Thomas A. Myers April 14, 2014 Many organizations look to Lean Six Sigma (LSS) in order to meet bott...

1. Assess the Maturity of an Organization to Realize Process
Improvement Success
Thomas A. Myers April 14, 2014
Many organizations look to Lean Six Sigma (LSS) in order to meet bottom-line expectations or even
just to survive in a competitive business climate. After being enticed by the potential of a LSS
program to dramatically improve business performance, leaders often dive head-first into a
deployment.
Unfortunately, they may not understand that as an organization they are far from mature enough to
utilize LSS in a meaningful way. When the LSS program does not come to fruition as expected
(whether expectations were realistic or not), it puts a bad taste in everyone's mouths for quality
improvement practices.
For a more positive experience with process improvement, a company must first assess its maturity
level in regard to quality management.
Stating the Obvious
On average, approximately 94 percent of all quality management implementations fail. That statistic
can be argued, but suffice it to say that the number of implementation failures is extraordinarily
high. The greatest factor in failure is a lack of organizational maturity in quality management
systems and trying to implement far above a company's current state.
Should an organization seek to reduce variation in a process when it has not established standard
work for that process yet? The answer is obviously "No!"
But one of the questions that most leaders fail to ask is: Should I be seeking to implement LSS
projects when none of my team members understands how to properly manage a project? The
answer is a slightly less obvious "No!"
These questions and answers may seem obvious to anyone within the LSS universe, but they are not
obvious to an uninitiated organizational leader.

2. A Quality
Management
Maturity Model
To get the biggest
bang for its buck
and have an
effective
implementation, a
company needs to
be clear on where it
is starting from on
the quality
management
maturity scale, and
thus where effort should be expended. Leaders can identify their organization's maturity level using
the model shown in the figure below.
Quality Management Maturity Model
This figure shows a clear progression in quality management processes, with one process building
on the previous process once competency is reached at any given level. Notice that Six Sigma is at
the far right; tackling variation should not be contemplated until the vast majority of waste is
eliminated from the system. In most organizations, there is not just low-hanging fruit, there is fruit
lying on the ground that will rot if it is not picked up and used.
Focused waste-reduction projects should not take place until employees are properly trained to
manage projects under the constraints of time, cost and quality - which become the areas for

3. targeted Lean projects to reduce time, eliminate costs and improve quality.
From a business perspective, what would an executive in a business that is thinking about starting a
quality program see? There will be a cadre of those in the organization that hold sway because they
represent the organizational knowledge bank for getting the work done - the way it has always
been done. And the way it has always been done is haphazard, and purposely so, as it provides
power to the cadre. Chaos is ever-present so that the cadre is able to regularly pull the organization
together to meet a deadline or back from a financial brink. The work areas will be cluttered and only
the cadre will be able to find what is needed.
5S
As shown in the figure, 5Ss (sort, straighten, shine, standardize, sustain) should be the first process
implemented so that everything involved in any given process can be put in place and itemized. The
cadre will fight this as a waste of time and intrusion into their work areas. A slowing in production
may take place until the cadre realizes that the quality program is there to stay. On the flip side,
there will be employees who want to see change as they have been victims of the cadre and will push
to accomplish the work in spite of any hampering efforts from the cadre.
Standard Work
The next phase is to hold multiple kaizen/kaikaku ("change-good"/ "change-great") blitzes, at least
one in each section of each department in the organization. These blitzes should be held prior to
training the majority of personnel in Lean so that teams can fully explore the nature of the problems
their divisions face in their current processes. All employees should participate in the identification
of what that work is and how to best accomplish it; the group as a whole can determine a final task
list of what will be the standard work going forward for each process. With those task lists
combined, a standard value stream will be mapped for all to follow.
The cadre will push back hard at this point as they will be afraid of losing control; however, they will
be unable to stop the momentum of the process improvement deployment. They may shut down
completely and self-identify as roadblocks. Other cadre members will identify as new leaders
committed to the process, and standard work will be set in place as long as the executive team show
unequivocal support for it.
Project Management
If the organization gets past the standard work stage, it is ready to be managed with a focus to time,
cost and quality factors as processes are developed and discrete projects are identified. The
organization can begin to be managed with a focus to time, cost and quality factors as processes are
developed and discrete projects are identified. At this stage, personnel can be trained in project
management combined with Lean. This is also where the design of the future state of the
organization can begin.
Mature Lean
With the future state clarified, it can start to be set in place through systems mapping, planning and
waste reduction. These changes will drive the bottom-line impact of the quality process and ensure
sustainability as the organization becomes mature in its use of Lean.
Six Sigma

4. Now the organization can tackle variation through the use of Six Sigma in the tracking and analysis
of outputs of tasks and processes to ensure that what the customer wants, the customer is getting.
As capabilities grow, new ideas identified from ongoing kaizen/kaikaku blitz events can begin to take
shape in an environment where Design for Six Sigma is built in from the start. This can drive
innovation, new revenue generating services and strategic engagements, aid in rapid deployment,
and will not cause disruption of existing systems and processes.
Summary
There are two battles to face in working through the quality management maturity model.
All executive leadership must be on board with the process improvement deployment.
The cadre members that become roadblocks to progress must be removed or co-opted.
How can the rest of the quality management maturity model be achieved? There are only three
words to focus on after that: training, training and more training!
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