Use your work in Part A and Part B of your Course Project, and what you have learned so far in this course to identify a potential Six Sigma project that can benefit the value stream and your organiza

Identify potential projects

Identifying the potential projects for Six Sigma lays the foundation for understanding it. By striving towards this object, you learn to develop and implement other necessary skills, such as applying the proper screening criteria, screening projects, and prioritizing them for launch. Once you take note of the mandatory components necessary to this identification, then these projects are easily identified.

The first component is figuring out the company’s annual goals by inquiring about the necessary improvements, performance gaps in key metrics as well as key performance indicators. With this information, you can then determine which Six Sigma projects would help to achieve these goals. Not all performance gaps have to be closed, so the reports on products, services and processes should first be assessed. It’s important to identify all of the potential targets for Six Sigma projects. The data from returns and claims along with other feedback, including audits, must be reviewed in order to identify any deficient areas with long histories of poor performance.

Employee suggestions are another source for identifying projects, especially where the improvement ideas are supported by data. Now once you've identified potential projects, you have to screen them to see if Six Sigma is appropriate. You can screen them using the following criteria. The performance deficiency should be a recurring or chronic issue, which means it should not be a one-time occurrence. The opportunity should be specific to a particular product, process, or service. 

Next, it should be measurable. You cannot improve what you cannot measure. Then the improvement opportunity should have a significant operational and financial impact. Finally, there must be alignment. Each project should help you achieve annual goals and targets established by senior management. Potential projects must pass every one of these screening criteria. Yes, every criterion, no exceptions. 

Now, it would be great to select every project that passed screening, but there is not a huge bandwidth due to time constraints, as well as limited resources and other competing priorities. Choices have to be made. Senior management must step up to prioritize and select the right projects to launch.  These professionals are in the best position to see the entire forest, not just the trees. This broad perspective enables to think beyond the present and into the long-term consequences of their actions. Projects that save $50,000 should not be prioritized above projects that save over a million dollars. You don't want to suboptimize. 

It is vital that you put the company's limited bandwidth to the best possible use. In addition to financial impact, the degree of urgency should also be considered when prioritizing. For example, is there a risk of a major product recall, or are we risking noncompliance that results in a plant shutdown by the regulators? What would happen if we don't select this project? The considerations for prioritizing include: the project's impact on customers, the degree of difficulty in executing the project, and the level of change or cultural acceptance by the organization. Start using these checklists to identify, screen, and prioritize projects for Six Sigma.

Charles Kettering, a famous American inventor, once said, "A problem well stated is a problem half-solved." The importance of problem definition cannot be emphasized enough. It is vital to know how to develop effective problem and goal statements for a Six Sigma project. The problem statement describes the opportunity to be addressed by the Six Sigma project. The opportunity should not occur on as a one-time occurrence but instead exist as a recurring, chronic problem. The opportunity should be specific and measurable. For example, it is specific to a process, product, service and type of defect or performance deficiency. It should be measurable to indicate a size and impact of the problem in operational and financial terms.

The opportunity or problem should be relevant and significant to the organization. If it doesn’t adhere to these two standards, it raises the question as to why bother trifling with this issue at all. Here's an example of a problem statement. "Over the past 12 months, First Call Resolution "at our IT Help Desk is only 60%. "This is below the 75% required "in our service level agreement" or SLA. "Failure to meet this requirement will result "in a loss of $200,000 in penalties, "not to mention customer dissatisfaction, "nonrenewal, and the potential loss of clients." 

The opportunity is a recurring, chronic problem stated in specific and measurable terms, and it is both relevant and significant. The problem statement is compelling enough to make you want to address it immediately. The purpose of this goal statement is to establish the target result to be achieved and by when. To do this effectively, the goal statement should be SMART, as in S-M-A-R-T. It is an acronym for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-bound. S, specific as to what needs to be improved. M, measurable as to how much improvement to achieve. A, attainable that a target result is realistic and achievable. R, relevant to the success of the business or organization. T, time-bound, the time-frame to get it done. 

In our example, the goal statement is "Improve First Call Resolution rate to 75% or higher, "while ensuring customer satisfaction, "within the next four months." As you can see, the goal statement is SMART, meaning specific to improving First Call Resolution rate and measurable at 75% or more, which makes it an attainable, reasonable goal. It is relevant to the success of the business, since that is the level required in the service level agreements. Additionally, this objective is time-bound, as the goal must be achieved within four months. 

