Assignment-1

QEM-3104

Failure of Six Sigma: Common

Submitted by: Submitted to:

Six Sigma is a production optimization program which includes a set of methods and tools used in

business to have continuous improvement by reducing variations and increasing effectiveness in the

process. It mainly focusses on increasing quality step by step so that we get only 3.4% defects per million

products or units we produce.

• Origin of Six Sigma and Why to implement it?

Bill Smith created Six Sigma in 1986 when he was working in Motorola. He is also known as Father of Six

Sigma. In the early 2000s, the company was struggling for quality issues in their products for which they

are facing customer dissatisfaction and business failures. Then comes this American guy, who introduced

six Sigma and by implementing DMAIC (Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve and Control), Motorola was

able to assess mean causes of the defects and then they implemented changes which dramatically

improved the production process, eventually increasing quality products and customer satisfaction. As a

result, Motorola was able to regain its value in the market and improved its long-term reliability.

It then further adopted by Jack Welch, chairman of General Electric, an American firm. A tremendous

increase in the revenue was generated by the company increased to 376%, quadrupled over 20 years.

He witnessed four phases of transformation General Electric (Reconstructing, Rebuilding & Foundation,

Growth & Culture, Six-Sigma implementation). Jack Welch said that Six Sigma changed the DNA of six

sigma as the incredible outcomes proved to be a boon for the company.

• Dark side of Six Sigma

Six Sigma had not been sustainable in all organizations like Motorola, General Electric observed a hit in

the profits but over a period, these companies have failed to sustain its advantages in the production

process. If not implemented or supervised correctly, it can have disastrous consequences. The upcoming

points will highlight the main common reasons that may lead to failure of this quality management system.
 1. Improper management: - Due to lack of dedication and support from organization top

leaders to a Lean Six Sigma implementation, it may become the reason for its failure.

Every person working at a management positions and stakeholders even at lower levels

should contribute to six sigma in a company.

2. Lack of training: - Employees may lack education to implement or understand the

importance of six sigma due to which they were not committed to the projects, or they

may did not have adequate recourses to implement the strategies in the business. Also,

companies didn’t have alternate control on the employees who were quitting and leaving

jobs.

3. Incorrect project selection: - In some companies, leaders just focussed on wrong areas

which were outside the sphere of the particular focus of the business, leading to either

delaying or cancellation of the business projects.

4. Unreliable processing methods: - After some time, companies no longer test and

validate the test methods before launching as they were gaining success rapidly, they

started to trust their strategies blindly and did not bother to test it. Additionally, they

mostly focussed on little issues associated with the business to make a possible plan for

six sigma.

5. Inappropriate policy implementation: - A plan of action is required to have organisation

goals and the projected results in the proper alignment. A Lean Six Sigma is sustainable

in companies if they follow a strategic policy and a course of action. Organisations lack

this plan installation in their business, resulting in the failure of six sigma.

6. Misleading team: - Business employees after a certain period started to lose interest in

the six sigma as now restricted to change themselves or they just gave up on their

projects. Team face challenges to find enthusiastic people to solve the problems at an

actionable level. Also, the people involved in the projects now did not have proper

communication and collaboration among all the parties involved.

These points are the general observation that what went wrong with the six-sigma trend and the common

reasons behind its failure.

1. Motorola: - It is a founder of six sigma, aimed to lessen defects and boost profit in its

merchandise but it failed to sustain its benefits and marketplace percentage because it

focussed extremely on efficiency and used six sigma as a tool to avoid creativity and

innovation in the products. Motorola used six sigma in each process and product without

even considering the need of that situation. Also, six sigma was originally made for

manufacturing process and Motorola began to try it on software development which was

a wrong step as it is more challenging and creative process as compared to

manufacturing. As a result of this blind approach, Motorola failed in the management role

and lost its place to modern rivals like Apple and Samsung.

2. General Electric: - GE carried out six sigma in 1986 but it also dropped its popularity over

the years as it did not comply with the changing marketplace and customer choices. This

business took six sigma as a constant standard and did not considered fluctuations in the

marketplace as well as change in customers needs or interests. GE enforced this data

driven strategy rigidly and have way much inflexibility and rigidity in the implementation.

The reason behind the failure can be attributed not to completely integrate six sigma in its

company culture and it failed because proper culture is required to meet company goals.

They saw six sigma as a separate initiative instead of taking it as a part of business. The

popularity of the six sigma began to decline and the fortune of the company diminished

drastically.

• Conclusion: -

Six Sigma was not successful in every business as it failed to sustain its promised consequences and

comply with the business needs. According to a professor of Columbia, Eric Abrahamson, this quality

management approach spread widely all over the nations in manufacturing companies, financial firms and

governmental agencies. Once it gained popularity like a fashion, people started to lose interest and their

attention towards six sigma has been significantly declined. It is important to avoid mistakes that Motorola

and GE did because a smart modern technology requires companies to have continuous rotation of

procedure and skills and work creatively in the business, not just only focussing on the quality.
References: -

1. Rahman, A. (2023b, May 16). The Dark Side of Six Sigma: A Critical Analysis of Its
Failures and Lessons. LinkedIn. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/dark-side-six-sigma-
critical-analysis-its-failures-lessons-farooq-
2. Malik, W. A. (2023, February 15). Dark side of Six sigma: Disasters caused by over-
reliance on quality control methodology. LinkedIn. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/dark-
side-six-sigma-disasters-caused-over-reliance-waqar-ahmad-malik
3. Baumann, B. (2023, September 12). Examining lean Six sigma failures [7 common
causes]. Panorama Consulting Group. https://www.panorama-consulting.com/lean-six-
sigma-failures/
4. Mendoza, J. (2023, March 6). A brief history of Six sigma. Six sigma DSI.
https://sixsigmadsi.com/a-brief-history-of-six-sigma/
5. Sood, M. (2023, November 18). Why Motorola and GE failed after using Six sigma?.
LinkedIn. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/why-motorola-ge-failed-after-using-six-
sigma-manik-sood-3gvqc
6. The top reasons why lean six sigma projects fail. YouTube. (2021, November 10).
https://youtu.be/LHw2K2oVkGM?si=tyoUKG0QIhBPF1ei
7. Is six sigma dead? GE CEO Jack Welch’s secret of success: Lean manufacturing
methods. YouTube. (2020, April 16).
https://youtu.be/fIBE3ixQTPY?si=l8rDEgAUUlNY8ZyS