Quality Time

Source: Technology Digital

Date :10/05/2007 09:19:26

John Morgan outlines the principles of lean six sigma and the Six Sigma Summit at the QEII

How was your week? Were you among those who ordered something by mail, only to receive the wrong product? Or perhaps you were waiting in vain for the repair main to turn up at a certain time?

Our microwave oven repair man did turn up on time, but his company hadn’t sent the right parts, so the repair has been rescheduled – for the third time. How much waste is there in the organisations involved? What does it cost? And what’s being done to change things?

As customers, we are optimistic, but wouldn’t it be great if suppliers understood our requirements? And better still, if our requirements were reflected in the products and services they provide? And supposing they designed or improved their processes to ensure they are capable of meeting the requirements consistently, using accurate data to help them manage by fact? That would be sensational, wouldn’t it?

How good at these things is the organisation you work for? For example, do you experience any of the following?

• Frustration: you don’t seem to be able to do things easily

• Confusion: no-one really seems to know what’s going on

• Hassle: there are always fires to put out

• Overload: there is always too much to do

• Rework: too many things go out wrong or need correcting on route

• Complaints: you're spending too much time dealing with unhappy customers

If you do, then Six Sigma and Lean may just be what you are looking for to remedy things. But the changes won’t happen without the right leadership and management thinking and behaviour.

This quote from Albert Einstein says much: “The significant problems we face cannot be solved by the same level of thinking that caused them.”

Organisations want to change outcomes, but they need to realise that these outcomes are the product of their systems. Not the computer systems, but the way the organisation works together and interacts. And these systems are the product of organisational thinking and behaviour. So, to change the outcomes, you have to change the systems, and to do that, you have to change the thinking.

Six Sigma and Lean means adopting thinking that focuses on improving value for the customer, by improving and smoothing the process flow, and eliminating waste.

Since Henry Ford’s first production line, Lean Thinking has evolved through a number of sources, and over many years, but much of the development has been led by Toyota through the development of the ‘Toyota Production System’. They were able to build on Ford’s production ideas, moving from ‘high volume, low variety’, to high variety of choice with low volumes.

For me, there are five key principles of Lean Thinking:

• Understand the customer and their perception of value

• Identify and understand the value stream for each process and

• the waste within it

• Enable the value to flow

• Let the customer pull the value through the processes, according to their needs

• Continuously pursue perfection (continuous improvement)

Six Sigma thinking complements these principles through a systematic and robust approach to improvement that is based on management by fact and is also focused on the customer and key stakeholders. If we are to deliver the best customer experience, we have to listen to and understand the ‘Voice of the Customer’. We can then make sure that the objectives of our services and processes are appropriately focused.

Measurement and management by fact enables more effective decision making, and by understanding variation we’ll also know when to take action and when not to. Of course, to be truly effective, we need to involve the people in the process, equipping them to be able, and feel able to challenge and improve their processes and the way they work.

So, the five key principles of Six Sigma are:

• Understand the critical to quality requirements (CTQs) of our customers and stakeholders

• Understand our processes ensuring they reflect these CTQs

• Manage by fact

• Involve and equip the people in the process

• Undertake improvement activity in a systematic way

For me, there is both similarity and synergy between Lean and Six Sigma, and a set of Lean Six Sigma key principles emerges. A sort of magnificent seven’:

• Focus on the customer

• Identify and understand how the work gets done – the value stream

• Manage, improve, and smooth the process flow

• Remove Non-Value-Add steps and waste

• Manage by fact and reduce variation

• Involve and equip the people in the process

• Undertake improvement activity in a systematic way

I’ve already made brief reference to ‘involving the people’, so let’s look at these other elements in a little more detail:

The key focus is on the customer. You need to understand their perception of value, and their CTQs. The CTQs provide the basis for your measurement set which will help you understand how well you are performing against these critical requirements.

Focusing on the customer, and the concept of Value-Add, is especially important as typically, only 10 – 15% of process steps add value, and often represent only 1% of the total process time.

By identifying and understanding how the work gets done – the value stream, you can highlight the Non-Value steps and waste. In doing so, you can ensure the process is focused on meeting the CTQs and adding value. To do this properly, you have to go to the ‘Gemba’. This Japanese word is usually associated with the workplace – where the work gets done, or where the action is. And that’s where management begins.

So go to the workplace to see the real process being carried out, and collect data on what’s happening. You’ll find this will make it easier for you to analyse the problems that need addressing, and will help you determine a more effective solution.

Understanding, managing and improving the value stream is key as it sets out all of the actions, both value creating and Non-Value creating, that bring a product or service concept to launch. And bring a customer order through supply chain processing to delivery. These include actions to process information from the customer, and actions to transform the product on its way to the customer.

Managing, improving and smoothing the process flow provides another example of different thinking. If possible use single piece flow, moving away from batches, or at least reducing batch sizes. Either way, identify the Non-Value-Added steps in processes and try to remove them – certainly look to ensure they do not delay Value-Adding steps. The concept of pull, not push, links to our understanding the process and improving flow. And it can be an essential element in avoiding bottlenecks. Overproduction or pushing things through too early is a waste.

Removing Non-Value-Add steps and waste is another vital element in improving performance. One way to improve flow and performance, generally, is to identify, remove, and prevent waste or, as the Japanese call it, Muda. They describe two broad types and seven categories of waste.

Managing by fact, using accurate data, will help you avoid jumping to conclusions and solutions. You need the facts! And that means measuring the right things in the right way. Data collection is a process and needs to be managed accordingly.

Using Control Charts will enable you to interpret the data correctly and understand the process variation. You will then know when to take action and when not to.

The action you take in improving your processes needs to be undertaken in a systematic way. Six Sigma provides the tried and tested DMAIC and improvement process - Define, Measure, Analyse, Improve, Control, and for design projects, the DMADV route – Define, Measure, Analyse, Design, Verify.

So, Six Sigma and Lean provide a rigorous and structured approach to help manage and improve performance, helping you use the right tools, in the right place, and in the right way. And this is something that applies, not just in improvement and design projects, but also in your day-to-day activities. It really is about getting the key principles, concepts, and thinking into the DNA and lifeblood of the organisation, so that it becomes a natural part of how you do things.

So natural perhaps that silicon overdoses, faulty products, and incorrect deliveries become a thing of the past. Let’s hope and dream!