Keywords: Six Sigma, Process Management, Action Research, Customer as a company wide business process improvement programme, are you doing it to . funding, and the 'partners in crime' to do this most rewarding work. Reliability normally measures whether the instruments are of good quality or not and to.
Table of contents
- Background
- Most Recent Articles
- What is Lean Six Sigma?
- What is Lean Six Sigma: What it is, Why it Matters & How to Do it Right
- Lean Six Sigma principles
The bank in the following case study had been encountering problems with new customer accounts. The number of ambulance diversions at Providence Health System in Alaska had become a concern. Despite some temporary improvements, the hospital decided to resolve the reoccurring problem more permanently with CAP and Work-out. By using Lean tools, service call centers can transform themselves from a cost center into a profit center, as well as increase market share and enhance the customer experience in a competitive global economy.
Transactional projects in Six Sigma often focus on eliminating process chaos — that is, time or money being lost in long wait times, missed deadlines and expensive firefighting. The best way to restore order is via a repetitive cycle of measurement and analysis. A key success factor for Six Sigma is establishing good project starting points through appropriate problem definitions. It is critical that improvement initiatives start at the top and flow downward, and that everyone understands their roles.
Organizations evaluate themselves by measuring customer satisfaction with their products or services.
Background
The Servqual survey framework and a voice-of-the-customer matrix can help in the implementation of a customer-satisfaction metric. Finding Green Belt and Black Belt candidates with the right personal and professional traits is a proven method for building a successful Six Sigma program. Use a Pugh matrix to help in the critical candidate selection process. By reviewing quality assurance concepts — reliability, failure rate and product life history — that can be used in DMAIC and DMADV, practitioners can provide sound input to the establishment of appropriate product warranties.
Six Sigma's systemic approach can be seen by some as a threat to creativity. TRIZ — the theory of inventive problem solving — is one technique for eliminating conflict between Six Sigma and innovation. Practitioners can benefit from understanding the logic behind the linear and quadratic trend models used in forecasting. Here are 10 keys to successful transformation that have been embraced by highly successful healthcare organizations. Inconsistent use of metrics can lead to lost opportunities and rework after a project ends.
Using them consistently brings enormous clarity to the impact and benefit of a Six Sigma project and helps keep the focus on enhancing business capabilities. Should companies hire ready-to-go Black Belts, develop them internally or use a Black Belt from a consulting company? There is a way to resolve this dilemma, which many companies face during the early stages of Six Sigma deployment. For IT departments, following a DMAIC roadmap for a process change request — such as the upgrading of databases and server hardware — can provide organizations with the necessary framework to ensure that all changes are made in the most efficient manner possible.
Six Sigma is a systematic data-driven approach that works across most processes, products and industries. Still, some organizations think Six Sigma cannot work for them. One company's funds management department proves that it can. SQC and SPC are two powerful tools, which have different goals and requirements for successful application. By using a methodology that combines the strengths of both approaches, it is possible to overcome the individual weaknesses of each one.
Sometimes the results from a Lean Six Sigma deployment do not meet a company's hopes or expectations. A formal deployment review, much like a tollgate review on an individual project, may help. By applying Lean Six Sigma in a multi-generational model, a strong project management process can be developed. One method of measurement can be a standard question that agents ask the customer at the close of a call: The profit triangle, often used in marketing theory, can help people understand Six Sigma's role within the organization and focuses on both continuous business improvement and financial savings.
When instituting change, choosing the right sponsor — organizationally speaking — determines whether that change will succeed or fail. Without the benefit of extensive project experience and strong statistical interpretive skills, a Green Belt or even Black Belt may improperly diagnose data anomalies, leading to poor decisions. Learning some quick analysis techniques can help. After decades of initiatives being unleashed on unprepared organizations, good managers have learned that the correct foundation must be built to allow successful change.
