Yes, but laziness and inefficiency are just that, however you tart it up.

That is very attention-grabbing, You're a very skilled blogger. Groomes http://get-ri.com/magazine/2012/07/lips-sealed/

The CEO of the company I now work for said recently that he would fire anyone who suggested implementing Lean here - quite refreshing having been 'leaned' out of my previous organisation who are still in a state of 'continuous decline' rather than 'continuous improvement'.

Ever get a trash bag to line your garbage can, a brand you've used a dozen times before, only to find it now is too thin to handle your trash?

Likely a Six Sigma project determined that reducing the thickness of the bag would only bother 20% of the purchasers while saving 25% material costs.

Or have you bought an assemble-it-yourself item that was short a screw? Rest assureded someone else has extra hardware.

And that the manufacturer has done a Six Sigma "product improvement" study on that item.

Notice how, unlike 10 or 15 years ago, no company publicly brags about using Six Sigma? It's only internal bullshit, now.

I love 6 sigma!
But then again I am an anally retentive micro-manager with a god complex who believes his staff are about as useful as a bag of wet mice and who really gets-off on business paraphernalia such as presentations and graphs and pointless calculations due to the enormous feelings of self importance which they generate. So I say "bring on the next half baked business idea, I cant wait".

"For people that waste time on sites like this it is not popular"

I guess that's you then... Knob

For people that waste time on sites like this it is not popular

The quicker the world dumps this junk the better.

Having had the pleasure of working through a 6-Sigma workstream one thing is for sure - the process itself is not 'lean'.

It does not work in manufacturing either. The only thing I have seen with Sig Sigma is the companies using it beat up their suppliers and expect discounts every year. I was told we should be able to lower our prices every year if we were involved in Sig Sigma. My response was that eventally we could just give them their supplies. It is used for the wrong reasons like taking advantage of their suppliers and that is where the savings come from, not the program.

Lean 6 Sigma is a sure sign that an organisation has become too big and inflexible. The best way to increase productivity is to split the organisation up, sack upper managemnet and give everyone a fixed term (max 3 years) employment.

5S is the mother of all jokes.

In the good ol’ times 5S was just a normal part of the culture in my lab in Switzerland, viscously enforced by a ferocious, well respected “Technischer Assistent” (technical assistant).

No need for an overpaid consultant.

All this does is cost the company tons of money to suppossedly "save" money.
in my company we are now implementing ideas to get rid of the "time and Cost" saving ideas people have implemented. Six Sigma is a scam and a huge waste of comapny time! Lazy employees spend the day 5s'ing areas insted of working!
the big joke at work is when someone 5s's the area and tags items we actually need to work. It shows you how often those employees actually work on anything.

look here for what I feel is the truth about 6 sigma

http://www.qualitydigest.com/may00/html/sixsigmacon.html

That's awesome.

Six Sigma is great if, like Toyota, you want to make exactly the same (faulty) part over-and-over again. When working with the accuracy implicit in pharmacological methods and inherent variability between biological systems the only 'sense' it makes is nonsense.

Where is he now?

If you plot the rise in R&D costs and falling productivity, these correlate exactly with the demise of science and rise of 'project managers' and 'business development partners'in pharma R&D.The accelerated terminal failure correlates with the introduction of lean sigma.

If Christopher Columbus used six sigma the local black belt would have the cook, the guy that scrubbed the decks, the cabin boy, and every member of the crew that didn't know how to use a compass or astrolabe select a direction to sail in. Then the ships would sail for a couple of months in each of those directions to see if anything turned up while towing the only guy that knew how to navigate behind them in a dinghy with his mouth taped shut. When the expedition failed blame would be placed on the ship builder and the black belt would expect to be knighted for his failed efforts.

I've seen 6 Sigma used to help qualify a process under development. T-tests let us compare results from instruments sold to customers vs under development. I've also seen 6 sigma as a replacement for thinking, such as fishbone diagrams. It's great for helping new people to the industry learn about problem areas; however, it makes no sense for very experienced people to draw such diagrams when they already know which 5% of the instrument to look in. There is no guarantee someone designing a test will do it correctly. Sometimes you just have to be like Christopher Columbus and set sail with a compass and astrolabe.

