Preface

Six Sigma has always been about radically improving the performance of an organization, a pursuit to which we have collectively dedicated more than 85 years of our careers. We first worked together at DuPont in the early 1980s. We continued our professional relationship over the years, and in 1995, we both independently began our work in Six Sigma. Having been involved in improvement efforts most of our careers, we were both amazed at the tremendous financial results produced by Six Sigma and, later, Lean Six Sigma, the integration of Six Sigma with Lean Enterprise. We continued our discussions of Lean Six Sigma over the next several years as we deployed the method in different organizations.

Although we began to see numerous books published on Lean Six Sigma, either they were narrowly focused on the technical tools of Lean Six Sigma (such as a statistics text) or they used hype and fanfare to sell the reader on implementation. Our colleagues and clients, on the other hand, were raising deeper issues about how to actually deploy Lean Six Sigma and avoid potholes along the way. These questions highlighted the paucity of practical guidance on the deployment of Lean Six Sigma. Leading Six Sigma (Snee and Hoerl, 2003) was our attempt to fill this void.

The Work Continues

Since we published Leading Six Sigma in 2003 we have pursued an active program of consulting, research, and publication on process and organizational improvement using Lean Six Sigma and other methodologies. We found that Lean Six Sigma was not the best methodology to attack every problem, so other approaches (in addition to Lean) needed to be brought into the mix. Properly integrated, this set of approaches produced even more significant improvements as measured by customer satisfaction, employee engagement, top-line growth, and bottom-line results. These efforts have included the following:

We published Six Sigma Beyond the Factory Floor (Snee and Hoerl, 2005), focusing on using Lean Six Sigma to improve nonmanufacturing processes such as healthcare, finance, and human resources.

We introduced the concept of holistic improvement, which expands improvement in a broad sense across the entire organization, and developed a more formal holistic improvement methodology needed to support the broader view of holistic improvement (Snee 2005, 2006, 2008).

We researched how to best combine the concepts, methods, and tools of Lean Enterprise and Six Sigma (Snee and Hoerl, 2007). This research was motivated by a belief that the integration of Six Sigma and Lean in existing texts was simplistic and did not display a deep understanding of both methodologies. We pointed out the important fundamental that Lean focuses primarily on the flow of information and material from the supplier to product delivery—that is, what happens between steps in the process. Therefore, Lean is oriented primarily to productivity, not product quality. Six Sigma, on the other hand, focuses primarily on what happens within the process steps—that is, on the value-adding transform itself. Quality of the final product is typically a function of the value-adding transformations—that is, what happens within the process steps. Both flow and quality are important. Improvement is most successful when project selection and execution takes these differences into account instead of assuming that Six Sigma and Lean are fundamentally doing the same things.

We continued our research on leadership and what is required to lead Lean Six Sigma and ultimately achieved holistic improvement.

As we continued our work on improvement, we saw that many problems organizations faced were too large, complex, and unstructured to be adequately solved by Lean Six Sigma. We developed the statistical engineering discipline to handle such problems (Hoerl and Snee, 2010). It became clear that after a problem has been defined and structured, with project and analysis strategies developed, Lean Six Sigma (or perhaps other methodologies) becomes very useful in solving it.

We have presented these advances and debated them both in public sessions and in the published, peer-reviewed literature. The pinnacle of these concepts and approaches is the holistic improvement system discussed in this book.

How This Book Can Help You

If you are looking for an approach to start an improvement initiative, this book can help you start your Lean Six Sigma deployment. On the other hand, if you have been using Lean Six Sigma for a few years and are looking to take the initiative to the next level, this book can suggest ways to spread improvement across the organization. This evolves your approach to a holistic improvement system, or what we call Lean Six Sigma 2.0. In each case, you will be taking improvement to a new level in your organization.

