Barry,
There is no doubt Motorola’s great efforts began in Phoenix. In fact I was recruited by Ted Williams, one of the people who brought Dorian into Motorola.
However, Bob Galvin has credited Bill Smith as the ‘father’ of Six Sigma, and I have no reason to doubt it.
As to Dorian’s methods, I believe they ought to be put into the context of the times. Few people had processor power, software, or time for that matter, as we all had responsiblity for making and shipping product, as well as characterising processes. It was the beginning in the sense senior management didn’t as yet know the possibilies, and I think it is to their credit they used a ‘mission accomplishement’ style of managment. Not the ‘top down’ management we hear about so often.
Later, most people who studied Shainin went on to study non- parametric methods and multivariate methods, when others didn’t bother – I wonder why!!!
A similar argument applies to Taguchi. A lot of people go around making various claims about Taguchi Methods. But when you look at their Taguchi design it doesn’t reflect the method at all, and the person has never attended a Taguchi training class!
When you ask the same person about the asumptions of DOE and Anova – they don’t even know! No wonder Dr. Harry’s Six Sigma is in decline – most of it is a crock!
If you provide me with an email, I’ll send you an article that may surprise you.
Cheers,
Andy
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