Integrating Lean into an existing process-improvement framework can result in more high-impact, quick-hit projects. As this experience from one business shows, it's possible to bring in Lean tools without creating ripples in the Six Sigma structure. With enhanced VOC collection, a company really sees who their customers are, what their real problems are, how the product will really be used by them. This insight leads to better Lean Six Sigma project execution. IT practitioners must see their world from two different perspectives - how the business uses their services and how IT provides services to the business.
Both views distill to one concept - the value stream - applied in two different ways.
Although IT reported values for application availability might be numerically correct, they may not be a true representation of the situation. For more accurate predictions, use outside-in and rolled-throughput approaches. The initial results of a new quality improvement effort at a Midwest lockbox operation were disappointing. When the Six Sigma team got to the Control phase it found the problem.
Teams often work with "hard" data — discrete data that can be counted and legitimately expressed as ratios. But what about "soft" data, like opinions, attitudes and satisfaction? While a DFSS project can fail for many reasons, successful project execution often depends on adequate and timely management of human resources. A healthcare provider used Six Sigma to see if evidence-based medicine could promote a more standardized formulary. Behind every effective scorecard implementation, there is a commitment from leadership and there is buy-in from organizational business units and individuals.
Leaner versions of FMEA, analytic hierarchy process and quality function deployment tools can be used to ease process owners into Six Sigma. This list of tips, tools and suggestions for Six Sigma practitioners can help avoid many pitfalls of project management.
Whether implementing Six Sigma in Munich or Manhattan, Paris or Prague, there are certain common factors that are critical for success. Nine practical steps that focus on facts and data can provide a roadmap for business leaders at all levels on how to use Six Sigma to drive strategy implementation. There are some simple steps Belts can take to reinvigorate a wilting deployment in less than a year. This article identifies the specific role and tasks of a healthcare Master Black Belt, as well as the required skills, desires and behaviors. By combining the beta distribution, or three-point estimation technique, with basic statistics, Belts can get a better estimate of the time required to complete projects.
It is cheaper to scrap production inside the facility than to be charged for a complete assembly found defective by the customer. Use discriminant analysis to separate those units that are likely to fail as soon as they come off the production line. A collection agency was able not only to retain a complaining client's business thanks to a Lean Six Sigma project, but also to use the capability improvements it gained from the project as a selling point with both current and prospective clients.
Six Sigma has tools that promote good decision making, which leads to performance improvements that reduce rework and drive benefits to the bottom line faster. Executives who develop a working knowledge of Six Sigma, Lean and Kaizen are much better prepared to build the right infrastructure and lead their organizations to both financial and human success. When top-down support is not available, mid-level executives who know the power of Six Sigma must take deployment into their own hands.
With the right approach, training and leadership, middle-out adoption is possible. By completing a Lean assessment in tandem with capacity modeling, an organization can optimize its staff and avoid gaps or surpluses. In association with the launch of a new drug, DFSS was used to develop a new pharmacovigilance system to capture and analyze observed drug side effects. To be a successful vendor manager, a company must select the right vendor.
Most Recent Articles
The house of quality can help make the right choice. Which is more important in a Six Sigma deployment —- training or benefits? Six Sigma training, which leads to certifications, is a means to an end. Certifications are the Xs, or the causes, and benefits are the big Y, or the effect.
With the demand for surgical services growing, especially with ambulatory and cosmetic procedures, hospitals continue learning that Six Sigma is a useful tool. DOE, known in marketing as conjoint analysis, is a powerful statistical technique for seeing connections between a customer's decision-making process and a product or service. To be effective, Black Belts must be able not only to use Six Sigma tools effectively, but also to motivate the right people at the right time in the right way. Practitioners can assess the accuracy of forecasts using control charting and analysis of variance ANOVA.
Screening a corporation's forecasts with these two tools will reveal the evolution of forecast bias and consistency over time. By analyzing and learning from previous efforts, an organization was able to fine-tune the methods used for training new employees. Cause-and-effect diagrams help identify factors x's that drive changes in the results variable Y. But when that tool is not enough, causal loop diagrams can convey causal interconnections that better reflect the way things are.
