You can't solve world hunger in one day (#57)


The biggest threat to your Six Sigma Project is an unmanageable scope. Less than 40% of initiated projects are actually finished (this is being generous). This is because no one told the Six Sigma Practitioner that they will probably not be able to solve world hunger on their own, especially within their first project. With an unmanageable scope, the risk of a stalled project is high.

So how do you fix this? We tell our students: focus, focus, focus! Focus your efforts for your Project Scope. It is improbable that you will be able to solve world hunger, but you can be successful in saving a village. When the hunger problem is Improved, Optimized, and Controlled in the village; then you can begin those improvements within the neighboring village. This is called “Multi-Generational Projects.”

The ultimate goal is to solve world hunger, correct? Well having a scope that is too large (solving the entire globe’s hunger problem at once) will ultimately cause your entire project to fail. However, by solving the hunger issue village by village, the implementation of the solution will become easier each time. After a few successful completions, you can broaden your scope to include a few villages at one time. This will be easier to do versus completing your first project because you have already dealt with the majority of variables that come up in your prior projects.

This is typically the time that I receive the question “will my project not be complete until I solve world hunger?” Absolutely not. Every “generational” project (one village or multi villages) is considered its own project. The Pareto Chart is a great tool that will aid in your understanding of what the optimal scope should be. But first, you need to collect data.

Let’s look at an example. A Six Sigma Practioner’s project is to lessen the amount of missed deliveries in the United States. We know that putting full focus on such a huge problem will lessen our success rate. We should tighten the scope into a more manageable project. Refer to the image for data.



Use this data to create a Pareto Chart. In your Minitab application select Stat then Quality Tools then Pareto Chart. Use the image below to complete the Pareto Chart.



Click OK to create the Pareto Chart of City. Refer to image below.


From this we can see that the cities of Atlanta and Chicago have the majority of missed deliveries, even though there are a total of 11 cities. From this chart we can see where to narrow our scope to resolve the problem. Then you can narrow your scope even further by county or district within each city. Focus is key!

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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