Planning Archives - 6sigma

VIDEO: Planning a Kaizen Event

OpEx Learning Team — Fri, 28 Feb 2025 06:07:34 +0000

Just like any other continuous improvement process, planning a Kaizen event requires thought, leadership and accurate data. A Kaizen event is a short-term event that is focused and intense, with the goal of process improvement. Even though improvement on a large scale is typically more attractive, small scale events and success are easier, faster, have lower risk and have limited effect. The true value comes with accumulated effect through smaller projects.

In the video, Dr. Mark Graban and Dr. Greg Jacobsen discuss how we can plan for Kaizen events.

Check out the video here:

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Handling Difficult Six Sigma Projects like a Professional

admin — Wed, 23 Aug 2017 19:37:17 +0000

When projects don’t go as planned, your frustration can lead to you being overwhelmed. Suddenly finding yourself knee-deep in implementation problems and process issues can shake your confidence. But when the going get’s tough, stand your ground, and stay level-headed. Remember, you’re a Six Sigma professional, so use what you know to overcome problems. The key to handling difficult projects like a professional is simple. Act methodically and efficiently, and don’t be afraid to listen to others’ advice (including ours). Here’s how you can work through difficult Six Sigma projects and turn them into a resounding success!

Before You Begin

Planning is integral to Six Sigma project work. Remember, if you fail to prepare, prepare to fail. Before you commence any project work, ensure you have a sufficient plan to guide you through it. This should include your itinerary, as well as the strategies, techniques, and solutions you intend to employ. When working within a short time frame (weeks or months), it’s important you push yourself to create an effective plan.

Shorter time frames may seem like the easier option, but a lot can go wrong in a short time. Whereas, long-term Six Sigma projects allow you more time to course-correct if something goes wrong. With short-term projects, it’s imperative you take a disciplined and thorough approach to planning will ensure you don’t go off track.

Planning your project properly is beneficial for numerous reasons. Namely, it enables you to determine scope and outcomes. It also allows you to predict any would-be road bumps, and to measure, test, and correct visible problems before you begin. We’ve seen highly promising projects fail due to minor oversights snowballing into massive problems without project leaders realizing. When it comes to Six Sigma project work, you can’t afford to wing it.

In the Thick of It

Learning to leverage your Six Sigma tools effectively hones your creativity, allowing you to develop innovative solutions to problems you encounter. As a Six Sigma professional, you should know how to use your selection and decision-making tools to identify viable solutions. Don’t let yourself fall prey to intellectual snobbery. The answer isn’t always obvious. In fact, it’s sometimes a case of the more creative your solutions, the better. But, on the other hand, complex solutions aren’t always appropriate. Don’t forget about Occam’s Razor, i.e., the simplest answer is most often the right one. Don’t jump on your first idea, as it’s not always the most optimal solution. You should always approach problems from multiple angles to determine how to proceed. Once you understand the problem, you have the best chance of finding the right solution. The most common mistakes made in this area are.

Helpful Tools

We recommend applying hypothesis testing beforehand, to decide how to proceed, and DMAIC once the project has commenced. Hypothesis testing, while relying on data to first suggest a hypothesis, is primarily speculation. It helps to give ideas a test-run first, as doing so draws attention to problems that may crop up later. DMAIC, on the other hand, produces a data-centric understanding of problems you discover, on which you can then act. It’s essential to act quickly on short-term Six Sigma projects, and DMAIC provides all the tools for you to make short work of difficulties as they arise.

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Who Works on a Six Sigma Project?

admin — Mon, 20 Feb 2017 15:02:02 +0000

The basis of any good Six Sigma project is its team. Likewise, within a team there are many different roles. These roles focus either on initiative or project leadership, typically divided into the following categories:

Six Sigma Deployment Leader (DP)
Six Sigma Champion
Master Black Belt (MBB)
Black Belt (BB)
Green Belt (GB)
Yellow Belt (YB)

This article will explain these roles, who is best to fill them, and why they are important to Six Sigma success.

Six Sigma Deployment Leader

The Deployment Leader is the figurehead for the team. DP roles are often taken on by the business leader themselves. Furthermore, the DP will typically hire the rest of the team. This also includes working with the MBB to organize, cultivate, and drive the project at all levels by meeting the following objectives:

Establish appropriate and reasonable business goals.
Motivate the team.
Maintain an active role in all activities related to the project.

The best DPs promote or continuous improvement, leverage the budget for further initiatives, and ultimately develop a fully capable Six Sigma company culture. Remember, the more time and interest you invest, the higher the chances of success for your project.