Recognizing the inevitable ups and downs of completing a Six Sigma project will help a Black Belt move more quickly through the "valley of despair," leading to more projects closed on time and with the expected business results. The project charter is the first step and one of the most important parts of any Six Sigma project. It should contain the 11 elements described here. Lean is intuitive, flexible and can be executed quickly. As a result, almost any business or organizational process can benefit from the application of Lean.
To gain a better understanding of the method, test its tools on an everyday process. A point checklist can be used for ongoing project evaluation at specific milestones as well as be part of a lessons-learned exercise after project completion. With the help of Six Sigma, an outpatient imaging center identifies the root cause of slow report turnaround times and improves performance to a better-than-industry standard.
Two project scenarios demonstrate how Six Sigma can address common pain points in software implementation — defining customer requirements and making accurate estimates. One way to make use of customer satisfaction survey data is through Kano analysis, a model for classifying customer responses. Here, an appliance company analyzes customer data related to dishwashers. Adopting process improvement tools and providing employee training is only part of a winning strategy.
Success also requires a combination of committed leadership, unbridled innovation and a comprehensive systems approach. How tolerances are determined affect process or product performance, and thus DPMO. This article presents two methods for determining tolerance specifications. What often gets lost in the excitement of deploying Lean manufacturing is the discipline involved in tying improvement activities to clearly defined and auditable financial results. Follow these 5 tips for better results.
It can be difficult to assess an overall sigma level because some critical processes are more important than others. One approach is to weight each of the critical processes when calculating overall sigma level. Focus employee opinion on the benefits of Lean Six Sigma by highlighting process improvement successes through project storyboard displays. When designing a safe healthcare environment, a proactive approach is far preferable to a reactive approach.
FMEA can help eliminate concerns early in the development of a process by prospectively analyzing for potential failure points. A VOC survey revealed that a company's telephone operator response was poor and customer satisfaction was low. The resulting improvement efforts show how a service process can be turned around using Six Sigma.
How can a company properly plan and execute a strategy? Today's best model is Hoshin Kanri, also known as policy deployment, which helps align a company's resources to its most critical tasks. As companies concentrate on design and outsource more of the order fulfillment process, including manufacturing, their quality image is dependent on supplier performance.
When is the right time to involve suppliers in a quality improvement initiative? A provider of medical equipment, such as EKG machines, used Six Sigma to better detect potential errors in the equipment and prevent them from occurring. The analytical hierarchy process AHP allows for better prioritization by simplifying customer assessments and making their results more meaningfully measurable.
It can also be used for gaining group consensus. Work-out is powerful by design as it engages the best thinking of the those in the organization who are closest to the processes and who invariably have a lot of ideas for improvement. Learn the phases and roles in the Work-out framework. Answering two fundamental questions can help an organization honestly assess its readiness for adopting a Lean Six Sigma culture.
To obtain the benefits of a corrective and preventive action system but without dedicating resources to a full deployment, pick up the SLACK. Starting an implementation with a 5S event can show employees how Lean Six Sigma works, and what its use will mean for them.
Product manufacturers are pushed to produce quality products without exceeding budget. A textile processing mill followed the DMAIC approach for more effective resource management and thus to reduce expenditures. A financial evaluation method should be easy to communicate to the project teams that will use it and should provide plausible estimations for decision making.
Taguchi's Loss Function fits the bill. Although they are not part of the typical DMAIC approach, these tools can decrease the time needed to find solutions. In this case study, a company measures the impact a Six Sigma program has had on the business after one year. After sub-optimal results, the company creates a Six Sigma project to improve its Six Sigma program.
Six Sigma can help the traditional workflow of diagnostic imaging keep pace with the science delivering better equipment and information systems. The use of slogans such as "zero defects" to spur quality can be counterproductive, detracting attention from the tried-and-true tools and culture associated with successful Six Sigma programs. A common challenge for an information technology department is how to prioritize projects for the biggest benefit.
