A few months back, there was some controversy over innovation and Six Sigma, and that some say never the twain shall meet. Some quarters say, Six Sigma stifle creativity or innovation, others say Six Sigma improves innovation.
Perhaps the company that is most associated with innovation and creativity is 3M. For years, too, we know that 3M has been an advocate of Six Sigma, until a new leadership says otherwise.
In my previoous post, I even hinted that 3M should not abandon Six Sigma at all in favor of innovation. Now, an article on Design News says that 3M will not be using Six Sigma on its R&D efforts, and probably for good measure.
The new chief at 3M, George Buckley is not an anti-Six Sigma guy. In fact, he’s a strong proponent of lean Six Sigma in manufacturing and supply chain. However, for 3M, he believes that Six Sigma will find better use for transactional activities rather than for research and development.
Further, 3M will still be using Six Sigma DOE routinely in basic research and 3M researchers still use elements of DMAIC toolset. In fact, 58,000 projects at 3M have used some element of DMAIC and more than 55,000 3M employees have achieved the minimum level “Green Belt” training since the year 2000.
Source:
Design News, a Six Sigma Zone featured link
*Photo from Stock.Xchng
I blogged about this topic here:
http://learnsigma.com/innovation-six-sigma-disaster/
Innovation is about creating, capturing and delivering value and doing it with passion. Without reliable processes and Six Sigma, however, the risk is that innovations will remain an unfulfilled promise. Clearly, both reliability and creativity are needed for sustained success, though they place conflicting demands on business leaders.
I thought so, too, Ron! But I think this is a case of to each his own. Every company does what it thinks is best for them. All we can do is pray that they choose the right methodology for them. Good post over at Learn Sigma!