Gold Digger (#46)

What is the point of a Six Sigma Project? Why should we even implement Six Sigma in our organization? Well, there are several reasons; but one of the main ones is to increase revenue in your organization! Everyone wants to save time and save money and you can save money by saving time! Piece of cake, right? Right. But where do you start?

Mr. Gary A. Gack wrote a phenomenal piece discussing how to select a Six Sigma Project in his field of Software Development. Go to www.isixsigma.com to check it out!

While his blog was awesome, it was also industry specific. We at Six Sigma Development Solutions, Inc. wanted to offer our readers something similar, but that could be applied in much broader terms. We wanted to generalize how to select a Six Sigma Project while using a few of Gack’s fantastic pointers.

So now you have decided that you’re going to take the leap and implement a Six Sigma Project in your facility. Where do you start? What kind of problems can a Six Sigma Project resolve?

These are definitely not cookie cutter questions with cookie cutter answers; however, there are universally recognized benchmarks that offer a guideline for selecting a Six Sigma project that encompasses basic top-level considerations.

Rule #1: Do not try to “pan for gold” in your jacuzzi! Follow the money flow.

The Six Sigma Methodology focuses on making meaningful change in how effective your company is. To do so, you must apply those changes to the kinds of problems that have a meaningful effect on your company’s resources. Unfortunately, I do not have gold lying around in my jacuzzi, just like how you cannot make money at a point in your process that is already optimized at it’s full potential. Follow the money flow.

Rule #2: Do not try to “boil the ocean!” Consider what would be practical in your project. It is unlikely that you can rid the entire ocean of salt; do not try to overwhelm yourself with an unbearable project. Positive attitudes bring positive success, but you also need to be realistic in your outreach. First try a small project to test the waters. Use this to prove the importance of a Six Sigma implementation and with your next project expand to a larger surface area.

For example: think about how large your Finance Department is. There are multiple levels and facets that encompass the entire Finance Department. So rather than deploying a Six Sigma Project to make the entire department more effective; use some of your Six Sigma tools to narrow down your scope. Do a project on the Invoicing and Billing process. Once this project is successful, you can move on to bigger fish.

Rule #3: Don’t “blow your dough!” Think about the affordability your company has for a project. Do not try to complete a project where it is out of your means to collect the necessary data. Your data needs to be able to exhibit your business case in measurable terms; meaning that you have to choose departments that you can collect data before and after the project.

For example: Collecting data on your Invoicing and Billing process may lead to huge samples (depending on company size). If you have an average of 3,500 flawed invoices of 200,000 invoices total per quarter, your data should represent the 3,500 but you should not collect data from the entire 3,500 flawed invoices. That sample size is too large and would be unreasonable and unaffordable to collect. Take a percentage of those 3,500 (random selection) to adequately represent all your flawed invoices.

Rule #4: “You can’t sail a ship without a crew.” Your project will ultimately fail if your team is not on board with the upcoming changes. When facilitating a change, everyone on the ground level of that department, those who own the process are considered “Subject Matter Experts.” These are the people who know the ins and outs of their job and their department. You should not be the Six Sigma King or Queen but rather just facilitate the change and allow for the Subject Matter Experts to lead the change in their area. Their knowledge about the process is critical; they are the most important people in your project. Treat them as such and your project will be a success.

Rule #4: Rome was NOT built in a day. Give your team an appropriate time frame to invest work into the project and make substantial improvements in the process. While everyone still has their daily job to do, all of the team members need to be allowed to invest the necessary time to work on their projects. Without the right time frame, appropriate expectations, or necessary resources, the project will fail. On average, a Six Sigma Green Belt Practitioner should spend about 20% of their time on the project while a SME (Six Sigma Yellow Belt Practitioner) should spend about 10% of their time on the project. If they cannot devote the appropriate time to their project, it will be a stressful disaster.

Rule #5: “Don’t waste time washing your car when it is raining.” Not every problem in your organization needs to be solved with a Six Sigma Project. Projects that can be solved with proficient resources, have obvious solutions, or are local can be considered Lean Projects. You should implement a Six Sigma Project if the problem is persistent, following Organizational goals, does not have a known solution, and can be scoped to show a demonstration of a full implementation in a 90 to 180 day time frame. It also needs to follow the DMAIC. Six Sigma Projects need to be on current processes, not new processes.

Some of this blog is compiled from a blog post on www.isixsigma.com written by Gary A. Gack. Gack’s original blog can be found at http://www.isixisgma.com/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=758&Itemid=1&Itemid=1



About Six Sigma Development Solutions, Inc.
We are Certified as an Accredited Training Organization with the International Association of Six Sigma Certification (IASSC)
“The IASSC Accredited Training Organization (ATO) designation validates Six Sigma Development Solutions, Inc. has demonstrated adequate management systems, courseware with a high degree of correlation to the subject matter contained in the IASSC Bodies of Knowledge, delivery schema consistent with such content and highly qualified instructors.”
We Provide Public Lean Six Sigma Green Belt and Lean Six Sigma Black Belt Certification Training Courses in 34 Cities across the globe.
Our Training Centers are located in: Albuquerque, New Mexico | Anchorage, Alaska | Atlanta, Georgia | Austin, Texas | Boston, Massachusetts | Calgary, Canada | Charlotte, North Carolina | Chicago, Illinois | Cincinnati, Ohio | Cleveland, Ohio | Columbus, Ohio | Dallas, Texas | Denver, Colorado | Detroit, Michigan | Dubai, UAE | El Paso, Texas | Fort Smith, Arkansas | Honolulu, Hawaii | Houston, Texas | Indianapolis, Indiana | Jacksonville, Florida | Kansas City, Missouri | Las Vegas, Nevada | London, England | Los Angeles, California | Louisville, Kentucky | Memphis, Tennessee | Mexico City, Mexico | Milwaukee, Wisconsin | Minneapolis, Minnesota | Montreal, Canada | Nashville, Tennessee | New Orleans, Louisiana | New York City, New York | Northwest Arkansas | Orlando, Florida | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania | Phoenix, Arizona | Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania | Portland, Oregon | Raleigh, North Carolina | Salt Lake City, Utah | San Diego, California | Seattle, Washington | St. Louis, Missouri | Tampa, Florida | Toronto, Canada | Vancouver, Canada | Washington, DC

We Provide Onsite Lean Six Sigma Certification Training. Some of the training's we provide are: Lean Six Sigma Black Belt, Lean Six Sigma Green Belt, Lean Six Sigma Yellow Belt, Lean Six Sigma Champions Training and Lean Certifications for Healthcare, Finance, I.T, Manufacturing, Processing, Logistics, Retail Sales and Government.
SSDSI will come to your site to train for your choice of the Lean Six Sigma Certification Levels. Onsite training is more cost effective than open enrollment training when training larger groups of team members.
Benefits of Onsite Training:
The Training is focused on Your Opportunities
SSDSI uses your opportunities in class (vs. generic examples)
You will get the experience of a seasoned Lean and Six Sigma Master Black Belt who will help mentor you while completing your Lean and Six Sigma Project
You can train up to 20 employees for one fixed cost (this cost includes course ware and the instructors travel & lodging)
Our courses are full of games, simulations, and active learning to help the adult learner
SSDSI can customize the training to meet your company’s particular training needs
Call Kevin Clay at 214-731-3176 or email at kclay@sixsigmadsi.com for more information

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