Six Sigma—The First 90 Days

4. Getting Early Support: Selecting a Six Sigma Provider

Here is the basic corollary in deploying Six Sigma. It’s probably a good idea to bring in a Six Sigma provider (consulting group) to add to your resources. I have seen few large companies deploy Six Sigma successfully when using only internal resources. Would you rather have a few internal people who have seen one or two Six Sigma deployments, or hire an external group with experience with a few dozen Six Sigma deployments? The consultants become variable cost rather than fixed cost. Even 3M, which had great internal resources, chose to use external consultants to kick-start their program. Because of 3M’s internal resources, they were able to internalize the program quickly.

Of course, ...