Six Sigma was introduced by GE in the 1980s and has changed the DNA of the organization. Today it is a major part of the way GE works. Six Sigma processes are part of nearly all of GE’s products and services.
Mark Elborne, President and CEO of GE in the UK provides insight into how to deploy Six Sigma successfully in an organization and highlights some of the potential pitfalls to be avoided…
Six Sigma is a highly disciplined process that helps organizations focus on developing and delivering near-perfect products and services to meet the needs of customers faster, better and at a competitive price. The central idea behind Six Sigma is that if you can measure how many "defects" you have in a process, you can systematically figure out how to eliminate them and get as close to "zero defects" as possible.
GE began moving towards a focus on quality in the late 80s. We began with a program called Work-Out™, which opened our culture to ideas from everyone, everywhere, reducing bureaucracy and making boundary-less behavior a natural part of our culture. This created the learning environment that led to Six Sigma and more recently Lean Six Sigma, and is embedding quality thinking across every level and in every operation of our Company around the globe.
The last 30 years have delivered a number of lessons in achieving successful deployment of Lean Six Sigma.
Firstly, think long and hard before you decide to apply Lean Six Sigma. Don’t do it for the sake of it and most certainly don’t attempt to post-rationalize an improvement that you have already made to fit with Lean Six Sigma methodology.
Before you start, train everyone who is going to be involved in the process. At GE we provide in-depth quality training at all levels of the organization with the goal of having all employees achieve ‘green belt’ training certification. All projects are mentored by a ‘black belt’ expert who is equipped with the highest level of mathematical and analytical knowledge. Nurture excellent facilitation skills among your project managers so they get the whole team, composed of people of all levels of seniority, working together effectively to reach a consensus.
Plan your project meticulously and use data to define the problem that you are going to address. Make sure you select a meaningful project that relates back to strategic business goals. At GE this is a pre-requisite for any Lean Six Sigma project we initiate.
Once selected, define your project clearly in a way that quantifies precisely what you are looking to achieve, and by when. Be prepared to abandon a project if it cannot be defined in this way.
Get people at all levels of the organization around the table – managers and shop floor staff – to work on the project. Full staff engagement is vital, both to the development of your solution and to ensure that it is fully embraced on the shop floor.
Invest adequate time in the ‘analysis’ phase. At GE we deploy ‘root cause analysis’ to interrogate the data at our disposal and develop a clear understanding of the ‘defects’ that we need to rectify from a Lean Six Sigma point of view. This meticulous approach prepares you for the ‘improve’ phase - the more you are able to dissect the defects in your problem, the better the solutions you are likely to come up with.
When you come to introduce your improvements make sure these are sustained. Document the process changes thoroughly and make sure they are fully compliant, both with the organization and the appropriate ISO controls.
At all stages of the process good communication is key to ensure buy-in. Done well this means that people on the shop floor will embrace change fully with no sense that it has been imposed from above.
Make sure you invest in the necessary training to ensure new ways of working become fully ingrained in the corporate culture.
Finally, ensure that you audit the process at regular intervals once it has been introduced to make sure it is continuing to be effective and is creating a sustained improvement. At GE, comprehensive metrics ensure any issues are identified at the earliest opportunity so corrective action can be taken.
Link: GE: UK
