So how do you create a Value Stream Map (VSM)? The first step is to identify exactly what value is from the point of view of the customer. In other words, it’s the customer who specifies what they deem as being value in your product or service.

Here are a view basic steps in getting started:

• Do a walkthrough of the entire process of what it takes to produce the product or service. This has to be done after you have identified what exactly the customer deems as value.
• In the walkthrough, make sure you distinguish between which steps add value and which are waste.
• Make a Value Stream Map (VSM) of the current state of the process.
• Gather data such as time, quality, or any other resources available for each step.

Then, analyze the current tasks on the Value Stream Map:

• Decide the opportunities for improvements.
• Identify bottlenecks and any other obstacles that might restrict flow.
• Find ways to eliminate waste and add value to the current process. 
• Create a prospective future state map to illustrate the goals desired. This future map should make visualizing easy to gain a better perspective.
• Design plans to put future state into action.

Remember, a value stream map should represent or show the entire flow of the process from supplier through to customer, so start to finish. This also should show the flow of all data concerning the VSM. After you are finished creating this VSM, you should be able to pinpoint where the delays take place, or if there are any excesses inventory or obstacles.

A value stream map is one of the most important tools lean provides. Having a VSM will keep you ahead because you will always know exactly what is currently going in the manufacturing process of your business. Knowing what adds value and eliminating waste will keep your business fine tuned!

For more information on our Lean Six Sigma courses or services, please visit our website. 

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What Does Lean Focus On?

Lean focuses on reducing the eight types of waste (Muda).  Defects, overproduction, waiting, non-utilized talent, waste from transportation, inventory waste, waste from motion, unnecessary processing. Additionally, Lean principles aim to reduce waste by identifying and eliminating it. Lean also improves production by maximizing flow and identifying non-value-adding steps you should remove. Anything that does not add value for the customer is a potential threat to production. As such, Lean uses a holistic approach that aims to build a culture of continuous improvement and in-depth analysis.

Lean Principles, Tools, and Techniques

• PDCA. Standing for Plan, Do, Check, Act, PDCA is a rapid cycle-based strategy used to drive process improvement.

• 5S is a 5-step method for creating and maintaining an intuitive and efficient workplace. The 5 Ss stand for Sort, Set In Order, Shine, Standardize, Sustain.

• 8 Types of Waste. Lean aims to eliminate the eight waste types: defects, overproduction, waiting, non-utilized talent, waste from transportation, inventory waste, waste from motion, and unnecessary

• Value Stream Maps. VSMs are a visual method for displaying the key process steps in production.

• Flow is the unhindered movement of a process.

• Pull describes how customer demand is used to dictate process flow, i.e. what the customer wants, or might want, determines what a company produces.

What does Six Sigma Focus On?

Six Sigma and Lean share many similarities. As such, they complement each other very well. However, Six Sigma focuses primarily on reducing variation, just one of the seven types of waste Lean tackles. Six Sigma is used to complete improvement projects, aimed at solving process issues. It is also highly data-oriented, involving validation of hypotheses using statistics. Six Sigma knowledge is classified using a belt-based hierarchy styled on martial arts (Yellow, Green, Black, and Master Black Belt). The higher the belt, the more adept you are at using Six Sigma. Furthermore, one of Six Sigma’s primary tools is a 5-step method with which to complete improvement projects.

Six Sigma Ideas, Tools, and Techniques

• DMAIC. This 5-step method uses the following steps, Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, and Control to improve production processes. Furthermore, DMAIC also allows you to identify the problem and develop creative solutions through deep analysis.

• Project Charter. Six Sigma uses a single-page document to outline the process issue, project goal, scope, and a timeline. Moreover, the charter forms an essential framework for the trajectory of an improvement project.

• Pareto Chart. Pareto Charts display information about potential causes of process issues in a cascading bar chart format. Additionally, you should also organize problems from largest to smallest.

• Hypothesis Testing. Hypothesis Testing is a way of providing statistical precision to root causes of process problems, so you can make the best decisions.

• Design of Experiments. Methods of controlled testing, with which to assess how efficient processes are. DoE also allows you to select the best conditions, materials, and methods for each.

