Feds may unleash Six Sigma on Terrorism

USA Today ^ | 10/30/2002 | Del Jones

[VaBthang4]

At a time when fighting the war on terrorism has become arguably the most important issue facing the USA, authorities are looking into an unlikely weapon to aid their fight: Six Sigma.

Six Sigma is nothing like a laser-guided smart bomb but rather a statistics-heavy regimen of analyzing problems that has saved corporations billions.

[joesbucks]

You're right about the Nazi's. At a plant I used to work for, we became ISO certified. Sure enough, those who wanted power but were powerless under previous management schemes became ISO nazi's and got their power. Actually, they became insiders to the top. It was a relatively small company so they had access to the corner office. Problem was they didn't understand the scope of what they were reporting and the CEO took them literally and then shot the person who they were reporting as nonconforming. Funny, but the program to save us became the program to undo us. We became so tied up in our shorts with procedures and documentation rather than simply running a business that we are now closed.

[Lion's Cub]

Here's a really novel concept:

Control the borders. Control immigration. Investigate muslims to weed out the militants.

[DainBramage]

LOL My training was mostly in "Hell, we can caulk it".

[eno_]

It's great for repeatable processes where observing procedure (and, in greater depth, identifying effective and ineffective procedure) is important - like processing visa applications and airport security. You literally could not manufacture chips these days without using some form of statistical quality analysis.

It doesn't work very well on more open-ended problems. Measurements of software quality are mostly a crock. Bugs per KLOC is just voodoo, since you have no way to measure what those lines of code do. So it takes some intelligence to discern where you can use six sigma. Most software projects fail because the engineers are in over their heads.

[blam]

"Most software projects fail because the engineers are in over their heads."

Yup. I had the same experience with 'chip' processing and eventually had to hire statisticians to teach the engineers. (Which was a little 'touchy' in the beginning.)

[The Duke]

Now that I think of it I purchased a USB computer mouse by GTE and have yet to find a computer on which it will work.
So much for "Six Sigma" and/or TQM.

[The Duke]

I can see that you've had your own TQM indoctrination! You know we've formed a group..."Adult Children of TQMers". There's also an international organization "TQMers Without Borders".

[bvw]

Paging Doctor Demming!

Oh boy oh boy oh boy oh boy oh boy oh boy ...

Are we all at six sigma yet?

[Campion]

It is legitimately one of the driving factors behind GE's worldwide success.

Well, the part of GE I used to work for (before they laid me off, I mean) was "worldwide successful" right into the dumpster, and has now been sold. We had Six Sigma all over the place. What we didn't have was a marketing organization that could (a) come up with insightful ideas for products that real customers would want to buy; or (b) get beyond the infantile, "Everything bad here is engineering's fault!" fingerpointing stage.

Six Sigma, TQM and the like are wonderful tools for identifying processes, systematizing them, documenting them, and subjecting them to planned improvement. They don't substitute for innovation, imagination, insight, intelligence, or any of those other "i" words.

[bvw]

The Six-Sigma Nazis are far worse than the most fanatic ...

Van bag thang!

[txhurl]

...were powerless under previous management schemes, became ISO nazi's and got their power....

Oh, man. Seen that. Once you give 'em the 'controlled' and 'uncontrolled' documents stamps, they're God, spending 80% of their time in meetings with nice catered lunches.

....and then shot the person who they were reporting as nonconforming.

That, plus you lose great people who tire of the terrorism and go elsewhere.

We became so tied up in our shorts with procedures and documentation rather than simply running a business that we are now closed.

That's terrible. We survived ours, (it's for the customer!) and our idiots who became ISO9002 experts went on to implement it elsewhere, at 2-3X the money we gave 'em.

I could be wrong but I don't think ISO, SS, TQM, etc implementations would do very well in political environments such as the FBI, CIA, etc.

[bvw]

Pawn thou be, when in Six Sigma, thou see
Anything but the bad dogs that herd a wild bunch.

Itself it is nothing more the lights changed in the linen mill.

[edwin hubble]

Six Sigma...probably a key to GE's great culture of management.

I have spent a one-day orientation session on Six Sigma at GEFA in Richmond.

Very Impressive... for how it drives the staff (team) and for how it links decisions to results.

If I had to describe it to the uninitiated..
all the best of Deming, Drucker, Covey...and down-to-Earth good common sense... all wrapped up in a very sound package.

[RightWhale]

Anybody remember Zero Defects?

[bvw]

And where is mighty JAPAN INC these days ... Demming was smart guy, but reality is smarter and harsher than any wiseguy. Procedures are the bane of responsibility if they are raised before it. A responsible man can well use procedures, the procedures of a responsible man can tame an irresponsble one. Yet worshipping procedure and forcing that the only responsible action is following procedures, gives quick rise to a long era of entrenched irresponsibilty when irresponsible men learn that responsiblity can be indefinitely avoided by the easy adoption of YET MORE PROCEDURE.

Hai Domo, Genji Procedure-biti! Hai domo right over the cliff of the blind lemmings.

The Truman's Atomic Bomb didn't beat Japan half as well as Demming's Quality Procedurating did. Please excuse pidgin nip-speak.

[Tennessee_Bob]

I may have to join. I was on the original TQM team for my squadron at Nellis. Had some interesting meetings, good donuts - but they weren't really interested in the suggestions we had to meet. The leaders of the project had their own agendas.

[edwin hubble]

bvw...your post#52

"Pawn thou be, when in Six Sigma, thou see
Anything but the bad dogs that herd a wild bunch.

Itself it is nothing more the lights changed in the linen mill."

The enigmatic style recalls the cryptic posts of the famous (and shadowy) Freeper Quidam (a 1998-99 era Freeper with unique turn of phrase).

OK...let's parse this one...
The bad dogs are... led by Jack Welch?
The Wild Bunch is... the GE board?
and the new GE lightbulbs are on in the linen mill?
... does GE have a linen division?

[edwin hubble]

I certainly agree that Japan's deeply entrenched culture of honoring procedure above results, and of following established routine has held them back from growth in the past 10 years.

The procedures-substituting-for-decisions is seen in their ossified approach to decisions in the game of baseball.

[Doctor Raoul]

Sick Sigma, is that like the Hong Kong Dong?

[bvw]

It's dong-less. Prone to the Invasion of the Cult of Management by Sisterhood.