Will you trust a driver who has just passed the test and received a driving-license, but has no hands-on experience?
Mostly not. While a person with a driver's license may be legally allowed to run a vehicle, you may not trust him to drive without hands-on training & supervision. Lack of experience could lead to dangerous situations on the road, and could put him and others at risk.
One large corporate organization availed our institute’s services to train three batches of 20 persons each for the Green Belt (GB) level. Out of the 60 GBs trained, 12 persons were selected and trained for the next level i.e. the Black Belt (BB) level. LSS project teams were formed each with one Black Belt leader and 4 Green Belts as team-members.
The further plan was to implement 12 Black Belt projects, with help of these 12 BB-led teams. As per our long experience with LSS projects, we advised our client to take advantage of our mentoring services which would include hand-holding by our expert Master Black Belt (MBB) for successful completion of the projects through all the phases of DMAIC.
However, their management had a perception that the trained GBs and BBs are fairly experienced persons and should implement lean six sigma (LSS) projects on their own. With proper mentoring, the 12 projects should have been completed within 5 to 6 months. After waiting for 18 months, it was seen that 2 projects were completed successfully but the remaining 10 were either not completed or the outcomes were unsatisfactory.
a. Budget constraints: Companies may have limited budgets for training and development, and may view mentoring as an optional expense that can be cut without significantly impacting the project.
b. Short-term focus: Lean six sigma projects need to be seen as a long-term initiative, but some managements might be focused primarily on short-term results. They may not see the value in investing on mentoring services.
c. Lack of understanding: Companies may not fully understand the benefits of mentoring for Lean Six Sigma projects, and may view it as an unnecessary expense rather than a strategic investment.
d. Under-estimating the importance of hand-holding: Even after being trained for Green Belt and Black Belt levels, the teams need practical guidance and hand-holding in respect of applying the various LSS tools that they have learnt. For example, we have seen that many times the teams go wrong in selection of the analysis tools, process-capability calculations, choice of control charts, etc. in the early projects implemented by them.
Hence, cutting costs on mentoring of LSS projects can have negative impacts. Without the guidance and support of a mentor, team members may struggle to effectively implement the LSS methodologies and achieve the desired results. This can lead to wasted time, resources, and long delay in the project-implementation. Also, it could be detrimental in respect of the cultural changes that we want to achieve while implementing the LSS projects.
a. Effective and structured implementation: A mentor can provide guidance and support to team members throughout the project, ensuring that Lean Six Sigma methodologies are implemented effectively and efficiently. This can help to ensure that the project achieves the desired results.
b. Develop internal capability: Mentoring can help to develop internal capability and knowledge, which can be valuable for ongoing process improvement initiatives. This will lead to long-term cost savings and continuous improvement on an on-going basis.
c. Avoid costly mistakes: Without the guidance of a mentor, team members may make mistakes that can lead to wasted time, resources, and can even de-motivate the employees. A mentor can help to identify potential problems and ensure that the LSS projects are implemented correctly with excellent savings (hard gains) and soft gains for the organization.
d. Achieve sustainable results: Mentoring can help to ensure that the results achieved through Lean Six Sigma are sustainable over the long-term. This can help to avoid the need for costly rework and can lead to ongoing process improvements and growing delight for our customers.
In short, while it may seem like a good idea to save on the cost of mentoring for Lean Six Sigma projects, it can actually be detrimental to the success of the initiative. By investing on mentoring, organizations can ensure effective implementation, develop internal capability, avoid costly mistakes, and achieve sustainable results.