Prof. Deshpande made a presentation to the then Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister, Shri Nripen Misra, and his colleagues in the Prime Minister’s Office in Delhi January 22, 2018. / Courtesy- Pradeep Deshpande

India’s IT Minister, Ashwani Vaishnaw was recently quoted as telling electronics part-manufacturing enterprises “to achieve Six Sigma quality in everything they did. Nothing less than Six Sigma will be acceptable. We will assess your progress not only on manufacturing volume but also on the quality you deliver, he said.”

This indeed is a welcome development, and it couldn’t have come at a more opportune time. 

I began offering a graduate elective in six sigma in the Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of Louisville around the year 2,000 and taught it for several years always to oversubscribed enrollment. A few years later, I was given the opportunity to introduce our mandatory Six Sigma Greenbelt certification program in the newly revamped MBA curriculum of Gatton College of Business & Economics, University of Kentucky in Lexington, KY, and a few years later, I was given the opportunity teach six sigma in their MBA program in Athens, Greece that I taught for twelve years. 

In around 2002, I conducted a year-long six sigma training for India’s Oil major, Oil & Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC). That year I met Shri P. V. Narasimha Rao, former Prime Minister of India and a friend and colleague of my late father, the late Shri Bapusaheb Deshpande in the freedom struggle, to impress upon him the need for all Indian organizations to embrace six sigma to achieve global competitiveness.

I was interviewed on BBC Radio in 2003 the day after Prince Charles paid a visit to Mumbai to witness the Dabbawalas six sigma operation live. My interview, Six Sigma Enlightenment, appeared in Business World in October 2004 and my interview, Six Sigma could change the world was published in the Economic Times on September 18, 2009.

In January 2018, I made a presentation to the senior staff of the Prime Minister’s Office in New Delhi. In the presentation, I explained that defect levels in all products and services, and not just in electronics part-manufacturing, determine how developed a nation is. Therefore, the defect levels in everything India does must be brought down to comparable levels in developed nations to realize the goal of emerging as a developed nation. I made the same presentation at NITI Aayog and later I conducted a three-day workshop in six sigma at Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata.

The recent recognition of the necessity of six sigma in electronic part-manufacturing may be seen as fulfilling that desire but much work remains ahead.

An obvious next step is to introduce a six-sigma course and training in all engineering and management curricula in India.

In my presentations in New Delhi and Kolkata, I brought to the attention of participants of a discovery I had made. “In the absence of an adequate level of internal/emotional excellence, the best of the best strategies including six sigma do not and cannot deliver the best possible performance (minimum variance).” Boost internal/emotional excellence and performance will zoom. See this article The Secret of Exemplary Performance, in Insights, August 2019, and the video clip, Mumbai’s Dabbawalas: The Secret to Six Sigma Success. 

This discovery brings us front and center with India’s wisdom, thousands of years old, now corroborated with scientific principles and evidence. Said Yogananda Paramahansa in a speech just before he died in 1952, “I look to a model world that combines the best qualities of efficient America (read, six sigma) and spiritual India (read, internal/emotional excellence).”

According to American Society for Quality, some 80% of Fortune 100 companies and 50% of Fortune 500 companies have six sigma in place to a certain extent. Six sigma recognizes a number of levels of six sigma expertise: (1) Green Belt – personnel who would be engaged in project executions (2) Black Balt – Personnel who lead the teams executive six sigma projects, (3) Master Black belt – Teachers of six sigma, and (4) Champions – member of senior management who will have the overall responsibility for six sigma in an organization.

I have introduced a new certification – Six Sigma Grandmaster which raises the requirements a notch by introducing the science and practices of interna/emotional excellence. Mumbai’s Dabbawalas are the inaugural recipient of this certification. We have signed an MOU with the Dabbawalas to explain to the world when exemplary performance occurs and how it can be replicated.

 The next steps for the Government of India are (1) to include six sigma in all institutions nationwide, (2) introduce a program to enhance internal/emotional excellence also in all institutions. Then, India will not only emerge as a developed nation, but also as the Vishwa Guru!

 

The author is Professor Emeritus and former Chairman of the Chemical Engineering Department at the University of Louisville. He is also president of Six Sigma and Advanced Controls based in Louisville, Kentucky.

 

(The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of  New India Abroad.)