Everyone involved in quality should watch the movie "DownFall: The Case Against Boeing" (Netflix, 2022). It paints a picture of how Six Sigma led to disaster at Boeing.
Boeing was once a company that focused on quality. Its theme was "quality first". First class quality meant first class safety.
Following a merger with McDonnell Douglas in 1997, the bean counters took over. Quality was no longer a priority. Everything revolved around cost cutting. Cost cutting with both a disregard for quality and an ignorance of the meaning of quality, was fertile ground for the Six Sigma Scam. Two years later in 1999, the Six Sigma farce was adopted by Boeing.
As happened elsewhere with the Six Sigma Scam, the result was disaster. In this case, it wasn't simply a massive financial loss of over $80,000,000,000 but a more importantly, a loss of 346 lives.
The disaster originated with bad design. The design of the 737MAX was overseen by CEO "Jim" McNerney who was escaping from the mess he left at 3M. McNerney forced Design for Six Sigma (DFSS) into 3M, crippling the company. At 3M, McNerney was replaced with George Buckley. Buckley removed Six Sigma, which restored 3M's R&D morale and innovative spirit saving 3M from the Six Sigma disasters of Ford and GE.
Boeing needed a new plane to compete with Airbus. Instead of a much needed new design, McNerney brought his Six Sigma cost cutting into play and decided to tart up the 40 year old existing design. He created a plane that was inherently unstable.
The 737MAX instability was compensated by a cheap fix ... the MCAS. In a fatal move, more cost cutting had the MCAS entirely dependent on a single sensor. If the single sensor failed or was damaged, pilots had 10 seconds to locate the problem and react, or die. The pilots were refused training in how to do this.
The film tells a horrific story of greed and catastrophic Six Sigma disaster.
The message is clear. Six Sigma cost cutting destroys quality and safety. Be sure to also watch "If Japan Can, Why Can't We?". It tells how companies in the West should be addressing Quality, using Professor Deming's methods, as do successful companies such as Toyota with their Quality Circles.
Six Sigma is a method created by a self-confessed con man who knew nothing about Quality. He admitted "all you have is smoke and mirrors". His intention was only to milk millions of dollars from his gullible victims. Six Sigma cost cutting is the antithesis of Quality. It is the opposite of everything Professor Deming taught.
A focus on Quality minimizes costs and maximizes safety.
by Dr Tony Burns BE (Hon 1) PhD (Chem Eng)