Readers of this book will learn the following:

How to initially deploy a Lean Six Sigma plan that reflects the unique organization, with key lessons learned from the world’s best implementations to date

How to avoid the common pitfalls that cause so many organizations to struggle with improvement initiatives

Every facet of Lean Six Sigma leadership, including strategy, goal setting, metrics, training, roles/responsibilities, processes, reporting, rewards, and ongoing management review

How to evolve a Lean Six Sigma deployment to true holistic improvement, the next level of improvement that involves the whole organization and uses a diverse array of improvement methodologies, including Big Data analytics

How to use a focus on improvement as a leadership development tool

Six Sigma began at Motorola in the 1980s as a statistical measure of process performance and an overall approach to improve it. AlliedSignal and General Electric (GE) broadened and further popularized the approach in the 1990s. Their successes encouraged other companies (including DuPont, Dow Chemical, Bank of America, Ford, and American Express, as well as companies in Europe and the Pacific Rim) to undertake Six Sigma and, eventually, Lean Six Sigma initiatives. The methodology evolved significantly along the way. Today Lean Six Sigma 2.0 has grown into a holistic strategy for improving the performance of any organization.

Leading Holistic Improvement with Lean Six Sigma 2.0 integrates the improvement tools that have proven effective over the years into a comprehensive approach that improves customer satisfaction, employee engagement, top-line growth, and the bottom line. As a result, Lean Six Sigma 2.0 builds on what has been successful in the past and takes performance improvement to a new level of effectiveness.

Although the theory is simple, many who implement Lean Six Sigma struggle with the details of overall deployment. Being sold on Lean Six Sigma is of little value if it cannot be successfully implemented. Most companies have experienced tremendous success with Lean Six Sigma, but others have not. Our research indicates a lack of literature on why this is so. We have examined both very successful and minimally successful organizations to understand the root causes for success or failure. We have found that successful companies have important similarities in deployment, as do unsuccessful companies. Understanding these common success factors helps organizations significantly enhance the probability of success and enables them to avoid the potholes.

Of course, each organization is different. You cannot blindly adopt the Lean Six Sigma deployment models that other companies use and expect to be successful. It makes much more sense to understand what specifically led these companies to success and then adapt those approaches and methods to your own organization. Providing a roadmap to do just that is the focus of this book.

What Is Unique About This Book

This book is unique in several ways. It is the only book currently on the market that discusses recent research and learnings regarding the use of Lean Six Sigma to improve processes and organizations. Furthermore, it is the only available book that shows how to evolve Lean Six Sigma to an even more effective approach, holistic improvement.

This book documents the most important and useful recent advances in the theory and practice of Lean Six Sigma improvement—and improvement in general. The discussion includes case studies that illustrate critical aspects of holistic improvement. It should be useful to two important audiences: those just beginning to use Lean Six Sigma to improve organizational performance, and those that have mature deployment underway and are looking for new and better ways to move the initiative to the next level.

Next, this book introduces the concept, methods, and tools of holistic improvement, the paradigm shift that effectively makes improvement part of the management and operating culture of an organization. We refer to holistic improvement, combined with the infrastructure of Lean Six Sigma, as Lean Six Sigma 2.0. This is essentially the most recent evolution of Six Sigma that incorporates and integrates multiple improvement methodologies. With this approach, the specific improvement methodology to be applied is fit to the unique aspects of the problem being addressed—that is, the problem determines the solution method to use.

This book emphasizes the importance of management reviews for both projects and the overall deployment of holistic improvement. Experience has shown that improvement cannot be successfully sustained and grown over time without regular management review. No other Lean Six Sigma or improvement book currently on the market addresses this important consideration.

Finally, we emphasize and detail the use of holistic improvement as a leadership development tool. Many leading corporations, including GE, DuPont, and Allied-Signal/Honeywell, have used this approach. These and other organizations have required, or at least strongly recommended, Lean Six Sigma Green Belt or Black Belt certification for management positions.

These unique elements have been successfully applied in a variety of organizations and are worthy of consideration for any group seriously pursuing improvement.

What’s in This Book

We present a deployment roadmap that has worked in many different types of organizations, large to small, manufacturing to financial services, in the United States and abroad. It shows how to get started, manage the important aspects of the initiative, maintain the momentum over time, and eventually evolve the initiative into a true holistic improvement system. Specific advice is given in such areas as these:

Identifying your company’s most promising improvement opportunities and leaders

Providing leadership, talent, and infrastructure for a successful launch and sustainment of the deployment over time

Incorporating additional improvement methodologies so that the initiative can effectively match the most relevant method to the specific problem at hand

Implementing systems, processes, and budgets for ongoing improvement projects

Measuring and maximizing the financial value of your improvement initiative

Initiating and evolving Lean Six Sigma into holistic improvement, including creating an overall improvement organization and project selection system

Clarifying roles of improvement leaders that help ensure project gains are sustained

This advice and the underlying experiences have been time-tested and will be useful in speeding up your improvement initiative and sustaining it over time.

