Last week, I read with sadness, the obituary of Bob Galvin- the legendary CEO of Motorola who introduced the otherwise staid term sigma into the board rooms of companies. It was because of Bob that "six sigma" stormed in the Quality scene of 1990s with great popularity among the consultants who liked the rigour and the structure of six sigma. 20 years later and when Bob has left this world, the recent survey by ASQ says that around 20% of the respondents feel that six sigma is on the way out and it is irrelevant. 32% feel that it is still relevant while 50% want it to be updated.Considering ASQ memebers are opinion leaders in quality world, this is indeed a sad situation. Going by the survey, the importance of six sigma appears to have declined compared to dizzy heights it occupied after Motorola won Baldrige award in 1988.
Honestly, even in 1990s,many did not consider the six sigma techniques to be original as many of them were used in the 7 QC tools by QC Circles much earlier but they were no doubt packaged and organised well in six sigma. In India, we had two distinct schools of six sigma in the 2000-2005 period. One was linked with Motorola and another with GE. The GE methodology was more aggressive on management role and so was liked by many MNCs. Motorola had a lot more statistics and had more academic slant to it. The practice of six sigma rose steadily and in 2005, probably any large company had some six sigma group and a programme running in its shops. software like Minitab (even with its astronomical prices) sold like hot cakes and people were proud to show off the output from Minitab to all (though none was compatble with microsoft office and so not transferable readily to the masses.). When the going was good, the bad news was soon to arrive. The market was flooded with coaches, trainers and consultants, all claiming to be experts and awarding belts (certificates) of all imaginable colours to the participants of their programmes. There was no quality control at all in the deliivery of the courses. some conducted six day Green belt programme and some covered it in three days. Clients got confused and many took wrong decisions in awarding the assignments to unqualified and inexperienced people who were just making money by copying some chapters from the nearest statistics text book. Projects never got completed as the methods taught were not reinforced on the job. In the last two years, the disillusionment has set in. Meanwhile, consultants injected lean in to it thinking the basic six sigma was not enough but it failed to do the trick. I will stick out my neck and say that it was a blunder to introduce something called Lean six sigma. It only alienated the loyalists of the sixsigma and never got a new constituency. Lean is far more aggressive in its approach and its philosophy far too narrow when compared to the six sigma and the combination did harm to the six sigma movement. But, this is only one side of the coin. Before we conclude that six sigma is on its last days, we need to go to Universities and colleges and we will see six sigma thriving. MBA students are keen to learn six sigma. A well known Management Institute in Pune, where I taught last year, wanted me to teach six sigma focussing on all the techniques and give them assignements connected with industrial situations. The students did a lot of work using six sigma in their internships though these won't be counted as six sigma projects.The knowledge of six sigma has spread over lot of service areas and even R&D departments as these youngsters eventually got themselves placed. Young people read a lot about six sigma on the web and even take exams on line. one would say Six sigma has become a common skill now for aspirants to executive positions.
I think the decline of consulting fees and training mandays in six sigma do not necessarily indicate decline of six sigma. it has only become something more approachable and is in some way now more associated with the tasks which an executive carries out and this I feel indicates the rise of six sigma.
If I have to pay my tribute to Bob I will only say, "Bob, six sigma is alive and kicking. only difference is it has alighted from the conference halls and lecture rooms to homes, colleges and Institutes much like the computer skills. May be that is the way you wanted it to be. As a charismatic leader, I am sure, you would always have loved six sigma to be the way of problem solving by the people, of the people and for the people.". That is the way it is now. and for the consultants, my advice is please do not look at the world through your bill books. Go out for a walk and see the world for yourself.
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