CEO expects good things as Textron does Six Sigma right

— -- Q: To those of us who still don't understand Six Sigma, do you have an elevator speech to define it?

A: You define a problem, take measurements to be crystal clear on what you're trying to improve and analyze the data using statistical tools to sort through the noise. The last piece is control, so that once you fix something, it's fixed for the last time. The idea is to create output so predictable that there are only three defects per million.

Q: Critics say that Six Sigma becomes an exercise in counting how many employees are trained as black belts and green belts rather than solving real problems. Do they have a point?

A: Textron keeps a count. I hope that one day every man and woman who is willing to be trained will hold a belt. That includes hourly workers. A mistake companies make is they don't aim projects at solving problems for the last time or create some bodacious way to satisfy customers better than anyone else. They have projects that are convenient. Even though Cessna has been producing planes for 89 years and jets since 1972, they recently took 17% of the labor hours out of their single-piston aircraft. That's a big number. They've taken the inspection time from 10 days to five. Textron financial used to take 320 hours each month collecting interest from customers. They've got that down to 56 hours.