More 6 sigma Disasters at Ford

great accuracy of statistics (10,000 black belts 0-) … someone’s still handling numbers the way our ancestors handled them in the middle ages … welcome to 2007!

Or could it be that Ford’s Design/MFG. community continues to ignore robust DFMA, creating generation, upon generation of ugly, unreliable pieces of crap?
 
Doesn’t matter how many BB’s you have, if Sr mgmt doesn’t listen to them and makes cars (if you can even call them that….) with the poorest reliability of any domestic mfg’r??

Let’s face it – streamlining processes and increasing efficiencies aren’t concepts embraced by a Unionized workforce.  I think they were set-up for failure from the beginning.
 
Plus – Six Sigma was introduced by Jacques Nasser during his reign – not sure home much Bill Ford embraced the methodology after he booted Jacques in 2001 (or was it 2000?).

The snale oil salesmen will always scratch for excuses for all the six sigma failures.  Ford was training thousands of black belts well after 2001.

There is a robust solution that many companies use these days  .. subcontract … to Toyota managment!

Over 9.3 million cars recalled in the last three years.  Engineering forgetting to put a child restraint system in the front passenger seat (oops)- a requirement for when the air bag is turned off as recommended by NHTSA for children.  Head of Toyota making a public apology to the employees for their poor quality.  A full time quality guy brought back from Toyota Europe – first time in their history they have assigned a full time quality person.  Hmmmm . . . seems Toyota has its own problems being the end all be all of car manufacturing. 
Might want to read the article in Business Week to see how the vaunted Toyota quaity has fallen on its face.  There is also a lot of customer provided evidence on their blog on how Toyota service issues are denied, ignored, and dealt with through service directives (with no notification to the owners), instead of doing a general recall, as is expected here in the states.

No Layoffs?  How about the one in late 2005?
Mercedes just announced 8,500 job cuts in Germany. That’s about 9% of the work force–by German standards a huge layoff. The company’s hands were tied by a previous deal with unions that guaranteed jobs until 2011, but Zetsche is circumventing that through voluntary buyouts. They will cost the firm more than $1 billion, or a whopping $135,000 a person. Zetsche doesn’t mince words about his top priority: “Our most important task right now is to ensure that our excellent products can be made with less input,” he says. As for the damage to Mercedes’ reputation, he likens the brand to “a kind of savings account” from which the company has had to make a few withdrawals. “We have to strongly start to re-fund it,” he says.

hey, all of this proves: it may or may not work. let’s flip a coin.

At GE Healthcare you can take a 3 day lean class and then go out and run “Lean” projects. The 3 day class also entitles you to refer to yourself as a lean expert. The kicker, you can do all this without any mentoring from a real expert. Take a class and bingo, you’re done.
GE Healthcare has undertaken “Lean” without having a vision or strategy to create a sustaining operation. Do a VSM and a quick Kaizen and you’re an expert?
Can someone really become an knowledgeable lean person with no mentoring with no supporting strategy?

If the stock continues to suck. The retirees counting on a safe decent return will have to stay home watching lifetime.

Who in their right mind would buy an American Six Sigma car, rather than a German Benz – the ultimate quality.
No wonder Ford and GM are going down the toilet.

Yes, someone can become an expert without  mentor.  It happens all the time.  It just doesn’t happen in 3 days.

No

As a frequent reader of your engaging and highly contributory postings, I wonder if I could presume to make a recommendation.  
 
You forum ID “idiotinmath” (while certainly appropriate for your mathematical input) appears to lightly suffer the sin of omission in not being as all-inclusive and all-encompassing as might be warranted.   
 
If I might be so bold as to recommend a change of forum ID on your part to “idiotinallthings” (or even “allthingsidiot” if you prefer).   
 

Sorry.   I’m afraid that I can’t agree with you regarding changing my forum ID because, after all, you now post as “allthingsidiot” and have now, unfortunately, lost what little credibility you had.  

If I remember correctly, I think I read a while back that they had an agreement with the unions that they would always provide work for them.  Therefore, they had to make cars to keep the unions employed, even though there wasn’t any demand for them.  That’s why they have to have all of their end of the year sales to try and get some of the money back.  It makes getting rid of some people seems like a reasonable thing to do.

