Sreedher Kadambi and Badri Narayana, Flame TAO Knoware Pvt. Ltd.
For the uninitiated, Six Sigma is neither rocket science nor a complex statistical technique that’s used to resolve every problem at sight. Six Sigma revolves around 5 simple steps to solve problems. Specifically, they’re called DMAIC – i.e., Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, Control. Therefore, here you’ll be able to understand how you can use these to solve problems, alongside effectively applying basic statistical tools.
In the Six Sigma, Lean, and TQM worlds, you’ll need to remember a few things. Firstly, define the problem. Secondly, express the problem in numbers. Always remember, you can’t improve what you can’t measure! Additionally, while setting an achievable goal, remember to be ‘SMART’ – Specific, Measurable, Agreed to, Realistic and Time-bound.
Here’s a case study where we used these techniques. We deployed Lean Six Sigma strategies in one of the apparel companies that we were working with. One of the improvement areas which we had to work on was to ‘improve embroidery quality’. Therefore, while meeting with the embroidery department team, we told them about the initiative. Soon after, we learnt that 100% inspection was routinely carried out. However, no records were maintained because nobody asked for them! Furthermore, there was a notion that the quality being produced was good and that no major internal customer complaints were received. Thereafter, we quickly gave them an overview of the Six Sigma approach and readily implemented the DMAIC approach. Hence, we decided to get started with the first ‘Define’ phase that very day. Here’s how the first step went!
DEFINE: The Problem
The ‘Define’ phase of the Six Sigma approach emphasizes the development of a project charter. A project charter is a one-page document which highlights some of the key aspects of a project. Here are the most commonly used elements of a project charter:
- Firstly, address the business case: why is this project important to the business?
- Secondly, identify the in-scope and/ or out-of-scope aspects of the project.
- Thirdly, define the objective and goal statements.
- Fourthly, define the defect: what is classified as non-conformance for this project?
- Fifthly, identify the project benefits to both the customer and business enterprise.
- Sixthly, project the timeline. For instance, what are the referred start and end dates of the project?
- Lastly, organize the project team members. Hence, include names of the sponsors, the team leader, and other members of the project.
The objective of preparing a project charter is to ensure everyone associated with the project has a common understanding about it. Once it’s prepared, it has to be agreed upon and signed off by the impacted parties. The following table shows the project charter that was developed in this case. Once it was developed, the team gained a good understanding of the problem at hand that needed to be resolved. Following this, we decided to move on to measure phase discussions.
Six Sigma Project Charter
Want to find out how we rolled out the second phase of the Six Sigma project? Here’s how we measured the current state!