Oct 19 2007
Quality Industry Trends and One Client
I spent a couple pleasant hours with a couple of friends last evening, discussing trends in Quailty Improvement (QI). One of the gentlemen is my main contact at a client; the other is a very experienced QI professional I’ve had the honor to consult with, and also produce articles and training. These two men have opinions and insight I trust.
It seems the QI cycle is coming around once again at my client. After several years of great success, the company has undergone a major shift in management focus. The QI group lost their leader in the process, and is re-inventing themselves while they look for a new executive sponsor. Amid all that choas, the program continues to run smoothly along (my opinion), but it’s clear that more than a sponsor is needed here.
In short, the QI group has met most of its long-term and short-term goals and needs to find ways to take themselves, and the overall organization, to the next level. Not an easy task! And other parts of the organization have caught the Lean Fever, and are making a case to replace the previous methods with a purely Lean perspective.
More “us and them” divisions become apparent when that happens.
The current QI methodology is evolving to a full Lean Six Sigma hybrid in any case. I see that as a good sign of a maturing and healthy Six Sigma program, in today’s world. To now toss all that out and go “purely Lean” would be a loss, in my opinion. In any case, this may have more to do with staking claims politically during a time of great leadership flux. Whatever the motivations, narrowing down the tools and methods is not a way to go forward.
Had the organization “failed” in their Six Sigma endeavors while Lean worked in their factories, I might have had a different view. But the past decade has seen their Six Sigma program rise from humble beginnings to achieve about 5% of revenue annually in savings and other gains. All the other indicators are fairly healthy as well. No need to stop!
In between bites of quesadilla, the two of us who consult managed to agree on those points. We were preaching to the choir, of course! The client contact already knew, as he’s been with the program from the beginning.
The lesson is, business cycles often turn inside the long view of QI, but still, QI has to adjust at times, and certainly they need to continue the push for excellence for themselves as well as for the firm. Benchmarking studies recently indicate that many mature Six Sigma programs are hybridizing with at least one other philosophy, with Lean the top choice.
Next up for the client: A funding model that doesn’t rely solely on a percentage of P&L gains from projects…
Excellence Always!
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
