Page 106 - Lean six sigma demystified

Chapter 2 Lean Demy S tifie D 85

they are all trying to convince themselves that it works for someone else, but it
can’t work for me because I’m different.
Everybody wants to feel special, different, and unique. Get over it! From
a purely process perspective, every process has suppliers, inputs, processes,
outputs, and customers (SIPOC).
If your internal or external customers experience any kind of defects,
mistakes, errors, delays, or slowness of service, then you can use Lean Six
Sigma make your business better, faster, and cheaper before someone else beats
you to the punch.
Or you can just hope for the best and pray that your company survives long
enough for you to get a pension and benefits. But, according to Shell’s study of
corporate longevity, few companies live longer than 40 years. And why not?
Hardening of the attitudes, inflexibility, and failure to adapt to an ever-changing
world.
You can either lead the pack or struggle to catch up. Stop pretending that Lean
Six Sigma won’t work for you. Stop pretending it won’t work because you’re
special; you’re not. Figure out how to adapt it to your business. Reduce delay,
eliminate defects, reduce costs, increase productivity, and enhance profitability
before your global competitors get ahead of you.
In the early 1900s, most people were engaged in agriculture. But farming
has been simplified, automated, and streamlined so that only 1% of the people
are required to do the work. Then people moved into factories which have also
been simplified, streamlined, optimized, and automated and now offshored to
less-costly workers. And now people are migrating into services which will be
simplified, streamlined, optimized, and automated, and offshored (e.g., call
centers in Bangalore).

If Toyota can build cars in the United States using Lean Six Sigma principles
as well as they can do it in Japan, then the problem isn’t geography, the problem
isn’t process. It isn’t Lean Six Sigma methods or tools; it’s mindset. Change yours
before a crisis changes you.