Six Sigma Blog: Failure and Six Sigma

Failure and Six Sigma

— By Pushpa Sathish, Staff Writer 

Does the deployment of Six Sigma techniques mean that the organization is bound to achieve its objectives? Do Six Sigma initiatives ever result in a failure? If so, what are the reasons for the same? Mike Carnell provides answers to these questions on the ISix Sigma site.

First of all, he explains that no company will be willing to broadcast the fact that their Six Sigma implementation was a total failure, not after spending so much time and effort on it. Secondly, the word “failure” can be redefined according to the company’s terms. Carnell defines it as:

Anything that does not deliver the Return On Investment (ROI) required by the company for any other investment.

He also states that Six Sigma decisions are just like all others – if things do not go according to plan, tweak the plan a little according to the metrics that show up.
To see how Six Sigma deployments fail to meet expectations, follow this link.