When the problem and goal statements are stated correctly, you and your project team benefit. Both statements show a compelling problem that needs to be addressed, including how much needs to be improved and by when. To summarize, the problem is recurring goal that is smart, specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound. When you learn how to develop effective problem and goal statements, you benefit because they compel you to act decisively with direction and focus as to what needs to be improved and why, by how much, and by when.

Time is never to be wasted. A meeting’s agenda need to state the purpose and objective of the session. A Six Sigma project needs a Project Charter, which is a document that provides direction and focus to the project team. It is management's authorization for the project, spelling out purpose, goals, scope of work, and assignment of resources to the project. In short, it provides legitimacy to the project's existence. While there may be variations as to how much is included in Project Charters, here are the key elements of a Project Charter. Project name. Give the project a name for easy identification. Opportunity or problem statements. Describe the opportunity or problem to be addressed.  Remember, it should be a specific, recurring problem that is measurable, relevant, and significant to the organization. Goal statement. State the goal or target result to achieve and by when. The goal statement should improve what was described in the problem statement. The goal should be SMART, specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound. Key metric. State the metric or performance measure to be improved. This is the y in y is a function of x. Expected benefits. State the expected operational and financial benefits. Speak the language of management in order to get priority, and the language of management is money. Project scope. State what's in scope, and equally important, what's out of scope. This scope provides project boundaries and helps prevent scope creep. Milestones. List the checkpoint dates for project progress. The completion dates of each phase of DMAIC are usually good milestones. Signatures. Typically, there are three signatures including the project leader, someone from finance, and the champion. 

The project leader agrees to take on the project, the finance person validates the expected financial benefits, and the champion approves the launch of the project. So, those are the key elements of the Project Charter. Put all of those together, and you have a clear mandate to execute the project.

Consider the process of ordering a pizza. There are expectations concerning the time it takes to arrive after ordering as well as the quality of the item delivered. These values expressed by the customers are called the Voice of the Customer, or VOC. VOC are needs and expectations communicated in the customer's language. Now, put yourself in the shoes of the pizza restaurant owner. How can you make these words meaningful to your employees as they make and deliver pizzas every day? You will have to translate these expectations into a language that your employees relate to and understand.  These translated Voice of the Customer turn into Critical-to-Quality requirements, or CTQs, which are the performance characteristics of a process, product, or service, that are critically important to customers.

CTQs are measurable by the degree in which they meet the needs and expectations of the customers. In reference to the pizza delivery example, the VOC indicates that customers don't want to wait too long, and they don't want cold pizza. We can translate "don't want to wait too long" to on-time delivery, and we can translate "don't want cold pizza" to hot pizza when delivered. So, the Critical-to-Quality requirements, or CTQs, are on-time delivery and hot pizza when delivered. These CTQs can be measured by order-to-delivery time in minutes, and temperature of pizza in degrees Fahrenheit. We can specify how well your restaurant must perform on these metrics, in order to satisfy your customers. In other words, we can determine the specifications and targets for these CTQ metrics. In this example, the CTQ targets or specifications might be delivery time in 30 minutes or less, and pizza temperature doesn't fall below 90 degrees Fahrenheit. 

To recap, CTQs are the performance characteristics of a process, product, or service that are critically important to customers. CTQs are measurable, and we can specify how good they need to be so that they meet the needs and expectations of the customers. If you are managing a process, you benefit from learning about CTQs because you know what metrics to monitor and how well they must perform to satisfy customers. In reference to our previous example, you want to monitor order-to-delivery time, and temperature of pizza. If you're doing a Six Sigma project, you will definitely benefit from learning about CTQs. The underlying premise of Six Sigma projects is Y is a function of X.  One Y is pizza temperature, and the other is delivery time. Xs are all those things that affect pizza temperature and delivery time, respectively. Y and CTQs help you focus your measurement, analysis, and improvement efforts. CTQs provide customer focus for your project, and after the project, CTQs provide customer focus for your process on a day in, day out basis.

The first phase of a Six Sigma project is the define phase. This phase defines the project with all of the components and the overall objective as well as who and what are going to accomplish it. The first step is to define the problem and goal statements. Consider which specific problem or improvement opportunity this project is addressing. Idenitfy which measurable performance outcome or target must the project accomplish the time limits by which it must be completed. It defines the Y, as in what is the Yin Y is a function of X. Where Y is the performance measure to be improved. 

