Posts Tagged ‘Need’

Six Sigma Success takes a Cultural Change

Friday, July 23rd, 2010

Change

As cited in my Six Sigma Overview session, Six Sigma is a business culture change. You can apply Six Sigma techniques to a single project and you might be successful, but to make a big impact on the bottom line of a company it needs to be a full fledged shift in the way an organization looks at solving issues and problems that keep it from meeting its major business goals and objectives. Using Six Sigma on one project does not make Six sigma successful in a company. Six sigma has to be infused into the company’s  everyday process and everyday thinking. Change is hard for people to deal with because they are afraid of the unknown. The actual change is situational or external: a new policy, a new job, a new supervisor. What we have real trouble with is the transition. The transition is psychological or internal. It is the process people go through to deal with the change. Many of the changes that affect us are events that we can’t control.  Our personal transition, however, is something we can control.

Six Sigma is a mind set. A way everyone in the company looks at solving issues. It is a mind set of expected questions to the way a solution was developed and implemented. It is a proven approach that when incorporated in the business culture will result in step function improvements to your business. Six Sigma is not talking about totally changing the way you run your business, but changing the way you solve issues and roadblocks that come up as you are trying to meet your top level goals and objective. A simple and straight forward definition of Six Sigma is:

Six Sigma  is  a 5 step process based on facts and data focused on your customer value to grow your business.

As  simple and straight forward that this definition is,  one of the hardest cultural changes in this definition is the “based on facts and data”. You think that would be easy, but when the boss says it’s so, it’s so! Or is it? With this new cultural change opinions have to be backed by facts and data. Why? Because what was true yesterday may not be true today. Everyone in the organization needs to understand this. People get very defensive about their opinions. That is because they are hired for their knowledge, skills, and experience. That said Six Sigma does NOT throw out anyone’s opinions but uses them as a starting point to solve the issue then moves on to collect data to verify or validate the opinion.

Often I have been given a project to form a team and solve an issue and in the Define step of DMAIC we find that what the boss thought was the issue or cause was not really it but another area was the cause. Everyone has to understand that we always back our statements with facts and data.

Another area that becomes a roadblock for making this a cultural change is not having projects aligned with the top level company goals and objectives. This is very important to keeping top management’s commitment to the projects. If you have people working issues that are not focused on these goals and objectives you will find that management will pull resources (people, equipment, money) from the project to help areas of a higher priority. Yes management may be reluctant at first to having Six Sigma projects working key issues but that is what it was designed for. Designed to work on key issues that the company has little or no idea how to solve. Designed to work those areas where people say it cannot be done. With challenging issues you need a process to identify the root cause through facts and data to find the best solution. Six Sigma has that process in DMAIC (D = Define, M = Measure, A = Analyze, I = Improve, C = Control).

Well there is a little insight into what is meant by a business cultural change and why it is hard to accomplish. As always, if you have questions or comments please feel free to contact me by leaving a comment below, emailing me, calling me, or leaving a comment on my website.

Bersbach Consulting
Peter Bersbach
Six Sigma Master Black Belt
http://sixsigmatrainingconsulting.com
peter@bersbach.com
1.520.829.0090

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Posted in Introduction to Six Sigma | 1 Comment »

The First Step of DMAIC – Define

Tuesday, October 27th, 2009

DMAIC – Define

Define is the first step of the Six Sigma five step process DMAIC. The objectives of Define are two fold. First is to define the issue (problem) and the real need to improve it (The Burning Platform). Second is to then get alignment and commitment to solve this issue from the sponsor and project team (including their supervision).  Define is one of the critical steps of this five step process. Many times, we do not gather enough of the right information to properly define the issue we are trying to solve. So to help me (and you) I have a series of questions that if you address them will help insure you complete this critical step. Here they are:


  1. 1. What is the Burning Platform? Why do you need to do this NOW?
  2. 2. What company goal does this support and what is its priority?
  3. 3. What is the Top level process flow?
  4. 4. Who are its - Suppliers and their inputs & Customers and what outputs do they receive?
  5. 5. What is your vision of the future?
  6. 6. What are you trying to accomplish and the process needing improvement?
  7. 7. What benefits will the organization realize?
  8. 8. Whom & what do you need to accomplish this project?
  9. 9. What is the expected outcome of the project (quantified goals / objectives)?

