Do your Lean Six Sigma Projects try to “Reinvent the Wheel?” (#9)




Once while I was on a project in Ciudad Juarez in Mexico, I visited three buildings that were all components of one institution. Each building was in a 300 foot radius of the other two buildings and each had developed their own organizational culture, programs, and Continuous Improvement agenda. The diversity in each facility’s Improvement efforts caused some alarm, so I did some digging to look for other hidden issues.

Amid the tour of each facility, I asked questions about the Continuous Improvement projects that each building was enforcing. The answers were incredibly similar between each business unit; proving that the difference in the processes each building was using was superfluous. Each facility followed a similar process and experienced similar problems with their projects. The crazy thing was that each of these facilities, all of which were part of one organization, engaged in Lean Six Sigma Projects to solve the problems they faced; but none of the buildings knew that the other two buildings were doing the same thing or that they were facing similar problems. They had no idea that the other buildings even had Continuous Improvement teams, much less that they were also working towards solving the same problems.

We see this kind of thing happen all the time. A Continuous Improvement Team needs to be integrated throughout the entire organization, but often we see that the CI Team is concentrated in one specific business unit, neglecting other units that need to be involved in the Continuous Improvement efforts. Limited communication and alignment between each unit causes strife and an enormous waste of time and resources when units are following similar processes to resolve similar problems.

This waste is often the result of a poorly planned CI Deployment that wasn’t initiated as a corporate wide project. Lots of organizations begin their CI efforts on the ground level in that the manager of that business unit understands the value of those efforts. When projects are successfully completed, Corporate leaders recognize the win and try to implement that CI initiative at the corporate level to trickle down into other departments. Because the Corporate leaders do not really understand how to develop those CI efforts towards the company as a whole, each department then spins their own type of improvement with potential variations outside of the initial scope.

So what do you do know? Where do you start? If you see similarities between your own organization’s Continuous Improvements and the story explained above, coordinating each Business unit’s objectives and processes may turn out to be problematic, especially if you are not on the Corporate level. However, creating a central database for Continuous Improvement Project Data will be a valuable asset employees on every level can agree on. When beginning a CI Deployment, you should always ask “have we encountered this problem before? If so, how did we solve it?” Without having a central database to store project information, it will be hard to determine if a solution to a current problem has already been found, especially if that problem and solution comes from another department. On our journey towards project solution, we find that “My Hawkeye,” a project management system. Below is a video that shows all of the benefits of the “My Hawkeye” program. Call us to help regulate your Continuous Improvement efforts.


About Six Sigma Development Solutions, Inc.

We are Certified as an Accredited Training Organization with the International Association of Six Sigma Certification (IASSC)

“The IASSC Accredited Training Organization (ATO) designation validates Six Sigma Development Solutions, Inc. has demonstrated adequate management systems, courseware with a high degree of correlation to the subject matter contained in the IASSC Bodies of Knowledge, delivery schema consistent with such content and highly qualified instructors.”

We Provide Public Lean Six Sigma Lean Six Sigma Green Belt and Lean Six Sigma Black Belt Certification Training Courses in 34 Cities across the globe.


We Provide Onsite Lean Six Sigma Certification Training. Some of the training's we provide are: Lean Six Sigma Black Belt, Lean Six Sigma Green Belt, Lean Six Sigma Yellow Belt, Lean Six Sigma Champions Training and Lean Certifications for Healthcare, Finance, I.T, Manufacturing, Processing, Logistics, Retail Sales and Government.

SSDSI will come to your site to train for your choice of the Lean Six Sigma Certification Levels. Onsite training is more cost effective than open enrollment training when training larger groups of team members.

Benefits of Onsite Training:

The Training is focused on Your Opportunities

SSDSI uses your opportunities in class (vs. generic examples)

You will get the experience of a seasoned Lean and Six Sigma Master Black Belt who will help mentor you while completing your Lean and Six Sigma Project

You can train up to 20 employees for one fixed cost (this cost includes courseware and the instructors travel & lodging)

Our courses are full of games, simulations, and active learning to help the adult learner

SSDSI can customize the training to meet your company’s particular training needs

For More Information Contact: Kevin Clay, MBB at 866-922-6566 or kclay@sixsigmadsi.com

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