As a methodology, Six Sigma has been around since the 1980s. Yet it took a couple of U.S. industry giants, Allied Signal and GE, to draw the world’s attention to the benefits the program offers businesses. Even so, many companies fail to integrate Six Sigma into their corporate cultures due to a number of different causes. This article will examine some of the problems and their solutions.

Late at the gate: nonstarters

Let’s first analyze the reason why companies decide against implementing Six Sigma in the first place. In the adult learning model, we’re taught that our first learning phase is "unconsciously incompetent." In other words, we aren’t aware of our ignorance. Many company leaders see the initial cost of Six Sigma and say, "It’s too expensive for us," Yet many of those companies incur costs of waste many times what they’d would spend on Six Sigma. They don’t know or can’t commit to the investment because they can’t quantify its benefit. But for the Six Sigma practitioner, the first in the define phase is to calculate the entitlement. This is the heart of the methodology: committing to the savings and timing at the outset.

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