Soderborg’s article is worthless.  The “assumptions” he cites as causes of failure are about as vague and useless as most of the reponses in this thread.
Interesting to note that most of the key individuals that developed DCOV at Ford are not cited in the article.  They were a good group that did their best in an extremely challenging environment.  I challenge anyone to have done better.
Ritz

We’ve interviewed BBs and MBBs for GE Healthcare, they were all quite aware of NPS, how NPS is calculated, and that a high NPS is associated with growth.
But no one knew what growth meant or how its being measured. Revenue, market share, margin, …
It’s probably a good program but no one knows what growth means.

Which part of GEHC were these folks from?  A lot of the BB/MBB’s were given a course or two on the GE version of LEAN.  Judging by your comment they are leaving you with the impression that a VSM is the what LEAN is?  Not sure you are asking the question, most view the VSM as only a lean tool.  What is interesting is a lot of GE liked to use the VSM as a way to develop a LEAN strategic plan for a product line.  I do know certain parts of GEHC is further along with LEAN than other parts of GE.
I do know that GE has hired several outside LEAN/TPS trained folks who were developing and help rolling out the strategy.  Another thing I noticed when I was in GE is the friction between LEAN & Six Sigma.  Yes, the BB/MBB’s see LEAN as nothing more than a tool or set of tools that deal specifically with eliminating waste & thus time efficiency.  Most if not all companies I have interviewed or worked for take this same view of LEAN, nothing but a compiled set of tools.  So I am not surprised by your comments.

I’ve noticed this also. There is a lack focus & mission. People are busy doing stuff but they don’t know if it’s the right stuff.
I am surprised, unlike the other’s, that there isn’t a legitimate strategy for people to rally around.

I actually now feel bad about picking at you and your forum ID, please revert back to “mathematicsidiot” or whatever it was.   
 
To have foisted the moniker “allthingsidiot” on someone is unconscionable – even for me, however applicable it seemed at the time, or subsequently, I suppose.   Sorry.  

What GE Healthcare has done with NPS is a disaster.
Fred wishes he never got involved with them.
GEHC has taken a shotgun short-term approach to “say” they’re doing NPS. For instance, they created an independent organization with the primary purpose of ensuring calls to clients are being and this is how they’re performance is gauged. Yet very few people know what to do the results. No one was taught or guided on how to use the data acquired. Talk about muda & mura.
To make things worst, this team was asking people to come up with big bet initiatives to improve NPS quickly. As if after years of neglecting customers, their loyalty can be improved in a quarter. Supposedly some organizations are claiming success. Ha!
And yes it’s true, this same team at least several months ago couldn’t tell you which growth metric is of primary interest.
To learn how to effectively implement NPS go to
http://www.netpromoter.com/
Read what not to do & watch GE do it.
GEHC, NPS isn’t about the score. You can’t improve it in quarter. Yes, we have heard the stories about people changing who is called; getting a better and claiming NPS has improved. It takes a long-term plan perhaps even integrated with six sigma, lean, or whatever you’re using.

3-days is  not  enough  at  all.Please  go  for  the  Villanova’s GB-SS 8-weeks on-line  course.  

Who  told  you  that??

Who was the Chief Snake Oil Salesman at the ford fiasco? Dr. Harry, Richard Schroeder and Six Sigma Academy painted this masterpiece. What a surprise.

As an GEHC client, we love NPS!
But admittedly, for the wrong reasons.
We quickly figured out that they are people in GE so focused on their score they are willing to give the store away in hopes of getting a better score from us in the future. We use the survey to complain about everything (especially their god awful service-which no one is fixing) & request features, products, services, & other stuff regardless of our contracts. What’s there not to love?
No we haven’t increased their score ; ) .
Mr. Owen, respectfully, everyone I have dealt with @ GEHC has given me different explanations of NPS and no one was able to coherently explain the “game plan” (yet there’s no shortage corporate NPS gobblygook) to improve the score, especially their awful support services.

NPS at GEHC is about measuring the score and a feable one-off attempt of reducing dissatisfaction for individual customers. GE is adding complexity to their business by creating individualized solutions to fundamental business functions (this is expensive solution & last time I spoke with GEHC clients cost was an issue) instead of taking the time and having the discipline to correct the system. This model is not only unsustainable, especially if you have a large client base, but further creates services & support issues by virtue of creating unstandard products or services. So much for lean.
Obviously GEHC NPS is not about growth exactly as you mentioned.
GEHC NPS fad is 1 dimensional as you pointed out. To derive the real growth benefits of NPS-you need to measure more than NPS. What about profitability of clients or segments? What about bad profits? GEHC doesn’t understand reducing dissatisfaction doesn’t relate to improved satisfaction – Quality 101.