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Top five mistakes when choosing a Lean Six Sigma project

Things to look out for when making that important decision regarding what Lean Six Sigma project you should do

We all want our projects to go well. We want to make a difference and solve that difficult problem, but although we know that the methodology we use and the quality of the data we get can have a significant effect on the probability of success, we may not be so aware that the choice of project we work on can also weigh heavily on the likelihood of success. This is especially true for rookie Black and Green Belts.

So what should we look out for when picking our projects? What makes for a good Lean Six Sigma project or more specifically, what mistakes should we seek to avoid when selecting a project?

Listed below are the top five mistakes made when choosing a Lean Six Sigma project to work on, based on my experience working with Black and Green Belts over the years:

• Not strategically aligned
• Lack of support from Process Owner
• Flavour of the month
• No team available
• Not deliverable in a quarter

Let's look at each in turn:

Not strategically aligned

Choosing a project which is not strategically aligned is a sure-fire way to ensure the organisation fails to support it, and so this is the first thing to avoid in project selection. Many organisations have Goal Deployment processes in place and it is best to pick a project which flows from this process. If no such process exists then find out what the strategic objectives are for your organisation or department and ensure that the chosen project is directly linked to them. You can use a 'cause and effect matrix' to help with prioritisation. Involvement of management in this prioritisation process nearly always helps.

When you come to think about it your organisation has a duty to withhold support for projects which are not strategically aligned and so in the long run it pays to avoid them at all costs!

Lack of support from the Process Owner

Finding yourself attempting to deliver a project which is not important to the Process Owner will almost certainly lead to a lack of support from him or her, and without this support you will find it hard to get decent access to the process, and hard to obtain the cooperation you need from the process operatives and supervisors. You may also find it hard to get the extra data you need or the experiments you need done in good time.

At the other extreme you want to avoid business problems which are terribly urgent for the Process Owner as he or she will almost certainly work on the problem concurrently with you and this will not always help. The risk is that you will get in each others' way, and unhelpful rivalry can also arise. If there is a conflict regarding who to support for those working in the process the Process Owner will win every time, so it is best to avoid this situation.

Overall, lack of support from the Process Owner is one of the key things to look out for during project selection and execution, and this is why it is also on my Top Five list of things to avoid.

Flavour of the month

The third thing to look out for is what I call flavour of the month projects. These are where there has been a blip in performance, say the boss has had a bad month for a particular KPI, and seeks to get the Black or Green Belt to make an improvement to get him out of hot water. He or she won't say this, but all he really wants is to bring the KPI back to normal so the spot light falls elsewhere.

In most cases the blip is due to a special cause which goes away on its own, and so by the time the Belt gets into serious data gathering the problem has disappeared. The boss then loses interest in the project, the spotlight moves elsewhere and the Belt is left high and dry. Make sure that there has been a deteriorating trend over time, or some period of sustained poor performance before choosing the Lean Six Sigma project.

No team available

Lean Six Sigma is a team activity and trying to deliver a project without a team is nigh on impossible, and this leads to the fourth big mistake in project selection: No team available.

As a Black Belt you will usually lack the necessary process knowledge and as a Green Belt you will almost certainly lack the time to carry out the project on your own. Thus team participation is necessary from both a technical and acceptance perspective. The right team will provide the technical know-how to get to root cause and solution, and the organisational wherewithal to get things done.

In almost all cases it is best to avoid a project where no one is prepared or able to help you. And what does it say about overall organisational support if it is not prepared to provide you with the team necessary to solve the problem? It is better to find a project where a team is available and willing.

Not deliverable in a quarter

The last of my top five things to avoid in project selection is projects which will take a long time to complete. By 'a long time' I mean not deliverable in a quarter.

Most businesses move at a pretty fast pace and serious problems need to be tackled swiftly as well as methodically. Projects which take too long will be overtaken by events; a massive customer complaint or cost overrun at one end of the scale, a lack of focus and support at the other end where other bigger or more urgent problems occur which steal the limelight from the belt.

The reality is that projects often overrun and so make sure that if your project is to overrun then it is from three to four months, not six to nine months! If the problem is that big that three months seems far too short then it is better to do some scoping work up font and break the problem down into bite size pieces.

It is better for all concerned to be able to 'tick things off' as complete, even if these things are steps along the path, than to feel that you are bogged down in an endless project going nowhere.

We recommend a 4 stage process for choosing Lean Six Sigma projects effectively: Identify, Prioritise, Select and Launch.

Identification of potential projects is the first stage and should be done by the Belt and the Lean Six Sigma Champion. This requires any gaps between the desired and actual performance of the organisation to be identified, and potential project opportunities brainstormed.

Prioritise is the next stage, and once the potential projects are identified, selection criteria need to be established. Selection criteria will most likely include impact on organisational strategy, resources required, risk, and benefits to the organisation. The potential projects are then ranked against the criteria, and the top few established for further evaluation.

The third stage, selection, is for the top few potential projects to be evaluated using potential benefits and costs. The organisation Champion should drive this process, and consensus at executive level ideally sought as to which project(s) are to be launched first.

Launch is best considered as a handover from the Champion to the Belt. During the Define stage of DMAIC the precise objectives for the project will be defined and agreed, so during launch it is usual to have a broad idea only of what needs to be achieved and why.

Using this four stage process will minimize the risk of making any of the top 5 mistakes listed above!

We all want our Lean Six Sigma projects to go well; to make a difference, to solve that difficult problem, and we have seen that the choice of problem we work on can weigh heavily on our ability to achieve this.

If you look carefully, however, at all of the 5 things listed above you will see that a common thread underpins all of them: lack of support from the organisation. It can take several forms: lack of a team; a Process Owner pulling in a different direction; a Champion pushing other priorities. The result is always the same, difficulty in delivering a successful project. Therefore, make sure that you are sure you will get the necessary support you need to complete a project before you commence it by following the 4 stage process outlined.

If you would like to find out more, detailed methods for identifying, prioritising, selecting and launching projects are taught to SigmaPro Green, Black and Master Black Belts.

Author

Mike Titchen - Six Sigma Master Black Belt