Secrets to Succeed at Six Sigma
To succeed at Six Sigma, laser-focus every team you start. This means that leadership will want to work with an improvement expert to develop the first two elements of a successful improvement story:1. Line graph showing defects (preferably in parts per million) or delay over a period of time. This answers the questions: "Where are the defects? Where are the delays?" See a sample line graph at http://www.qimacros.com/qiwizard/linegraph.html
2. Pareto chart(s) showing 1, 2, or 3 "big bars" that contribute 50-60% of the problem identified in the line graph. This answers the question "Where's the Mother Lode." See a sample pareto chart at http://www.qimacros.com/qiwizard/pareto.html
Use the 4-50 Rule: 4% of any business creates over half of the waste and rework. Find it and fix it.
3. Write a Good Problem Statement. Use the first big bar on the pareto chart to write your problem statement. A sample problem statement is: During the first 6 months of 2002, time code errors accounted for 47% of the incorrect paychecks, which was 2 times higher than the next highest contributor and resulted in 78 employee complaints.
4. Cost of Quality Analysis showing how much this portion of the Fix-it Factory costs and what the benefits will be. These four steps should take no more than 3-5 days using existing data. Each of these charts and worksheets are available in the QI Macros for Excel Six Sigma Software at http://www.qimacros.com/six-sigma-software.html or http://www.qimacros.com/spc-charts.html
Time: It rarely takes more than 2-3 days to analyze all of a company’s data and develop a master improvement story that identifies the 4% of the business causing over 50% of the waste and rework.
Download a 30 day evaluation copy of the QI Macros at http://www.qimacros.com/free-excel-templates.html or http://www.qimacros.com/free-excel-macros.html