• Statistical Process Control. SPC enables you to monitor your processes, ensuring they consistently satisfy customer demand.

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First, Leadership.

Above everything else, a Six Sigma Black Belts should be naturally born leaders. Employers will look to their Black Belt employees for guidance and motivation. Especially so during times of reorganization, project management, and other corporate restructures. Like any good leader, Six Sigma Black Belts have natural motivation. They want to push through dilemmas and find the best immediate result for the business process at hand. 

Second, Communication.

Although not first, communication is also key to the skillset needed for Six Sigma Black Belts. Whether you’re communicating with your employer and staff team, or between your supplier and a customer, effective communication is a must in the world of Six Sigma. Complementing the trait of a natural leader, Black Belts must exert an advanced skill with communication, speaking to multiple audiences at any time. Communication is vital to the success of business process improvements across the board!

Third, Technical Understanding.

Like other certification levels in Six Sigma, Black Belts are expected to understand the fundamentals of the methodology. However, what separates Black Belts from lower certification levels is their ability to recognize and understand when to use said fundamentals. While a technical or engineering degree is beneficial, most Six Sigma Black Belts will understand the need for thorough comprehension of the methodology and where implementation is necessary.

Last, Trust.

A team is only as effective as the weakest link, and this saying resonates within Six Sigma. Whether improving a business process efficiency or decreasing waste output, employees need a strong leader who will guide them towards the right goal. A Six Sigma Black Belt should practice trustworthy characteristics, promoting the integrity of the entire production or manufacturing team. In order to do this, employees must have trust in their leader. Complementing the first skill Black Belts must have to succeed, trust is equally important. When a team of employees does not trust the initiative of their leaders, progress cannot be made. In contrast, when employees respect their manager and trust that their goals are aligned with the company, progress is easily made.

These four skills are vital to the success of any Six Sigma Black Belt employee. Follow these, and you will practice the business process improvement methodology with integrity and ease!

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One tip we recommend you try why finding the right Six Sigma practitioner is to request testimonials. These can be from past or current students, or even companies who employ personnel from this particular course. Regardless, testimonials will offer needed insight into your practitioner. Though, practicing this tip can face numerous obstacles. In today’s article, we will outline our three-step approach to asking for testimonials from your online practitioner.

The Approach

Never begin asking for testimonials without a clear mission in mind. First, what type of practitioner are you considering? Do they offer certification, training, or only certificate examinations? Next, decide what information you want to receive. Do you want to read only testimonials from current students or should you request ones from certified Six Sigma employees as well? Once you have compiled your fundamental goal for using your practitioner, contact them

This step will provide you with the first indication of how official your practitioner in question is. If basic contact information, such as email addresses, phone numbers, or a physical address are hard to find, chances are you should find a new provider. If you do have contact information, first begin by sending an email. Briefly, explain that you’re interested in their program (specify which one if there are multiple). Then, ask for a list of testimonials from past or current students. Additionally, you can also request contact information for people who have taken the course, like references on a resume. 

The Response

How and when your Six Sigma provider responds will be your next indication of their program. If you have to wait more than two working days to receive a response via email, look for a new provider. Not only is this unprofessional, but it also indicates the level of attention you can expect to receive from staff if you enroll in the course.

If you get a response back but without any testimonials, this is another warning sign that you should consider a new recruiter. While the practitioner may be caught off guard by your response, providing feedback, positive or negative, on the course is not out of the question. Furthermore, if you received a reply but an answer as to why testimonials would not be provided, try giving them a call. This is also an opportunity to ask questions about the program directly to the provider and to feel out how they will interact with you.

The Conclusion

The end goal of this process is to receive testimonials from your potential Six Sigma practitioner. Now at the final step, your job is to form a conclusion. To help, here are some basic guidelines you can follow to decide if your practitioner is worth your time.

If you receive testimonials without hassle, move forward with said provider. Likewise, if they also provide positive and negative reviews about the course, it’s a safe bet you can trust the information given. However, if you do not receive testimonials, have difficulty communicating with the provider, or face a prolonged delay in contact, walk away. Of course, it can be irritating to have wasted time on an ill-repute practitioner. However, it’s better to waste an email, phone call, and a few days than weeks of partaking in a program, only to not receive what you expected.

