Goals are only as important as the culture allows. If you have a goal around safety that is missed year after year, then I would ask if that is really your goal. Goals that are important and driven from the executive level down can always be met. My advice is don’t send a message to your employees that the goals are their responsibility, send a message that says the goals are an important part of the leaderships vision.

Six Sigma is a self-confessed con man's scam. He admitted: "all you have is smoke and mirrors". Smoke and mirrors will not help you with safety. The Sick Sigma Scam should be buried along with its creator.

Use the right measurement tools for the situation. Categorize them so you know when it’s time to fix a process vs educate the workforce. When it comes to safety there is a common misconception that accidents are inevitable. So, the measurement process has to include variables that help identify the root cause.

Generally, specific major HSE events occur when two or more special causes collide. We knew the roof was leaking, and this had been a heavy rainstorm. We knew the forklift drivers were carrying loads so large that it obscured their view, and we knew we had a new intake of apprentices who weren’t used to working in that environment. Any one of those is manageable. But on 1 day in 10,000 the apprentice stepped out, the forklift was overloaded, and the driver couldn’t stop in time on the slippery surface. Use six sigma to identify special causes.

As I stated in terms of measurement is to include the variables that help identify root cause. Unfortunately most quality tools are designed to help people who don’t understand statistics to come to a solution. With safety, it’s not like measuring a manufacturing process. You don’t want a stream of safety issues, or have an infinite amount of safety problems to measure. So, collecting the right data from the incident is important. Traditional tools like fishbone make no sense. You need to define why it happened and correct it. Common sense approach.

Again safety is NOT a process. Safety is capturing data from singular incidents and implementing corrective actions. If processes are causing accidents that should be immediately apparent. Either way safety is not a process.

Once safety incidents have been identified and analyzed, then corrective actions should be implemented with a zero tolerance policy. If human nature contributions are the primary cause (slips, trips with no apparent correctable action) then statistical tools should be applied to determine if the the person is unfit for the job or environment.

Forget about Six Sigma. Most safety hazards are visible on the shop floor, from tubs of greenish liquids with nauseous gases bubbling out to sharp objects next to aisles slick with spilled oil, or high stools next to a ledge without any barrier, or machinists reaching into the work enclosure of a milling machine while it’s moving, or maintenance techs crawling under tubs of hydro-fluoric acid to reach a valve,… Just to mention a few I have personally seen. When you redesign a line to improve flow, removing these hazards isn’t just the right things to do. The operators appreciate it and support what you are doing.

You don’t need Six Sigma to improve manufacturing safety. You only need to care about humans more than figures. And the rest will fall into place.

As all the tools under the fad banner of 6 Sigma are either copied or plagiarised from tools that existed some 30+ years before 6 Sigma was made up then the very easy answer is NONE! However if you use the tools they promote to sell their fancy belts and pointless certificates then you should have success without spending a penny.

Do not consider using Six Sigma methods to drive safety improvement. Instead deploy many proven time tested safety methodologies. For one, hire a strong experienced Safety leader to help teach the best tools and methods and develop the teams. Deploy JSA’s (job safety analysis) in every single kaizen done and drive improvements to them. I am a big fan of DuPonts BBS (Behavior Based Safety) program, institute it and make it your own. Track near misses thoroughly along with first aids and recordables, and use the data from near misses to strategically prioritize areas to significantly attach safety risk. Drive discipline around PPE. Involve hourly operators in all aspects of safety improvement.

The very first step in my opinion is to show actual respect, care and compassion for your employees. Once you achieve that everything you do will help you to make certain that you achieve your objectives