News: Lean Six Sigma Practitioner Mike Kirby Weighs In on ABC's Matt Negrin's take on "Gingrich's Lean Six Sigma Plan"

Mike Kirby's letter to ABC's Matt Negrin

Dear Mr. Negrin,

I am the former Deputy Undersecretary of the Army for Business Transformation. The deployment of Lean Six Sigma across the Army was within my purview from 2005 through 2008. I read your ABC News article of December 8 expressing doubts about using Lean Six Sigma to reduce waste in government. In particular, the comments on Lean Six Sigma by Tom Pyzdek, the author of books on Six Sigma, were of particular interest:

“When I look at the system of government, I see, for example, that there is no competition. There is no profit motive, There are some fundamental differences between the private and public sector that I think is going to have a chilling effect on the adoption of Lean Six Sigma.”

Mr. Pyzdek suggests introducing “private-sector incentives and motivators” in the government. Without an initial transformation of the way government works,  any gains that are made through LSS could be erased with every election…I think you have to basically transform the executive branch of government, and I know that sounds radical.”

These are the same speculations we heard prior to the launch of Lean Six Sigma in 2005 across the entire US Army. But the fact is that the Army deployment has generated tens of billions of dollars of savings which are well documented on the Army website. Private Industry claims that, for every dollar invested in Lean Six Sigma, they save $20 in waste reduction.

In the Army, we documented the savings to be more than $100 of  per $1 invested, probably due to the much larger amount of waste in government. Nor was the waste reduction benefits of Lean Six Sigma limited to the Army. A well known case study is the MRAP program, in which it was found that 90% of the assembly cost in the Navy’s Charleston SPAWAR facility was waste which was eliminated. The same facility with the same personnel increased production from 5 to 50 vehicles per day, saving the lives of thousands of soldiers and marines in Iraqand Afghanistan and can be viewed here. An additional $2.4 billion of waste was eliminated when the effort was transferred to the Army. See more here.

Contrary to Mr. Pyzdek’s speculations, the evidence proves that “private-sector incentives and motivators” and the “basic transformation of the executive branch of the government” were in fact not required to make dramatic reductions in waste in government. Since the 2005 launch of Lean Six Sigma, the 2008 election took place. In fact the Lean Six Sigma gains through waste reduction have grown under the leadership of my successors, and have not been “erased” as Mr. Pyzdek speculated. Why? Because Lean Six Sigma worksin government.

Finally, the article infers that Mr. Pyzdek “wrote the book” on Lean Six Sigma; evidently in an attempt to add authority to his comments. In fact, Mr. Pyzdek is the author of books on Six Sigma, not Lean Six Sigma. The man who actually “wrote the books” on, and created, Lean Six Sigma is Michael L. George. Mr. George was formerly the CEO of George Group Consulting, the prime contractor for Lean Six Sigma deployment for both the Army and U.S. Naval Aviation. He is no longer a consultant, and is the founder of Strong America Now to which you referred in your article. You might want to contact Mr. George for an authoritative view of the application of Lean Six Sigma in government.

Sincerely,

Michael Kirby
Former Deputy Undersecretary of the Army for Business Transformation

This is a response to The Guy Who Wrote the Book Weighs In on Gingrich’s Lean Six Sigma Plan by ABC News' Matt Negrin.

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