Our experience in helping companies implement Six Sigma has led us to an inescapable conclusion:
Having excellent technical skills and the best technical solution is not enough to ensure successful completion of your Six Sigma projects.
By “successful completion,” we mean:
The process owner has accepted and implemented the improvement
The project has been through the control phase
The project realized the anticipated financial and/or effectiveness gains
The project was completed in a reasonable period of time, with minimum adverse effect on the team
We asked experienced Black Belts, Master Black Belts, and other Six Sigma experts to describe the non-technical issues that get in the way of successful completion of their projects. Here’s what we heard:
Getting team members to show up for meetings
Maintaining momentum on the team and keeping the team focused
Getting data from people
Gaining cooperation and support from various stakeholders
Convincing process owners to approve the change
In describing their ability to deal with these challenges, Six Sigma experts told us that they find these issues more challenging than those in the technical area (such as DMAIC or statistics) feel less well-prepared to deal with the issues