Brainstorming Is Six Sigma at Its Core

Brainstorming is a powerful Six Sigma tool, and the beauty of it is that it can be as free flowing as the wind. It can flow in as a solution to a problem, and be as structured as using a template to keep your thoughts focused and in sync.

If you are working in a creative industry, you can literally brainstorm on brainstorming methods. However, if you work in a technical industry, a more structured approach might be necessary.

Tools to Keep Your Brainstorming Structured

Here are a few Six Sigma tools that will help keep your brainstorming structured and following a plan:

Affinity Diagram: Created in a session where team members get together, ideas are written on sticky notes, then those notes are placed on a wall. After everyone has done this, a team member puts those sticky notes in categories based on similarity.

This can not only determine if similar solutions are at work, but can also be very revealing as to how the team thinks as a collaborative unit. The Affinity Diagram is definitely a tool that could reveal and spark ideas.

Fishbone Diagram: Here you can visually lay out the cause and effect of a problem. Laying it out automatically starts the creative juices flowing. Inventing your own template for a diagram is always important; this in itself requires brainstorming on the fly.

When using the DMAIC cycle, the Improve phase (the 4th phase) would be the time to brainstorm. With brainstorming, you think up solutions and the different scenarios those solutions would produce. From there, you select the best one that would make the improvement.

Brainstorming can be used with any Six Sigma tool, any time — it’s in the definition:

Brainstorming: a technique of solving specific problems, assessing information, stimulating creative thinking and developing new ideas by unrestrained and spontaneous participation in discussion.

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