Posted on 11/23/2011 6:52:42 PM PST by TitansAFC
In June, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich signed a pledge to adopt the Lean Six Sigma business management strategy in New Hampshire as a means to help eliminate the national debt by 2017, Politico reports. More recently, Gingrich spoke to the Heritage Foundation to promote the strategy while denouncing the new 12-member debt panel.
Additionally, Gingrich announced his plans to meet with other supporters of Lean Six Sigma to discuss ways to improve the U.S. economy.
"An intelligent Congress in a city that wanted to be intelligent would hold hearings, bring in the experts, figure out how to fundamentally change the government," he said, as quoted by Politico.
While Newt Gingrich has promoted the use of the business strategy Lean Six Sigma. the business management strategy, which discourages waste and fraud, is now gaining press coverage due to Gingrich and other politicians' praise, it has been used by business professionals across the nation for years.
Individuals who want to learn more about Lean Six Sigma have the opportunity to do so at many colleges, including Pennsylvania's Villanova University. Business professionals can earn a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt Certificate during a 16-week course, according to the school's website.
First make them do about a 20% budget cut, and THEN do zero-based budgeting.
Yes, it is one big step in a process of cost-cutting and efficiency.
You have to add 'honest' to the adjectives for testing. I really doubt whether you'd get any non-engineering government agency to honestly test themselves. The primary self-test for government agencies is $$ spent, the more the better. And that's not something Newt is going to be able to change.
The problem isn't to get government really efficient in what it currently does, but to greatly reduce what it does and to be some what efficient in the reduced work load.
Six Sigma is for people who have no idea what the definition of innovation is.
Really people if it was about process then Apple would have died when the iPhone 4 had reception problems. But people understood the INNOVATION and were willing to put up with a few bumps in the road.
“You have unintentionally revealed that you do not know what Six Sigma is.” Let me guess....Cain supporters?”
ok smart ass seeing as you like to get personal, what you got.
I am a six sigma black belt and I can tell you as an expert what six sigma does best is build bureaucracy and yes it does require consensus. I know of one major company almost destroyed itself obsessing six sigma, and I worked in another one for 24 years that became so process bloated it almost cant function. Innovation and the ability of individuals to make decisions died because its a “follow the process and meet your metrics” world.
Having said that, there are good problem solving disciplines within the six sigma model but as I mention before what always overwhelms its value is the bureaucracy that springs up processing the process.
I can only imagine what a cluster “F” the government would turn six sigma into. Oh and by the way you can be six sigma green and still build crap..... Its been proven over and over. oh an by the way you can be a Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award winner and build a lot of crap too as long as you just do it “following the process”.
Zero defect, Deming TQM, Six Sigma, Lean, been there done that most have been dumped for the cost of the process. The new buzz is “Affordability” which will share a similar fate in a year or so. Thank God I am retired and don’t have to play those BS “next best thing” games anymore.
Too much ivory tower.
IMPORT TARIFFS!
Enough trade theory. Stop this “free trade” stupidity.
Exactly. You cannot make the beast more efficient at beasting. You need to kill or shrink the SOB. And yes, that also applies to the military, although I think the military does better than most.
Making government more efficient appeals to those who, in their heart, like Newt, think government is the solution.
The one thing I do know about Sigma Six is that Unionistas Hate it. And that tells me much!
Do you have any idea how many schools have begun or are moving to provide laptops for each student? At least 25% nationwide. Some gimmick. Newt was not clueless, just ahead of his time.
Informed skepticism is healthy. Ignorant negativity, not so much.
Disappointed that Newt gets caught up in this--among all the problems of government, efficiency is the least of our worries. The leanest, meanest, most efficient agency in government can be made a lot cheaper by shutting it down altogether.
Further proof that Newt thinks the only thing wrong with our government is that he is not running it. Instead of trying to make programs and departments more efficient he should propose eliminating them.
Oh, so 25% of schools have laptops? Well, then, it must be a good idea. 100% have children using calculators instead of learning to do basic operations of arithmetic. So, that must be an even better idea? Correct? Test scores are skyrocketing? right?
Laptops are an expensive fad that do not address the failings of the government school system.
Newt is prone to gimmicks. The problem with the federal budget is not the lack of the latest business systems, it is unconstitutional, wasteful programs that need to be eliminated, not made more efficient. Six Sigma is just a way for Newt to avoid talking about what needs to be done. Why? Because politicians don’t want to lose the votes of people whose tax loot will be taken away.
“Looks good on paper but doesnt work in real life...typical Professor teachings...”
Really? Ever successfuly deploy, oversee, or participate in a Lean Six Sigma program?
Your statement is completely false. If it can transform already relatively competitive US based mfg operations, it will go light years further in the federal government.
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