Six Sigma Professor

by heraldpost

Adding Value To Content Of Six Sigma Project Charters

A well-drafted charter is often the deciding factor for the success or failure of the project.

However, there are some other areas of consideration critical to the success of a Six Sigma project.

Does The Project Detract From Value Being Given To Customers?

With the existing set of processes, the company may be giving value to the customer. It may be based on the feedback of the customers, suppliers, company employees and other sources. The new project will be focusing on reducing waste, reducing costs, reducing errors thus leading to economic gains.

However, sometimes there is a possibility that the initiative being taken to cut costs may prove to be detrimental, when it comes to providing value to the customers.

Occasionally, cutting inventories, personnel, and product lines may bring down the organization’s competitive edge. It is imperative to analyze if such cuts actually harm the competitive edge. It is also important to substantiate the claim that the project will not reduce customer value.

Sometimes, when multiple projects are undertaken without understanding the correlation between them, they may end up competing with each another. Thus, before planning projects, a proper analysis of anything that may undermine the value proposition to customers is necessary.

Such consideration will ensure that the project charter being developed forms a firm foundation for the project, and does not harm or detract from the value given to the customer.

Does It Add To The Value?

It is equally important to understand the extent to which value is being provided to customers. Though a project may not be detrimental, it is necessary to understand if it is really adding any value. An analysis is vital to understanding what the customer sees as a value addition to existing product quality.

There should also be adequate evidence to show that the value being added is important and gives a considerable value advantage. It should be determined if it enhances the value advantage or reduces the value variance that is affecting the company’s share in the market.

It is necessary to know what the critical to quality (CTQ) elements are and their relevance to customers. It is also important that the company compares the effect of these CTQs in relation to its competitors. CTQ should be significant enough, or it may adversely cost the company compared to the improvement it initiates.

In the case of multiple projects, they should be within the scope of the organization or they may turn out to be wastes themselves.

Including these elements in the project charter will help the organization figure out the competitive value addition due to the project. Its value proposition will be responsible for bringing in potential customers and retaining existing ones.

A project charter which conveys clearly the effects on the competitive value, reduces the risk of adversely affecting revenues, market share and the competitiveness of the organization. It ensures a positive and value-added outcome.

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Following a Systematic Approach to Six Sigma Project Implementations

Exceptions will always be there, but if you look closely, you can easily see that the majority of businesses that have successfully implemented Six Sigma have been able to do so because of their continual stress on following a systematic approach while implementing time-tested Six Sigma concepts and methodologies.

For better understanding, we’ll discuss some of the core components of the systematic approach as applicable to successful Six Sigma implementations.

Mapping Organizational Processes

Since businesses are nothing more than the sum total of the various organizational processes, the systemic approach first focuses on mapping all the internal and external processes that might be present. When this is done, it makes it easier for the implementation team to get a better understanding of the processes involved. This naturally aids team members when implementations are finally initiated in the organization.

Identifying Key Business Sub-Processes

The next step deals with identifying key business sub-processes that might be contributing the most to the main process or those that might hold the most potential in terms of quality improvements. Identifying key processes is necessary simply because it is not possible and also financially unviable for businesses to look into each and every process that might have been identified during the mapping stage.

By concentrating their efforts on a select few, businesses can achieve a lot more, thereby contributing to the success of Six Sigma quality improvement initiatives.

Selecting Improvement Methodologies

Since individual processes are quite different from each other, businesses need to take adequate precautions while selecting improvement methodologies. Selecting time-tested and proven methodologies may be the right thing to do, but that will not necessarily guarantee anything simply because a lot more depends on the applicability of a methodology to a given business process.

The best way to go about it is to start with small improvement projects and then gradually move on to larger projects if the results turn out to be positive.

Conducting Periodical Reviews and Follow-Up

In this last step of the systematic approach, businesses are required to conduct periodical reviews to determine whether or not the initiated quality improvement methodologies are delivering the desired results. If the reviews are positive, businesses can just continue with their existing set-up, but if some irregularities are detected, businesses may have to revert back to the first step. This may be time consuming, but since it is certainly better than risking the whole project, businesses can never afford to overlook the importance of periodical reviews.

Many other steps may be added in between, depending on the specific needs and requirements of a business, but the steps described above form the basic framework of the systematic approach and as such always need to be followed by all businesses, big or small. Inability to do so can seriously undermine the success of Six Sigma project implementations.

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