Avoiding Common Pitfalls in the DMAIC Methodology

How to Strengthen Lean Six Sigma Projects and Deliver Real Results

Lean Six Sigma and DMAIC are powerful problem-solving approaches—but only when they’re applied thoughtfully.

Many improvement efforts stall, overcomplicate simple problems, or fail to sustain results—not because DMAIC is flawed, but because of how it’s used in practice.

In this on-demand webinar, Simon De Castro shares practical lessons drawn from more than 25 years of experience leading, coaching, and sponsoring Lean Six Sigma initiatives across healthcare and industry. While framed around DMAIC, the insights in this session apply broadly to A3 thinking, PDSA, and continuous improvement work of all kinds.

This webinar goes beyond tools and templates to focus on the real-world behaviors, decisions, and structures that determine whether improvement efforts succeed or fail.

View all previous KaiNexus Continuous Improvement Webinars

Why This Webinar Matters

Organizations often invest heavily in Lean Six Sigma training—yet still struggle with:

• Projects that take too long or never finish

• Teams jumping to solutions without understanding root cause

• Metrics that look good on dashboards but don’t drive improvement

• Action plans that rely too heavily on training and reminders

• Improvements that fade once the project is “closed”

This session helps leaders and practitioners recognize these patterns early—and correct them before time, energy, and credibility are lost.

What You’ll Learn

• When DMAIC is—and is not—the right approach

• How misaligned sponsorship and unclear roles derail projects

• Why scope creep quietly undermines timelines and outcomes

• Common root cause analysis mistakes with 5 Whys and fishbone diagrams

• How overreliance on lagging metrics limits learning

• Why people-based solutions fail without system-level design

• Practical ways to strengthen action plans and sustain gains

Key Insights

Successful DMAIC projects depend less on technical mastery and more on discipline, judgment, and leadership alignment.

Simon emphasizes that many failures stem from treating DMAIC as a checklist rather than a thinking process. Teams often skip critical learning in the Define and Measure phases, prescribe solutions too early, or rely on metrics that confirm performance instead of revealing opportunity.

A recurring theme is respect for the gemba—the recognition that meaningful improvement requires firsthand understanding of work as it actually happens, not how it’s assumed to happen.

The session also reframes sustainability: lasting improvement doesn’t come from more training or reminders, but from redesigning systems to make the right behaviors easier—and errors harder.

Who This Webinar Is For

This webinar is especially valuable for:

• Lean Six Sigma Black Belts, Green Belts, and Yellow Belts

• Continuous improvement and operational excellence leaders

• CI coaches and facilitators supporting project teams

• Healthcare quality and performance improvement professionals

• Leaders who sponsor or review improvement projects

• Organizations experiencing stalled or inconsistent DMAIC results

Whether you’re leading projects or supporting others who do, this session will help you improve how improvement work gets done.

The Presenters:

Simon De Castro

Simon De Castro is a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt with Texas Health Resources. He is also certified as a coach and as a Change Management Practitioner.

He has more than 25 years of experience, 17 of them working in Lean Six Sigma managerial roles in companies like Sara Lee, Johnson & Johnson, and since 2017, at Texas Health Resources, where he has worked on the design, implementation, and maintenance of KaiNexus.

In his continuous improvement journey, Simon has accumulated a great deal of experience in the design and delivery of Lean Six Sigma content and has coached more than 300 yellow and green belt projects to successful completion.