Six Sigma Champion

Champions are usually managers within the company, organizing and directing the business, function and/or value stream towards significant process improvement. They will interact with and utilize GBs to overcome obstacles, while working with BBs and MBBs to manage the development of the project.

The best Champions clearly demonstrate how the project benefits the organization, helping to meet business priorities. Most Champions will have a portfolio of prior projects.

Master Black Belt

Master Black Belts work with DPs to translate high-level company goals into Six Sigma strategies. Interacting with Champions to manage the project, they are also responsible for leading the development of Six Sigma in the business, while maintaining the division’s overall Six Sigma effort. In accordance with Six Sigma and Kaizen, the MBB promotes transparency, creativity and challenging of the status quo to aid development. MBBs often have prior mentoring and/or statistical experience, and can progress to Chief Quality Officer relatively quickly.

Black Belt

Similarly to MBBs, Black Belts are relied on to create a transparent, honest environment with a key focus on factual data to inform group decisions. Working with those above and below them in the hierarchy, BBs will work tactically to ensure results are identified and process changes are honed and sustained by Champions and MBBs. The best BBs often come from careers in Business Analysis and Process Improvement, with prior Six Sigma experience on their résumé.

Green Belt

Green Belts are responsible for supporting BBs in identifying and applying process changes. GBs also act as part-time Project Leaders, requiring them to scope projects, lead those below them, and liaise with BBs to ensure all project goals are executed properly. GBs are critical to the success of Six Sigma projects and will usually have some background experience in senior management.

Yellow Belt

Yellow Belts do not lead projects alone. Instead, they will act in a worker bee role. This mostly includes deferring to the GBs and BBs to aid the progression of the project. YBs are core team members and are often support those above them in the hierarchy. These tasks help to develop process maps, capture data, create simulations, and generate improvements.

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Measure Twice, Cut Once: How to Plan for Process Improvement

admin — Fri, 17 Feb 2017 17:27:29 +0000

The importance of planning in any endeavor is not to be underestimated. When using Six Sigma DMAIC, Lean, or Kaizen to achieve significant process improvement, planning is everything. You wouldn’t attempt to drive a car without knowing how to drive it first. The saying “Measure twice, cut once” is more than appropriate here. It teaches you to be prepared, so that you can make precise, informed decisions guaranteed to deliver effective results. A man once said, “I love it when a plan comes together,” so let us help you with yours!

Starting Out

There are many operational obstacles that develop in a business and are often be too much for managers to deal with alone. This is why they turn to practices like Six Sigma, Lean and Kaizen to help turn their company around. But without effective planning comes confusion, unalignment, disarray, and ultimately failure.

It may even be worth hiring a consultant to help manage your project in its early stages. Consequently, without proper planning, changes you make will often be counter-intuitive to maintaining a strong customer pull-flow system. These changes are also likely to negatively affect the business’s production processes. Likewise, the very same processes you are trying to improve!

Use a Six Sigma Project Charter

If you want to make a substantial difference to your company, the best way to go about it is a Six Sigma Project Charter. Coincidentally, this is the most widely-used process improvement plan available. This acts as your mission statement, a breakdown of everything under consideration. Additionally, this includes the problem, the processes it affects, and any potentially viable solutions. It also provides the drive that keeps the project going. More specifically, it gives the project leader and the workers a detailed, systematic approach to how to implement the proposed changes. Not only does it reduce confusion, it ensures your staff practice effective business methodologies throughout the project.

Training

Training is also important when planning for process improvement. Establishing a successful program can be simplified greatly by ensuring the right staff receive the proper training. Most projects fail due to too much reliance on the leader, with workers turning to them for guidance and direction. Considering the size of some projects, this leads to some leaders becoming overwhelmed. Good leaders should make certain that their efforts are as comprehensive as can be, as many approaches prove to be unable to address the wider needs of the company. By preparing early on to maintain thorough and precise working practices, you will be able to deliver an effective and transformative process improvement project with few difficulties.

Flexibility, Resources, Success

By allowing the plan to remain flexible, you also prepare yourself for any extraneous factors that may not have been accounted for previously. This then allows you to change direction, implement new ideas, or rearrange your team, according to new data. Similarly, efficient and practical allocation of resources is imperative to completing a successful process improvement project. When using resources correctly, you ensure the handling of the program’s creative changes are confident and effective.

Contact us if you have additional questions.

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