Key issues for the future of Six Sigma debated at latest User Group meeting

Lively, thought-provoking debate was the order of the day at the latest onesixsigma.com User Group Meeting (UGM), held this week in Oxford, UK. Issues that were enthusiastically discussed ranged from the validity of shorter time-scale projects, to the evolution of improvement thinking, the labeling and essentially branding of methods, and, ultimately, the future of Six Sigma.

Taking the theme of Creating a Continuous Improvement Culture, the day explored the synergy of Lean and Six Sigma through case studies of their application. It then evolved beyond that theme, as industries not usually associated with Lean and Six Sigma showed how they are developing new ways of thinking, where improvements can be made quicker and benefits realised faster, within the DMAIC structure of Six Sigma.

Jim Duthie of Rolls Royce and William Maloney of Betfair talked in their presentations about “quick win” projects they have introduced to their programmes, whilst Dee White introduced her Blitz Sigma methodology. Blitz Sigma projects typically last 20 days, and have yielded tangible results at UBS Investment Bank.

This generated an energetic debate, during Dee’s presentation and later in the Panel Session, about whether these shorter time-scale projects are portentous of an overall erosion of the rigour of Six Sigma, and if in fact other tools such as Kaizen are more suited to these circumstances. Alternatively, it was argued that this new thinking is an evolution of the methodologies, as they are applied to current business practices and taken into sectors with a different structure from those that Six Sigma, and – especially - Lean’s are historically associated with.

An example of how thinking differently and evolving concepts can be used to great effect was shown in the introduction the meeting had to “The Unipart Way”, an amalgam of Lean and Six Sigma crafted to create an individual philosophy and, certainly, an established continuous improvement culture. Mike Varnom detailed the 20-year improvement journey that Unipart have taken, from being part of an organisation with a reputation for poor quality in the 1980s, to recently being named the most visionary company in the area of organizational transformation in the UK.

There was, however, no dispute about the effectiveness of the tools that Lean and Six Sigma provide, and the meeting also provided the attendees with learning opportunities. Tony Fulford of Vodafone gave a tools session on Value Stream Mapping, showing just how dynamic and powerful it can be, whilst the Unipart team lead the attendees through a wickedly effective interactive game that simulated how bad processes can get.

Thirty-five organisations at the forefront of developing standards and best practice were represented on the day. In leveraging each others knowledge and experience in the open, confidential forum that the User Group Meeting provides, they are leading the discussion for progressing improvement and innovation initiatives.

As this was the last UGM of 2007, onesixsigma.com looks forward to continuing to bring together the leaders of Europe’s top business transformation and innovation programmes to share tacit knowledge, insight and new techniques on specialist applications and latest developments. One thing the debate this week proved beyond doubt was that through benchmarking and collaboration, the opportunity is there to learn, evolve, improve and grow.