选择合适的六西格玛项目

Choosing the Right Projects

Among the many labels we attach to Six Sigma—quality improvement program,
business performance improvement system, management philosophy—is
problem-solving methodology. Where other attempts at solving persistent
problems have failed, Six Sigma often uncovers root causes and delivers lasting
improvements.
While Six Sigma’s problem-solving potential does merit attention, however, you
should not depend upon problems as your only, or even primary, means of
locating improvement opportunities. Selecting projects based on the most
obvious problems within your organization is ultimately a shortsighted and
imprecise strategy: it fails to provide direction about which specific processes to
address.
A problem-based approach also limits you to those problems you have already
identified. Chances are good that for every problem you are aware of, one that
you haven’t yet noticed exists. The Six Sigma methodology can help root out and
solve these problems when it is applied with the higher purpose of improving
processes, products or services, and costs.
Three alternatives to a problem-based approach
The best Six Sigma projects offer the greatest financial or customer satisfaction
leverage for the long haul. Finding such projects is a matter of studying your
current operations and applying Six Sigma to discover hidden problems and their
sources.
Typically, good projects will come from some combination of the following three
approaches:

1. Process focus: Develop a process mindset about your organization’s defects

and customer satisfaction issues. The key is to identify the processes that are
critical to satisfaction and are operating at a low sigma level. This approach
requires strong cross-functional coordination since many of these processes
will cross the traditional boundaries of departments.

1. Product/service focus: Identify the product family or system that most

contributes to poor customer satisfaction but also constitutes a strategically
important product or service. Such an approach usually requires examining a
number of processes that feed into that product or service.
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1. Cost savings focus: Projects are selected based on how much management

thinks can be saved in costs, not necessarily on which projects will most
affect the root drivers of process capability. This approach does, of course,
have limitations in that it upholds dated notions about the value of quality.
Other project selection criteria
Focusing project selection around processes, products or services, or costs
doesn’t necessarily guarantee success. After identifying a possible project, verify
its viability, ensuring that it meets some basic criteria for solid choices and avoids
a few very basic risks.
Signs of solid project choices
· Tied to a strategic company initiative
· Tied to a critical organizational performance measure (e.g., cycle time
reduction)
· Focuses on Critical to Quality, Critical to Costs, and/or Critical to Delivery
(CTQ, CTC, CTD) characteristics to offer the greatest leverage (see Figure 1)
· Sponsored by a company champion or member of senior management
· Scope is significant enough to provide a meaningful impact for the
organization
· Can be completed in four to six months, with the bulk of the project completed
in about ten weeks
· All necessary resources are available to support the improvement activity for
at least the crucial ten weeks
· Identifiable process inputs and outputs exist
Signs of risky project choices
· Unclear, vague, or overly broad objectives
· Poorly defined scope or unclear boundaries with other projects
· Broad scope—attacking “larger than life” issues
· Fuzzy or insufficient data about relevant processes
· Unclear deliverables
· “Pet” projects—evidence of too much personal interest, especially from
someone high in hierarchy
Even the most perfectly executed project will do little for the progress of an
overall program if it does not have organizational impact or relevance to
customer concerns. Well-chosen projects are essential to the success of any Six
Sigma implementation, and grounding your selections in an understanding of
core processes, customer satisfaction with products and services, and financial
goals rather than in problems, and then verifying that some basic criteria are met,
will help eliminate the guesswork.