Gerald Heitmann, President of SDG Global and formerly General Manager of Quality Operations at Panasonic Energies North America joins Ben Merton to talk about how people like Edward Deming, Kaouru Ishikawa & Dr. Wheeler shaped his understanding of Quality and Continuous Improvement, and why they are still relevant today. 

Gerald further explains where Lean Six Sigma falls short of helping people understand their own 'system of profound knowledge', and why AI is not going to bring about disruptive change in manufacturing. 

Episode Summary

• Why certain elements of Lean Six Sigma are diametrically opposed to the principles of Edward Deming: Lean Six Sigma is focused on cost and not building a system of profound knowledge
  
  
• How Lean Six Sigma specifically fails to adhere to Deming’s 8th Point: “Remove fear from the system”. By dividing everyone into black belts, green belts and everyone else, it creates organizational boundaries that propagate fear
  
  
• Why sub-systems like purchasing and finance are so important to your understanding of your organization’s system of profound knowledge…areas that are often outside the scope of a Six Sigma project
  
  
• How to implement SPC without spending millions of dollars on complicated software 
  
  
• Why AI is just another tool (“A high-tech knob turner”). It is not a replacement for conventional quality improvement, which should remain in the control of humans
  
  
• How 85% of all quality improvement problems are caused either by decisions or indecisions by management
  
  
• The future of processes is ultimately about humans enabled by a combination of software and Deming’s principles