Following this simple, three-step guide to asking for testimonials will put you on track to finding the right Six Sigma provider!

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Certificate, Certification, and Training

The first, and simplest form of due diligence to practice is clarifying what exactly you need. When searching for a practitioner, it can be easy to click on the first few links that show up. However, keep in mind that programs’ orders correlate to their amount of paid advertising. Furthermore, multiple practitioners will attempt to blur the lines of what their programs offer. This is where due diligence comes into play!

If you have years of experience practicing the Six Sigma methodology, a practitioner who provides a formal certificate after passing an online course is the best option for you. Likewise, if you’re new to Six Sigma and need a basic understanding of the process, a training practitioner is the better option. Lastly, a certification program is ideal for those who want to combine the training and certification test process under one practitioner. While this is usually the most expensive option, it does provide the most experience and formal understanding of Six Sigma. 

Where Does the Accreditation Come From?

While it’s important to understand what type of program your practitioner offers, it’s even more so to recognize where accreditation will come from. Is your practitioner offering a training course through a university or an online program? Does the Better Business Bureau support the program’s accreditation? Have industry leading corporations used a particular certificate exam to test their employees? These questions and more are an easy way to not only assess the legitimacy of your course but to also clarify where your accreditation comes from. A Six Sigma certification is only worth as much as the provider!

Quality vs. Quantity of Content

Lastly, finding a reputable practitioner can be done by assessing the quality and quantity of the course’s content. For example, most classroom Black Belt certification courses take between four to six weeks to complete. If you find a practitioner online who offers a similar course, does their curriculum take the same amount of time? Likewise, the quality of the course work provided should help you determine whether your practitioner is the right fit or not. Most legitimate certification courses require you to complete a Six Sigma project to receive feedback on your process improvement skills. If you practitioner offers no hands-on experience, they may be lacking in content quality. Additionally, another due diligence tip is to analyze the platforms on which these courses run. Is a practitioner using an up-to-date software for their projects? Is your practitioner providing the correct examples for you to practice; i.e. service industry versus manufacturing?

Slightly questioning and researching Six Sigma practitioners can easily determine if they are the right fit for your needs. Remember, Six Sigma is a business process improvement method that requires discipline, structure, and most importantly, due diligence!

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What is a Gantt Chart?

Before you start using Gantt Charts, you must understand what they are, and how they fit into your Six Sigma toolkits. First of all, a Gantt chart is used for purposes of project management. It’s a popular and effective method of displaying activities, tasks or events against a period of time. Each activity is represented by a bar on the chart. The size and position of which show the start date, duration and end date of the activity. Gantt charts will typically illustrate such things as:

• The activity in question.
• When the activity begins and ends.
• How long it lasts.
• Where activities overlap.
• When the project begins and ends.

But why use a Gantt chart? What does it offer? Well, by using one, it can help determine responsibility for tasks, as well as potential problems that may occur. This information can be very useful to have in the early stages of your project, and the Gantt chart makes it easier to absorb by displaying it in a visual manner. It can also help identify critical paths, such as task sequences and minimum delivery times, so don’t dismiss the Gantt chart as just another Six Sigma tool. It could make your project far simpler to deal over time.

How to Use a Gantt Chart

Below are the key steps involved in creating a strong Gantt chart that is bound to be an effective asset to your project:

1. Identify the Essential Processes. All your activities necessary to project completion need to be included if a Gantt chart is to work. Establish your essential tasks by breaking down the processes to determine importance. Calculate timescales for delivery before ranking them by length. 

2. Identify the Task Relationships. Your chart should illustrate how project tasks are linked and how they affect one another (sequential tasks), and how they work when independently (parallel tasks). Remember, some tasks rely on other tasks being completed beforehand, so bear this in mind when designing your chart. For example, your need to have finished an article before it can be posted online. 

