Quality Remix: Six Problems I have with Six Sigma, Part III
by David C. Crosby
February 15, 2010 

Source: http://bit.ly/ajbmOi

Problem three, Training

It’s my understanding that training a black belt-or other belts-is an expensive proposition. I don’t know exactly what it costs, but a few years ago the black belt guru wrote a piece about how reasonable it was to spend $30,000/per belt. I’m told much of the training has to do with the problem-solving method. That’s fine, but if you are spending your time solving problems, you have already failed. You’re not preventing defects, you’re managing defects. The idea of quality management is to prevent defects, not find them and fix them. It might be a better idea to spend that money on training people to do their work right.

A person whose job it is to solve problems that belong to someone else will soon become the owner of all the problems; a trap many good-hearted quality managers fall into. If the quality person jumps in like Mighty Mouse and takes on a problem to save the day, the rightful owner gets off free. If a product is properly designed and the right production process is set up, it’s only necessary to train the operator on his or her role in the process.