Michael WoodProject Manager / Business Analyst / Business Process Improvement Guru| Independent ContractorGig Harbor, Wa, United States
If you are a Six Sigma Blackbelt or just someone using or interested in learning about Six Sigma we want to hear from you. What are your experiences? What success are you having? What drives you nuts? Saving Changes...
We have a Master Black Belt out in Michigan who is offering four of us a 'virtual book club' to talk about Six Sigma issues each week. We're working on the Harry/Schroeder book right now and will be working on 'The Goal' next. My personal goals are to get through Green Belt training and see what I can do to help our organization after we get through our Level 3 assessment. I'm on our SEPG and am also an enthusiast of PSP and TSP. Six Sigma seems to resolve a lot of the issues I've been having with process improvement by getting US to focus on the business value of what we are helping people do. I know it may look like just another process improvement technique, but Six Sigma has the legs to get through all the trials we have ahead of us. Maybe it's because it came to us from outside our industry. Makes you wonder what else is out there. Saving Changes...
Michael WoodProject Manager / Business Analyst / Business Process Improvement Guru| Independent ContractorGig Harbor, Wa, United States
John, I just finished my second Six Sigma book. I was duly impressed with its foundation and principles; so much so that I have commenced planning my next book that will integrate Six Sigma and Helix together into a seamless organizational performance management methodology.
I dream of the day when an organization can adopt a Total Value Management approach to running their business from the boardroom to the mailroom. An approach that respects the need to deliver value to all of its stakeholders in an abudnant and balanced way. Saving Changes...
I am a Six Sigma Black Belt, and if I may suggest, during these increasingly challenging times of obtaining and keeping customers, I strongly recommend the use of a VOC (voice of the customer) tool.
Your company could be out of touch with your customers. Take a close look at your most recent customer survey. Did your company ask the right questions? Are the answers in touch with reality? Many corporations are afraid to ask customers for candid feedback. Some simply do not realize they have strayed off-course and no longer know what customers need/want, or are willing to pay for. Others are unwilling or uneducated about the process of "partnering" with their customers.
Using the VOC tool can help you correctly interpret customer requirements or CTQ's. Some executives like to interpret customer surveys, yet they are typically the farthest from the customer experience. I would be skeptical of any external customer CTQ that comes directly from the executive team. Talk to your customer support reps (CSR's) for a reality check and to validate the survey findings. Statistically, CSR's have more interaction with customers than the sales force, and they know more about customer requirements than you may think! If your project has incorrect or ?assumed? customer CTQ's, every activity that follows will be an exercise of futility. It is perfectly acceptable to challenge the status quo, but be mindful of your soft skills and approach.
Do you remember your early childhood? Were you inquisitive? Were you persistent? Were you never satisfied in your quest for knowledge and validation of what you "thought" you knew? Ask why, at least 5 times and you'll be surprised how close you get to the "real" root cause.
Get on the road to passionate customer centricity and never stray.
If there is a significant interest in learning more about voice of the customer tools and interpretation techniques, I'll be glad to share.
Saving Changes...
Michael WoodProject Manager / Business Analyst / Business Process Improvement Guru| Independent ContractorGig Harbor, Wa, United States
Its good to seem some passion out there. VOC is one of the wonderful foundations of Six Sigma. It is important that organizations tune in to the Voice of the Customer in all forms. The VOC is heard with every interaction and transaction. The customer is always speaking but all to often is gone unheard.
I especially like the marriage of VOC with the Six Sigma's concept of The Moment of Truth. That point in time where the customer has an opportunity to form an opinion about the company. VOC and TMoT are kissing cousins.
But I also believe that these concepts need to be expanded to include all stakeholders. We need to be sensitive to The Voice of the Employee, The Voice of the Owner, The Voice of Strategic Partners and The Voice of the Community. Each of these voices need to be heard and valued. A company's goals, strategies, processes, systems and policies must be aligned toward optimizing and balancing value to all stakeholders. When the balance becomes lopsided companies falter.
Consider what an imbalance toward stock price (stockholder value) has done to our economy and the faith of the world in Corporate Leadership. In the end the obsessive focus on stockholder value has RAPED stockholders of Trillions of dollars.
We've surely gotten this discussion rolling now, so let me weigh in again.
I missed our SixSigma virtual book club last night when my wife finished a rehearsal early and we took a walk. I'm sure it was wonderful, but there is only so much an individual can do. No amount of enthusiasm can change the direction corporate leaders are taking an organization. But I must admit there are good signs on the horizon, at my company at least.
Though I am down in the trenches doing local projects, I have now seen two different approaches to a SixSigma attitude. One is clearly stating the Voice of Management by setting some clear goals for where we want he company to go. What is different about this particular approach is that it appears to have a clear message to senior leaders - get your processes for selling new business under control. The most amazing aspect of it was a review board that will try to filter out the bad deals before we even consider them. I don't think I have ever seen such a clear statement of systems thinking in business, and I've worked several different places over the years.
The second example of SixSigma thinking comes from the group that is building the next release of our process set. If what is delivered is what is currently being discussed, it will be much thinner, much more mature, and work much better - when mature organizations understand it. Our organizations that have already gone through the CMM Level 2 and 3 gauntlet may not get it the first time around, but it is clear that the attitude required for Level 4 and 5 is built into the tools. As someone here said at a meeting today, "Thinking is still required."
