Effective Implementation of Six Sigma: Overcoming Project Failures and Ensuring Success

1. Chapter 9 Implementing Six Sigma

2. Top 8 Reasons for Six Sigma Project Failure 8. The training was not practical. 7. The project was too small for DMAIC rigor. 6. The project was not well suited to DMAIC. 5. The project scope was too large. 4. The required data were not available. 3. The project solution was not implemented. 2. Project goals were not linked to finances. 1. There was a lack of management support

3. Implementation Principles (1 of 2) • Committed leadership from top management • Integration with existing initiatives, business strategy, and performance measurement • Process thinking • Disciplined customer and market intelligence gathering

4. Implementation Principles (2 of 2) • A bottom line orientation • Leadership in the trenches • Training • Continuous reinforcement and rewards

5. Advice to Small Organizations • Obtain management commitment • Identify key processes and goals • Prioritize the improvement projects • Be systematic • Don’t worry about training black and green belts • Use just-in-time practices to learn the Six Sigma tools necessary to successfully carry out specific projects • Communicate successes and reward and recognize performers

6. Effective Project Management • Project metrics • Time • Cost • Role of project manager: track the accomplishment of the project against the plan, with the objective of ending the project on time, at or below projected costs, and meeting all of the targeted CTQ objectives

7. Corporate Culture • (Corporate) cultureis an organization’s value system and its collection of guiding principles.

8. Visionary leadership Customer-driven excellence Organizational and personal learning Valuing employees and partners Agility Focus on the future Managing for innovation Management by fact Social responsibility Focus on results and creating value Systems perspective Cultural Values (from Baldrige)

9. Organizational Behaviors for a Positive Quality Culture • Create and maintain an awareness of quality by disseminating results throughout the organization. • Provide evidence of management leadership, such as serving on a quality council, providing resources, or championing improvement projects. • Encourage self-development and empowerment through the design of jobs, use of empowered teams, and personal commitment to quality. • Provide opportunities for employee participation to inspire action, such as improvement teams, product design reviews, or Six Sigma training. • Provide recognition and rewards, including public acknowledgment for good performance as well as tangible benefits.

10. Role of Employees • Senior management – ensure that their plans and strategies are successfully executed within the organization. • Middle management – provide the leadership by which the vision of senior management is translated into the operations of the organization through the selection of relevant and viable Six Sigma projects • The workforce – feel a sense of ownership in their work

11. Managing Change • Organizations contemplating change must answer some tough questions: • Why is the change necessary? • What will it do to my organization (department, job)? • What problems will I encounter in making the change? • What’s in it for me?

12. Leadership • Leadership - the ability to positively influence people and systems under one’s authority to have a meaningful impact and achieve important results. • Leadership is essential to create change and drive the initiative throughout the organization, ensure that adequate resources — such as training, money, and time — are provided, and to sustain a culture that maintains a focus on improvement.

13. Executive Leadership • Defining and communicating business directions • Ensuring that goals and expectations are met • Reviewing business performance and taking appropriate action • Creating an enjoyable work environment • Soliciting input and feedback from customers • Ensuring that employees are effective contributors • Motivating, inspiring, and energizing employees • Recognizing employee contributions • Providing honest feedback

14. Enterprise Leadership • Enterprise leadership – leadership that is manifest throughout the organization, not just at the executive level.

15. Leadership System • Leadership system – how leadership is exercised, formally and informally, throughout an organization. • Key elements: • how key decisions are made, communicated, and carried out at all levels • structures and mechanisms for decision making, selection and development of leaders and managers • reinforcement of values, directions, and performance expectations

16. Leadership and Strategic Planning • Strategic planning – the process of envisioning the organization’s future and developing the necessary goals, objectives, and action plans to achieve that future • Objective: align work processes with strategic directions, thereby ensuring that improvement and learning reinforce organizational priorities

17. Organizational Structure • Organizational structure – theclarification of authority, responsibility, reporting lines, and performance standards among individuals at each level of the organization • Traditional line-and-staff organization • Matrix organization

18. Knowledge Management • Knowledge assets – the accumulated intellectual resources that an organization possesses, including information, ideas, learning, under standing, memory, insights, cognitive and technical skills, and capabilities • Knowledge management – the process of identifying, capturing, organizing, and using knowledge assets to create and sustain competitive advantage

19. Knowledge Management System • A way of capturing and organizing explicit as well as tacit knowledge of how the business operates, including an understanding of how current business processes function • A systems approach to management that facilitates assimilation of new knowledge into the business system and is oriented toward continuous improvement and innovation • A common framework for managing knowledge and some way of validating and synthesizing new knowledge as it is acquired • A culture and values that support collaborative sharing of knowledge across functions and encourages full participation of all employees in the process

20. Internal Benchmarking • Internal benchmarking – the ability to identify and transfer best practices within the organization • Identifying and collecting internal knowledge and best practices • Sharing and understanding those practices • Adapting and applying those practices to new situations and bringing them up to best-practice performance levels