Model Preview
Define Phase
Define the problem area in objective terms
Critical Goal Model
Quality Widget Goals
Critical to Quality Goals (CTQ)
Produce Widgets Within Specifications
Reduce Product Returns
Package Product Appropriately
Use Widgets with Little Training
Critical to Delivery Goals (CTD)
Reduce In-Transit Time
Decrease Material Handling
Critical to Cost Goals (CTC)
Reduce Production Overhead
Decrease Warranty Claims
Price Widgets Competitively
Critical to Process Goals (CTP)
Eliminate In-Queue Time
Design Quality into Product
Test All Widgets for Compliance
Develop a goal model driven by the requirements of the customer
Business Interaction Model
Suppliers
Research Community
Identify new technology
Capital Markets
Identify sources of venture capital
Component Vendors
Ensure adequate supply of component parts
Quality Widgets
Product Development
Provide product specifications to marketing
Provide new product to field operations
Finance
Process credit requests
Approve orders
Production
Produce and move product to field operations for shipment
Field Operations
Send credit requests to finance
Ship product
Process customer orders and send to finance for approval
Marketing
Conduct market research
Stay current with needs and wants of customers
Competitors
Sub-Assembly Suppliers
Review and evaluate competitive products
Customers
Manufacturing Companies
SIPOC Model
Validate aprropriate associations between critical business goals and core and supporting business processes
Critical business goals
Produce Widgets Within Specifications
Reduce Product Returns
Package Product Appropriately
Use Widgets with Little Training
Reduce In-Transit Time
Decrease Material Handling
Reduce Production Overhead
Decrease Warranty Claims
Price Widgets Competitively
Eliminate In-Queue Time
Design Quality into Product
Test All Widgets for Compliance
Core and supporting business processes
Acquire capital resources
Acquire raw material
Budget operations
Develop new product
Fill order
Forecast sales
Make product
Manage finances
Manage human resources
Market product
Process customer order
Sell Product
Ship product
Clearly define project charter and business case
Develop a Business Interaction Model showing the impacted organizations and customer base
Develop a Critical Goal Model driven by the requirements of the customer
Develop a high-level SIPOC Model for each of the processes falling within the scope of the Six Sigma project
Measure Phase
Measure the performance of products and processes
Evaluate how well customer requirements are being met
Evaluate how efficient the organization is in meeting customer requirements
Develop As-Is Workflow Models for each business process identified in the SIPOC Model
Requirements of an As-Is Workflow Model
Beginning and end of each process
Each activity that makes up the process and the sequence in which they occur
Where decision points occur
The organization or role responsible for each activity
Where work is handed off from one organization to another
Where computer systems are invoked to support the process
Major deliverables moving from activity to activity within the process
The complexity of the process
Analyze Phase
Analyze and identify root causes of the primary problems in the business
Perform Process Analysis
Build Cause and Effect Model to structure discovered primary problems
Discovered root causes
Damaged in transit
Inadequate documentation
Inadequate testing
Inadequate training
Lack of capital expediture
Lack of motivation
Lack of user manuals
Long in-transit time
New employee inexperience
No update responsibility
Old design
Old technology construction
Outdated tools
Parts get wet
Poor equipment maintenance
Poor process design
Poor vendor training
Rough handling
Temporary employees
Conduct process simulation
Look for bottlenecks
Look for disconnects
Look for redundancies
Look for rework
Look for serialization (change to parallel if possible)
Perform Data Analysis
Perform Monte Carlo simulation
Perfrom discrete event simulation
Improve Phase
Improve the results by redesigning processes and reducing variation
Examine all Models
Inspect the Critical Goal Model
How can the organization reach the goal?
Where can the process be improved to increase quality?
What efficiencies can be realized to increase process speed (responsiveness)?
What inefficiencies can be driven out of the process to reduce cost?
Inspect the Cause and Effect Model
What improvement can be implemented to address a problem?
What opportunity can be realized by addressing the process as a whole?
What assumptions in the current process design are no longer valid?
What has changed in the environment that can be leveraged as a competitive advantage?
Inspect the Organization Model
Should the organization be restructured around the processes?
Can the skill sets within the organization be improved to perform the activities?
Can the organization (or its workers) be relocated to more conveniently pass work and deliverables?
Inspect the "As-Is" Workflow Model
Activity Opportunities
Can the activity be more cost effective (ratio of value to cost)?
Can the activity be performed more quickly?
Can the activity make more efficient use of its resources?
Should the skill level of those performing the opportunity be raised?
Would different tools or resources improve the performance of the activity?
Supplier Opportunities
Can we communicate with our suppliers more effectively?
Can we assist in improving our supplier's performance?
Are there other suppliers capable of providing resources?
Can the supplier perform some of the business process's initial activities to relieve the business domain of that responsibility?
Resource Opportunities
Are there other resources available of higher quality?
Can resources be supplied in a form that is more usable by the business process?
Can resources be acquired in a more timely fashion?
Customer Opportunities
Can communication with our customers be more effective?
Are there other markets for our products?
Are there customer activities the business domain can perform to better meet the needs of the customer?
Can the customer perform some of the business domain's final activities, allowing for reduced prices or quicker response?
Product and Service Opportunities
Can the quality of our products and services be increased?
Can products and services be provided to the customer in a more convenient form?
Intermediate Deliverable Opportunities
Can deliverables be passed between activities more quickly?
Can deliverables be put in a usable form for the receiving activity?
Can the number of workflows be minimized to reduce hand-offs?
Develop Opportunity Model
Control Phase
Control modified processes to ensure the improvements are permanent
Verify the solution works as planned
Roll out the solution across the enterprise
Make sure the problem stays fixed
Ensure process flexibility for further improvements