New research by Sourceforconsulting.com has found that whilst two thirds of Lean and Six Sigma projects work, there is a broad disagreement amongst consulting firms on how many fail, with some saying 10%, while others think the figure could be as high as 80-90%.

Our experience shows that even a 10% failure rate is too high. The low failure rate we experience could be because we are specialists in Lean and Six Sigma implementation and the report shows the mainstream causes of failure were:-

• Insufficient sponsorship from senior executives
• Lack of understanding about what Lean and Six Sigma really are
• Insufficient focus on behavioural change to support process change
• Projects are not linked to organisational objectives
• Too rigid an application of the methodologies

Bourton Group contributed to this research and would recommend it to anyone looking to undertake Lean and Six Sigma projects.