Lean 6 Sigma doesn't work. In reality it probably doesn't even exist. However as long as there are so called "experts" in the process to spread their propaganda about how much it is needed then there will always be some idiots to take it up.

I guarantee in 5 years this business equivalent of Feng Shui will be dumped and people will be saying "what was that all about".

I had a similar experience. Significant variation in I-D assay performance after a new line was commissioned. I was pulled from R&D to look at at the problem. A quick look showed it was cyclical. A few tests showed cyclical variation in aspiration depression. I recommended changes which cured the problem.
My reward? Pink-slip. Promotion for the Dancing Wu Li Masters though.

What I saw of six sigma in action.
Our company made a cheap compound useful to a Very Large Company (VLC) that was willing to pay through the nose for it. The first few full scale batches were fine but started to vary after that. VLC required that the problem be fixed before they would commit. Enter the highly regarded six sigma ‘black belt’ expert (BB). Started by putting a dozen or so people in a room for hours every day. People that designed the compound and did scaleup were included but only allowed to observe because their knowledge would “contaminate the process”. No one but BB was allowed to see the raw data from different builds. Colorful graphs that rehashed this data over and over in slightly different ways were shown and everybody that knew nothing trotted out possible causes. Most were nonsense but all were studied.
A quick and reliable functional test was available but since functional testing was forbidden under six sigma BB decided to measure a physical characteristic of the compound to determine its quality. The characteristic had nothing to do with the compound’s performance. It was also almost impossible to measure reproducibly for this kind of molecule. This was pointed out to BB and ignored. Things spun in circles for months as BB threw blame at suppliers, testing equipment, people doing the testing, etc. with increasing desperation.
Eventually VLC threatened to drop the project. BB finally released the raw data and let the experts look at it. It took about 10 minutes to notice that good batches weren’t randomly distributed, as six sigma statistics assumed, but clustered around certain dates. Dates for times of the year that had similar temperatures. A short walk showed that the reactor was in a room that was not insulated. When the manufacturing folks were asked to demonstrate the setup it turned out that a connection for temp control on the very expensive reactor had broken after a couple of builds. It hadn’t been reported because no one wanted to get in trouble. In the manufacturing mindset since some batches still worked the problem couldn’t be the reactor. A trip to the local hardware store solved this but by the time enough batches had been made to prove the point VLC found an alternative and the project was cancelled. Valuable technical staff that solved the problem in a day or so were laid off but BB kept his job.

Lean six sigma is a process for fraudulently pumping stock prices and nothing else.

Ah Lean 6 Sigma, the science of the completely bloody obvious.
Still there are always some management teams looking for a new training course on something or other.

I could not agree more. The basic ideas behind (L)6S are great, but they need to be modified for pharmaceutical R+D.

Using Minitab to understand what goes wrong in, for example, plate based screening is plain stupid.

While it is true that in 'theory' six sigma is just the application of a simple statistical idea, in 'practice' it is something quite different. First, the statistics require a Gaussian distribution and the law of large numbers to even make sense. When you manufacture a million widgets, then maybe six sigma makes some sense. When you put this into a large corporation, with 'orders' to make it work or 'else' and then apply it to everything, then you get nonsense. And, I would argue most of the Black Belts and other propagators of this don't really have a clue what it's all about. When you have a hammer, everything looks like a nail. And that's a good part of the problem.

As an an ex-GSker, I can tell you that it was applied with all the predictable stupid effect. And the predictable waste of time. It was even worse in IT than in R&D. Sure, once in a while it will make a difference, but really how often in R&D do you make a million widgets. Where it did prove useful - once in a great while - is forcing people to examine what they do and when you have good people, they'll see the necessary changes in those situations. If only managements would let them make the obvious changes.

I have little respect for the Black Belts, many of whom only had a tentative knowledge of the basics and who were just doing it to advance their careers at yet another management fad.