Avoiding the Mistakes That Can Make Lean Six Sigma Fall Short

Our guidance is based on more than 44 years of experience deploying Lean Six Sigma and holistic improvement in large and small companies in many different areas, including manufacturing, research and development (R&D), healthcare, and financial services. Indeed, we have found that Lean Six Sigma can work everywhere, regardless of culture, country, industry, function, and process, if you follow the process. The chapters in this book cover the following critically important subjects.

A New Improvement Paradigm Is Needed

Clearly we live in a very different world—most would say a much more dangerous world—than when Six Sigma was invented in 1987 at Motorola. How should we think about continuous improvement in such a world? Is Lean Six Sigma the best approach to take for all problems, including large, complex, unstructured problems, such as climate change or the Millennial Development Goals? We argue that a different paradigm is needed to take continuous improvement to a new level in this world in which we now find ourselves.

In addition to developing a broader portfolio of improvement methodologies, organizations need to integrate process management and control systems (such as ISO 9000) with newer methodologies (including Big Data analytics and the increasingly important risk management methodologies). We refer to this paradigm as holistic improvement and recommend Lean Six Sigma 2.0 as the best methodology based on this paradigm. In Chapter 1, “A New Paradigm Is Needed,” we briefly review the evolution of Six Sigma since 1987 and explain what we mean by Lean Six Sigma 2.0.

What Is Holistic Improvement?

As just noted, Lean Six Sigma is no longer adequate for the improvements that organizations need to survive and, better yet, prosper in the modern era. We call the needed new paradigm holistic improvement. In Chapter 2, “What Is Holistic Improvement?”, we do the following:

Define holistic improvement

Show how holistic improvement is different from and more effective than previous approaches

Provide a strategic structure for its use

It all begins with project selection: choosing the right projects. We then need to select the right methods for the specific project instead of relying on one method for all problems. It is critical to recognize that the Achilles’ heel of any improvement approach is project selection (and, to some degree, method selection). This chapter looks at holistic approaches to both project identification and selection and method selection.

Critical Methodologies in a Holistic Improvement System

One obvious implication of a holistic improvement system is the need to have multiple methodologies at its disposal instead of relying on one “best” improvement method (or even two or three). The portfolio of methods needs to be dynamic and must evolve over time. In Chapter 3, “Key Methodologies in a Holistic Improvement System,” we briefly review the improvement methods that we feel are logical for most organizations to consider. Obviously, we cannot cover every possible improvement method, so we focus on the ones we consider core methods. For readers who are not familiar with any of these methods, we recommend following up with the references given. Our purpose in this chapter is simply to provide a brief introduction to each method and place it in the context of holistic improvement.

Note that Chapters 1–3 are completely new to the second edition of this book.

Holistic Improvement Case Studies

Case studies are an excellent way to see how Lean Six Sigma and holistic improvement are deployed, including strategies utilized, plans developed, barriers encountered, and results achieved in terms of process performance and bottom-line results. In our earlier books on Lean Six Sigma (Snee and Hoerl, 2003, 2005), we examined several case studies that illustrated both successful and not-so-successful deployments. In the current Chapter 4, “Case Studies in Holistic Improvement,” we discuss three more mature case studies: GE, DuPont, and Scott Paper. The DuPont and Scott Paper case studies have previously not appeared in the literature. These three cases demonstrate how the breadth of deployment grows over the years and how new improvement tools integrate into the growing holistic methodology. Of course, the goal remains to improve customer satisfaction, process performance, and financial results.

Successful Implementation of Holistic Improvement

In Chapter 5, “How to Successfully Implement Lean Six Sigma 2.0,” we take another look at the case studies in Chapter 4 and those discussed by Snee and Hoerl (2003) to elaborate on the key factors that led to significant (or minimal) success in Lean Six Sigma, or a more holistic approach. We show how to analyze the keys to a successful deployment and integrate these key success factors into an overall, step-by-step process. Such an approach can also enhance a Lean Six Sigma system or move another improvement system currently in place toward a holistic system, which we refer to as Lean Six Sigma 2.0.

