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Planning a Lean Six Sigma Programme
How do we actually make this Lean Six Sigma thing work for us?
Once you've made the decision to deploy Lean Six Sigma you then need to plan to make sure it succeeds. A deployment is a big undertaking for an organisation and usually involves significant investment of energy, commitment and funding, and so you need to try and make sure every aspect is covered. Many companies have been through the deployment scenario - and some have got the scars to show for it! What can we learn from previous deployments? Is there a template for success?
Preparing the soil: Before you get into detailed planning you need to ensure the organisation is ready for Lean Six Sigma. This means more than a half hearted 'If that's what you want to do then that's OK' from the boss. You need to ensure that you have achieved the following:
- Obtained executive commitment for the business case
- Appointed an Executive Champion for the programme
- Positioned the initiative as consistent with existing programmes
- Agreed the programme's objectives
- Decided upon the infrastructure required to support the programme: black belts, green belts numbers, budgets, compensation, IT, communication, finance etc.
If possible it is good to get your Executives (or at least a selection of them) through some Lean Six Sigma Champion training, so they have some idea what they are letting themselves in for.
And then you are ready to create a high-level, and then a detailed, implementation plan - which includes risk analysis and contingency planning.
When creating the plan you need to consider:
- The Goals of the Deployment. Here you need to define and communicate a common vision and objective for the programme
- Big Bang or Pilot? Big bang is where you launch Lean Six Sigma across the entire business at the same time and Pilot is where you try it in one division or site and see how it goes before launching across the entire business.
- The Processes necessary for the Deployment. Here you need to consider how you will choose your belts, select and review projects etc
- The Organizational structure necessary to support the Deployment. Here you will consider things like who your BBs will report to.
- The People necessary for the Deployment. Here you will consider the training, motivation and career planning for the belts
- The Rewards available for successful belts. Here you will consider how you will recognize success and learn from failure
Don't forget to utilize the tried and tested planning tools such as Work Breakdown Structure (breaks down the deployment into logical groupings of tasks with time per task), Network/Dependencies Diagram (shows task dependencies), Critical Path (draws the longest duration path through the network diagram) and Gantt Chart (combines the above exercises on one page) when undertaking the detailed planning process.
Sound planning is a crucial component for a successful Lean Six Sigma deployment. There may be no simple template for success, but we can certainly learn from the experience of other earlier deployments to increase our likelihood of success.
Author Biography
Mike Titchen - Master Black Belt, SigmaPro
Mike is a highly experienced MBB and has worked in both manufacturing and financial services industries. Mike joined SigmaPro as a Master Black Belt and lead trainer in 2006. His consulting and training experience has involved the development and delivery of training materials for six sigma programmes for several high profile clients, and Mike has helped clients deliver improvement savings totaling over £5M.
Before he joined SigmaPro, he has implemented and has been responsible for Six Sigma with Norwich Union, Textron and General Electric. Mike has an MBA and a BA (Arts), and away from work he enjoys golf, tennis, snooker and listening to music.
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