Follow these eight steps to build a criteria-based matrix that provides effective prioritization for any organization. Six Sigma instructors tell their students add variances, not standard deviations. What students may not have learned is that this additive property relies on the linearity of the transfer function. But often it ends up being more important to learn "does the difference really matter?
Organizations considering Kaizen events must be ready to make a commitment to change management by properly preparing attendees for the goals of the event, executing the event smoothly and implementing solutions in a timely and effective manner. The balanced scorecard enables an organization to maintain the perspective of various stakeholders while providing a complete assessment of organizational progress.
It can help improve the performance in one area without harming another. Linear regression is often considered difficult or confusing by those practitioners just beginning to delve into the Six Sigma toolkit. Making sense of it starts at a basic level. Black Belts have a counseling resource that is often ignored or underutilized — the knowledge and experience of their peers. Formalize knowledge sharing with a structured approach to collegial problem solving. Six Sigma is used effectively in manufacturing, service, financial and educational settings to improve processes and achieve time and cost benefits by eliminating waste and inefficiencies.
With a little adaptation, Six Sigma can do the same for IT departments. Using graphical tools, a refrigerator manufacturer analyzed supplier data to identify the best sources for parts. This case study illustrates how these simple yet powerful tools can be applied to any industry or process.
When it comes to Lean, the difference between success and failure is in cultural acceptance and the ability of an organization to accept change -- not just Lean change, but change in general.
Six Sigma projects often deal with experiments whose outcomes are ordered categorical data, rather than continuous. With a firm understanding of COPQ — both what it includes and what it does not — Belts can determine and justify projects, and gain buy-in for efforts based on financial findings. Years of Six Sigma deployments have created a wealth of both success stories and lessons about process challenges -- learn to steer clear of others' mistakes.
In some cases the emphasis will be primarily on Lean, in some on Six Sigma, and in many it is the combination of Lean and Six Sigma. So far we have discussed the background of Lean Six Sigma, the principles embedded in Lean Six Sigma and some of the benefits. You are probably asking, when are we going to explain how it works? Well, now is the time. Let's go through the key roles and responsibilities, the five-phase structure with gate reviews, and then do a quick overview of some of the more commonly used tools and techniques.
Lean Six Sigma has adopted the roles from the Motorola Six Sigma methodology, which borrow the naming convention of the progression of mastery used within martial arts. Some organizations have their own levels and definitions of mastery. However, I will be describing the most commonly found levels in use today. Each of these roles are expected to have training, and in many cases certification appropriate to their role. In the early years of Lean and Six Sigma, every organization established its own standards with regards to methodology and tools and techniques.
However, most organizations now rely on an independent certifying body for training and certification. Let's look at each of these roles in more detail. An organization can have many Yellow Belts. They should be familiar with the structured methodology and the use of cross-functional tools and techniques. An organization will have multiple Green Belts.
The Green Belt role is normally that of a project leader. The Green Belt is typically working on Lean Six Sigma projects that would fall within their area of expertise and responsibilities. These individuals know the Lean Six Sigma methodology and structure. They are also able to apply the Lean analysis tools and the statistical techniques commonly used with Six Sigma. An organization will often have multiple Black Belts. The Black Belt role is that of subject matter expert on Lean Six Sigma for a function or location within the organization. These individuals lead large cross-functional projects and serve as coaches for the Green Belts in that department or location.
This is normally a full-time position. Black Belts know not only know how to apply the methodology and tools, they are the trainers and coaches for the Green Belts and Yellow Belts within the organization. A typical day will include:. As you can see, the individual is usually expected to lead several projects simultaneously while acting as coach for a handful of Green Belts who are leading their own projects. The projects being led by Black Belts are usually large cross-functional projects.
