Lean Six Sigma For Leaders

Final Thoughts and a Warning!

Sustaining Lean Six Sigma – moving from a programme to a culture

As we have seen in this book, Lean Six Sigma contains an extremely powerful set of principles, tools and methodologies which can be deployed to eliminate waste, streamline processes, enhance customer experience and improve safety, quality and productivity. It can also provide both top‐line and bottom‐line benefits to business performance.

There will also be people benefits in terms of improved capability, increased decision‐making authority and greater influence on workplace organisation and standards. When done well, this extends to a genuinely heightened sense of involvement and engagement in shaping the future of the business, where ideas from all sources are encouraged, implemented and recognised in pursuit of a common goal.

However, there is a risk that Lean Six Sigma deployment does not lead to a lasting culture of improvement: after the excitement of the programme ‘launch’ and the euphoria of early success, projects begin to stall without strong sponsorship or adequate resources, attention of senior leaders is diverted to more pressing matters elsewhere or the next ‘shiny new thing’, and the focus on culture change diminishes: meanwhile Lean Six Sigma is left in the hands of designated experts, other business priorities impede progress and, over time, the momentum dies and results fade.

So, given the power and the potential of the tools, why do many improvement programmes fail ...