One Size Does Not Fit All With Lean Six Sigma
Over the last few weeks, there have been multiple blog posts regarding the success of Lean Six Sigma in government agencies. More often than not, discussion focuses on the frustration with not achieving the potential of Lean and Six Sigma within public sector and military organizations. As a result, the people in these agencies, branches, etc. become complacent and begin to lose passion and a sense of urgency.
One of the interesting elements of
these discussions is when asked about the approach being used it almost
always smells of textbook solutions introduced by consultants or newly
trained black belts. While it is important to stay true to the
principles and tools associated with Lean and Six Sigma, it is just as
critical to realize that one size will not fit all with regard to the
roadmap for deployment. This was the original idea behind the formation
of Guidon Performance Solutions.
It is very common for
practitioners to try to duplicate the success of companies such as
Toyota, GE and others. Unfortunately this does not take into account
the unique DNA of government and service companies. It is often
problematic to simply take the tools and principles that made Toyota
great and drop them into a new culture and expect the same results.
(Not to mention that Toyota has a 40 year head start). To truly be
successful, practitioners must take into account the uniqueness of the
people, processes and technologies with service organizations and
develop a customized approach for applying the proven tools and
principles of Lean and Six Sigma. It is critical to consider the
following:
- People – service leadership practices and organizational culture can quickly derail a new initiative such as Lean and Six Sigma. Take the time to understand how to align the Lean Six Sigma roadmap to the unique behaviors and organizational rituals. Simply layering new activities and requirements on top of what currently is in place is sure to lead to failure and a struggle to integrate the new with the old.
- Processes – a process is a process is a process. But most non-industrial organizations feel their processes are unique – and in some ways they are correct. Take the time to understand why they feel this way and adapt the approach to gain buy-in.
- Technology – this represents a truly unique element of applying Lean and Six Sigma in services versus manufacturing companies. Industrial companies leverage technology to augment value delivery processes. In services and the public sector, technology is heavily embedded within operational processes or may in fact be the entire process. Leveraging LeanSigma Software Development, LeanSigma Project Management and Lean IT Operations to accelerate transformation of heavily IT dependent processes is critical to pace and success when implementing improvements.
The real message is to not entirely dismiss the arguments and skepticism of the organization but to instead find a way over, around and, if needed, through the cultural roadblocks to success. Indeed the future of the organization may depend it.
