Lean Six Sigma For Dummies

Chapter 20

Ten Pitfalls to Avoid

In This Chapter

Avoiding the temptation to shoot from the lip

Knowing when to stop analysing and start implementing

Steering clear of project traps and doing the wrong things right

Of course you want your Lean Six Sigma programme to be a big success. The approach has been around for a while now, so you can draw on a wealth of experience, some good and some not so good. This chapter describes things that can go wrong so you can avoid the common pitfalls. We share our experience of observing many different organisations and building up a bank of knowledge of what works and what doesn’t. Unlike some doomsters who never seem to have a good word for anything, we certainly don’t want to put you off. So read on and see if these pitfalls are ones that are likely to affect you.

Jumping to Solutions

Many managers seem hard-wired to jump straight to a solution when presented with a problem. In action movies, everything works out in the end and the hero makes the right decisions in a split second and lives on for another day (or film). Unfortunately, business life isn’t quite the same: knee-jerk solutions can be costly and can fail to address the root cause ...