I’m going to take a slight personal detour before writing more technical guidance of tools. However, it isn’t 
completely unrelated to the overall theme of Seek the Art of the Possible or the topics about which I commonly write. It is important to set goals - personal, professional or even project goals. Goals give us something to work toward, a means to keep us focused (difficult for those of us with a Low C Predictive Index profile) and a measure to judge success. Of course, we don’t always achieve our goals, which doesn’t necessarily mean we have failed if we view it as an opportunity to learn, improve and maybe even try again. So, I am sharing these tangential thoughts because I have just received my certificate for completing the Detroit Free Press Flagstar Marathon. It is still somewhat surreal to me that I actually ran 26.2 miles, until, of course, the residual pain in my knees and toes without toenails remind me that it, in fact, is a reality. It isa goal I set on my 30th birthday to run a marathon before turning 40. That goal I beat by a little over a year. Once I started training, I set another goal to run it in 4 Hours, 30 mInutes. Well, that one I didn’t accomplish. I hung with the 4:30 group thru 18 miles then fell behind. Considering the challenges I faced in the weeks leading up to the race (pulled calf muscle, bronchitis, sick kids, etc.) I’m satisfied with my performance. Further, the reaction of my almost-5-year-old daughter when I returned home from the race and she saw the medal around my neck is even more gratifying than finishing - “Mommy, you WON!” and that’s exactly how I feel! Set goals, stay focused, measure success and learn from failing. If we can do that personally, professionally, in Six Sigma projects, in the turn-around efforts in businesses and communities, WOW! Think of the possibilities!
Saludos,
Aimée
As promised, I will provide some questions that a person who is proficient in the Lean Six Sigma toolset should be asking during project support. I am beginning with MSA - Measurement System Analysis -for variable data because, in my experience, it is the most commonly misunderstood tool.
Variable Gage R&R
w Is the gage capable of measuring the specification? (Is P/T < 10%?)
w Is the gage used to make process adjustments? If so, is it capable of measuring the variation in the process? (Is P/TV or %Study Variation < 10%?)
w What % of Total Variation is represented by Part-to-Part variation in the study?What % of the tolerance does this represent? Is this amount of variation representative of the process capability?
w Did all who use the gage participate in the study? If not, how will others be qualified?
w Are there multiple gages (supplier or customer location?) Have they all been studied? Do they correlate?
w For a gage that is not capable, what is the short term plan (work-around)? Is a solution known?
If you are providing project support (Black Belt or Master Black Belt) and don’t understand the significance of these questions, I suggest you find someone who does and get a tutorial. As always, I’m here to help so drop me a comment.
Saludos,
Aimée
The Celebration began in summer 2003 to celebrate the graduation of Aimée’s sister, Shannon, from Oakland University. Discussing various options for the party, Gary and Aimée decided to open up their recently acquired property to family, friends, and neighbors. Aimée (as usual) did all the heavy lifting and Gary insisted on live Rock ‘n’ Roll with a touch of blues. The party was a success with about 80 people in attendance. A good time was had by all. Copperhead played until well after midnight and Cal’s (the bass player) ability to play blues is an unexpected treat. Aimée was pregnant with Abi who was born in November that year, 3 minutes before Aimée ’s birthday.
Sticking to the theme “back to breakthrough,” I wanted to share another recent encounter that reminded me of the early days of Six Sigma. Every August, we host our annual Celebration of Life. For Gary’s explanation and history of the party see the posting in Miscellaneous Musings. This year, we were honored by the presence of a long-time colleague of Gary’s, Mike Carnell, who taught me the what good project support looks like. Thank you, Mike!
In a previous posting, I said that strategic project selection is the most important job of leadership. The follow up to good project selection is giving project teams every opportunity to succeed. This includes picking the right people to lead projects, giving team members time to focus, and providing necessary training and application support. I will comment on each in successive postings but will begin here with what I consider the most important factor of successful projects at the change agent level.
It takes time and practice to become proficient users of the tools we teach as part of a Lean Six Sigma curriculum. How much time? Not as long if we have selected the right people to be change agents using Predictive Index (High A, Low C, Lower D than A). You can see more on this subject at Gary Cone’s Blog (http://blog.gpsqtc.com) in his May 20, 2008 posting titled, “Getting the Right People on the Bus,” filed under Human Architecture. Still, there are challenges to use the tools when it comes time to apply them beyond the textbook examples that are worked in training.
Whether you have internalized your efforts or are using outside resources, project support needs to be provided and by someone who has mastered the toolset. During the Define phase, a session begins by reviewing the status of the project with the team leader and getting a thorough understanding of the nature of the problem, the baseline performance of primary and secondary metrics, and how the scope of the project was determined. Ideally, the same person provides ongoing project support so this doesn’t need to be repeated every support session. Often, there is some additional data collection that needs to be implemented immediately.
In the Measure phase of a project, a team usually needs some facilitation to create the process map and capture all possible sources of variation. In my experience, teams often get stuck on how much detail to include, what to call an input or output vs. a process step, what format to use, or worse, they want to leap from a fishbone to an action plan. A good process map will identify where additional data collection is necessary, where in-process capability should be quantified, and what measurement systems are being used and need to be analyzed. During the analyze and improve phases, a person proficient with the toolset gets creative to streamline data analysis.
Check out recent and upcoming postings in the Techie Talk category for further insight into the questions that should be asked during project support. I have started with some of the most commonly misunderstood or abused tools. I hope you find it helpful if you deliver project support or are a team working without support. If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to send them my way!
Saludos,
Aimée
I’m often asked “what are the absolute ‘must-haves’ for change efforts to be successful?” I answer that on different levels for leaders and change agents. If I had to pick one area to focus leadership’s attention to their business process improvement efforts, it would be project selection. Projects drive everything – the number of projects needed to achieve financial objectives, the people required to work them and the training those people need to achieve improvement goals. Projects aligned with strategic objectives can create breakthroughs in process performance. These projects get resourced because of their strategic impact. We look for the right people to assign to these projects and we make sure they have the tools to succeed. Too often, the approach is reversed – companies start with a plan to do training (Lean, Six Sigma, DFSS, etc.,) people volunteer for the training, and then, participants are told they’ll need a project. It’s a classic case of the tail wagging the dog. And then, leadership wonders why they are getting less than breakthrough results. Strategy–driven project selection leads to the right people being trained with the right tools (which should be the simplest tools to accomplish the task; more on this in a successive posting…) Leadership needs to be involved in project selection and then needs to remain engaged in reviewing the progress of projects, breaking down barriers and expecting results. This is one way to get “back to breakthrough” and I am hopeful that we will hear more on this topic at the isixsigma conference being held in Miami in January 2009. Find the details at: http://live.isixsigma.com/events/summit/miami/2009/default.html
Saludos,
Aimée
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