Preface

The new Six Sigma has had no less than a dazzling debut, starting in late 1994 with AlliedSignal. Originated in 1987 at Motorola, Six Sigma was adopted by very few companies, though it was not taken very seriously. Only after AlliedSignal (now known as Honeywell) demonstrated Six Sigma’s effectiveness in redefining a company, achieving dramatic results and—more importantly—positively affecting the lives of thousands of employees, did Six Sigma catch the imagination of corporate America. General Electric (GE) adopted Six Sigma in 1996 with a vengeance.

With Jack Welch (GE) and Larry Bossidy (AlliedSignal) promoting the effectiveness and necessity of Six Sigma, the Six Sigma tsunami began. A former Motorola quality leader, Richard Schroeder, was the chief advisor to both these dynamic leaders. In fact, Richard lead the AlliedSignal Six Sigma deployment for Larry. With the leadership of these three spiritual leaders, hundreds of companies have met the challenge of deploying Six Sigma into their businesses. There are very few stories of failed deployments.

This book was written to inspire leaders to commit to deploying Six Sigma and to demystify the process. If you are a senior leader of an organization, or a leader who might be involved in launching Six Sigma, this book is for you. The book will also work well to provide a handbook (or playbook) to support your organization’s effort as you start Six Sigma. Everyone wants to know what the next great initiative will be after Six Sigma.

This book will not directly answer that question. But, the next best thing may reside in a company’s or organization’s ability to effectively deploy change initiatives. To quickly identify and initiate a change program will be the core competency of the millennium. This book demonstrates the way to deploy a complex change initiative within 90 days—the deployment milestones are here, and the roadmaps are here. Essentially, if you don’t effectively deploy Six Sigma, it won’t matter what the next big program will be.

These milestones and roadmaps are based on my 18+ years’ experience in Six Sigma, plus the extensive experience of the 10 contributors to the book. We have seen the critical milestones that work and the failure modes that lead to mediocrity. More importantly, we have provided enough detail to equip you with the knowledge of what to do, how to do it, and when to do it.

Because of my Six Sigma work with the 1994 AlliedSignal deployment, I draw many principles from Larry Bossidy and Richard Schroeder. Larry was the business leader and Rich was the spiritual leader for the initiative—they were a perfect team. These two leaders were responsible for, most likely, the best deployment of Six Sigma ever. With pinpoint accuracy, their leadership teams deployed a very large program in about 90 days. This deployment was a tribute to leaders who weren’t afraid to get emotionally involved with change.

Six Sigma presents a clear challenge because of its multifaceted nature. The Six Sigma continuum includes sophisticated statistical methods, problem-solving roadmaps, alignment of strategy to internal actions, and high-powered leadership. This book addresses the actions necessary to create hundreds of “Great Groups” working throughout your company to redefine your performance.

This book will consist of three sections: Part I, “Pre-Launch,” Part II, “The First 90 Days,” and Part III, “Post-Launch.” The term launch is defined as the activities leading up to the first wave of Six Sigma training programs.

Part I: Pre-Launch

The pre-launch preparation chapters will provide you with the specific actions and milestones necessary to get to the starting line.

Chapter 1 provides you with an executive overview of Six Sigma as an initiative. Because Six Sigma is complex, I spend little time on the problem-solving methodology and more time on deployment milestones. Chapter 2 provides you with insights into the process of focusing on, finding, and delivering the money or results. I also address the business model to ensure alignment between your Six Sigma activities and your balance sheet. Chapter 3 gives you an executive overview summarizing the nature of a typical Six Sigma deployment. My team and I have sifted through some 50 Six Sigma launches to find the best practices.

Chapter 4 supplies you with the rationale for using an external consulting group to support your deployment and a list of requisites to consider when evaluating providers. I also provide a quantitative decision matrix and a draft of a request for proposal. Chapter 5 delineates the process by which projects are linked to the organizational strategy. This chapter describes the process by which projects are selected and prioritized to obtain a direct line of site to the strategy.

Chapter 6 discusses how to measure the success of your Six Sigma launch with metrics that are directly tied to your strategic and annual operating plans. This chapter instructs you in the way to develop your strategic metrics and, more importantly, how to develop aggressive but achievable goals.

Part II: The First 90 Days

This section covers the time from the initial executive training workshop to the launch of the first wave (class) of Black Belt or Green Belt training. This section provides specific actions and milestones that lead to a successful Six Sigma launch. Each chapter provides a step-by-step roadmap to accomplish a specific set of actions and provides recommended timing. Launching a Six Sigma program in 90 days is realistic. Very large companies such as Honeywell and 3M have done so, along with several smaller companies. In fact, 3M beat the 90-day timeframe by about 60 days.

Chapter 7 helps you decide what your Six Sigma deployment will look like. The chapter recommends the way you can tie Six Sigma to earlier initiatives, and compares the advantages and disadvantages of pilot projects versus full-scale organization-wide deployments. I discuss approaches that consider division-to-division and geographic deployments. In addition, the chapter reviews the multitude of Six Sigma and Lean programs that are available to you to deploy in your organization. Depending on your strategic requirements, this chapter advises you on which programs to launch and in what order.

Chapter 8 outlines the roles and responsibilities of the key players in a Six Sigma launch. It also offers selection criteria and timing. Chapter 9 recommends ways the very critical leadership workshops should be developed and formatted. This chapter presents several different approaches to each workshop, along with sample agendas. Chapter 10 is one of the most important chapters in the book. This chapter provides a step-by-step methodology by which breakthrough projects are identified, prioritized, and chartered.

Chapter 11 reviews the roles of the significant Six Sigma players and details the training required to fulfill these roles. The chapter also discusses the pros and cons of hiring external personnel and developing internal personnel. The chapter also provides insights into the process of internalizing the Six Sigma training. Chapter 12 provides ideas for developing a comprehensive communications plan. Emphasizing the who, what, when, where, why, how, and how much, this chapter discusses the coordination of various communication channels. This chapter provides you with the essence of marketing Six Sigma throughout your organization.

Part III: Post-Launch

This section discusses the means and methods for institutionalizing your Six Sigma program for the long term. We provide a leadership roadmap along with specific actions that must occur every year for the program to last. Milestones such as compensation plans, career ladders, and software support are detailed.

Chapter 13 provides guidance in aligning Human Resource systems to the Six Sigma program. This chapter discusses organization structure, succession planning, career planning, measuring Belt performance, and reward and recognition. Chapter 14 provides an overview of the requirements of a project-tracking software system. The chapter also provides some examples of systems I have encountered over the years. Chapter 15 provides a detailed leadership roadmap that, if followed, ensures the long-term success of your Six Sigma program. This step-by-step approach is based on our work with over 40 companies over the last 15 years.

Chapter 16 provides methods for assessing your current deployment and reinvigorating it based on identified gaps in the deployment. Success in deploying Six Sigma provides the opportunity to launch successive change initiatives.

This book is designed to provide you with a turnkey method to launch a Six Sigma initiative in 90 days. By using this fast approach, you will be able to quickly and effectively align your people to your strategy, processes, and customers. By doing it within 90 days, you ensure that you will have a different company within 12 months. These fast launches also demonstrate the requirement of the full commitment of your leadership team. These 90 days will be the most memorable of your career.