Ron Pereira has over 12 years of experience using Lean Six Sigma and its tools. He was the first American to win the Nokia Global Six Sigma and Overall Quality Award. A certified Master BIack Belt, he now works as a Corporate Master Black Belt for a company focused on Lean and Six Sigma excellence.
He shares his experience and Six Sigma journey through his blog, Lean Six Sigma Academy.
1. How long have you been a Six Sigma practitioner/Black Belt?
I was first introduced to Six Sigma “thinking” while working for Motorola in the early 1990s. While I did not formally go through their Six Sigma program it was just how we all worked. I remember thinking that all technically oriented people used control charts and the like. I later learned this was not always the case. When I went to work for Nokia I went through their formal Six Sigma program. I started out as a Green Belt and progressed through Master Black Belt and Design for Six Sigma training. My MBB training was done by SixSigma.us and then later Air Academy. I now work as a Corporate Master Black Belt for a $3 billion company. We are smaller than Nokia for sure, but have an excellent Lean and Six Sigma program. All in all I have been around Lean and Six Sigma tools for around 12 years.
2. What made you decide to go Six Sigma?
Hmmm… good question. I have always been into technical stuff and since I worked in various engineering roles using data was a must. Once I started my formal Six Sigma training I realized I knew many of the tools but had not always applied them at the right times.
3. What benefits so far are derived from it? Could you quantify them, even in terms of percentage?
My green belt project at Nokia saved $2.2 million dollars. I also used the tools to reduce inventory by millions of dollars while with Nokia. I also have done lots of work with suppliers where I saw defects reduced which enabled the supplier to win and we also won since we shared the savings. That, in my opinion, is the true spirit of continuous improvement.
4. What is the most difficult part in the deployment/implementation? Can you describe briefly your Six Sigma initiative?
Change is never easy and Six Sigma and Lean change can be even harder. Of course management buy in must exist. If that is not there it is like pushing on a rope. You also need to have a solid plan and excellent training material. At Nokia we started off with consultants and then slowly developed our own program. The same is true for my current employer.
5. Do you have consultants?
Not anymore. As I mentioned earlier we did use consultants in the beginning but now Nokia is self sufficient as is my current company.
6. What advice can you give to those who are thinking of going into Six Sigma?
Read lots of books. Choose a consultant carefully until you get up to speed then go on your own. Develop a strategy for why you are doing this. If possible, study Hoshin Kanri first and use that to help guide the deployment process. This may be seen as more of a Lean tool but that is just wrong. It is a policy deployment tool that anyone wanting to run a good business should use.