As project leaders they must plan and organize the work. What is often the most challenging aspect of those projects is to work with the stakeholders from the various functions. In many organizations, the Black Belt role is reassigned every year or two so that multiple individuals can become adept at all aspects of the Lean Six Sigma methodology. The final level is that of Master Black Belt. Most organizations will have only one Master Black Belt, someone who is normally a senior individual responsible for managing the Lean Six Sigma initiative within the organization.
This is a full-time position. Lean Six Sigma projects follow a structured methodology, based upon five phases. Each phase has an organizing premise or question that must be addressed. Once the question is satisfactorily answered, the project can proceed to the next phase. The duration of the phase is based upon the information and data that is available. Normally at the end of each phase there is a phase gate review with the stakeholders and one or more Black Belts.
The Define phase is the first phase of the project. The key question that must be answered is, "Have we defined the problem from a business perspective? Some Yellow Belt project team members may also be identified at that time. The project team needs to get input from stakeholders and customers to understand the problem from their perspective.
During this time, they are quantifying what the customers consider to be critical quality expectations. With an understanding of the problem from the business and customer perspective, the boundaries for the process - and any product or service that is delivered - can be determined. While a preliminary project team may be in place in this phase, the determination of the boundaries on the process will often dictate which functions need to support the project with subject matter experts. During this phase, those subject matter experts who are new to Lean Six Sigma will often receive Yellow Belt training.
This phase often ends with the development of a project charter that identifies the problem from the customer perspective, the processes to be analyzed, and a goal for performance improvement. The Measure phase is the second phase of a Lean Six Sigma project. In this phase the baseline condition is established by measuring the current performance of the process, product, or service with respect to the critical quality attributes identified in the Define phase.
The question that is asked in this phase is, "Do we understand the work and flow of each of the steps in the current process and have we measured the process performance at each step? The process must be defined to determine the flow of each step. Each step is then measured for time, quality, and any other attribute that was important to the customer. Often the appropriate measurement systems do not exist to collect this data, so a measurement system will need to be developed and verified so that it provides accurate and complete data.
The subject matter experts on the team from the various departments and functions are closely engaged in this phase to identify the process steps and to develop and deploy an approach for measuring performance. By the end of this phase, the problem experienced by the customer should be quantified with process data, and an accurate assessment of the current or "As-is" state for the entire process has been determined.
The Analyze phase is the third phase of a Lean Six Sigma project. In this phase, the process and product data are analyzed to determine the true root cause or causes of the problem the customer has experienced. The key question to be answered is just that, "Have we clearly identified the problem and determined the true root cause s? The project leader is expected to be able to mathematically show that the root cause has been identified.
While the analytical and statistical techniques are rigorous, the math involved is usually very straight-forward, especially if a statistical analysis application is used such as Excel's Analysis Tool Pak or Minitab. Often the data collected during the Measure phase is sufficient for the analysis. However, in some cases, the analysis will point to an area requiring further study and additional data may need to be collected.
Which analytical tool or technique is used will depend upon the nature of the problem or defect from the customer perspective and the types of data that are available for analysis. Often during this phase, a detailed problem statement will be completed based upon the results of the analysis. The team must guard against preparing a detailed problem statement before this step. Otherwise there is a good chance they will assume the wrong problem, which will lead to confusion and misdirection on the team when they begin to create a solution in the next phase.
By the end of this phase all team members should be in agreement that the sources of the problem are now known and understood. The Improve phase is the fourth phase of a Lean Six Sigma project. Teams often want to jump to this phase immediately without thoroughly completing the first three phases. When that occurs, the team usually creates an improvement that addresses a symptom without getting to the root cause. The goal for this phase is to create a solution to the problem that eliminates or contains it.
The question being answered is, "Have we created a viable solution for the problem that is ready to be implemented? During this phase, the solution is developed and tested. Depending upon the nature of the solution, this is often the most expensive phase. The "To-Be" process is developed and documented.