I think some of what SixSigma can do for us is take us beyond the insights we start to get once we start to understand what Level 3 is about. When we have nearly consistent processes, the issues at the organizational level pop into view. We hear the same complaints in the same terms across more projects, and realize that the VOC is missing in some key places. And a little later, we realize the VOM was a little weak as well. It can't just be a canned set of policy statements. Management needs to be talking about why we need to get good estimates before the project starts, and monitor them from the first week (or day) of the project. Project managers pay attention to what their leaders are asking for, and now we're starting to get a set of leaders who are asking for the right stuff.
I'm hopeful about getting through green and black belt training in the near future. I hope to teach other people eventually, because the concepts in SixSigma are the tools we all need to develop the literacy Deming told us we must have to survive.
Software developers are pretty resilient, and can adapt quickly when presented with compelling reasons to buy something that is for their own good. I think there are ways to get the SixSigma message out to individuals, once leaders get on board. And there are signs that some leaders at some companies are becoming enlightened.
For years, I've been saying that Watts Humphrey was to the software industry what Dr Deming was to the auto industry. Now I realize that Dr Deming was good for all of us, if we just pay attention.
Perhaps web sites like gantthead.com can help us raise these issues at the grass roots level and make a difference. I know I'll do what I can.
Thanks for the feedback. Saving Changes...
Michael WoodProject Manager / Business Analyst / Business Process Improvement Guru| Independent ContractorGig Harbor, Wa, United States
John, Thank you for kickstarting this discussion group. Saving Changes...
This is my first posting but feel compelled to join the discussion and add some Six Sigma success stories.
I spent the last four (4) years with MCI (currently known as WorldCom) building a PMO from the ground up. The group I created also specalized in operational process efficiency. In one, of the 10, reorg I received an internal Software Testing group. The "process" crossed 3 functions and touched about 20 staff. I spent about 4 months meeting with the 3 managers redesigning the "process". I then pilot tested the process myself and followed the work from staff to staff learning and editing specifics of the process flow, templates, and adding additional detail when prudent. I then implemented multiple training sessions and turned the key on the new custom built web-based tracking tool and reporting system. The results were amazing. After about 40 iterations, we documented about $3,000,000 in projected annual on-going operational savings due to the reduction in time to delivery and reduced failure rate (i.e. rework).
It's interesting. But we actually increased the # of total hours it took to complete a cycle. However, we significantly reduced the total lenght of time it took because the work-flow was extremely tight. When we began, it took anywhere from 1 to 12 months to complete a software release with about 14 hours of "real" work identified. The other time lag was waiting for 'this or that', trying to schedule meetings to get info that should have been provided, re-doing work due to process/info failures, etc. After the redesign, a release required about 17 hours of "real" work (more), but was guaranteed to be completed in 16 days or less. What's equally important is the fact that the "quality" of the end product was guarnateed to meet the customers requirements due to the quality being designed into each step/task.
Here's the real kicker. Based on the success/impact of this using the Six Sigma approach and principles, my boss and I proposed to a group of WorldCom Senior Managers in Colorado Springs about 2 years ago that with their support and by-in we estimated that within 1 year, we could reduce WorldCom's operational expenses by $2 Billion. You can guess the stares we received. Needless to say, we didn't get anywhere; but, look where WorldCom is today. I truly believe had WorldCom embrased Six Sigma as a corporate strategy, they would not be in Bankruptcy today.
Regards,
Robert Wallace Program Management Consultant & Chair - Quality in PM SIG of PMI Saving Changes...
Michael WoodProject Manager / Business Analyst / Business Process Improvement Guru| Independent ContractorGig Harbor, Wa, United States
Robert, Great story. I would like to send you a complimentary copy of my book The Helix Factor. I think you will find it dovetails nicely with Six Sigma. Just email me your address and I will get it off to you. Just my way of saying thanks for contributing to gantthead. I would love to see you write this up as an article. Thanks again Saving Changes...
Michael WoodProject Manager / Business Analyst / Business Process Improvement Guru| Independent ContractorGig Harbor, Wa, United States
Hey out there. In an effort to spur discussion on PI I will be happy to send those interested a complimentary copy of my book "The Helix Factor". I have a few hundred copies I can give away so quantities are limited. Just post your PI experiences here (good or bad) and email me the address to ship the book. Be sure to place the word gantthead in the subject line of the email. Fair enough? Saving Changes...
Hi, I'm not a sixsigma blackbelt though the thought is very interesting to me. I actually work in state government. Introducing the division that I work with to process evaluation and re-engineering was an interesting challenge over the past year. Working off of a two day course in process evaluation, I realized we had at least three main processes in the division where most everyone involved were thoroughly convinced they knew the whole process and what each other did. After about 10 minutes of trying to map it out, there were some startled looks and definately a "teaching moment". So we broke it down to the basics, walked it through and figured out where the barriers were. By this time they were able to start coming up with solutions because they could now actually see where the problems were as opposed to percieving the problems. I now have about three work groups where they are all doing some levels of analysis and process evaluation. It has really increased the cooperation among groups. I'd like to be able to train much more in process analysis and re-engineering. I think the sixsigma concept is phenominal when applied to something as bureacratic as local or state government. The staff are also much better now at realizing where we need a defined process in order to assure that work gets completed. They understand that without a defined process, even the best intentions never get reach fruition.
