Identify potential projects
– At this point in the course you may be asking yourself, “How do I identify potential projects for Six Sigma?” What screening criteria should be used? And given the company’s limited bandwidth, “How do I prioritize the projects?” Funny you should ask. In this movie we’ll discuss how best to identify potential projects for Six Sigma, then we’ll talk about how to screen them, and how to prioritize them for launch. Here’s a handy checklist for identifying potential Six Sigma projects. Start with the company’s or departments annual goals. Ask yourself, “What improvements are needed?” How do you plan to achieve those improvements? What Six Sigma projects would help you achieve those goals? Identify performance gaps in key metrics, key performance indicators or KPIs. Do these performance gaps have to be closed? Review performance reports on products, services, and processes. Identify the areas with performance shortfalls they are potential targets for Six Sigma projects. Review data on customer complaints, returns, warranties, claims, and credits. Areas with a high number of complaints, returns, or credits indicate deficiencies. These deficiencies are potential targets for Six Sigma projects. Audits provide a good source for potential projects. Review reports from customer audits or internal quality audits, any recurring findings or areas with chronically poor performance are potential targets. Employee suggestions are another source for identifying projects, especially where the improvement ideas are supported by data. Now once you’ve identified potential projects you have to screen them to see if Six Sigma is appropriate. You can screen them using the following criteria. The performance deficiency should be a recurring or chronic issue, meaning it should not be a one-off or one-time occurrence. And the opportunity should be specific, specific to a particular product, process, or service. Don’t try to bar the ocean. Next, it should be measurable. You cannot improve what you cannot measure. Then the improvement opportunity should have a significant operational and financial impact. Finally, there must be alignment. Each project should help you achieve annual goals and targets established by senior management. Potential projects must pass every one of these screening criteria. Yes, every criteria, no exceptions. Now, you’ll be great to select every project that passed screening but there is limited bandwidth due to limited time, and resources, and other competing priorities. Choices have to be made. This is where senior management must step up to prioritize and select the right projects to launch. Why senior management? That’s because they are in the best position to see the entire forest not just the trees. What may seem like a good project saving $50,000 should not come ahead of another project at the other end of the company that can save over a million dollars. You don’t want to suboptimize. Put the company’s limited bandwidth to the best possible use. In addition to financial impact the degree of urgency should also be considered when prioritizing. For example, is there a risk of a major product recall or are we risking noncompliance that results in a plant shutdown by the regulators? Or what would happen if we don’t select this project? Other considerations for prioritizing include: the project’s impact on customers, the degree of difficulty in executing the project, and the level of change or cultural acceptance by the organization. Start using these checklists to identify, screen, and prioritize projects for Six Sigma.
Select the Six Sigma team
– What is your favorite sport? Football, basketball, soccer? Let’s say there is a corporate Olympics where companies send teams to compete against other companies. Who do you want in charge of organizing and supporting each team? Who do you want as team captains? Who would you select to be players for each team? These are the types of questions you need to ask when it comes to selecting the champion, the project leader, and team members for Six Sigma projects. Let’s start with the champion. Think of the champion as the team owner. Who do you want in charge of organizing and supporting the project? You want someone who is in charge, someone in senior management who has an interest, better yet, a stake in insuring the project’s success. Why senior management? Because the champion must be high enough in the organization to have enough clout to authorize the time and resources needed for the project, and have enough influence to remove any roadblocks to the project completion. And to insure that a champion has an interest or stake in that project, make sure you select someone whose goals or targets for the year are one step closer to achievement, if and when the project succeeds. Now that’s motivation. So, who select the champion? It is the senior management team in charge. If the project is within the factory or office location you want a management team of that local facility. If the project is across multiple locations within a division or business unit, then the senior management team in charge of that division or business unit. In other words, who ever is in charge. Project leader. Think of project leader as team captain. Who do you want to lead the team? Who should be in charge of executing the project? That’s the project leader. You want someone who has the knowledge, and experience in the processes being targeted by the project. You also want someone who can lead a cross-functional team, because processes and improvement opportunities cut across the departments and functional boundaries. Who should select the project leader? The champion. Team members. Let’s go back to the corporate Olympics. Who do you select to play for your team so that you can win against other companies? Do you ask for volunteers? No! You want to select the best players for that particular sport to play for your team. Similarly, you want to select the right people for that project, and who should select the team members, the champion, with the help and knowledge of the project leader should select the individuals with the experience and expertise, who can best contribute to the project’s success. If they are not available, the champion will work with their managers to reassign their current duties to others so that they can be freed up to help with the project. In summary, the champion is the team owner. Someone who has the management clout to make things happen and remove roadblocks. The project leader is a team captain in charge of leading and executing the project. Team members are the best players for that team. The individuals who can best contribute to project’s success. You want the best players to play for your team. The champion, the project leader and the team members they are your Six Sigma Team.