Introduction: What's In This For You

"There's money out there to be saved that you would not dream of when you start this," says Todd Graham. "That's the part I've really enjoyed—saving money for the plant."

Todd is an 18-year veteran of Johns Manville (JM), the only place he's worked since high school except for a brief stint as an auto mechanic. His career as a production/machine operator was going along smoothly until the late 1990s, when JM implemented what it called "variation reduction teams."

Though he had only a high school degree and a few college credits, Todd had always been interested in process improvement, so he applied to join a team and was accepted. Team members were pulled off their regular jobs, given some statistical training, and set to work. "Each variation reduction team made some progress," says Todd, "but they were really just a bunch of plant people struggling along. Nobody really knew what was going on in a broader sense."

That was about to change, however. In October 2001, Todd happened to see a JM newsletter that announced the company's intention to embark on something called Six Sigma. Todd recalls there weren't a lot of details given in the article, but it did mention the company was looking for people to volunteer to become something called "Black Belts," people who would be expected to manage projects at the plant locations. The article said that Black Belts would be required to commit at least two years to the job.

It sounded interesting to him, but Todd wasn't sure at first whether he wanted to get involved in the Six Sigma initiative. A month after seeing the notice, however, he was approached by management and asked to join the program, and he agreed. "What swayed me to become a Black Belt was the support I saw from the main headquarters," says Todd. "I thought that would mean we'd get much more support than we got on the variation reduction teams." As it turned out, he was right. "Top-down support has been really good," he says.

Soon after, Todd was officially relieved of his regular job responsibilities as he embarked on the first of five weeks of training. "The first week was all about leadership," he explains. "Then we did four weeks of additional training, spaced about a month apart. We'd get a week of training, then go back into the plant to work on a project, come back for more training, return to the project, and so on."

Todd describes his work on the training project as a real eye opening experience. "We didn't realize it would be so difficult to get useful data," says Todd. In the process he was studying, a number of raw products are melted together to make glass. The team's goal was to make the process and product more consistent, so they wanted to measure how well the materials were blended before and after transport. "It could take two or three weeks to get the samples analyzed," Todd says. "That meant that data I was looking at on any given day reflected what was happening three weeks ago. That didn't help me manage what's going on now."

Ultimately, he says, the team was able to solve only some of the data issues. They reached perhaps 40% of the original goal for the project. "What I learned is that projects have to be scoped properly," he adds. To that end, JM's insulation division recently brought together all of its Black Belts for a two-day course on project selection and screening.

Since he completed his training in April of 2002, Todd's work life has been both interesting and challenging. "The upside is that it's been a lot of fun, especially if you enjoy working with people and statistics and understanding processes," he says. "But it's a lot of work up front to learn all this stuff. Most of the statistical tools and concepts came pretty easily to me, but there's a lot of material presented in a short amount of time."

His first year had additional challenges, he adds, because of great demands placed on the JM Black Belts. "We were doing most of the project work ourselves, as well as trying to coach and mentor other people involved in Six Sigma," says Todd. Now, he continues, the company is developing more Green Belts, people who receive basic training—though not as much as Black Belts—and can participate on projects. That means the Black Belts can focus more on acting as internal consultants, guiding teams in their work, and helping them select the right data tools to use.

"What's been great is that we're seeing good results company wide. I think the net benefits were three or four million dollars within JM last year," says Todd. "There's a lot of low hanging fruit out there if you know where to look."

Todd's story is typical of people who get involved in Lean Six Sigma by becoming Black Belts. They find the experience both challenging and rewarding on a number of levels.

Some readers of this book will face choices much like Todd did about whether to go through extensive training and leave their regular jobs to become Black Belts. Many of you may be required to go through basic Lean Six Sigma training. But even if your participation in training is required, you will still have to decide for yourself how actively you want to support Lean Six Sigma in your company.

The purpose of this book is to give you enough background information so you can start making these decisions for yourself.

Making the case

The best argument we can make to convince you to not just read this book but to get involved with Lean Six Sigma is that there is very little downside. We understand that many companies have tried other improvement efforts in the past only to see them fail. So it's not surprising that many people will be skeptical about Lean Six Sigma. But even if the worst happens, and ultimately the efforts go nowhere, the kind of training and education offered through Lean Six Sigma can only enhance your job skills.

The second-best argument for getting involved in Lean Six Sigma is that the upside is enormous. By using Lean Six Sigma in your own work area, you can...

• Help your company become more profitable

- Grow revenue

- Cut costs

- Improve delivery time

- Reduce inventory

- Increase customer satisfaction

• Develop valuable job skills such as...

- Decision making

- Problem solving

- Teamwork

• Make your own job and workplace work better

- Get rid of a lot of waste—which will save you time and make your work more meaningful

In their own words

We talked to a range of people whose companies had started using Six Sigma or Lean Six Sigma. Here's what a few of them told us about getting involved:

• From Heather Presley of the City of Fort Wayne: "Don't get involved unless you're completely committed to making the end result happen. There were days I would look at that process and think there was no way we could get the kind of results we were looking for. It really takes tenacity. But you also don't have to fight all the fights alone." She also comments that, "If your organization is always going for the big win, they will probably have quite a few failures. But if you get people trained to THINK in terms of process improvement, they'll be better employees."

• Ashish Merchant joined Western Union right out of business school just a few years ago. He works in their international money transfer business, a rapidly growing unit within Western Union. In 2002, he was offered the chance to go through Green Belt training. "I saw quickly that this was not rocket science. It has a lot of common logic, but it's also a disciplined approach." He notes that "Some people teach Six Sigma like it's gospel. But that's not a good approach. You need to go through the discipline but use what's right for your project. Don't leave common sense at the door." He's also discovered that he can apply what he's learned on the job everyday. "You can improve productivity remarkably on-the-job by using even simple methods."

• Barry Shook, a manager at Xerox, moved out of manufacturing into the business services arm of the company. He's seen that practicing Lean and Six Sigma techniques has not only

improved their operations, but is also becoming a competitive edge in his business. "One of our clients recently decided to introduce Six Sigma methods in their company. So they're looking for vendors who know what Six Sigma means and have incorporated it into their own environment," he remarks. "For each and every one of us to be successful, it is our responsibility to provide our customers with world class service. That doesn't mean being reactive, that means being proactive. Lean Six Sigma gives you the steps, tools, and methodology to take you to that level."

Conclusion

We can't guarantee that your company's Lean Six Sigma efforts will be successful, or that they'll last. But the kind of gains that companies—and their customers—see make it very difficult for them to pull back. In city government, for example, there is a very real possibility that the leadership could completely change as often as every four years. But as Heather Presley remarked, "At this point, even if the city decided it didn't want to do Six Sigma any more, it's going to remain. Why? Because the people we serve are getting used to much better service from the city. If that disappears, they're going to notice."

Whether or not you choose to get more involved in Lean Six Sigma afterwards, reading this book will introduce you to methods and concepts that have a proven track record in helping people make a difference in the workplace.