The second step is to develop the project charter. The project charter is a document that describes the project. It includes problem and goal statements, project scope, expected operational and financial impact, names of the project team and other key players, and milestones. The project charter serves as an internal contract between senior management and the project team, and it provides a common understanding on the purpose and focus of the project. Once the charter is completed, a champion will review and approve it. 

The third step is to develop a high-level process overview map called a SIPOC diagram. SIPOC, is an acronym for Supplier, Input, Process, Output, Customer, and it identifies and illustrates high level processes relevant to the project including the inputs and outputs involved. Those who supply the process inputs, and those that receive those product outputs as customers. The SIPOC diagram is a useful scoping tool that shows which processes are within the scope of the project and the stakeholders involved. In summary, these are the steps in the define phase. 

Within Six Sigma, there are terms like Six Sigma, executives, and Champions. These roles are critical in driving the success of Six Sigma.  Executives are the CEO, and his or her direct reports influences the decisions that affect the implementation of Six Sigma. These executives and senior management deploy Six Sigma projects as a means to achieve the organizations strategic and all goals, establish project selection criteria, review and select projects, assign Project Champions, review updates from Champions, and provide resources as needed. The Champion, also known as the Project Champion, is the executive teams point person who is tasked with insuring project success. Normally the Champion is an executive or senior manager who has enough clout and respect to ensure that the project has the right resources, time, and priority it needs. 

The Project Champion selects a project leader. The project leader is someone who plans, leads, and executes the project with the help of a designated project team. Additionally, they approve of the project charter, which is a document that defines project including its objectives, timeline, and scope. They also select the project team and launch the project. The Champion provides time and resources for the project team to work on the project, and they reassign and redistribute work to others as needed. The Champion closely monitors progress and removes any road blocks. The Champion receives updates from the project leader on a weekly basis. Road blocks maybe organizational turf issues, budget, resource limitations, or conflicting priorities. 

Finally, the Champion approves implementation of improvements. This executive is the key person who approves or disapproves any changes or improvement proposed by the project team, including changes to processes, key metrics, procedures, training, and job descriptions. The Champion signs off on this project when it's completed successfully. In short, the Champion is management’s point person responsible for project success. Correctly understanding the roles of the executives and the Project Champion is pivotal as your organization implements Six Sigma.

In order to win this championship, companies would need someone supportive and organized that could lead the team to victory. These are the same considerations that companies must consider when selecting the champion, the project leader, and team members for Six Sigma projects. The champion needs to be in charge of organizing and supporting the project, as well as a person who has an interest, better yet, a stake in insuring the project's success. The champion must be in senior management because he or she must be high enough in the organization to have enough clout to authorize the time and resources needed for the project and have enough influence to remove any roadblocks to the project completion. To ensure that a champion has an interest or stake in that project, make sure you select someone whose goals or targets for the year are one step closer to achievement, if and when the project succeeds. 

Now that's motivation. Senior management team is responsible for the project’s location, whether it is within the factory or office location you want a management team of that local facility. If the project is across multiple locations within a division or business unit, then the senior management team in charge of that division or business unit. 

The project leader is kind of like the team captain; they lead and execute the project. You want someone who has the knowledge, and experience in the processes being targeted by the project. You also want someone who can lead a cross-functional team, because processes and improvement opportunities cut across the departments and functional boundaries. The project leader should be selected by the champion and the team members. Let's go back to the corporate Olympics. Who do you select to play for your team so that you can win against other companies? Do you ask for volunteers? No! You want to select the best players for that particular sport to play for your team. Similarly, you want to select the right people for that project, and who should select the team members, the champion, with the help and knowledge of the project leader should select the individuals with the experience and expertise, who can best contribute to the project's success. If they are not available, the champion will work with their managers to reassign their current duties to others so that they can be freed up to help with the project. 

In summary, the champion is the team owner. Someone who has the management clout to make things happen and remove roadblocks. The project leader is a team captain in charge of leading and executing the project. Team members are the best players for that team. The individuals who can best contribute to project's success. You want the best players to play for your team. The champion, the project leader and the team members they are your Six Sigma Team.

Lecture content from Richard Chua, distributed free to students for educational purposes.