Lean Six Sigma For Dummies, 4th Edition

Chapter 22

Ten Pitfalls to Avoid

IN THIS CHAPTER

Avoiding the temptation to jump to conclusions

Knowing when to stop analyzing and start improving

Steering clear of common pitfalls and doing the right things right

This chapter describes things that can go wrong with Lean Six Sigma so you can avoid the common pitfalls. Our experience (over 25 years!) of observing many different organizations has allowed us to build a bank of knowledge of what works and what doesn’t. Read on and see whether these pitfalls are ones that are likely to affect you, and plan your approach wisely.

Jumping to Solutions

Many people 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 of the problem.

Shooting from the hip — or, in business, the all too common “shooting from the lip” — without collecting and analyzing the facts and data isn’t the best approach to solving complex business problems.

Lean Six Sigma involves ...