As usual, it's all about common sense in R&D and knowing one's craft and experience and how many middle and upper managers get caught in fads. Bad management is bad management and it doesn't matter what latest idea comes along, they will pervert it. If you read the threads in Biofind, the theme comes along again and again - poor management getting in the way of doing the work.

Bottom line: Six Sigma is about reducing variation and only reducing variation. Anyone who says this is a "bad thing" has likely experienced a poor project manager or Black Belt. While Six Sigma certainly involves statistical analysis, etc. it is all about the project manager (MBB or BB) and that person using both analytic and people skills to generate positive outcomes.

More specifically, well-accomplished project managers know how to use different tools for different projects and are not about "always using the t-test because I was trained that way." More specifically, for biologics, I can almost guarantee that if you use Six Sigma design for experiments, you can likely save money and time and generate the same or more meaningful outputs that trying to design an all-encompassing experiment.

Bottom line: Let's talk poorly about failed project managers, but not about a theory that is genuine and effective when used correctly.

More American bull.

leam and six sigma can work even in a r&d and biologics environment, the only issue is that the minset at the location also wishes to adopt it.
There is a thought process that believes that if you implement lean and six sigma all your troubles will be solved, you will lower costs and be more profitable. If you believe this you are very mistaken
The implementation of a lean program is to ensure the material flows through the process, this includes all processes not just manufacturing (r&D, purchasing, project management, sales etc).
Once the flow has been maintained then you ensure it is sustained, and this is the hardest part as people tend to more back to old habits.
Once you have a sustained lean process then you adopt a six sigma program to reduce the variation within the processes, adopt a reporting mechanism and monitor the process. Then you will start to be more proactive than reactive and you will see processes heading towards instability before it hits critical mass.
On the subject of biologics it it true that one mg of raw material may have different yields depending on the process, however if the process if consistant and in control you will have a consistant product with variable yields, this would just be the nature of the process and an entity you would have to live with.
I have to agree that most SSBB are idiots, and I can relate to that having worked with many, but there are benefits to a lean six sigma adoption it just in that manner its adopted

There was a Black Belt at AB in Austin who was without question the dumbest SOB on the planet but great at washing the site director's car.

LOL "insidious tool" - a good description of the Black Belt at our place!

Been there, had success, but also had overall control of unit.

In principle, Six Sigma is a reasonable process control methodology. What it does not do is fix or even consider disingenuous and dishonest management.

- Clever middle-managers dumb down process steps to trick the system, resulting in the confusion of both rank and file and senior-management.
- Senior-management politically add new process to shape the organization in their favor.

Perhaps worst are the belted ones who push to implement process in areas where higher level thinking is required to produce reasoned and flexible responses.

My experience at an immuno-diagnostics company not a million miles from South Wales was that six sigma did the wrong thing perfectly every time.
Some smart assholes became black belts and got nice promotions as a result.
Plenty of of 'Just in Case' or 'Just too Late'. But no 'Just in Time'.
Big reliance on stats but no understanding of process mechanisms, which are complex with monoclonals.

I think the most interesting observation is that Six Sigma itself is approximately a One Sigma process.

Oh, so that explains what happened at Becton Dickinson when the CFO from AZ brought his brilliant ideas resulting in cost cutting, layoffs and general demoralization. All expertly executed as the stock craters to low 70 from a high of 90. Nice job.

Look, lean and six sigma principles are meant for and only applicable to characterized operations, e.g. manufacturing. Any attempt to apply them to something like research is misguided at best, retarded at worst.

Well, it works great in a traditional manufacturing environment - not so well with biologicals. You really need an expert with an open mind and employees that are willing to try something new to make it work. BTW, Lean and Six Sigma really are not the same thing and shouldn't be lumped together. Lean is shop floor - worker - driven while Six Sigma is more top down - management - driven. I personally think both *can* work, but it takes a top to bottom commitment - that is rarely present - to make either work.

We tried to implement at a CRO, failed miserably. I left a few month later for other reasons and found out about 6 months or so in they had laid off all the green and black belts.