In many cases, the new process requires changes in equipment, software, or procedures. Once again data is relied upon to be certain the solution has effectively addressed the problem, which normally means that a statistically significant number of operations are performed to collect that data. A trap the team can easily fall into is to prematurely celebrate a "random success. By the end of this phase, the solution is ready. The Control phase is the final phase of a Lean Six Sigma project.
In this phase the solution is fully deployed. The phase does not end until the solution is stable and all aspects of the business that are affected by the change are operational. The question being answered is, "Have we established a "new normal" that has eliminated or controlled the problem the customer experienced?
The phase continues until the process has demonstrated stability in performance. This may occur within a few days or may take several months. A control plan is normally set in place for monitoring the process, product or service. The control plan includes threshold measurements for acceptable performance and corrective action steps to be followed if the performance degrades.
This control plan is one of the keys to ensuring the improvement is permanent and that the process does not revert back to its prior state. In most cases, the control plan will include statistical process control. A major aspect of the work in this phase is often the updates of documentation in associated processes such as training processes, business information systems, and management review. This phase is completed when the operators and managers of the process no longer require support from the project team.
We have focused on the role of the project leader and the project team. However, senior management and the process stakeholders also have a role in the Lean Six Sigma methodology. These individuals, along with one or more Black Belts, will conduct the Phase Gate reviews. The reviews can be done in a face-to-face presentation, a virtual presentation, or through the submittal of a report that is reviewed and approved by the stakeholders and Black Belts.
Which approach is used depends primarily on corporate culture and team logistics.
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These reviews occur at the end of each phase. A review has three purposes:. Review the work of the preceding phase to ensure that it was done with the appropriate Lean Six Sigma rigor. If this is found to be inadequate, the team will need to repeat portions of the work and come back for a new Phase Gate review. The Black Belt in the review will coach the team on the performance of the areas of weakness. Review the answer to the phase question and the supporting data or documentation, to ensure it addresses the customer need.
If the data does not support the answer, the reviewers should direct the team to continue in this phase until they have answered the question. Establish any ground-rules or boundaries associated with the next phase, based upon the results of the preceding phase. Examples would be to set a time window for collecting data in the Measure phase or a capital budget limit for a solution to be developed in the Improve phase. Reviewers need to be familiar with the Lean Six Sigma methodology and the structured approach to problem solving.
They can easily derail a project team by asking the wrong question for the given phase. For instance, asking a team to identify the root cause of the problem during the Measure Phase Gate review will force them to jump to conclusions. That question should not be asked until the Analyze Phase Gate review. The Black Belt who is part of the review team should ensure the reviewers are aware of what questions the team should be prepared to answer, and which questions are not appropriate for that Phase Gate review.
The reviewers often include senior leaders from the organizations or departments with responsibility for the process being analyzed. If the team is encountering resistance to their activities or need special access or support, to conduct the next phase of the project they should be requesting that from the reviewers. An example might be to have access to certain data records or to have operators support a measurement systems analysis of the testing methodology. The response of the reviewers to these requests is a signal to the rest of the organization of the importance of the Lean Six Sigma initiative.
Now that we have covered the structure and process of the Lean Six Sigma methodology, let's look at the tools and techniques. Many of these tools and techniques were in use long before the Lean Six Sigma methodology was formulated, and have been incorporated into this methodology.
One of the powerful aspects of Lean Six Sigma is that multiple tools are available for use in each phase. A team can then choose the tool or technique that best fits their unique situation. Organizations will often have a favorite set of techniques based upon their corporate culture or historical preferences. These tools and techniques are organized based upon the types of analysis in which they are used.
Many of these could be used in multiple phases of a Lean Six Sigma project, depending upon the problem and analysis being conducted. Process analysis tools and techniques are often associated with the Lean portion of the analysis. They help to describe the process and understand its efficiency. Visual analysis tools and techniques are used with virtually every problem-solving methodology. These techniques can be used in multiple phases. Their value is that they are quick and easy to understand.
