Thoughts on ISO 13053 standard for Six Sigma (2011)

A few thoughts on the ISO 13053 standard for Six Sigma which was published in 2011:

Yes, "Standardization" is one of the key tools of Lean and Six Sigma....however...

1. When international bodies get involved their motivation is sometimes only to acquiring more authority and leverage in the commercial marketplace.

2.  It is important to be able to update or improve a standard rapidly, when the need or opportunity arises. Again, my concern is that international bodies often have rigorous, slow and many-staged processes to adapt standards to changes in usage.

3. Lean Six Sigma or even simply six sigma should be considered as a Body of Knowledge rather than a clearly defined methodology. Establishing a standard can lock out useful tools which could otherwise add value in a real life situations.

Then the purists say "we use the one true six sigma" and become less willing or even unwilling to use tools which would otherwise add value to an improvement project. The danger lies in that a company chooses to work with a purist and their options of paths to success are therefore narrowed.

4. No one body or organization is the 'owner' of Lean,  Six Sigma or Lean Six Sigma ...and that should be made very clear.

I look forward to your comments and possible additions or alternative views.

Chris Alcock

One of the 5 foundations of Lean Six Sigma is a concept called 'Flow' ...when a process moves in a steady, balanced and sustainable rate of throughput which matches as close as possible the customer demand, without stress or overburdening of the resources ( workers or machinery).  The concept of Flow also applies to a state of mind, action  and behavior of an individual worker.  In this context 'flow' is defined by behavioral psychologists and cultural anthropologists, such as professor Natasha Dow Schull from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and author Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, who in 1990 crystallized the idea of "flow" in his best selling book of the same name.
Prof Schull says 'To achieve flow your worker activity needs to match your worker ability'.  

Ahhh ! This is directly analogous to the lean six sigma understanding of flow.

References to Prof Schull  and her studies of flow in this BBC article. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-32628753

I am adding a new Lean concept to my training material that is called "Collaborative Consumption". It is the concept the 2 or more different businesses or departments with businesses collaborate to make maximum use of resources. Outsourcing is an example of this however there are other examples such as shared use of receptionists for several companies in the same office block, shared copier rooms, or shared warehouse space where you only pay for what you use. Whenever you have assets ( equipment or people ) that you are not using 100% of the time you can ask yourself the question 'would someone else pay me to use those assets while they are not being used".   There is a good website dedicated to technology that enables Collaborative Consumption www.collaborativeconsumption.com/     

While teaching the 'Design of Experiments" (DOE) section of the Green and Black Belt exam syllabus I am often asked by students about the relevance of DOE to the service industry.   Most students can see the obvious application of DOE to the Manufacturing sector however using DOE in service industries such as Banks, Call-Centre, Heath Service etc is not so obvious.
To help with this please see the White Paper published by Lou Johnson of MiniTab ( Minitab.com).
Lou Johnson describes a few great examples of successes using DOE in service industry.  See examples below:

• A 15-factor supermarket test uncovered 6 changes that led to a 150% increase in product sales. (Direct Marketing, December 1997)

• A national carpet retailer increased their sales 20% by experimentally determining the sales person / customer interactions that optimized customer purchases. (Lean Six Sigma for Service, 2002)

• A 19-factor direct mail credit card test pinpointed 5 significant effects for a 15% jump in response rate.
  (International Journal of Research in Marketing, 2006)

• GE Capital saved over $3MM by implementing the results of a 7 factor designed experiment studying methods to collect unpaid debt. (Quality Engineering, 2000)

• A global newspaper tested 11 creative and 4 price elements in one mail drop for a 41% increase in net response.
  S(presented by Financial Times at DMA07) 
  

The Conclusion drawn in the Whitepaper are also important and powerful:

Designed experiments have tremendous potential but are greatly under-utilized in the Service Quality industries. In particular, in-market testing – including retail, direct mail, Internet, and advertising testing – provides ample opportunity to leverage the experimental design and analysis techniques that have been developed in the past three decades. But the enormous potential comes with unique challenges. Far from textbook conditions, the “front lines” of marketing and service operations deal with the uncertainty of human behavior with textbook statistics often the first casualty. However, success is within reach. With the right statistical tools, good process knowledge, and a clear strategy, designed experiments can be completed, leading the way to improved sales and customer satisfaction. 

This is the response to a question I was recently asked about how the DMPO to Process Sigma level is calculated and how practical is it ?  Here is my voice of sanity in the confusion that surround the subject of DPMO and Process Sigma.

Just remember the following numbers and it will help to keep you straight:

Short Term Process Sigma of 6  is equivalent to 2 defects in a Billion Opportunities or Defects for a 2 tailed and centred process ( defects occur on both sides of the mean ).   If it is a 1-tailed process and defects only occur on one side then it is only 1 defect per Billion needed to be called Process Sigma of 6.

Long Term Process Sigma of 6  is equivalent to 3.4 defects in a Million Opportunities for Defects and relates  to a 1-tailed process or 6.8 if you know for sure that your process has defects on both tails ( 2-tails ).

Here is also a nice explanation given by "Hog" of isixsigm.com in Blog.  Nice job Hogg!

The sigma process metric is defined as the distance to the *nearest* limit, and does not relate to the other limit (if there is one). Consider a process centred between two limits, and ignore the 1.5 shift for the moment. If the left and right limits are 2 standard deviations from the mean, this is clearly a 2 sigma process. If however the left limit were 3 sd away, then this would still be a 2 sigma process. Certainly there are less defects experienced with less of the distribution outside of the limits, but you cannot call this a 3 sigma process or something between 2 and 3, it still has to be called a 2 sigma process. Taken to the extreme if the left limit was 10 sd away then this is still a 2 sigma process and effectively becomes a one sided issue, with the defects equal to the area under the normal curve to the right of just the 2 sd limit.

The DMPO equivalent to process sigma is just an approximation for use when the distribution is not particularly normal or the metric is discrete or when it is just easier to count opportunities and defects. It works for one-sided limit cases, and for high values of sigma. For low sigma values and where two sided limits exist it will always be an approximation – one approach is to add both sides of the tails together and calculate the equivalent process sigma from a one-sided limit.

Hogg : isixsigma.com 2001

Other examples of Winston Churchill"s "Lean Thinking" are the following quotes:

"Every man should ask himself each day whether he is not too readily accepting negative solutions." June 22, 1918

He recognized the importance of root cause analysis and then the correct selection of the solution ( "A" in DMAIC).

Winston Churchill also understood the importance of identifying and defining the Value and Purpose in anything we do  ( the "D" in DMAIC )

"It is wonderful what great strides can be made when there is a resolute purpose behind them." 
May 7, 1947

As we celebrate the life of Winston Churchill ( 1874 - 1965 ) on the 50th Anniversary of his death it is worth reminding ourselves of his wisdom and clarity of thought.   If Winston Churchill was alive today he would certainly have understood and appreciated the principles of Lean Six Sigma.  His speech and writings testify to the fact that he understood that continuous change ( in the right direction ) is necessary for improvement and to move towards the ultimate goal ( 5th step) of Lean which is of course to seek Perfection.  

In a 1925 speech to the House of Commons he said:

“There is nothing wrong in change, if it is in the right direction.

To improve is to change, so to be perfect is to change often.”

Winston S. Churchill, 23 June 1925, House of Commons