Getting Started

In Chapter 6, “Launching the Initiative,” we define the launch phase of Lean Six Sigma to be roughly the period between making the decision to deploy and completing the initial wave of Black Belt training. At the end of this phase, you should have the following components in place:

An overall deployment plan (strategy)

The initial wave of projects

Trained Black Belts and other key players

These are the key deliverables for the launch phase, and they should be considered in that order. Before developing the deployment plan, most organizations need to address the key preliminary question of which major deployment strategy to use. This decision affects virtually every aspect of the deployment plan, so it must be addressed first.

Managing the Effort

Chapter 7, “Managing the Effort,” looks at how to manage the effort over time to realize its promised improvement in performance and how to also sustain it over time. This phase is of critical importance because, without it, your improvement initiative will dissipate over time, perhaps as soon as within two years. The elements of this phase are introduced and discussed in Chapter 7.

We refer to this next step in our deployment process as managing the effort. This phase goes roughly from completion of the initial wave of Black Belt training until the point at which the organization has trained everyone it originally intended to train and also completed projects in all the areas mentioned in the deployment plan. It typically lasts a minimum of 18 months, although organizations must continue to manage Lean Six Sigma deployment in subsequent phases. During this phase, it is important to begin adding more elements of a holistic improvement system so that organizations expand beyond Lean Six Sigma to Lean Six Sigma 2.0, holistic improvement.

Sustaining Momentum and Growing

Chapter 8, “Sustaining Momentum and Growing,” focuses on both the defensive effort needed to sustain impetus and the offensive effort needed to expand the Lean Six Sigma initiative toward a true holistic improvement system. This phase of sustaining and growing is defined as the time between when the organization completes the training and projects in the original deployment plan and when the organization transforms Lean Six Sigma from an initiative to the normal way it works, or Lean Six Sigma 2.0.

This phase can last several years. The portfolio of improvement methodologies and improvement to the whole organization is expanded. This expansion across the organization might include introducing customers and suppliers to Lean Six Sigma and using Lean Six Sigma to increase revenue. Quality by design (QbD) projects that use different methodologies than Lean or Six Sigma can help drive new revenue. Lean Six Sigma can be applied to top-line growth as well, but QbD methodologies are better suited for new product and service development.

Transitioning to the Way We Work

In Chapter 9, “The Way We Work,” we take Lean Six Sigma one step further and discuss how to integrate it into daily work processes. The changes an organization makes in its work as a result of Lean Six Sigma 2.0 comprise its control plan for the overall initiative and ensure that it maintains the gains it has achieved. The desired end game is that holistic improvement becomes such an integral part of the way the organization manages that there is no longer a need for a formal improvement initiative. Instead, a holistic improvement organization is now a stable and integral part of the company, analogous to finance, human resources, marketing, and so on. Bringing improvement to the level of day-to-day work includes integrating Lean Six Sigma (and other improvement methodologies) with operational and managerial processes, as well as developing an overall organizational improvement system. This chapter also discusses the use of holistic improvement as a leadership development tool.

Final Thoughts for Leaders

In Chapter 10, “Final Thoughts for Leaders,” we provide additional guidance for leaders, to encourage a deepening understanding of holistic improvement and ensure the success of both individual improvement projects and the overall initiative. Particular attention is placed on helping managers understand what actually goes on in improvement projects, without burying them in the details of the technical tools.

How to Use This Book

Using this book as a guide, you can get your Lean Six Sigma deployment off to a solid start and help ensure its continuing success. We provide a body of knowledge on how to properly deploy Lean Six Sigma, as well as the pitfalls to avoid. You can speed up the deployment and success of Lean Six Sigma if you make use of what those who have gone before you have learned; you don’t have to reinvent the wheel.

At the 2- to 3-year point in your deployment, you can use this book to begin the evolution of your improvement initiative to holistic improvement. Achieving each element of holistic improvement is relatively simple. However, putting it all together is the hard part. This book not only provides a roadmap for deploying Lean Six Sigma, but it also highlights the keys to successful deployment and provides a way to maintain the gains. You get everything in a single document.

