In 2001, new CEO Jeff Immelt announced a reinvigoration of Six Sigma. This was an important step symbolically, since there was some concern that the emphasis on Six Sigma might decline once Jack Welch retired. The reinvigoration included a push to further increase the percentage of senior executives with dedicated Six Sigma experience, acceleration of at the customer, for the customer projects (over 10,000 planned for 2002), and standardization of Black Belt course material and certification criteria across the company. As the manager of the Applied Statistics Lab at the Research Center, my primary Six Sigma role at this time was mentoring of R&D projects.
Looking into the near-term future, one could anticipate further integration of Six Sigma into the supply chain, working more with customers and suppliers on joint training and applications. It also appears that Six Sigma will remain a cornerstone of GE's executive development system. There has been speculation that GE will get into the Six Sigma consulting business, but there has been no indication of this being planned. Going forward, perhaps the greatest challenge will be ensuring that the focus remains on tangible results, and does not regress into the bureaucratic ticket-punching exercise that many companies have experienced with various improvement initiatives.
The following lists key attributes of GE's Six Sigma deployment–
General Electric
W.R. Grace
GE was already one of the world's most respected companies, and doing quite well financially, when it embarked on Six Sigma. Its efforts were not directed at solving an immediate business crisis.
Senior Executives, especially Jack Welch, provided unyielding leadership to get the initiative going, and ensure its continued success.
Six Sigma was directed towards specific, tangible objectives, including financial objectives.
Some of the best people in the company, in virtually all business functions, were freed up from their normal duties to focus on Six Sigma.
GE used a very formal and structured deployment plan, including the required infrastructure (the Six Sigma organization, project selection systems, benefit verification systems, and so on).
The company had strong leadership. Leadership set clear direction, and stayed actively involved throughout Six Sigma implementation.
It had a regular “drumbeat” of project reviews. As noted by CEO Norris, “Just schedule the reviews and show up. You don't even have to say anything for the reviews to be effective.”
Grace put top talent into the MBB and Black Belt roles, and freed them up to work on Six Sigma full time.
It selected good projects, which had full leadership support.
It put an emphasis on obtaining hard financial results.
Business leaders had direct involvement in reviews and project selection. This allowed for continuous alignment of Six Sigma projects in the business environment.
Grace used a rigorous project completion process with appropriate documentation to close out projects.
The company's philosophy was that Green Belts should also deliver positive financial results. Everyone trained was expected to complete a project that would be the first in a continuing list of completed projects.
