Page 179 - Lean six sigma demystified

158 Lean Six Sigma DemystifieD

with their pet solution to a problem and try to work their way back to the
data that will prove their solution. Too few people start from the data and see
where it leads.

The Repair Reduction Fiasco

I learned this lesson the hard way. While I was in the phone company, the
honchos started a big project to solve the delays involved in repairing phone
service. Over 50% of the calls to the company were for repair. If you called
on Monday, our repair service representatives would tell you that we could
have it repaired by 5 pm on Thursday. Three- and 4-day waits were not
uncommon. The old guard repair guys thought that they needed more staff-
fixing stuff. So they wanted the quality improvement department to prove
that they needed more people (pet solution). By the time I got assigned to the
project, they were well down the path toward this “solution.” We even had
an external quality-consulting group helping them do it at exorbitant fees.
This is one of the most common mistakes people make when faced with
defects. They think they need more people or they need to be able to fix
things faster. Wrong!
You don’t need more staff; you need less repair. If there weren’t so many
problems, you wouldn’t need to fix them!
But I couldn’t get anyone to listen to me because I was a quality guy; what
did I know about telephone repair? Didn’t I know that the conditions were
different in Seattle with all the rain than they were in Arizona with all the
heat? Of course I did; I knew that different regions would need different solu-
tions, but many would be the same. Sadly, I spent 2 months living away from

home trying to make that project fly. They brought in technicians from all
over the company to bring staffing up to a level they thought was needed. In
the end, it failed. Why? Because the management was trying to use Six Sigma
to get the answer they wanted rather than the answer the data were trying to
tell them.

tip Follow your data, not your hunches (or your honchos).

Too many companies get caught up in trying to fix it fast, when what they
really need is less stuff to fix. I don’t care how good you are at repairing your
product or service, because all of that time, money, and effort is non-value-added.
It has nothing to do with getting it done right the first time.