Democratic Underground Latest Greatest Lobby Journals Search Options Help Login
Google

Six Sigma: valuable tool, or crock of shit?

Printer-friendly format Printer-friendly format
Printer-friendly format Email this thread to a friend
Printer-friendly format Bookmark this thread
This topic is archived.
Home » Discuss » The DU Lounge Donate to DU
 
bertha katzenengel Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Apr-27-08 09:22 AM
Original message
Poll question: Six Sigma: valuable tool, or crock of shit?
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
Wapsie B Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Apr-27-08 09:26 AM
Response to Original message
1. A way for MBA's to justify their existence in a corporation.
Edited on Sun Apr-27-08 09:32 AM by bushwentawol
edit: If you want to improve processes in a workplace get the input of the people out on the line, not those in a soft corner office job.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
TZ Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Apr-27-08 09:27 AM
Response to Original message
2. CROCK OF SHIT!!
Especially when applied to something that can't be standardized like biological processes!! GRRR. I had a big biotech decide that Sig Sigma was da bomb and made me and many other biologists totally MISERABLE with it.
I HATE SIX SIGMA!!!!:grr: :nuke: :mad: :puke:
Touched a nerve..can you tell? Seriously though, six sigma is okay I think in certain situations (engineering processes) but its totally overused and misused..the company that I worked for had a lot of ex-GE corporate types who just loved the whole thing..Ugh.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
Frank Cannon Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Apr-27-08 09:29 AM
Response to Original message
3. A crock of shit that uses a lot of valuable tools
There's certainly nothing wrong with the methods of Six Sigma, it's just that they're all wrapped in a package that is onerous to implement, does not lend itself well to some service industries, and that demeans itself by adopting adolescent "Mortal Kombat" nomenclature to describe its practitioners (Black Belts, Green Belts, etc. :eyes:).

The recent popularity of "Lean" Six Sigma has tried to correct some of the implementation issues, but there is still a lot of shit in that crock.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
TZ Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Apr-27-08 09:34 AM
Response to Reply #3
4. My company did "Lean" Six Sigma....
and to me that was even worse because it justified some truly miserly penny pinching ways---cutting back on lab supply budgets in order to train more green belts..and to hire more and more Six Sigma MBA's!
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
Frank Cannon Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Apr-27-08 09:43 AM
Response to Reply #4
5. Well, that's sort of defeating the purpose
Edited on Sun Apr-27-08 09:43 AM by Frank Cannon
I am of the opinion that quality initiatives should not, themselves, NEGATIVELY impact quality. A lot of people tend to forget that.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
lizerdbits Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Apr-27-08 09:48 AM
Response to Reply #4
7. That was the stupidest part
Q: Why aren't these reports going out?
A: You won't let us order more company letterhead until next quarter.

Q: Why isn't this testing completed?
A: You won't let us order those reagents until next quarter.

And don't forget the scrambling of an entire building to cram all the cell culture into 2 incubators because the purchasing of CO2 wasn't allowed.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
lizerdbits Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Apr-27-08 09:44 AM
Response to Original message
6. Mostly Crock of Shit
Edited on Sun Apr-27-08 09:44 AM by lizerdbits
Most of this can't be applied to life science. Cells, viruses, etc won't do the exact same thing on the exact same time schedule every time. If you want to harvest virus from cell culture you usually go by CPE, not by time (at least all the ones I've done) so you can't predict when it's going to be ready. You can make a good guess if you've worked with the virus before but it's not an absolute.

There were a few glimmers of hope in terms of streamlining processes (saving time is always good especially when they won't hire enough people to prevent 50 hour weeks while complaining you're working OT but by the way you need to do a bunch more work on top of it) but in the end the MBAs with no scientific knowledge wanted to implement faster but less accurate methods or processes that were not scientifically sound. ("So if you incubate at 37 for 1 hour can you do 1/2 hour at 60 something?" :banghead: ) They didn't care about accuracy, speed was the only issue. And it's not going to work at all with R&D. If you don't do things right you will no longer have customers, which according to the few people I still talk to there is now happening. Glad I got out when I did.

