Six Sigma Failure reasons

Hi Vlad,
 
I work in a software company. you enquired about the failure of a six sigma process. One of the main reasons of Six sigma failure is that in order to bring rapid change in the quality of prouct many companies set up various process development team. That finally results in conflict of ideas amongst these six sigma teams.
Secondly, many companies don’t know as to where they want to implement six sigma i.e. if you are looking for organisation to benefit from six sixma it is imperetive that we should take care of end users first and then we should look for overall process development.
and last but not least it is the incompetence of the six sigma leader that makes the project to fail. as six sigma process is about Define, Measure, Analyse, Improve and Control ( DMAIC ). we can fail at any of these stages and at any stage the result can be fatal for the company. So it is important as to jot down pros and cons of change that you are about to bring by using six sigma process.
 
Pleaese let me know if this answers your query.
Thanks,
Gopal Krishna.       

The following may give you a starting point. I would consult the literature of the papers suggested below for further references.
An excellent dissertation which will help you with your literature research is:
Lee, K. (2002). “Critical Success Factors of Six Sigma Implementation and the impact on Operations Performance”. Ph.D. Dissertation, Cleveland State University.
A study on the impact of Six Sigma on stock price performance is as follows:
Goh, T., Low, P. Tsui, K. and Xie, M. (2003). Impact of Six Sigma Implementation on stock price performance. In: Total Quality Management & Business Excellence, vol. 14, # 7, Sept. pp. 753 – 763.
A simulation study of the impact of Six Sigma on business performance was published as follows:
Gautreau, N., Yacout, S. and Hall, R. (1997). Simulation of Partially Observed Markow Decision Process and Dynamic Quality. In: Computers & Industrial Engineering, volume 32, # 4, December, pp. 691 – 700.
Finally, look up the special issue of “Quality & Reliability Engineering International” (Volume 21, # 3, 2005) which contains three articles on the critical success factors for implementing six sigma (the authors are Walter, Hahn and Snee).
As a starting point for the theoretecial underpinnings of your thesis, I recommend the following article:
Lindermann, K., Schroeder, R. Zaheer, S. and Choo, A. (2003). Six Sigma: A goal-theoretic perspective”. In: Journal of Operations Mangement, volume 21, # 2, March, pp. 193 – 203.
Finally, the following is an “older” article on a similar question related to TQM. It sheds some light on the relationship between the TQM literature and the strategy literature, and why TQM or Six Sigma programs may fail from a strategic point of view:
Dean, James, W. and Bowen, David, E. (1994). Management theory and total quality: Improving research and practice through theory development. The Academy of Management Review. Volume 19, Issue 3, July, pg. 392 (27 pages).
Good luck!

I like the article.  I thought I was the only one who just directly says what I mean. 
Six Sigma’s DMAIC (and the PI story before it) are great methods for folks who have never solved a problem in their lives — i.e., if you follow these steps, even you can step your way to a conclusion about a solution.
We boiled 6s down to – okay, just do the process map with the x’s and y’s, FMEA the process, and implement appropriate controls — AND, if you need to optimize settings along the way, then we’ll help you design an experiment. 
On the other hand, some of the article reminded me of a Product Manager once telling me, “A good manager just knows the right things to do;  that’s what makes him a good manager.”
That thinking also seems to support the notion that the operator knows the equipment and the best way to run it.  But I’ve seen Taguchi work too many times — to the drop-jawed amazement of operators — to think that’s true.   
There has to be a path through the vast middle ground where selecting/supporting decisions is guided by a combination of common sense and math.  Anyway, that’s the path I’ve been trying to trek for all these years … while managers who “just know the right things to do” have promoted each other around me on both the left and right. 
Andejrad Ich

You may checkout Th Six Sigma Performance Handbook for reasons of failures. It lists various types of failures.
Good luck!
Paul

Devil  or  Satan inside  the  humanbeing??

I would rather have a “Jonah” than a MBB.

Vlad,It might not be real common, for political reasons in upper management, to admit failures in six sigma, which may be why you do not hear much about them. Usually they fizzle into less emphasized programs or they just evolve into something else.Most improvement programs eventually lose their “separateness” and blend into the organization as a competency. Some say this is natural journey progression. Others call this the fleeting ‘flavor of the month” tendency of management. You should be able to find both views in ASQ literature.