Summer break is one of the first big holiday seasons throughout the year. It’s the perfect time to bond with your family, visit exotic locations, or get caught up on your hobbies. Yet, taking a vacation are is one of the greatest risks organizations face. When more than half of your workforce leaves during traditional holiday seasons, this puts your projects, business process, and other systems at risk. How often will your project managers check up on their tasks? Will your lower level employees respond to urgent emails and phone calls? These and more are all issues that organizations, small and large, face during the holiday season. Before your employees clock out for the next week or longer, use Six Sigma to prepare your business processes for delays and long standby times.
First, DMAIC
The first step you should take to preparing your organization for your upcoming vacation is to perform DMAIC. DMAIC is the most well-known Six Sigma method that focuses on finding and resolving errors that occur. Although DMAIC may be time-consuming for certain projects and processes, it’s a near bullet proof task you should complete before your holiday. First, begin by simulating processes at their current states. If errors occur, you know it needs DMAIC. Next, assign your Six Sigma Black Belt project manager to organize and carry out DMAIC. Depending on your thoroughness and efficiency, this method should be completed before the entire project team leaves for vacation.
Second, Root Cause Analysis
Sometimes, projects do not need the entirety of DMAIC to locate errors within a system. If you have a business process a team monitors heavily but are leaving for summer vacation, instruct them to perform Root Cause Analysis. This Six Sigma method specifies individual issues within a system and finds its source. Tracing steps backward from the first initial signs to the original cause of the error, Root Cause Analysis is a great way to manage and analyze systems with production errors. This method should be performed if your systems are creating errors prior to employees leaving for vacation.
Finally, Organize Proper Management
Of course, not all problems are preventable. To improve your vacation with Six Sigma, make sure you have properly trained managers standing by in case things goes south. For most projects, the manager will be a Six Sigma Black Belt, or higher. If you project manager is not Black Belt certified, we advise your employee enrolls in our training course. This comprehensive program ensures that your employee has the skills and experiences needed to manage and operate projects while others are away. In addition, it’s important that you have open communication with your project manager while away on vacation.
Likewise, it’s vital that your workforce understands and practices the Six Sigma methodology. All project team members should have certification in a lower Belt, such as Green, Yellow, or White. This not only enforces the process improvement mindset your projects need but also provides support your project manager requires.
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