Geez, now I have a headache thinking about that shit hole again.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
RetroLounge Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Apr-27-08 10:20 AM
Response to Original message
8. i voted valuable
only because it's what my company does and because of it, it pays my bills.

but i never use it, i just write code for it,

:hi:

RL
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
ThomCat Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Apr-27-08 10:26 AM
Response to Original message
9. In theory, very valuable. As implemented, usually a crock of shit.
It's usually all show, with a healthy amount of power struggles for aditional authority, all to please the executives that something is being implemented.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
lizerdbits Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Apr-27-08 10:35 AM
Response to Reply #9
10. I've heard that a lot
It's often implemented incorrectly which makes people hate it. It sure made everyone in my entire department hate it. Except our old boss who was doing the "green belt" project which primarily was yell at us in weekly meetings to get better numbers so she could look good. Not a very effective way to make things more efficient but very effective in causing 70% of the staff to leave in about a year.

We'd all like to be more efficient and have more efficient processes but not when you're chipping away at quality/accuracy and treating people like shit.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
TZ Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Apr-27-08 10:38 AM
Response to Reply #9
11. Yeah thats pretty accurate
I was totally nauseated by the amount of sucking up I would see with regard to someone with a black belt..Yeah, taking extra training and getting a new title must make you smarter than you used to be!:banghead: :puke:
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
Pharlo Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Apr-27-08 12:12 PM
Response to Original message
12. As far as I'm concerned, ASQ (American Society for Quality) sold out
when it partnered with (or officially sanctioned) Six Sigma.

There are several other options which are just as good, and, as stated above, more applicable to some industries.

Yes, Six Sigma does have some useful tools companies can implement, but mostly, as an official form of Quality Management, it's a crock.

And, it's roots were based on the originator's study of martial arts, not Mortal Combat. The color rankings in Six Sigma are indicative of the rankings in a martial arts regimen.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
Frank Cannon Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Apr-27-08 12:55 PM
Response to Reply #12
13. Yeah, I'm aware of where the colored belts come from
And I still think it's juvenile.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
hobbit709 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Apr-27-08 01:05 PM
Response to Original message
14. I've worked at four different places that used it
3 of them are now defunct and one went from 24/7 production to to 1 shift/5 days a week with about 50% capacity.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
lizerdbits Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Apr-27-08 01:23 PM
Response to Reply #14
15. The one I worked for
Actually I worked at a nice company that was purchased by a 6S using company. After a couple rounds of layoffs of predominantly very experienced people (some had been there for over 2 decades and were therefore too costly to keep) and loads of people quitting they sold it for HALF of the purchasing price. I think the phrasing went something like "Not fitting into the *company name* model." I heard there was a BIG party when the news broke (I was out by then) although that didn't last long since the new management is apparently using the same tactics. I tried once to bring up the quality issue which was a HUGE mistake. MBAs know best about how to run labs so shut your mouth.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
GoddessOfGuinness Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Apr-27-08 02:22 PM
Response to Original message
16. I thought this was a copycat at first...
...and went looking for the thread about Sex Stigma
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
Cabcere Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Apr-27-08 02:24 PM
Response to Original message
17. I prefer Sigma 6.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
DU AdBot (1000+ posts) Click to send private message to this author Click to view 
this author's profile Click to add 
this author to your buddy list Click to add 
this author to your Ignore list Thu Oct 31st 2024, 05:51 PM
Response to Original message
Advertisements [?]
 Top

Home » Discuss » The DU Lounge Donate to DU

Powered by DCForum+ Version 1.1 Copyright 1997-2002 DCScripts.com
Software has been extensively modified by the DU administrators


Important Notices: By participating on this discussion board, visitors agree to abide by the rules outlined on our Rules page. Messages posted on the Democratic Underground Discussion Forums are the opinions of the individuals who post them, and do not necessarily represent the opinions of Democratic Underground, LLC.

Home  |  Discussion Forums  |  Journals |  Store  |  Donate

About DU  |  Contact Us  |  Privacy Policy

Got a message for Democratic Underground? Click here to send us a message.

© 2001 - 2011 Democratic Underground, LLC