Comments on: Is Six Sigma an Enemy of Design?

By: Marcos Teles

Marcos Teles — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 02:07:08 +0000

Six Sigma or Lean Thinking is to improve established process. Design Thinking is to create new products or services.

Many of people are focused on the established processes. Theses represent the most part of a dally job of workers. Of course it depends of the industry/department we are talking about. In a car plant, for example, how many workers are focusing on creating in a new car? None, most of them are assembling the product. The only way to contribute “creatively” is by improving the process. That why Six Sigma (Lean) is so strong in corporate culture. Most part of work is repeated processes. Only few people are focusing on creating something new.

On the other hand, design thinking contributes on areas such as like customer services, product design and marketing. These areas are focused on creating new things, on what is coming next.

Unfortunately, most companies tend to emphasizes only one of them. The problem is when they want to apply the wrong approach to group of people. Once Design Thinking becomes as know as the Toyota way of work, the companies will start to embrace it. Both of them will life together It is near! It is coming soon.
(sorry by any english mistake, i’m brazilian)

By: Dan Walker

Dan Walker — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 14:22:50 +0000

Thanks for the comments. People ask me, “How many projects have you done since becoming a black belt?” My response is always the same. I look them in the eye and say very seriously, “all of them!” For me, being a Six Sigma practitioner is not about filling 3 inch binders with reports, studies and powerpoint presentations. Being a Six Sigma practitioner is about driving positive change within an organization with a clear focus on what the customer wants to buy. I use all of my training in everything I touch.

By: DT

DT — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 09:41:36 +0000

@Dan: Perfect analogy, there is a minimum size or critical project mass before 6 Sigma is needed. The problem I had was our projects were just too small for all the tools required.

By: Dan Walker

Dan Walker — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 18:55:33 +0000

Six Sigma is actually a philosophy that I believe can be summed up in the following statement. “If the customer is not writing checks for it, do not do it.” All quality and process improvement systems drive toward this basic thought. The problem with some applications and practitioners of six sigma is that they seem to feel that tool use is an end unto itself. It is like a carpenter that feels compelled to use all tools in the tool box for every project. If you need to cut a 2X4 in half you need a saw not a hammer, screw driver, drill, etc also. Keep in mind that if your goal is efficiency there is no better place to start than to identify what the customer wants to pay for and focus on that.

By: DT

DT — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 15:05:12 +0000

@ruix.z: Thank you for your comment. Indeed, companies rely on efficient production lines to survive, and hence the objective of this article is to ensure both processes work together. But expand on your point of "incremental innovation", to say that the reality of the bulk of Industrial Design is such work. @Michael: Thanks for the link, and a good discussion on how Six Sigma and Design process can work together. @sam: Great descriptors, perhaps I may add, for the "interpretivist" paradigm of qualitative research vs. the empirical or positivist paradigm is really about an informative vs evaluative data. Design requires informative data to help guide us along, where as Six Sigma evaluates results looking backwards for improvement. I'm no expert in Six Sigma, but perhaps the simple way I look at this is perhaps the best way, no?