Process methodologies have been shown to offer no significant information, and the old methods of process improvement are still the best.
If there is one process improvement tip I would give to everybody, it would be to ignore process methodologies. At one time, to say I was a big fan of ‘lean six sigma’ would be something of an understatement. To me, it was so powerful that I could never understand why everybody else did not think the same as me!
“How on earth could anybody ever dream of not applying this stuff?” I thought. I would eventually find out, and not become disillusioned so much as taught never again to accept any process methodology at face value.
I read a study titled “What Really Works” in the Harvard Business Review in 2003, where several methodologies were compared to find which, if any, worked the best. The conclusion was that there was no improvement at all – at least none that were statistically significant. This surprised the authors, and also surprised me. These great new ways to reduce costs and improve profit margins turned out to do nothing.
The old ways are still the best so here are some tips for you in case you are inclined to believe what I once believed.
- Process methodologies such as lean six sigma, BPR, BMP, Re-engineering and TOC are fads that are no better than the proven method of investigating and analysing processes all the way through with the objective of improving their effectiveness, saving money and saving time and effort.
- Methodology no longer means anything: leave it and stick to empirical means of process improvement. Statistical analysis may offer data but makes no difference to the processes themselves.
- Evaluate your quality standards and redefine them. Then apply the new standards to your products and services and to your processes. Tighten up your process specs, and observe the results. Process improvement can be achieved, and no matter how good the performance is there is nothing that cannot be improved. Process methodologies will not achieve that.
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