The Scientific Method is responsible for the dragging us out of feudalism. While its elements date back thousands of years, it was formulated into what we have today, by philosopher, Sir Francis Bacon:
Induction of hypotheses based on observation
Deduction of the implications of the hypotheses
Testing the implications
Confirmation or disconfirmation of the hypotheses
In 1939, Dr Shewhart applied The Scientific Method to processes. He combined the first 2 steps and added his revolutionary control charts at each step.
Over 40 years to 1993 Professor Deming evolved Dr Shewhart’s cycle into the PDSA cycle (Plan, Do, Study, Act). It also uses process behavior charts at every step.
By the 90’s many companies created their own 4,5,6,7, and 8 step methods. One of these was DMAIC. Mikel Harry, self-confessed con man and creator of the Six Sigma Scam, claimed to have invented it. It was simply padding for his scam. In his hundreds of pages of writing, “control charts” are barely mentioned and never discussed. However, he wrote 11 paragraphs detailing how to use “smoke and mirrors” to “hide the truth”.
Keki Bhote and others who worked with Harry at Motorola, viewed Harry’s nonsense with disdain. Bhote called it "muddled, imprecise, impotent, incapacitated, rudderless."
DMAIC has led countless companies to disaster. At Ford for example, a long term study showed their hundreds of DMAIC projects had an average of 1 part in 5 defective in "successful" projects after improvement.
There is no justification to ever stray from The Scientific Method and PDSA.
by Dr Tony Burns BE (Hon 1) PhD (Chem Eng)