Some of the largest Lean Six Sigma Implementations Pitfalls I have seen are:

1. Unclear or uninspired burning platform - people need a reason to want to change, and leaders must make that reason clear and urgent, when that does not occur, then the air is let out of the tire.

2. Projects in the pipeline - too many projects occurring at the same time, can severely impact the organization, putting too much stress on IT resources during the improve phase or operational staff during periods of higher demand, etc... Project need to be balanced against a series of criteria to ensure the business is not lifting too much weight before they are ready to do so.

3. Training - it is important to develop the business resources so they can sustain the deployment, but it needs to be balanced with project results, too much training is costly, and needs to be married with project execution, so that the results of the projects pay for the training for the next wave of developed resources. When this does not happen, then you have a lot of trained people but little results to show the ROI.

4. Coaching - Lean Six Sigma is not easy, project coaching is critical to transferring the knowledge and experience to others. Consultants and Master Black Belts are expensive, so many a business have taken short-cuts on this area, but this is the main course of the meal, so shortfalls on this area will lead to a sub-optimized deployment.

5. Deployment Planning - best done with experience LSS Deployment Consultants who understand the change management roller coaster. This involves communication, infrastructure, risk management, metrics, rewards and recognition, belt selection, training schedules, tools management, project selection, coaching assignments, tollgate reviews, etc... taking this challenge on without expert consultation is like trying to build a house with smart people who know how to use hammers and saws, etc.... but they have never built a house before, so you can imagine the danger of living in that house afterwards.

Hope this traps have been helpful, feel free to contact me should you need any support in your Lean Six Sigma Deployment, that is what i do best,

Warm Regards,

Steven Bonacorsi, MBB / Vice President

http://www.linkedin.com/in/StevenBonacorsi   

Skype: sbonacorsi

sbonacorsi@comcast.net

http://xonitek.com/docs/XSCMain.asp