Lean, Six-Sigma, and Innovation

Frequently a client will ask me about how the principles and methods associated with lean and six-sigma apply in the word of innovation and new products. Let me offer a few thoughts.

Lean and six-sigma are excellent tools which, when used properly and in the right situation, provide tremendous benefits. The elimination of the many forms of waste as put forth in lean and the various aspects of DfX and the resultant high quality as put forth in six-sigma are principles to which all organizations should adhere. No question.

The situation gets a bit more complex, however, when we think about innovation and new product development. Keep in mind that both lean and six-sigma (DMAIC) are primarily geared to repetitive operations. When Apple produces an iPhone or when McDonald’s produces a hamburger, there are tremendous benefits to both the firm and the customer when these are produced with no waste and to a consistent, high quality level.

In innovation and new products, however, sometimes you’re in an exploratory mode, often referred to as the Discovery phase or the “Fuzzy Front End”. At this point in the innovation or product development cycle waste is hard to define and variability may be your friend, particularly when searching for breakthroughs. Consider the search for an H1N1 vaccine or Thomas Edison's search for a filament for the light bulb. Success required the pursuit of a vast number of “dead ends” any one of which may have been the winner. Similarly, consider penicillin, which was discovered by Alexander Fleming as a result of an accidental contamination of a Petri dish he was using to cultivate staph bacteria. Sometimes invention needs a bit of “breathing room” that these lean and six-sigma are designed to eliminate.

On the other hand, when designing a new product or service, these principles are essential. As mentioned previously, the iPhone, McDonald hamburgers, and virtually every other product or service will benefit from the use of these tools in their design and the design of the processes that produce them. Product and process designers need to use these tools – in the design (where DMADV can play a role), development, and commercialization phases.

There are, of course, places even in the discovery phase where these tools are useful. Consider a designer submitting a sample to a metrology lab for testing. In this case, a repetitive operation, we would expect everything from the receipt of the sample to the delivery of the data to be carried out in accordance with lean and six-sigma principles. Rapid cycle times in testing, with no compromise in the quality of data, can help a company to introduce a new product more quickly – thereby getting a leg up on the competition and potentially earning greater profits.

Finally, no treatment of this subject can be complete without the consideration of organizational culture. Certain companies, and even certain departments within a company, may be more or less aligned with the use of these tools or the philosophies upon which they are based. Successful implementation will consider and reflect the culture, along with other business factors, when setting goals for rate and completion of adoption.

To summarize, lean and six-sigma are excellent tools which offer tremendous benefit to repeatable processes where consistency is desired and the elimination of waste produces clear benefits. These tools are best not applied in the creative phases of innovation and new product development, often called the discovery phase or the fuzzy front end, because at in these endeavors, variability and “waste” could well be the seeds of breakthroughs. Eliminating variability and “waste” in these areas could well eliminate the innovation and “aha moments” that drive much of the progress in the world.

Now, you might not agree with me.....but that's how it looks from my viewpoint.