By reading this book, you will learn what works and what doesn’t, gain effective deployment strategies, and become fluent in the language of Lean Six Sigma and holistic improvement. Of course, a roadmap is not a cookbook; each organization stills need to customize its approach, based on its own unique situation.

Everyone involved in Lean Six Sigma can benefit from this book. Executives will learn how to design and lead the deployment process and how to focus on critical improvement areas. Champions will learn how to select and charter projects, as well as how to select and guide Black Belts and Green Belts. Master Black Belts will learn the deployment process, which is needed to work effectively with management, Champions and the Black Belts and Green Belts. Black and Green Belts will learn more about the Lean Six Sigma deployment process, which will deepen their understanding of their role.

Lean Six Sigma is becoming increasingly recognized not only as an effective process improvement methodology, but also as an effective strategy for culture change and leadership development. Lean Six Sigma obviously emphasizes the use of facts and data to guide the decision-making process. But the improvement project selection and review, recognition and reward, and communication processes used to support Lean Six Sigma are also effective culture change vehicles. Increasingly, companies are seeing Lean Six Sigma and other improvement methodologies as effective leadership development tools. Companies such as GE, Honeywell, and DuPont have required Lean Six Sigma Black Belt and Green Belt experience for managerial advancement.

Other Useful Resources

We believe that this book will get our two target audiences off to a good start: organizations that are just starting an improvement initiative and organizations that are looking to move their improvement initiative to the next level. It is important to recognize that other resources fit very nicely with this book as well and could be of use to these two audiences.

Improvement outside of manufacturing is a big opportunity for improvement. It is generally agreed upon that there is as much improvement opportunity outside of manufacturing as there is inside manufacturing. Our book Six Sigma Beyond the Factory Floor (Snee and Hoerl, 2005) addresses this subject and provides time-tested concepts, methods, and tools that are useful in this environment. Also included are four case studies documenting improvement initiatives in Bank of America, Commonwealth Health Corporation, Motorola Finance, and GE Research and Development.

As an organization initiates a Lean Six Sigma deployment process, a variety of questions typically arise, including what can happen, good and bad, and what pitfalls to be on the lookout for. Snee and Hoerl (2003) address 31 commonly encountered deployment questions and issues and provide answers and guidance on how to respond.

Leading Six Sigma (Snee and Hoerl, 2003) also includes a Lean Six Sigma deployment roadmap that organizations can use to develop a tailored deployment plan. Ron Snee has helped more than 50 organizations customize this deployment framework to launch their improvement initiatives.

References

Hoerl, R. W. and R. D. Snee (2010) “Statistical Thinking and Methods in Quality Improvement: A Look to the Future,” Quality Engineering, (with discussion) Vol. 22, no. 3, July-September 2010, 119–139.

Snee, R. D. (2005) “Utilizing a Holistic Approach to Performance Improvement,” Presented at the FDA Quality and Six Sigma for Pharma and Biotech Conference, Philadelphia, PA, November 2005.

Snee, R. D. (2006) “Making Another World: W. Edwards Deming and a Holistic Approach to Performance Improvement,” Deming Lecture presented at the Joint Statistical Meetings, Seattle, WA, August 7, 2006.

Snee, R. D. (2008) “W. Edwards Deming’s ‘Making a New World’: A Holistic Approach to Performance Improvement and the Role of Statistics,” The American Statistician, August 2008, Vol. 62, no. 3, 251–255.

Snee, R.D., and R. W. Hoerl. (2003) Leading Six Sigma: A Step-by-Step Guide Based on Experience with GE and Other Six Sigma Companies. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Financial Times/Prentice Hall.

Snee, R.D., and R. W. Hoerl. (2005) Six Sigma Beyond the Factory Floor: Deployment Strategies for Financial Services, Health Care, and the Rest of the Real Economy. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Financial Times/Prentice Hall.

Snee, R. D. and R. W. Hoerl. (2007) “Integrating Lean and Six Sigma – A Holistic Approach,” Six Sigma Forum Magazine, May 2007, 15–21.

—Ronald D. Snee, Newark, Delaware

—Roger W. Hoerl, Niskayuna, New York