Fat Manufacturing organisations tend to be fairly adept in creating a Six Stigma work culture. They achieve this by putting a large portion of their workforce through Six Sigma training courses during a phase in their organisational evolution where no-one has any time to measure the process because this takes too much valuable time away from exploiting waste, for example, reworking quality issues, or chasing information. Fat organisations put their people through this training because an outside consulting firm invited in to evaluate the business at corporate level estimates the current state to be at about One Sigma when it should be aiming for Six, this being achievable by employing the same consultancy firm to show their people how to achieve it.
Following the extensive training programme, the resulting Six Sigma projects allocated to members of the organisation, usually in the lower ranks, either never get off the ground, or simply stagnate when the project leader fails to apply a measurement or analysis tool due to there being no data on which to apply it. Within the space of no less than a few months, the Six Sigma training has successfully contributed to the organisation’s commitment to waste and a potential Six Sigma culture has instead evolved into a Six Stigma one.
