Does Six Sigma stifle Innovation?

I believe six sigma training is an inevitable part of a company's success but does not provide innovation.

It provides the knowledge and skills needed to minimize defects and allows high quality goods to be produced.

The affect of attempting to make a higher quality good can spark innovation but six sigma alone does not. Six sigma and innovation are two mutually exclusive ideas that once combined lead to a successful operation.

I'm a Black Belt since 7 years and I had the opportunity to work in several project and areas:; manufacturing , supply chain, customer loyalty and R&D projects. Apparently it could seem that the rigid structure of six sigma may limit creativity and innovation, but actually is not . A simple exercize like brainstorming in improve phase is very creative. Pattern breaking tool usage during brainstorming also help a lot in generating ideas out of the box. The main problem i see in six sigma projects is that people have the tendency to close in the office and work alone in the project, this could be the real limit. In fact innovation to me mainly start from the team, idea comparison and from the ability of the belt to create a smoothing environment of open mind and cooperation.
regards,

Claudio Luppi (Polyurethane Systems - Analytical)
E-Mail:LUPPI@dow.com
Dow Italia s.r.l.
Società soggetta all'attività di direzione e coordinamento
della The Dow Chemical Company

Six Sigma is merely an approach, a set of tools and change management techniques to stabilize a process.

When put in the wrong hands and not integrated in an overall vision and company strategy it becomes a catalyst for status quo. Improvements, for the sake of improving, leads to lack of focus, clarity and direction and in the end, status quo or decline.

My experience is that if a company sets up a new six sigma organization to improve the rest of the organization, the leaders must carefully define the profile of the new organisation, project sponsors, future Blackbelts and Master Blackbelts, and clarify the career benefits of exposure to change and change management techniques the Six Sigma organization offers.

Unfortunately some practicioners are using six sigma tools to hide their lack of creativity and thereby becoming bad ambassadors of process improvement thinking as laid out by great thinkers like Demming.

Alex Rotenberg

I agree with the statement about six sigma practitioners tending to have more left-brain strengths, but six sigma is a team-based method which does not depend on the Belt producing all the ideas. The main problem which limits both six sigma effectiveness and innovation is the fact that some managers see initiatives as a substitute to doing their jobs properly. The initiative then becomes the mirror and excuse for the manager's incompetence. Only very poor awareness of cause and effect allows this transfer of blame from manager to initiative to be credible, but it seems to be common, and not just related to six sigma. So the conclusion is, don't change the methodology, change the manager!

The question of whether Six Sigma stifles Innovation is really a matter of apples and oranges. Six Sigma is a structured problem solving methodology, heavily weighted in analyis of course. Innovation is a creative process. A culture that embraces Six Sigma to solve problems should not conflict with an organization that seeks to improve innovation and creative thinking. The question is not how to measure innovation, the question is how to use a structured approach to collecting the innovative ideas and transforming them into reality. The Improve Phase of the DMAIC cycle is about brainstorming solutions to the clearly defined problem...isn't that innovation? Creating a Future State Value Stream, if applying a Lean approach, is about creative thinking. The well know TRIZ concept is in fact a method to structure the innovative process, not to measure it, but to ensure the results of the innovative process can be captured and actioned. Even artists need a tool to bring their ideas into reality. Six Sigma and Innovation don't clash, they support realizing solutions.

Jeff Book
Director Six Sigma and Lean
Procise GmbH