10. How do you know you are done (exit criteria)?

11. Who are the committed/aligned team members?


It is very important that you get all of these answered. Some that stand out are alignment to company goals and having a good vision of the future. Goal alignment is critical if you want your team to stay together and finish the project.  If your project is not aligned you can bet team member supervisors will have other priorities that, in their mine, are higher than the ones for your project and will pull team members to work their priorities. Every project needs a good vision so the whole team will know where they are headed with the project. That increases the team alignment.


To answer the question above it may take several tools and techniques to collect the “facts and data” to answer these questions. Remember that in Six Sigma we like opinions, they help guide us, but we need data that validates the opinions. So in answering these questions many times you will get opinions but you still need to gather the data to show the opinion is true (or false). So here in define, there are several good tool and techniques that can help get you that data.


  • SIPOC – Stands for Supplier, Input, Process, Output, and Customer. It is a very top level process flow of the process you are trying to improve, but it includes more than just the process flow. It has inputs to the process and who supplies those inputs. Plus it also has the output of the process with who (customer) will receive the output.


  • GEMBA – Is just a Japanese term for “Go See” and here we use it to remind us to get out to the area where the process is working and really watch and see how it works. Nothing can be solved in a conference room or sitting at a desk.


  • Creative Thinking/ Brainstorming – This is just a method for coming up with as many ideas as one can conceive of. They can be wild and crazy ideas because in them, just like the ore in mines, we will find the golden nuggets.


  • LCS – Stands for Likes Concerns and Suggestions. This is one of the best and simple tools I have ever used. In any meeting (or even conversation), if all parties follow LCS you will eliminate divergence and create alignment in the discussion. Here how it works. There are three basic rules that anyone in the group must follow to comment on another person’s statement.
  • First, you must states something you like about what the person said. This tells them you understood what they said and gets alignment and agreement on what you liked.
  • Second (NOTE!!! you can only do this second step if you also have the third in mind otherwise you must stop on the fist step only!!!) Tell them you concerns about what they said.
  • Third, you must always follow your concerns with your own suggestions for correcting your concerns.


  • This really gets folks moving forward on issues they disagree on as we build ways around the disagreement through suggestions.


  • Affinity Diagramming – usually follows brainstorming where you have all those wild and crazy ideas. Now we take them all and group them into area of similarities. This helps see those nuggets I was talking about before. A lot of times, I use post it notes in brainstorming so I can easily move them around and place in groups that are similar. It helps and gets everyone on there feet moving around.


  • Multi-Voting – is a method of deciding or prioritizing ideas or tasks. The basic rule here is to give everyone an amount of votes (usually it is 20% of the number of ideas or tasks that you are trying to work) and let them vote on the ones they like best. Right away, you will see certain ones are more important than others to the group.


  • 5 Whys – This gets us back to our childhood a bit but to get at the true root of something many times we have to ask why several times. It is simple but true. If we don’t ask “why” enough times we may not get to the bottom of the issue. But you will know when it is too many when you get there. Usually it is about 5 times.


Well there you have it. A little more understanding of the define step of the Six Sigma 5 step DMAIC process.


Peter Bersbach

Six Sigma Master Black Belt

Bersbach Consulting

From Process to Profits

1.520.829.0090


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Posted in Introduction to Six Sigma, Six Sigma Tools | 4 Comments »

The Roadmap to a Successful Six Sigma Project

Thursday, October 8th, 2009

There are a lot of reasons that Six Sigma projects fail but they do not have to IF you can stick to the roadmap. I have done lots of projects most very successful but some have failed. In every case we stepped off of the tried and true path to success, the DMAIC roadmap. As simple and easy as these five steps seem to be, you will many times find them difficult to complete. But if that is happening, my advice to you is to “stay on the path”. Don’t skip a single step. If you stay on the path, you will find success.

