Page 44 - Lean six sigma demystified

Chapter 1 What iS Lean Six Sigm a ? 23

working all together. This early-success and later-failure syndrome affects all
problem-solving methods.
Throughout time, people have routinely found ways to solve seemingly
unsolvable problems. Edison invented the light bulb. The Wright brothers fig-
ured out how to fly. But to do this, they invariably had to invent new ways to
solve problems that exceeded the grasp of the old methods.
Fortunately, the methods and tools for creating and improving your processes
and systems have already been developed and proven in every industry. Lean
Six Sigma has a seemingly bottomless pit of tools and techniques to make
improvements, but I have found that a few key tools used in the right sequence
are all you need to start making immediate breakthrough improvements in
speed, quality, productivity, and profitability.
Every business has to improve the key aspects of performance every year
just to keep even with the competition. The only question is whether you’re
going to rely on the declining effectiveness of common sense and trial and
error or are you going to upgrade your ability to solve the stubborn, seemingly
unsolvable problems in your business? If you aren’t going to employ the proven
strategies of Lean Six Sigma Simplified, what are you going to do instead?
Turn your business into an asset that produces predictable results. Don’t let
your business run you. Aren’t you tired of dealing with the seemingly unrelated
problems that occur every day in your business? Haven’t you waited long
enough to find a new and improved way to plug the leaks in your cash flow?

The Universal Improvement Method

Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him
for a lifetime.
—Asian proverb

Regardless of the acronym used for describing business process improvement—
TQM, PDCA, DMAIC, DFSS, and so on—the overarching method is always
the same. My acronym for this method is FISH—Focus, Improve, Sustain, and
Honor. Few companies achieve success overnight. Companies that achieve last-
ing success do so by getting better over time. They’ve learned the secrets of
knowing how to FISH.
Life and business involve a series of incremental, sustaining improve-
ments punctuated by periodic, dramatic, and disruptive improvements.