Top 5 Lean Six Sigma Deployment Errors

If you have been impressed by the success of Lean Six Sigma’s implementation in your industry and want to reap the same benefits for your company then you have made a well thought out choice. Effective use of Lean Six Sigma practices lead to positive results for the company often in terms of increased employee productivity and higher customer satisfaction.

However, businesses in some cases have failed to make the best use of Lean Six Sigma. They have not had the success that other firms in similar conditions have been able to achieve. Studies in such cases have shown overwhelmingly that businesses make certain repeated errors in the program’s deployment phase. What are these errors and how can you overcome them, we explain in this article below.

​1. Lack of Leadership Support

Management, in its efforts to implement Lean Six Sigma forms a specialist team and then leaves it on them to complete the implementation. This approach does not take into account the comprehensive nature and scope of a change program such as Lean Six Sigma.  
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It is important that the top leadership communicates to the entire organization the importance of such a program and brings employees’ opinion even from outside the specialist team into the implementation’s fold.

​2. Incorrect Strategy

It is very important during the deployment phase to choose a strategy that lines up the goals of each involved department with that of the overall organization. A correct strategy would also help in driving the objectives of the company towards its long term aims.
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A lack of alignment between strategies, however, may cause confusion among the key stakeholders and reduce the value of the entire effort.

​3. Focus on Certification

When a business selects existing employees for the implementation of a project such as Lean Six Sigma, they are often sent out for training and certification in the program. Having qualified resource is important for the project to be successfully installed; however this also creates a chance for the implementation process to slow down.
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Teams that are selected should be made aware of the goals of the organization and the higher management should regularly monitor the progress to guide the implementation phase smoothly.

​4. Wrong Project Selection

The selection of project that is critical to the business is important. It is surprising to note how many projects are chosen simply because it is convenient to implement Lean Six Sigma practices on them; or because a certain project had lofty goals which would look impressive in the eyes of the higher management.
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Choosing such projects is not optimal for business’ success. In fact a project too ambitious could completely fail the implementation process. The project selected should have viable impact on the business. 

5. Continuing the Journey

Although we have called it the implementation ‘phase’, what management sometimes forgets about Lean Six Sigma is that it is a continuing journey and not a destination. The resources involved in Lean Six Sigma should realize that the philosophy of this program asks for continuous improvement. We can always learn from our mistakes and reduce our inefficiencies.  

If you wish to learn more about the system of Lean Six Sigma, please check out LearningManager Lean Six Sigma.