DMAIC The five step process

So what are the five steps of this DMAIC roadmap? They are Define the issue, Measure the current state, Analyze and identify opportunities, Improve by implementing the best opportunities, and Control the new process to maintain the gains. You start every project at Define working your way through each step until you have put in place Controls to maintain your gains. What many of us do without thinking is we see a problem (Define)and go solve (improve) it. Most of the times you will find that within a year or maybe even a month or week the problem is back. What went wrong? We missed the other steps of the DMAIC roadmap. So let me spend some time talking about each step.

D – Define

The objective of Define is to define the issue (problem) and the real NEED to improve it. I call this need “the burning platform”. It can not be a nice thing to do, it has to be something that will have an impact on the bottom line of the company.

The second part of the define objective is to get alignment and commitment to solve this issue from the project sponsor and the project team. It also includes the team member’s supervision. We need them committed so they will not pull the team member for priorities lower than this project.

M – Measure

The objective of Measure is to go as a team, to where this process is physically and factually understand the existing process. This means collect facts and data not opinions. Everyone has an opinion but few have the facts to back up the opinion. I am not discounting opinions because most folks down in the trenches (and that is where you have to go) are the experts and have excellent idea of what is happening. The thing they lack is the data to prove it. So we listen to them carefully and then collect the data to prove what is happening. Note I said happening, that is not always what the expert says. But with the facts and data we can now go back to the expert and see if they now agree with what we found. Usually they do and are surprised by the findings.

The second part of the Measure objective is to then compile that data you have collected into a characterization of the current state of the process (the baseline for your project). This will show how bad things are or are not. Most of the time things will be worse than they first thought. In some cases, you may find that things are not bad at all. Then you need to explain your results to the sponsor and if the sponsor agrees close the project. You see sometimes even sponsors opinion of what is wrong is not backed by facts and data. So when you collect them it becomes obvious that this was not an issue.

A – Analyze

The objective of Analyze is to take the current state data and analyze it to determine the root causes of the issue. These root causes become opportunities to improve. Measure data shows you the “surface effects” or “pain” the company feels but not usually the deeper root of the issue. Because of that, you will usually find that you need to collect more data related to the measure data that validates the teams opinion of what is causing the current state issue to exist. So here in Analyze we have to take a “Deep Dive” into areas that measure pointed out as really needing improvement.

I – Improve

The objective of Improve is to develop and implement the best plan for improvement of the opportunities (root causes) identified in the Analyze step. There are two key phrases in this objective. “Develop the best plan” and “implement the best plan”. Develop takes some brainstorming and then some experimenting to validate that what you came up with would work. Second in develop is a plan. In the plan you will need several options so that when the time comes for getting an OK to implement it is not one or done (no action taken). Give the sponsor options to choose from but pick your best set and pitch it to them with a why it is best (remember facts and data).

The second key phrase is “implement the best plan. Whatever is picked, you need to create a detailed implementation plan. Create a time line and stick to it.

C – Control

Note: this is the most forgotten step. The objective of Control is to develop and implement the best controls to maintain the gains that the new process is producing. With anything new, things never work perfect. When things go wrong, as they will, you need a plan/ controls that will guide everyone as to what to do. If you do not do this when things go wrong, those involved will revert back to what they know and have done for years. A control plan can be as simple as a log of what happened, or as complex as a statistical control chart. What ever it is it needs to help the people working the new process continue to follow it.

There is a second part to control that has nothing to do with control but has everything to do with recognition. People on and off the team have worked very hard during the project to solve the issue and to keep things going while the team has worked to solve the issue. There needs to be a celebration and rewards for everyone involved to celebrate the success and their contribution to the solution. In today’s business world, we are faster to tell folks what is wrong than what is right so make sure you celebrate your success.

This is just a quick look at the DMAIC process and has not even address questions that should be answered in each step. My plan is to write five more articles each one addressing one of the steps in the DMAIC process in more detail. If you don’t see them at this blog, you will find them at the Six Sigma Knowledge Center.


Peter Bersbach
Six Sigma Master Black Belt
Bersbach Consulting LLC
(520) 829-0090

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Posted in Introduction to Six Sigma, Six Sigma Tools | 1 Comment »

6 Sigma Five Key Elements to Project Success

Thursday, May 14th, 2009

This is a feature that we are implementing with each post. It is here because we provide Six Sigma training coaching and support across Arizona, including the Tucson, Phoenix, Scottsdale, and Marana areas. At this time we would like to thank our friends and clients for their support. If you have landed here looking for our Six Sigma training, coaching or support services in Marana then please follow this Six Sigma Training link.

