I stumbled upon an interesting article on ezineseeker that says that Six Sigma is more than just number crunching. It is data-driven alright and analysis laden, but what makes it really work?
The article says it well.
…those who know Six Sigma have learned enough to be wary of excessive “number crunching” that does not lead to performance improvement. It is not the measurements or the reports that create solutions; it is the Six Sigma team itself. Once a problem’s root causes are determined in the analysis phase of a Six Sigma project, the team works together to find creative new improvement solutions. The data is used and relied upon—it is the measurements of the realities you face! Yet it is smart measurement and smart analysis of the data—and above all the smart creation of new improvement solutions and their implementation—that create real change.
Six Sigma is more than a data-capturing, number-crunching process. It is a philosophy and a methodology; it is a way of looking at business and a way of doing business processes. Six Sigma provides a structured data-driven methodology with tools and techniques by application of which companies can measure the baseline performance of their processes and determine the root causes of variations, as well as improve their processes to meet and exceed the desired performance levels. Six Sigma is a technique to introduce controlled thinking into a continuous change management method. It is a desire to constantly improve a product or service offered.
So for the naysayers out there, perhaps you need to reexamine and refocus your quality improvement strategies.
[…] Thus, the biggest challenge is really the people. In my previous post, I said that what makes Six Sigma work is the Six Sigma team, then this post validates that the same team is also the most challenging factor to address. […]