Some Product Development Books Get it Wrong Too

Here is a series of books on product development that gets it really wrong too:

It's, again, just dead wrong to say Lean is only about cycle time (or speed). 

Lean is All About Efficiency and Not About the Customer?

Here is the usual claptrap about Lean being all about speed and efficiency.

A Lean Sigma presenter claims the following in a webinar:

He thinks Lean contributes nothing to meeting the needs of our customers? That Lean has nothing to do with product development, the Lean Startup, or quality?

The presenter then says that Lean and Six Sigma are just a bunch of tools to combine. That shows further misunderstanding of Lean.

Toyota people would say Lean is:

1. Tools
2. Philosophy
3. Management System

It's an integrated system.

The presenter THEN contradicts himself a few slides later and is correct in saying that Lean is about understanding customer needs and value. Do people even listen to themselves talk and hear how what they're saying is inconsistent?

It's amazing how consistently wrong the Lean Sigma crowd is about Lean. It does everybody a disservice.

The Bigger The Firm Is, the Less They Know?

Even a really large, name brand consulting firm sometimes spreads "sh!t" about Lean. It's just a bunch of tools to pick and choose from?

Ugh. Buyer beware.

"We are pragmatic in our use of Lean Six Sigma. We use only the tools that make the most sense for each situation. ________ has developed an up-front diagnostic X-ray that enables companies to identify and focus on only the process changes that will quickly make the biggest differences, ensuring faster results with smaller initial investment."

Lean Doesn't Have Methods for Finding a Root Cause?

From a really bad article written by a Six Sigma Black Belt: 

If you use the Lean methodology to improve a process that is plagued with frequent defects, errors, mishaps, failures, etc., that have eluded managers and engineers to the point where they just accept that there is no solution, you end up with a less desirable product because you cut corners and features to avoid the defects rather than fix them.

Six Sigma is ideal for solving hard process problems that result in defects in the process output; e.g., broken windshields on cars coming off an assembly line, customer bills calculated incorrectly, data missing off a mainframe server, food getting spoiled long before its expiration date, etc..

Lean tools and methodologies lack the rigor to determine the root cause of elusive defect problems; Six Sigma tools and methodologies are too time consuming and costly to just to improve business efficiency.

I don't know where people get this stuff. Who ever said in Lean or the Toyota Production System that you cut corners to "avoid defects" rather than fixing them?

Who said Lean doesn't help you find a root cause?

The reality is: fishbone diagrams, the "5 Whys," going to the gemba, andon cords, mistake proofing... these are all great examples of how we find and prevent defects in the Lean methodology.

Black Belts should really stick to writing about Six Sigma. There's a reason I stick to writing about Lean...

Again, Lean is Not Just Speed

Common mistake here:

Two years ago, Akron Children’s Hospital adopted a business-improvement methodology called Lean Six Sigma, a blend of the lean-production concept derived from Toyota’s production system and the Six Sigma strategy developed by Motorola in 1986. Lean production focuses on speed, and Six Sigma focuses on quality.

"Lean production focuses on speed." This is factually incorrect. In the the Lean/TPS approach, speed AND quality go hand in hand. Lean, arguably, starts with quality and "speed" is a result of that.

(article link)

It's Wrong, No Matter How Pretty

From an online "Lean Six Sigma Yellow Belt" training class:

The whole "Lean is about waste and speed," while Six Sigma is the approach for "defect reduction" is wrong. Lean provides rigorous methods for "effectively solving problems" including reducing defects.

I don't understand why the Lean Six Sigma world doesn't get that.

Lean Six Sigma is just faster Six Sigma?

Ugh.

This Lean Sigma Guy Says Lean Makes Defects Faster

A clip from a professional speaker who will go unnamed (but he is a "Lean Six Sigma" author and trainer)... in part he says, incorrectly, that somebody might say:

"We need to apply Lean to this process because we have a real quality issue." and he would respond:

"Go ahead and apply Lean to the process, you're gonna speed up your quality issue and make bad stuff faster."



This is shockingly wrong. Again, I'll point folks to the Toyota Production System website, where they clearly state that TPS (i.e., Lean) is about both Quality AND Flow.

The Lean Sigma crowd incorrectly says that "Lean is for speed and Six Sigma is for quality."

Ironically, this speaker says that "people confuse these things all the time." He's the one who is confused. He is wrong:

 

Update:

His book wrongly says that Lean is mainly about just efficiency and speed. This is a very common Lean Sigma fallacy: