Page 35 - Lean six sigma demystified

14 Lean Six Sigma DemystifieD

Master the Top 4%

One of the principles of adult learning is that participants must use what they’ve
learned in 72 hours or they lose 90% of what they’ve learned. Most Six Sigma
training is done in a week-long format. This means that by Thursday, participants
have forgotten Monday; by Friday they’ve forgotten Tuesday; and by Monday of
the following week they’ve forgotten most of the previous week.
I know a lot of trainers are thinking “But we have case studies they do in
class.” I have found that unless people apply Six Sigma methods and tools to
their own work environment, it just doesn’t stick. Classroom case studies are
nice, but they won’t add money to the bottom line.
This should be unacceptable.
A handful of tools (the top 4%) like control charts, Pareto charts, and fish
bone diagrams will solve 90% of common problems with defects. If there’s a lot
of variation (I call it deviation because variation sounds too nonthreatening),
throw in a histogram or two.

Master these tools first. Then add the long tail of tools as needed. (Admit it;
that’s how your home toolkit grew: from a hammer, a screwdriver, and a pair
of pliers into a toolbox of gadgets.)

Use company data, not case study data, to tailor the learning to the partici-
pants. Using the company’s data, these tools can be learned and applied in a
day, not a week.

Learn the Trade, Not the Tricks!

In school, we learned reading, writing, and arithmetic, but we didn’t learn cal-

culus right out of kindergarten. We shouldn’t expect employees to skip grade
school and start college, but that’s what we’ve done with Six Sigma by covering
the long tail of tools—tools they will rarely use.
Let’s start teaching people how to solve common problems in their business.
Let’s make them successful with the top 4% of tools and then add the long tail
as needed. I run into people I trained 15 years ago who are still using these tools
in whatever job they’ve taken. When they pull their improvement stories out
of their desk to show me, I feel good knowing that the 1-day training stuck in
their skull, took root and flourished.
Let’s teach them the trade, then the tricks. It’s hard to make money in a
training business that way, but it’s a powerful way to deliver bottom-line sav-
ings and boost profits.