Thanks to www.dbar-innovations.com for the mentoring system that walks you through the entire DMAIC process, 713-436-6941To answer your question, YES! # I believe that when people hear of the magical methodology called Six Sigma, they forget that every business runs because of processes, metrics and leadership. Albeit, they may not run well, but they run. How well they run depends on how efficient the processes are in meeting the customer requirements. How fast processes improve depends a great deal on the methodology used to identify defects (using metrics), isolate the root causes, and eliminate causal factors. None of this gets done, of course, without leadership. There is nothing magical about measuring, improving and controlling how well a process performs. It works in manufacturing, and it works in sales.
Want a few other examples of functional areas or industries where it works? Accounts payable, shipping, engineering design, writing, management, customer service, semiconductors, software, hardware, human resources, marketing, training, collections, risk, reception, healthcare, finance...I think you get the idea. It works anywhere you need to improve processes. Just to reiterate -- every business uses processes.
# Refuse To Change. This is purely an emotional response. Most people don't like change, but want to be thought of as "change agents" within their business. Jack Welch, former GE CEO and Six Sigma Champion, encouraged employees to "embrace change." Nothing improves without change. Most people realize this so they find a piece that they can change here or there, but truly embrace the status-quo. If you're a team leader (Green Belt, Black Belt, Master Black Belt), you need to understand how to lead change within your business. Otherwise, people will most always resist. So How Do You Make Six Sigma Work?
Well, if you don't have a Quality background and you haven't taken a Six Sigma Green Belt, Black Belt or Master Black Belt training course, do yourself a favor and sign up for one. The iSixSigma Discussion Forum is the best I've seen for getting immediate project help, but you are going to need to understand everything from both a high-level and detailed-level view. You most likely need to be trained to do this. Let me repeat myself, you most likely need to be trained to execute Six Sigma well. If you have the background and training, then you need to select the right project. Let's run through an example that should help you get your mind moving in the right direction. Facilities Management Example
Who is your customer? If you operate a facilities management company, anyone hiring you to perform janitorial services is your customer.
What are their requirements? These should be specified in the request for proposal that the customer supplies, or in the contract that you supply. If your customer is holding you accountable, there is probably some minimum service level agreement within the contract.
What are the correct metrics? Remember, you can't improve what you don't measure. What's important to your customer? Ask them. Interview them. Create a written survey and allow them to return the survey to you anonymously. Here are a few ideas about what I require from my janitorial company on a daily basis: * All trash removed * All glass cleaned * All rugs completely dirt free * All floors shiny * No dust on free surfaces * All movable objects (chairs, wastebaskets, tables, etc.) replaced in proper position How do you measure these requirements? Define a unit, opportunity and defect. Measure your process -- It's that easy. Randomly pick a day a week and visit the facility when the janitorial crew is done. Is every wastebasket empty? Is every pane of glass and counter-top clean? Can you flip over a rug and see dirt on the floor? You get the idea here. No rocket science or fairy dust needed to measure how well a janitorial process is running.
How do you improve your processes? Look at what is causing your defects. Create a pareto diagram of your defects. Focus on the major issues using the Six Sigma DMAIC methodology. Will Six Sigma Help My Business?
Only if you want it to and only if you are educated in how to properly select and implement a Six Sigma project. Where can you go for help? You've already found the best resource available...post your project questions to the Discussion Forum, but be specific in your request. There are a tremendous number of brilliant and helpful people that read the Forum daily. If you supply enough process information (measures, defects, major process steps, steps you've taken so far, etc.), people will no doubt make suggestions that will help you progress and successfully improve your process. Good luck! Data Collecting Tips for Six Sigma Teams
Here are some tips that may be helpful for gathering data. * Be sure the people involved in gathering or providing the data know how it will be used. This will help to eliminate misunderstandings and potential fear about how the information is going to be used that could possibly bias the results.
* Utilize an objective party to help collect the data whenever possible to help eliminate bias.
* Be sure "good" questions are specific to the problem under study. The better the question, the more useful the data.
* If you know that factors such as shift, location, person doing the work, machine, suppliers, etc., are important to the problem under study, make sure your data collection plan and form considers these stratification factors. The last thing a team wants to do is have to repeat a data collection effort because they failed to think about appropriate stratification factors up front. This adds time to the project and folks willing to provide data initially may not be so amenable to participating in the data collection effort on the second time around.
* Use the KISS principle (Keep It Simple, Stupid) when designing your collection form. The more complex you make your collection tool, the more opportunity you create for problems.
* Design your collection forms so that data is collected in columns versus rows. Software spreadsheets are arranged in columns. By collecting data in columns, you can help to prevent transposition hassles later on.
* Train your data collectors. This can be a simple as providing guidelines on the data collection form itself to hands-on instruction. The level of training really depends upon the complexity of the collection effort and the expertise of the data collectors themselves.
* Make sure there are add spaces on your data collection form for the data collector's name, and for the date and time the data was collected. This seems to be a no-brainer; however, sometimes the simplest things are those that are inadvertently overlooked. If you have questions later, or if some of the data collected is not what you expected, this information can be invaluable to the team's follow-up efforts.
* Try it out. Your team may want to do a trial run of the data collection effort to determine if they are collecting the type of data they expected. The results of the trial may surprise the team. Frequently, teams realize that questions need to be further refined and focused in order to provide the data the team is looking for. Pay special attention to "missing" information, anything that looks out of the ordinary, or to questions that the team receives from the data collectors. Any of these may provide an opportunity to improve the data collection process. Forms and data collection instructions should be modified as appropriate based on the trial run. Just some good, basic things to think about when collecting data, but the most important thing to remember, as illustrated in the story about the IT technician, is to learn to ask the right questions. Asking the right questions will provide useful information. Asking good questions is the key to solving problems.By Zack Swinney * http://www.dbar-innovations.com * Mentorsoftpro, A complete Lean Six Sigma Mentoring, training, statistical analysis and multi project tracking management system. In other Words, all you would ever need to do any Six Sigma project, one at a time, twenty at a time or a corporation capable software system. * Starting with understanding the DMAIC method, with out this you are never going to have successful results. I recently discovered this site dedicated to answering all the Lean Six Sigma / process improvement needs and questions. They offer a very complete software system that will walk you through the entire DMAIC methodology. It has a training video at every possible step including example data, video demonstration, voice guided instructions, templates for every step and a management tracking system. 713-436-6941
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