3. Input Activity Data into a Template. Software like Gantto, Microsoft Project or Excel, and Matchware can also be used for this purpose. But sometimes, creating your own template is the best option. 

4. Track the Progress. As your project makes progress, it will start to change, so be sure to keep track of how. Regularly update your chart with new information, to ensure it is up-to-date and completely accurate. The better your data, the more likely your Six Sigma success!

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What are the Metrics?

Within the  Six Sigma methodology, metrics tend to focus on one or a combination of three vital factors.  Namely: quality, schedule, and cost. These metrics are particularly useful as they often serve as the root drivers behind an organization’s Six Sigma transformation.

• Critical to Quality. Quality metrics (CTQs) involve measuring process performance and operational performance. One of the oft-used methods for doing this is via Process Capability Indices. This is when a process is broken down to determine if it meets the demands of the customer. 

• Critical to Schedule. Schedule metrics (CTSs) generally deal with cycle times and scheduling proficiencies and deficiencies. There are four key concepts that link to CTSs: process cycle efficiency, process lead times, process velocity, and overall equipment effectiveness. 

• Critical to Cost. Cost metrics (CTCs) calculate, render, and compare data that can inform business opportunities. These include such metrics as Net Present Value and Internal Rate of Return. They are designed to be equally critical to both schedule and quality, as cost often impacts on almost every other area of a business’s infrastructure.

How to Use Metrics to Deliver Strong Leadership

The first thing you need to know about being a good leader is how to provide meaningful direction to your team. Remember, you are someone they look to for guidance, and example, so be prepared.

One way to do this is by defining objectives in terms of your Six Sigma and/or business strategy. Demonstrate how these goals are to be met, break it down into manageable data chunks, for easy absorption. Be clear, be succinct, and your team will thank you for it. This will also help strengthen Critical to Quality metrics, in turn providing a strong picture of how their work benefits the project.

Monitoring results is another important factor. By acknowledging and recording achievements, your team will acquire a stronger sense of direction for it. By completing each goal, they will feel the project drive towards its ultimate objective. Critical to Schedule metrics will play a role here, as they can help set out effective timelines.

Moreover, drivers and processes are essential to Six Sigma, and you should identify them quickly and effectively to make your objectives actionable. Techniques such as Pareto Charts and Driver Trees can help break processes down to determine their drivers. This level of detail is important for you to be comfortable with, as your team may struggle to have faith in you as a leader, if you offer only vague advice and a basic understanding of the key issues at work. An in-depth understanding of the processes will also enable a thorough understanding of the costs involved. This will help you direct workers in line with budget goals.

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How Does It Work? 

Starting off, you must first decide upon a goal you wish to achieve through Value Stream Mapping. This can include reducing waste, increasing manufacturing speed, and more. You must also designate where the start and end of your process are.

Next, you begin to list out each stage during the process value stream flow. For manufacturing, these may include building select parts, moving them along an assembly line, and constructing the final product. However, multiple industries use this analysis tool such as logistics, software development, supply chain, and others.

After labeling each stage during your value stream, the next criteria are to add in parameters to be measured. How long a process should take, the average number of employees there, and the machine power limitations are all examples of measurable metrics to assess. Additionally, each variable’s value should be considered. Each process and its variables can be categorized as ‘value adding’ or ‘value losing,’ depending on the progress of the value stream.

After this, you will collect data and analyze your findings. Furthermore, at this point, you can reassess certain process, make changes towards efficiency, and calculate how else to improve your business management.

The Pros and Cons

 Like all good models, there are certain benefits and risks Value Stream Mapping possesses. For the benefits, this tool provides you with valuable insight to the efficiency of your business processes. You can measure any number of variables, make changes where needed, and implement a more effective, sustainable procedure. Likewise, you can map display the exact flow of your value stream and locate where limitations or hindrances may exist. However, certain risks are also present. First, Value Stream Mapping works ideally for simple, linear processes. More complex, multi-level productions will greatly restrict the usability of this tool. Additionally, this tool follows a basic pen and paper technique, which can limit the accuracy of its analysis. Other tools that depend on computer simulations or engineered programs have proven to be more accurate and effective at enhancing the quality of business processes.

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