In the Six Sigma Handbook, by Thomas Pyzdek, he defines nine criterion's on which to score a project. All nine of these criteria fall into one of the following 5 Key elements for success without which failure will most likely occur. These five element are not only important to have at the beginning of a project but you will have to continually clarify them all the way through your project to keep them up-front, supported and visible to all until completion. As such I will give you the “signs” that will show you if you are loosing the focus on any one of the five.

 

1. A Common Vision and aligned goals: Having a vision for a company, personal, or Six Sigma project goal or objective is one thing, making it common and everyone aligned and focused on it is another. What I mean by a vision is what will things look like when we are done? You maybe able to visualize it yourself but does everyone else “see” the same thing. Unusually not and when that happens [sign] you will see and feel confusion. The best way to solve this is to insure everyone involved takes part in creating the vision (brainstorm it) and word smith it until all can live with the end result. Then when the team is slipping bring, it back and review it.

2. A Real Need to Improve. This need can NOT be something nice to do. It has to be something we HAVE TO do to succeed. Usually if it is tied to a top level company objective that the company is having a hard time meeting it IS a “have to do” objective. If it is not at this level what [sign] you will see is very slow progress and eventually the project canceled. Why? Because team members and managers had other priorities and this project was not a high one to them. This causes those delays to happen. As I like to say this need, needs to be something that will impact the company and all see that to make this improvement, this project needs to succeed. If things slip you need to work with your sponsor and insure that priorities have not changed.

3. An Established Method to improve. Many time people are told to go fix something and sometimes that works, but when the solution is not obvious you need a method to develop and implement a workable solution. In our case Six Sigma IS that method. A five step method (process) based on facts and data focused on your customer’s value to solve the need and grow your business. What happens if you don’t have a method? [sign] you will have false starts. Put another way, have you ever been in a meeting where once again an issue comes up that was suppose to be solved last week, last month or last year? Those are fixes that were done with no method to the solution. When you see this during your project step back and look at your six sigma methodology and see if you have to refocus the team. An Example of this is trying to fix the problem from what was learned during or at the end of the Measure step. This leads to skipping analysis were we do a “Deep Dive” for the real root cause of what we see.

4. Committed Resources to do the task. The key word here is COMMITTED! Think about who has committed resources to a bacon and eggs breakfast, the chicken or the pig? It is the PIG! The chicken has given you eggs but the pig has given you his life. That is commitment! On your project a manger or supervisor may say they will support the project with their people but they have not committed the resources until they have directed (schedule) them to be on the team and have worked out how to cover for them when they are gone. Covering does not mean they have to catch up on their own time, covering means someone else picks up tasks that they were assigned. How do you know you are loosing resources? [sign] you are feeling frustrated. An occasional loss of resources is one thing but having it happen all the time means frustration and lack of commitment of resource to be successful. Like “need”, this is an issue you should work with your project sponsor and it is an issue of priorities with other functional areas or the sponsor’s area.

5. Leadership Commitment to the project. Just like ‘resources,” the key word here is commitment. If the leadership is not committed to the project you will fail to get the support to make it happen. Committed like the “Pig”. If you do not have this you and your team will feel [sign] disappointment. This one element really leads back to the other four. With out your leadership’s commitment to the project, you will not get committed resources and you need to re-evaluate the projects Vision and need. Obviously Leadership does not see the need to do this and it must not be aligned to their goals and objectives or they do not see the same results (vision) coming from the project. Work with your sponsor to clear up these before you set forward.

 

If you have a good common vision that is aligned to strategic company goals and a real need by the company to meet those goals, then you can apply the six sigma methodology with committed resources and leadership to have a very successful project that will impact the company’s bottom line.

If your business is located anywhere in the World including the US, Tucson, Oro Valley , Oracle, Phoenix, Marana, and Scottsdale, Arizona or beyond and you would like to learn more about our Six Sigma training, coaching and support services please call Bersbach Consulting at 1-520-721-2077 or SKYPE me  Now!

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