The end is near! Well, at least the end of the Top Ten Stupid Six Sigma Tricks (SSST) countdown. The Heretic soldiers on until his appointment with the stake. This month, we arrive at Stupid Six Sigma Trick #2: Neglecting Daily Management. In this SSST, companies get so starry-eyed over the fancy statistics that can solve big problems that they forget to do the day-to-day basics, and find out to their detriment what Carroll’s Red Queen meant.

If you recall my first Heretic article, I ranted about how we define Six Sigma, and I mentioned that, to many, Six Sigma was all you needed to run a business, and that I had seen how thinking like that would get you into trouble. In SSST #4, I tried to buttress this reasoning talking about how DMAIC is not a panacea—its usefulness is in forging a new path—and that other proven methods exist for accomplishing some of the many tasks a business must do to remain a business. In those cases, DMAIC provides only trivial guidance on how to proceed, and you are better off seeing if someone else has blazed the trail.

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