County Questions the Real Value of Six Sigma

A lean Six Sigma program instituted by Erie County, New York, has come under fire recently. The county's program is outlined in an article in Quality Digest Daily, "Analyzing Data Saves Millions for County Tax Payers," which describes how county executive Chris Collins implemented a lean Six Sigma program to help streamline county operations and save taxpayers money. The program is run by a director of Six Sigma that reportedly earns a $110,000 salary. Collins says the program saved the county more than $2 million in 2008.

Collins implemented a Six Sigma program last year with the full support of the Erie County Control Board, which oversees Erie County's finances, but a recent report in the New York State Association of Counties news magazine has stirred up questions about the accuracy of the total savings attributed to the methodology.

In the report, Collins points to the $2 million savings in the social services, probation, and mental health departments. But, Erie County legislator Robert Reynolds claims there's no evidence of it on a budget line.

“We have to look at the budget. When dealing with Six Sigma, sometimes the savings are quality [related], not budgetary,” he says. “If you implement an improvement initiative, you can improve a process, but you don’t always see that improvement [in real numbers].”

The legislator is requesting a verification of the reported savings to the Control Board, which approved about $1 million in state grant dollars to implement Six Sigma in 2008.

According to Reynolds, the Six Sigma implementation is changing processes and attitudes throughout the county's departments, but it's not really affecting savings in ways taxpayers can see, meaning, the bottom line.

“The cost of doing the program is more of a cultural change." explains Reynolds. "The budgetary savings are just a couple of thousand of dollars. We need to show it [the Six Sigma investment value] in the budget line” 

Erie County spokesman Grant Loomis says that the county administration reports monthly to the Control Board with a detailed explanation of its spending and achievements.

“We make sure that the Control Board is comfortable, and that's obviously the case since it approved in May full funding for the Six Sigma program through 2010,” says Loomis. This year, Six Sigma is expected to bring Erie County about $1.5 million in savings, he adds.

About The Author

Raissa Carey

Raissa Carey is Quality Digest Daily’s online editor.