They are also excellent communication techniques with senior management and the operations or organizations that will be affected by the solution. The statistical analysis tools and techniques are often associated with the Six Sigma portion of the analysis. The statistical tools help us to make sense of the data and to determine what is significant and what is not. The use of statistical software such as Excel Analysis Tool Pak or the Minitab application has minimized the amount of mathematical computation that the team members must do.
However, they still need to understand which statistical techniques to use in each situation and how to interpret the results. Lean Six Sigma projects must also be able to interact with stakeholders and customers. There are several techniques that have proven effective in this regard.
What is Lean Six Sigma?
Some of these are based upon understanding the perspective of external stakeholders and some of these are useful for organizing and communicating with internal stakeholders, such as team members. In order to illustrate how Lean Six Sigma works, I will use the methodology to solve a hypothetical problem. Let me set the stage:. Some mornings when you prepare to leave home for work, you can't find your keys. Searching causes delays and you miss your train or bus. Even worse, sometimes you take your spouse's keys and then you can't unlock the office when you arrive.
Now you need to wait for someone else to arrive to open the office. Not to mention, your spouse has the same problem when they get to work. The problem has occurred multiple times and your boss has remarked about it. Something must be done to ensure it does not happen again. Let's start by considering this from the customer perspective. You and your spouse are the primary customers of this process. Your goal is twofold: This leads to one primary CTQ, the keys are in a known location and you can grab them and take them with you when you leave home in the morning.
You will not include everything else you do to get ready for work in the morning such as breakfast, showering, and getting dressed — except to the extent that they impact the keys. The goal for the project Charter is to create and implement a process that results in the immediate acquisition of the correct keys in the morning when leaving for work. In this phase you create a process map that shows all the possibilities for what happens to the keys at night.
The process starts with arrival at home and ends with arrival at the office the next morning. The process has different branches depending upon whether it was a weekday, weekend or holiday, whether you went out that evening or stayed in, and whether you have inclement weather requiring additional preparation to leave, such as finding an umbrella or a cold-weather coat.
In creating the map, you realized that the process on weekends and holidays varied so widely you could not even map it, but the process during the week was relatively stable. This is your As-Is process map. You applied a time metric to each step and a success or yield metric. Of course, many of the steps, especially those spent searching in the morning, had no value-added time associated with them.
In fact, the only value-added steps were the step of placing the keys on your desk when arriving home and picking up your keys in the morning. A challenge you faced with the process mapping and measurement was to define a pass or fail condition for each step. In some cases it was obvious, in others you had to think through the purpose of the step to determine the desired outcome. You then collected data for four weeks. To do this you created and used a check sheet every night at bedtime to determine what you had done that evening when arriving home from work and then noted how much time each step required.
You also created a check sheet for your activities in the morning, but you normally did not complete that until you arrived at work. Finally, you documented what you did with the keys on each day of the weekend and on the one holiday that fell within that four-week period.
A significant challenge in the data collection was the Hawthorne Effect. This is the name given to the condition where the measurement of a parameter changes what people do. If they know they are being measured, their behavior changes to optimize the measure. By completing the check sheet every night, you were changing your behavior. So you were careful that even if you realized at night that the keys were not in the correct place on your desk, you did not go then to find them, but waited until the morning as would normally occur.
Now that there is data, the analysis can begin. An obvious problem is that there is no process defined for weekends and holidays. But even during the weekdays you find that your process is unstable. There is minor common cause variation most of the time, but on six of the weekdays there was a major problem finding the keys. You never took your spouse's keys by accident during the four weeks; but that has only occurred twice in the past six months, so you aren't able to draw any conclusions about that type of defect. You create a Fishbone diagram to determine the root causes, and you brainstormed seventeen possible causes for uncertainty in the location of keys in the morning.
Even though you were brainstorming and normally would not reject any ideas, you choose not to include the intervention of space aliens as one of the causes — although it was suggested by your spouse. Based upon your analysis, you find that five of the possible root causes could have contributed to the six occurrences of the problem in your data set.
