BEagle, superb summation of Sick Sigma ---a slight problem with your hypothesis however. First, a significant percentage of the population ( or the self styled "management" t££sers if you prefer ) would not have a clue as to standard deviation let alone the normal curve--well possibly the latter I suppose. They may be superb at showing performance histograms with lots of pretty colours etc and can "talk" statistics with ease--but one simple question that invariably causes a "lets move on now" moment is the one concerning "What confidence level did you test to ?".
To return to the orginal thread however. Not so long ago, a certain "well known South-east based large airline" decided with all their well publicised self-flagellatory zeal to embrace TQM--and duly dropped it very quietly--because along came another spawn called BPR--or Business Process Re-engineering. Now for those who haven't encountered BPR, on the surface it is a brilliant concept--now dig about 0.00001mm below the surface and all the major flaws quickly appear. It was very much a mid / late 90's fad but I suspect it is still around in one guise or another. And yes, said airline did indeed embrace it with a fervour----and nothing of benefit ever resulted of course.
The next part of my text may seem a little obscure--however--please be tolerant here and read what I have to say. I have been following the threads on Centralised Engineering. / LEAN / LYH etc with interest and here is my perception of matters.
Somebody, somewhere, has decided to embrace the holy grail of management consutants---Change management !. Why ? Because the Air Force is changing and thus a major culture change is also needed. As I understand matters, once the various tranches of redundancy have been completed, then some of these people will have to be replaced---but NOT on the terms and conditions that were previously in place. The objective is to save the ££'s after all. Thus, whilst you will still have the core of the Air Force based around crews / types--you won't need the same for the support functions. The Air Force will not then be a career--other than for a select few--and all the rest will be on a short term contract basis---in effect--"factory fodder". But to ensure this is a success, first you have the difficult part to overcome--culture change. So, why not carry out a little experiment to see how this can be achieved and the reactions to it--why not select a Station that is scheduled to close anyway--and test the theories out there--once proven and evaluated--the whole process can then be applied across the RAF per se. Far fetched some may say--possibly--but have a think about what is happening and how it is being implemented whether directly or by stealth. I could be totally wrong of course, but I wouldn't mind betting I am also close to the truth in parts.