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Don't single out 6 Sigma.

Request denied.

My frame of reference is as an engineer (a mere "green belt") and 25 year vet of a Fortune 100 manufacturer.

I have seen all of the other schemes pedaled by every consultant to come down the pike come and go and this is the worst.

Even the green belt traing contains a bunch of sociological techniques on how to quell dissent in the team to reach the holy grail of "concensus".

Engineering should not be a democracy.

SS has taken on the aspects of a cult in my corp.

I can't speak for 6 Sigma at other companies.

I work at Caterpillar. Like many other things, we've adapted 6 Sigma to our own culture.

Based on my training and the literature I've read, there's no attempt to quell dissent; rather we're taught to bring out the viewpoints of those who are quiet and to not allow one person to dominate discussion. As far as consensus is concerned, you're given your project objective, and you respond to what survey and experimental data tell you, not the opinion of team members or even management sponsors.

That management adheres to its own dictum, "facts not opinion" is shown by the example of Cat's first CIO, Sid Banwart. At the start of 6 Sigma in 2001, had a pet project he launched. The Black Belt came back after the Define phase and recommended it be shut down. Sid wanted more data, so after the Measure phase the Black Belt and all the team said to kill the project, and Sid did. The system he wanted to promote didn't do what he thought it would. So we didn't develop it.