A Statement (Made by Me) Which You Can Consider for Use

Dear Dave

A statement (made by me) which you can consider for use: “Six Sigma is remarkable. It has made managers start to adopt simple and efficient methods that managers have needed desperately since these methods were new in the 1920ties.” (I think especially on SPC and simple DOE.) Please feel free to modify the statement if you should want to use it.

Another theme you can consider is: (Again, you are free to improve my English and add/subtract/change the below as you want.)

Similarities and differences between Six Sigma and Deming’s philosophy

Similarities For most cases where Six Sigma and Deming’s philosophy have been successful, the following has usually been common. - An engaged management with strong personal involvement in, and support to, the implementation of the improvement strategies and the further improvement work. - Encompassing educational programs, including theory and practical coaching, by persons who have as well strong theoretical background and wide practical experience. - The education has had strong elements of “human skills” like teamwork, presentation ability, communication and coaching, empathy, ability to listen and convey, create enthusiasm and similar things. (This is often called Soft Six Sigma Skills.) - The core in the education has been a strong ingredient of scientific methods, with special weight on (relatively) elementary statistical methods for development and improvement of products, production processes and administrative processes. (Hard Six Sigma Skills.) - Special weight on selecting improvement projects having large potential for savings or increased earnings by innovation. - Willingness to provide sufficient resources, including time for those involved, for education, training and improvement work in addition to daily work. Sometimes key improvement persons have been totally released from their daily work for shorter or longer time. - A systematic way of coordinating the improvement activities.

Differences - Deming “sold” his philosophy to managers by claiming that if a company succeeds with the quality work, the profit will come by itself. In Six Sigma, on the other hand, it is focused on how the improvement work influences on the “bottom line”. This is done by making budgets for all improvement projects in question, and only go for those that have a surplus budget over a certain amount, typically $50.000.

Comments: - Deming may be right in that profit will come by itself for a company that succeeds with its quality work. On the other hand, project budgets with a considerable surplus is more likely to convince managers to go for the improvement work than just stating that profit will come by itself if the improvement work succeeds. This is especially the case if most of the former projects are performed according to budget or better. - Elementary DOE, in the form of factorial and fractional factorial designs, plays a minor role in Deming’s philosophy, while it is a main cornerstone in Six Sigma. The main cornerstone in Deming’s philosophy is SPC, which also plays a major role in Six Sigma. Thus, given the enormous potential of DOE, Six Sigma should have an even greater potential than Deming’s philosophy.

Further, I assume that you have looked up on the web site of GE (www.ge.com) in order to find things about Six Sigma there. There is quite a lot of interesting statements, some of which may be of interest in connection with your presentation on Thursday.