Newt Goes Bold

National Review ONline - The Corner ^ | August 16, 2011 | Andrew Stiles

[Cincinatus]

Following his blistering critique in last week’s debate in Iowa, former House speaker Newt Gingrich still thinks the newly established deficit “supercommittee” is one of the worst ideas ever conceived in Washington. In a speech at the Heritage Foundation today, the embattled presidential candidate put forward a host of ideas that he believes will yield far better results. “I’m going to say things that are very bold,” Gingrich warned the audience at the onset. “Boldness is sometimes exactly what we need.”

Indeed, Gingrich went after what he described as Washington’s “intellectual” deficiencies, meaning the inability to embrace sweeping changes that are desperately needed. In particular, he wants the federal government to adopt the waste-cutting “Lean Six Sigma” management philosophy embraced by many of the world’s leading companies, such as IBM.

[Cincinatus]

I used to have a lot of respect for Newt. I thought the "Contract with America" was a great and innovative idea. Now, Newt is becoming a sad parody of his once trailblazing self. "Lean Six Sigma" is simply moronic management voodoo, an outgrowth of the idiotic "Total Quality Management" that sent the price of defense and aerospace systems through the Roof of Affordability.

It would be better for all of us if he just went away.

[ozzymandus]

I wish newt would just go home and write more books about how smart he is.

[VictoryGal]

Oh Newt. You are so beyond done, pal. The fork has been stuck in your RINO butt so many times. When will you get the message?

[Huck]

Newt fancies himself the Jack Welch of politics.

[rhombus]

It would be better for all of us if he just went away.

Newt goes bald! It would also be better for all of us if he just went bald. ;-)

[andy58-in-nh]

Lean Six Sigma (in which I am certified) is a powerful series of business methodologies that are proven to reduce costs, eliminate waste, improve efficiencies, reduce production bottlenecks and streamline manufacturing operations. Both lean manufacturing and the Six Sigma process methodology have been used by thousands of companies worldwide with documented success. The requirement for accurate quantification and documentation at all stages in the process is what helps makes it successful.

The fact that such methods are sometimes misused by poor managers (sometimes in concert with corrupt government officials, as with defense contracting) does not invalidate the science behind it.

[gov_bean_ counter]

Maybe he should have gone French Roast...

[marktwain]

Some of Newts ideas are great. This is not one of them. Lean Six Sigma is a system designed for industrial operations. Government is not an industrial operation. My experience with Lean Six Sigma in the Army RTD&E program is that is an incredible waste of time and energy.

Total Quality Management had a couple of good things going for it. Usually, these Dilbertesqe management programs have at least a kernel that is useful or can be adapted. In Lean Six Sigma, I do not even see that kernel, at least, not where I work.

[gov_bean_ counter]

Black belt?

[bigbob]

Yeah, fine, Newt - you got spunk.

But as Lou Grant told Mary Tyler Moore: “I hate spunk!”

And anyone who wraps themselves in the failed dogma of “Lean/Six Sigma” is just showing their stupidity. Just ask anyone in corporate America...

[sand88]

In particular, he wants the federal government to adopt the waste-cutting “Lean Six Sigma” management philosophy embraced by many of the world’s leading companies, such as IBM

He calls this bold??? It is beyond lame. Poor Newt doesn't understand the evil our Republic is enduring.

Hey Bold Newt, trying eliminating entire departments (Education, EPA, DOE for starters) and firing large numbers of Federal bureaucrats. Hey Newt that is the Bold our Republic requires to survive. Newt is going nowhere.

[sand88]

The fact that such methods are sometimes misused by poor managers (sometimes in concert with corrupt government officials, as with defense contracting) does not invalidate the science behind it.

That is correct. However, it has no relevance to the evil facing us. The boldness needed is to outright eliminate departments and fire large numbers of government bureaucrats.

At all levels of government, sadistic humans are becoming more emboldened to harass and burden the productive class. The parasite class in government needs to be eliminated and forced to get real jobs.

[Moonman62]

Lean Six Sigma (in which I am certified) is a powerful series of business methodologies that are proven to reduce costs, eliminate waste, improve efficiencies, reduce production bottlenecks and streamline manufacturing operations. Both lean manufacturing and the Six Sigma process methodology have been used by thousands of companies worldwide with documented success. The requirement for accurate quantification and documentation at all stages in the process is what helps makes it successful.

Blah, blah, blah... No offense, but the way large American companies become more profitable is to eliminate American jobs.

I'm a fan of Deming. His methods work, and he actually cared about workers and their job security. Sociopathic and narcissistic executives could care less.

[PGalt]

That is correct. However, it has no relevance to the evil facing us. The boldness needed is to outright eliminate departments and fire large numbers of government bureaucrats.

At all levels of government, sadistic humans are becoming more emboldened to harass and burden the productive class. The parasite class in government needs to be eliminated and forced to get real jobs.

BUMP! I liked 6-sigma as it was being rolled out in my plant (automotive) about 6 years ago. I was about 6 years ahead of the roll-out as I developed a matrix for tracking and reducing defects (finding root cause) and standardizing/refining measurement techniques which lead very higher sigma (reduced variability) in the statistical analysis charts.

As for "root cause" of our troubles and everyone elses? DEFUND socialist collectives, foreign and domestic...and UNaccountable bureaucracies.

It's the socialism.

[christianhomeschoolmommaof3]

I thought the headline said “Newt Goes Bald”. And I thought well there goes his chance for the presidency and my heart was glad. :)

[HerbieHoover]

Newt goes bald!

That's what I thought it said.

[SouthernBoyupNorth]

Lean six sigma works in INDUSTRIAL setting when something is being Manufactured. I agree with that. What does the government manufacture? Nothing. In my experience unless its manufacturing or actually PRODUCING something LSS is nothing more than a way to empower petty little piss pot dictators and keep the status-quo while squashing Ideas from below.

[andy58-in-nh]

Green belt - currently qualifying for black. I specialize in project management, group facilitation techniques and designing quantitative data collection tools. I also love dogs, Delta blues, and Texas barbecue. ;-)

[andy58-in-nh]

Lean Six Sigma works in service environments, too, where something of value is produced, but in a more abstract fashion (e.g. - an insurance policy).

But you're right about government and I was thinking about exactly that this morning listening to Dear Leader's latest economic idiocy. What might happen if government was really run like a business and bureaucracies were made to define their goals, organize their departments efficiently, validate their functions, gear their output toward real-time demand?

In most cases they can't and won't - because their incentives and institutional imperatives all militate toward inefficiency ...which is why most functions of government must be privatized.

[andy58-in-nh]

I studied Deming beginning 30 years ago, and keep going back to his work with Toyota. There are several reasons why many American companies are losing their way, but at the root, they all have to do with perverse incentives, largely created by government fiat.

In the American marketplace of the '50s, Deming argued that the last resort of business ought to be layoffs; unrealized efficiencies abound that make labor reductions unnecessary and in many cases unwise - due for example to the loss of irreplaceable talent and institutional "memory".

Wage arbitrage (moving jobs and production centers to foreign locations in exchange for lower labor costs) is not always a bad idea, but it has been terribly exacerbated by high taxes, onerous regulations, a predatory legal environment, poor public education systems and outright corruption among the Ruling Class. We need to make America truly free once more and hospitable to innovation. Then we will have jobs.