Do Six Sigma right

I use Six Sigma methodology in project management and database system design; it is a useful methodology, and so the article about the Six Sigma training caught my attention (Feb. 8).

Lean manufacturing that the city plans to implement typically calls for substantial changes in organization and work rules. Is the union aboard with that? I have not found any reference to it in the article which leads me to believe that the management is not aware of how Lean Six Sigma savings and improvements are achieved.

Also, none of the officials praising Six Sigma and talking about its necessity outlined any tangible and numerically expressible problems that the new approach is expected to solve; just to feel that Six Sigma is the right methodology is exactly a non-Six Sigma approach.

The training provider selection process is also questionable. The fact that Lasater trains Six Sigma for municipal governments while the local vendors “are only focused on manufacturing” is not a good argument. “Change agents” must be creative people capable of abstraction. If they are trained “focused on manufacturing” they should be able to translate the methodology to their environment; they should be trained in methodology, not recipes.

Peter C. Dolina

Veradale