1.

From the title and headline of the case study, you can tell that this case study was
going to talk about Six Sigma and the changes that Maple Leaf Company is going
through using and implementing Six Sigma. The headline Maple Leaf Foods:
Leading Six Sigma Change is very straight forward about what the case study is
going to talk about. The introduction of the case study talks about what Six Sigma is
and its philosophy of how it is going to be used and implemented. The philosophy
was to focus on the manufacturing process problems. By reducing/eliminating those
problems, you get the most maximized production because the time you would spend
fixing those problems would be used to making more and better quality products.
You would be minimizing waste time and be producing more. The conclusion of the
case study reinforces the benefits of why the company should use Six Sigma. It
reinforces the concepts and how the future of Six Sigma should be. They realize that
Six Sigma is a program, but they dont want people to look at it as a program, they
want the concept to be this is the way we do things around here.

2. Bruce Miyashita Vice President Six Sigma Maple Leaf Foods

Concerns about incomplete six sigma project:
o What was and what was not working?
o What should we have done differently?
o Have we pushed the program hard enough and fast enough?
o Should we be satisfied?
Goal was to make six sigma tangible to employees, thus making it a more
effective and efficient workplace.
Spent considerable time assembling and customizing six sigma training material.
First decision was to recommend that six sigma be delayed.
o Believed that if six sigma had been announced and defined immediately,
there would not have been enough substance to their program.
Implemented binders describing six sigma to employees.
Developed the black belt program, a program enabling people to understand six
sigma as the move higher and higher up in the ranking system.
Explained all benefits of six sigma to employees.
Made documents available online for access y anyone willing to learn.
Michael McCain President and CEO
Believed that the personal success of the employees was highly integrated with
the continuous success of the business.
Believed that an IOC had to achieve stability before six sigma could be of any
use.
Wallace McCain Chairman of Maple Leaf Foods
Scott McCain President of the Agribusiness IOCs (Independent Operations Companies)
Jack Welch CEO of GE
Career followed by Michael McCain because of his success with six sigma.

Brock Furlong President of Poultry

One of the first three IOCs selected for six sigma
Challenges:
o Being first
o No benchmarks to go by
o No detailed process, outlines, or maps
Top-Down decision making was erased.
4. Some of the problems with implementing Six Sigma in the company are:
1) People had to buy into the program of Six Sigma - if people didnt buy into
the idea of Six Sigma then the program wouldnt work because the program
needed 100% effort from its employees.
2) Making sure the ideas and concept of Six Sigma are never forgotten and be
like second nature.
3) Implementing the Six Sigma program itself.
4) The problems thats going to occur when Six Sigma is implemented.
5) The morale of employees - meaning how employees would take to the
change of Six Sigma. How Six Sigma would affect their lives on a day-today basis and over the long term.
6) The future of Six Sigma - what the future of Six Sigma is going to be. If it
is successful, how do make sure it stays successful and if it fails, what do we
do then?
5. Solutions to these problems include:
1) In the case of McCain, in order to solve that problem he invested a lot in
human resources and human resource professionals.
2) The company had to emphasize Six Sigma and highlight the qualities and
benefits of using Six Sigma. They had to know that Six Sigma was
successful in the past for other companies and with time it will be for their
company.
3) The company had to make sure that when they did implement it, the
strategic plan was analyzed thoroughly and understood by all the people. In
the case of Maple Leaf Foods, instead of immediately implementing it, they
first concentrated on building the infrastructure of the program. With an
added bonus of doing that, it added curiosity to people of Six Sigma and the
program.
4) With all new programs and concepts that are implemented, there is always
going to be resistance. So they created black belts and green belts
people to help solve any problems in the design process, projects, leading
projects, managerial and employee questions.
5) Study how it is run and implemented this time, so that in the future
implementations, it can be altered to fit any company and any employee.
The key to six sigmas success is to make it a second nature way of life.

6) To make six sigma remain successful, it is necessary to continue refining all

complications/problems/new ideas that come into play. If this is done
correctly, eventually the six sigma way of running business marketing
structure will be perfected.