In doing this you find that there is a major difference in what happens to your keys when there has been inclement weather. It is doubtful that weather causes keys to change location by themselves, so you must do something different when there is bad weather. This points to the need to understand your process for removing and storing your inclement weather apparel.
This points to a process problem. You determine that there are two contributing root causes. Now it is time to create a solution. First you and your spouse decided on the process changes that need to occur, and created a selection matrix to assess the options. One idea was to place a large hook on the door so that the keys could be hooked there whenever someone returned home.
What is Lean Six Sigma: What it is, Why it Matters & How to Do it Right
However, that option was not very decorative. A second option was to chain the keys to your belt or purse, but that was rejected because chains didn't fit your style of dressing. A third option was to connect an RFID tag to the key chain and then install an app on the computer that would tell you location of the keys. While this did not create decorative or fashion concerns, the cost was higher than you were willing to pay. Using the selection matrix, you finally decide to place a small magnetic bowl on your desk that would hold both your keys and your spouse's keys.
Lean Six Sigma principles
Then a process step was added for arriving home. Following removal of inclement weather apparel if any the keys were to be immediately placed in the bowl. This same practice was to be adopted for the weekends. Whenever anyone returned home, the first step was to place the keys in the bowl. This was the "To-Be" process. Because the bowl was prominently placed on the desk, it also served as a Poka Yoke reminder of key status. If either of you were home, the bowl should not be empty. If both of you are home, both sets of keys should be there. This solution addressed all four of the issues that had been found in the Analyze phase.
A process was now defined for both weekdays and weekends. This process accounted for inclement weather apparel and it designated a place where misplaced keys should be taken. You determined to add one more thing to further Poka Yoke the solution. You and your spouse have different color fobs attached to your keychains. The two sets of keys are now easily distinguished. You and your spouse try the new process for a week and find that it is easy to follow on the weekdays, but you still had trouble remembering to put the keys there on the weekend. So, an additional step was added to the process.
This step was that every evening when you went through the house to check that the doors and windows were locked, you also checked that the keys were in the bowl. That check was easily added to the "go to bed" process since during that process you always checked the computer on the office desk.
In this example, this phase will be easy to complete. You don't have a large cross-functional organization to change. But it does involve the change in habit patterns for you and your spouse, so the process needs to be monitored to ensure it is followed. You create a control plan. The keys are checked every night to be certain they are in the bowl. The response plan is that if the keys are not in the bowl, you and your spouse immediately get up to search for the keys and place them in the bowl before retiring to bed.
Approximately three weeks after fully implementing the change, you and your spouse returned late one weekend night after attending a gala party. You were exhausted and just wanted to go to bed. However, when doing the "go to bed" process, you recognize that a set of keys is missing from the bowl.
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Although tempted to ignore the problem for the night, you and your spouse do a quick check and find the keys with the outer garments you wore to the party. Placing them in the bowl, you are now able to go bed with a clear conscience and peace of mind. The plan was implemented and the misplaced key problem was eliminated. Although the new process had two additional steps, it effectively eliminated the frantic loop of looking for keys in the morning.
The overall time was reduced, efficiency was increased, the error rate dropped to a non-existent level, and customer satisfaction was enhanced. First, Lean Six Sigma is a structured problem-solving process using data that transforms the "lucky guess" problem-solving approach that is often used in organizations today. The structured process guides the team through the steps they should follow, and the reviews ensure that they are not cutting corners.
Second, Lean Six Sigma contains many tools, but the tools do not rule the team. The Black Belt and Green Belt project leaders select the appropriate tool for the situation. The tools are there to assist the team in their analysis, not constrain them. Finally, the goal is an improved process, product or service that better meets the customer expectations. Lean Six Sigma is not about the process or the tools, it is about the customer. A project success is declared when waste and variation are eliminated or reduced and customer value is enhanced. Join our newsletter today for free Subscribe Join , others.