How to Identify Six Sigma Projects
The first step for using Six Sigma to improve an aspect of an organization is to identify the project. An organization often has many ongoing improvement projects. Determining which ones to tackle first takes analysis. Six Sigma, along with providing the tools to make meaningful changes, also has tools to identify projects. If an improvement will bring significant change to an organization, the project can be broken into smaller projects. To determine how to proceed often takes a person skilled in improvement processes and the project must adhere to the company's strategic plan.
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Instructions
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Strategic Planning
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Identify problem areas in the organization such as excessive resources in materials and personnel, bottlenecks to the flow of products or processes and efficiency. Identifying these problem areas is called "Value Stream Mapping." The key to determining whether the particular problem you are looking at is viable for a Six Sigma project is to create a current state map. Then, determine what the organization would look like in the future state. In between the current and future states is where Six Sigma projects can be initiated, often with several smaller projects.
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Determine the overall cost the current state has on the organization. This is called "Cost of Quality." It is not always a direct monetary amount of supplies and payroll. It includes less determinable costs. For example, if a product is consistently not shipping on time, customers may switch vendors. Customers may also complain, giving the company a bad image, which then loses future customers. According to SigmaPro, "The cost of quality can be as high as 40 percent of total costs."
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Determine what is most important to the customer. Categories include the quality of the product or service, the delivery and the cost to the customer. This analysis is called "Critical to Satisfaction." Also companies can use "Voice of Customer" tools to find out what is important to customers.
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Tips & Warnings
When taking on a process improvement project, ensure that it is approved by the management team, that project deliverables are defined and that the project isn't so large in scope that it is not achievable.
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