About "Lean" / Quality at the speed of Light !!!!!!!

Six Sigma was Exciting, not becuase it delivered results, cause of the complexities it could offer. The way it made you think, about the work you did and the way the output varies when hands change. Service Industry and Six SIgma are like distant relatives, Six Sigma talks about reduing variation, where in Service industry breathes on the fact that, things change, people and outputs vary.Might be that the methodology is effective but the way it was delivered was not right, or the people who delivered it came from a pile of rusty metal pieces (Manufacturing Quality Gurus).

Projects run on processes that are not stable, tools used just because they are supposed to be used, though known assignable causes exist process behaviour charts made with meticulous efforts, the methodology became a drama for me and just a livelihood for the key actors. Goal statements, as vague as "Improving Cutomer Sat on MS Vista product Series ", being such a big "Y", it sounds easier to take up a "Project to eradicate poverty in Africa". Project Owners show a blind eye to the part that people resign, hands change, Policies and buisness outlook changes etc.

But Lean, was supposed to be different, a methodology much more practical than, Six Sigma. With an open mind and lots of Enthusiasm, I attended the recent trainings. The trainer was too boring but Still I thougt the methodology was not. Somewhere or the other it talked about stuff which everyone who loved thier work would like to see working. "Cut the crap and do the job" was the slogan. The methodology spoke about avoiding sources of waste, through certain methods which was tested and had tasted success. About not doing stuff that you were doing currently cause the customer was grumpy / your leadership lacked balls, It spoke about avoiding work that did not add value ( Most of the meetings and Calls. The methodology sounded like common sense put up in powerpoint.

Implimentation part came, and along with it came the baggages. People who where intereseted in getting the PPT's in place, in getting thier data on time. Implimentors who never realized the importance of involving / Explaining the executors on what these meant (Jazzy presentations / Tools & Templates) / how would it help them in the days that come. Are we not interested in actual results, why do projects make very less impact on the ground, Is it because of the urge to put it up on the presentations. Lean can make huge impacts but for that we need people who can walk in with enough Charisma, who can drive and change Mindsets and Behaviours. People driving these initiatives, tend to spend more time answering thier Boss, than analyzing the ground realities, Filling in Excel sheets with data that has been populatd on the basis of educated guesses / Calculated risks. Does understanding the ground realities slowdown the project pace, then let it, cause the pace that we portray is vague, the impact the project would leave will be nothing.

Let's stop being hypocrats, let's do stuff so that the guy on the ground is benifited, not cause my promotion will be in place or my boss is pleased. Let's value the brains behind these methodologies and let's do it so that we learn and the change benifits the customer. Lakhs of rupees thrown away on these sessions must actually enable us to make lives easier. Here on the ground you sit back at your desk for another three hours filling in sheets and forms !!!!!!!!!