Lean Six Sigma is built upon the idea that process improvements like cutting waste and reducing variation create a more productive workplace culture and better business outcomes.
Six Sigma also works under the assumption that practitioners can define, measure, analyze, improve and control tasks within a process. Perfection is what you strive for – it’s an ongoing process that requires continuous development.
Sounds straightforward, yes? And yet many people, perhaps hesitant to make big changes or resistant to putting in the effort, latch on to persistent but untrue myths about Lean Six Sigma.
If you’re looking to put Lean, Six Sigma, or Lean Six Sigma into play at your company or have decided to further your education by earning a certification, expect to run into at least one of the following myths. They can become roadblocks to improving business performance but are easily removed with the application of facts.
Changing Culture is Too Difficult
Some shy away from the methodology because it works best when the company culture changes and it’s implemented at all levels of an operation. That seems hard. And yet, it’s not so difficult if everyone is presented with tested strategies that have repeatedly worked at other companies like Toyota, 3M and Amazon. Employees typically want to do their jobs at a high level. Lean Six Sigma supplies them the tools, techniques and strategies to do so. Success will lead to culture change if you stick with it.
It Stifles Creativity and Innovation
That’s simply not the case. As pointed out by Lean Six Sigma Black Belt practitioner (and rocket scientist) Brian Kornfeld, “Efficiency enables further innovation. It frees up resources, whether they be time or money. Efficiency allows you to get away from the status quo.” He went on to point out that “process improvement enables innovation, whether it is doing a job a new way or creating new products. Imagine a world where the innovators aren’t dragged down in the land of human mind waste and they are able to do what they do well.”
It Only Works for Manufacturing
Because Lean and Six Sigma began in manufacturing, many mistakenly believe they only work for manufacturing. That is not the case. While Lean and Six Sigma apply to production on the manufacturing floor, they also apply to services, software engineering, military operations and managing hospital inventories. Practitioners have shown again and again that applying the waste-cutting, mistake-reducing methods of process improvement can make any operation more effective.
It Only Works in Japan or America, not Europe
The Lean Six Sigma Institute notes that this myth surfaces with some regularity. That’s like saying math only works in the areas that once constituted Mesopotamia, since that’s where ancient Sumerians first started using mathematical principles. Lean Six Sigma works anywhere in the world where people use processes to accomplish work – in other words, everywhere.
There’s No Reason to Earn a Green Belt
Actually, there’s every reason to earn a Green Belt. It signifies to employers that you are serious about learning how to implement process improvement to solve complex business challenges. It gives you the skills you need to work on process improvement project teams, learning from Black Belts and participating in data gathering and analysis.
Lean Six Sigma Will Stress Employees
Some expect employees to get stressed having to learn a new approach to their work, but time and experience at companies in the past have shown that employees who buy into the process benefit from it by learning new job skills. They may also become concerned that making operations more efficient will lead to job cuts, but the skills they learn through Lean training make them more employable, not less.
Learning a new way to approach work should not be stress-inducing, it should be liberating. For those willing to commit to the implementation of Lean Six Sigma methodology in their organization, the resulting success is all the proof they need to dispel any persistent, lingering myths.
