Six Sigma kills, Lean kills absolutely
Six Sigma kills
Wednesday 8 September 2010
Darrell Mann

Written by Darrell Mann

Lean and Six Sigma are the polar opposites of innovation. They kill it.

The rest of the world is learning to innovate faster and faster, while Lean and Six Sigma organisations find themselves with world-class levels of waste and variation reduction on products and services that the customer doesn’t want anymore.

The world, accelerated by the recent recession, is entering a phase of continuous innovation. A phase that means non-linear, discontinuous, common-sense-shifting change is beginning to happen on a continual basis. Adopt or stick with Lean / Six Sigma in such circumstances and don’t expect to get too many plaudits from your shareholders for too long. They see it too. Both were perfect tools for a continuous improvement world; both kill in a continuous innovation world.  As 3M found out a few years ago when they introduced Six Sigma across the company.



If this weren’t bad enough, both Lean and Six Sigma carry with them a virus that makes recovery almost impossible. Both demand cultures in which massive quantities of data are collected. Gathering data is hard work and one of the strongest traits of doing hard work is we don’t like throwing it away. Or thinking it might be the ‘crackpot rigour’ work of ‘busy fools’. So when someone comes along and defies the common sense and says ‘there is no data’ in the non-linear world of innovation the tendency is to not believe them. In this way, the middle management in your organisation lies at the heart of your forthcoming death. They manage (you told them!) by the numbers.

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Comments

Submitted by Anonymous on
I am fascinated by this article! Not least because I currently work in the NHS (a one year newbie after 20 years in the private sector) where in the effort to stop the rot, the NHS is adopting lean and six sigma approaches in the provider (hospital) side of the business and are now beginning to realise that innovation in service delivery is a key tool to effect improvement, change and value for money. The NHS may be where these two can work together and I'd love to hear your views on that. KM Commercial Director North East PCTs

Submitted by Anonymous on
Is lean killing innovation? To me, and I'm drawing from my experience in a very administrative public sector environment, Lean might not generate the breakthrough idea but once you have that idea, it would be folly not to try and produce it as efficiently as possible. The example of 35mm film and digital camera's is deceptive. You are right being the most efficient maker of film in an age of digital cameras does not offer huge rewards, however, neither does being the most inefficient and lowest quality producer of digital cameras. How many companies make digital cameras today? Yes you need to be at the leading edge but dont forget that while a product may feature one or two new innovations and ideas, it often shares hundred of parts from older models, continuous improvement is very relevant for something you are producing for 4 or 5 years. Yes we are in an age of rapid innovation, but Lean has had a hand in creating that age, look at Toyota and in particular its ability to reduce the product development time and therefore the time to introduce new ideas to market. Lean is becoming a standard in many industries because it offers a more efficent and higher quality method of production than mass production methods. That is how companies should look at it, as an industry standard not a differentiator. That is where the innovation plays its part. To ignore lean in favor of mass production techniques leaves you terribly exposed, if you look at the most innovative companies you will see that they all feature a strong Lean footprint in what they do. As with everything in life balance is needed. Lean is a key part of an effective, efficent and high quality company, but only part. Innovation is another part, but again only a part. The most successful companies combine both.

Submitted by Anonymous on
Take a look at Research in Motion who have been extreme proponents of Lean for the past several years. Given some of the most recent technology debacles and wrong-footing in both the Enterprise and consumer space there is no "plan B" to fall back on since that was "Leaned" out of existence. Many RIM insiders are citing that their Lean methodology in keeping R&D close to 6% has precluded their ability to react and adapt rapidly to changing technology and market forces. The long-term financial outlook for RIM is grim at best right now unless they get acquired by a less-lean organization.