous improvement tool.

Reality sometimes gets the best of us, which is what happened to me back in October 2018. I had an epiphany that made me realize something was wrong with our approach when helping companies go through their continuous improvement transformation. My epiphany also helped me realize that I was wearing rose-colored glasses; once I took those glasses off, I could objectively see our situation. Without the rose-colored glasses to distort my vision, I saw an enormous chasm between introducing continuous improvement tools into an organization and the successful transformation expected. Many people promise and describe a bridge that we can walk across connecting the introduction of improvement tools into an organization on one side of the chasm to a successful transformation on the other side. Then why are there so few organizations that have gotten to the other side of the chasm?

When looking down into the chasm between the start of our transformation and the success we wished to have, I saw many organizations stumbling around. There was no bridge to walk across. We somehow had been deceived! If so few organizations have gotten out of the depths of the chasm, what made them different from everyone else? A similar example is learning what it takes to be a millionaire. With all the technology and communication systems we have in our day, we can read books, interview, search the internet, and study all the millionaires we wish. Yet, if the knowledge to become a millionaire is available to us, why isn’t everyone a millionaire? There is something different about how successful organizations approach their transformation, just like there is something different about individuals who become millionaires. To figure out why these organizations are so unique, it may be best to learn about what they are doing to avoid becoming stuck in the chasm like everyone else.

To discover what these organizations were doing differently, I began my search by reading online articles about why lean and Six Sigma initiatives tend to flounder more often than achieving victory. At first, this was a casual search, but I soon realized that the information I was learning could help organizations know what they can do to escape the depths of the chasm. In the end, the casual search to find the answers to my questions ended up becoming a yearlong personal research study. With my inquisitive mind, and being the data geek that I am, from October 2019 to October 2020 I performed an in-depth quantitative research study. I have summarized my research results in this short book so you can avoid spending years wandering around in the chasm.

Acknowledgments

I feel honored to be part of the continuous improvement industry, where we can all learn and share best practices.

To my wife Lisa: Thank you for being so willing to hear all my ramblings and crazy ideas about making organizations better, for your love, and your never-ending forgiveness.

To Paul Tabili: Thank you for all your help in performing the copy editing and proof reading of this book.

To Scott Graham: The book cover turned out fantastic because of your artistic ability.

To the reader: As you help organizations along the journey to continuous improvement, learn to continuously improve yourself to become more loving, kind, and generous. In doing so, we can positively impact those around us, change others’ lives, and bring peace to our family and all who live in this world.

Introduction

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Research Results

I kicked off my research by using the Google.com[1] internet search engine, searching questions like Why does lean fail, why does Six Sigma fail, lean fail, or why do lean implementations fail. As a result of my searches, I realized that I was not the only person asking these questions. Search results showed that many people posted questions similar to those that I had on the Quora.com[2] platform. (Note: I am not endorsing or being endorsed by Google or Quora.) The Google search engine results showed other related online website articles and blog posts that I collected to read. I then used the scholar.google.com internet search engine to collect scholarly articles related to why lean and Six Sigma initiatives