Blog | Six Sigma Development Solutions, Inc.

McDonald's and the an example of a Lean Pull process...

2012-07-26T16:27:00.001-07:00

When I was 18 we (my family and I) had just returned on an accompanied tour with my father (a U.S. Marine) in London, England. We were in Jacksonville, NC for around two weeks when he received orders to ship off to the middle east to be a part of "Desert Storm". I was preparing to go to college in Greenville, NC which was about three hours from Jacksonville. I changed my plans when we got the news that my father was to be deployed again. I decided to go to the local community college so that I could watch after my mom and two sisters.

My first order of business once I was registered for school was to find a job. The only employment I found that would work around my schedule was McDonalds. I was hired as a night shift cook. I have always had the mind to be frugal with money. Like teaching, you don't enlist in the Marine Corps to get rich. I say this because I immediately saw waste at the McDonalds though At the time I did not know the concepts of Lean nor Six Sigma.

For those of you who remember in the early 90's, McD's used to cook their sandwiches and place them in a heating bin. We would place a marker behind a batch if sandwiches to let everyone know when those sandwiches expire (thus becoming waste). The management were using either "gut feel" or forecasting to predict demand. Most would over predict during peak hours (especially when rumor of a bus was ciming full of hungry athletic teams) and under predict during non peak. In either case, they were taking a risk. I saw the result in the waste bin every day. This was the case during my 1.5 year employment at McDonalds.

Jump ahead 15 years. I was in a McDonald's during the peak of lunch and I saw that the bins were empty except for special orders. I thought that maybe I had come in on the tail end of a massive rush and they were trying to catch up. I decided to sit in the lounge where I could watch their process. What I discovered were steaming bins (almost small closets with trays) that the cooked meat were being stored at the place of sandwich assembly. Every order was being assembled immediately after the order was made. I thought to myself this is a perfect example of "Pull" production!

In the old process of creating inventory of sandwiches under a heating lamp, the constraint in the whole process that kept it from being "just in time" was the cooking of the meat. In this new system, that constraint is removed. I also remember that when you received your hamburger from the bin, the ketchup and mustard were soaked into the bun and the bun itself had lost some of it's "fullness". In the new Pull process, the bins for the cooked meat are referred to as the supermarket. When the sandwich order is placed, the meat is pulled from the supermarket into the assembly area. The sandwich is assembled just in time to fulfill the order.

There is a lot more that makes up a flexible Lean system. This example is just one of the many things that companies are doing to improve upon their processes. For more examples, keep checking into my blog.

Kevin Clay
kclay@sixsigmadsi.com
www.sixsigmadsi.com

We Invest in process improvement like we invest in our health...

2012-07-22T18:08:00.001-07:00

I'm sure most of you have seen thousands of infomercials over the years of "get fit quick" gimmicks. The man on the TV that I call "the Circus Barker" that excitedly tells you of a way to lose weight and get fit in seven days. We fall for these gimmicks time after time with the same result ... a new contraption that sits in a closet or in the middle of the room as a clothes hanger. Why does this happen? Because we want the quick fix with minimal investment.

Let's correlate the above example with an organizations investment in process improvement. When I am asked by people "Kevin, what do you do?"... I answer "I am like a fitness trainer for your organization except that I focus on the health of your processes not necessarily the people". Organizations investing in process improvement are investing in the health of their company. For those of you that have significantly improved your health and sustained that improvement know that this takes time and discipline. I can tell you story after story of companies that start with good intentions, but because of the need for "the quick fix" and the inherent lack of focus, discipline and buy in, they change direction. They listen to the "Circus Barker" and opt for the quick fix. I often follow up on these companies to get some data on the result of their new "quick fix" direction. The outcome is often the same as those fitness contraptions that are now in the closet, are clothes hangers in the middle of the bedroom, or sold at a garage sale for pennies on the dollar.

Einstein said "we cannot solve problems with the same thinking that got us into them". My interpretation of Einstein's quote is that we have to change the way we think when our current path does not result in the required outcome. When using this quote in my classes, I often follow with "what is the definition of insanity". Someone will eventually answer "to do the same thing over and over and expect different results". I have a good friend that was overweight and had declining health. She was on several medications including blood pressure meds. She smoked, drank alcohol often, amongst many other bad habits. She tried many of the quick fixes to regain her health. Nothing worked ... Why? Because she didn't change her culture. She didn't change her habits. One afternoon, she had a mild heart attack which happened in part because of diet pills and also because of her declining health. This was the "burning platform" that altered her way of thinking. Fast forward to a year after the heart attack. She is now running several miles a week; she has made the choice to be a vegetarian; she has lost over 50 pounds and she is off all medication.

In our workshops and courses we often talk about the House of Lean and Six Sigma. We discuss the structure of the house and what it takes to have a house that sustains over time. The class discovers that the strongest part of the house must be the foundation. Without a strong foundation, the house will quickly weaken and collapse. This is the fate of many company's Continuous Process Improvement (CPI) endeavors. For the want of a house to be built quickly, the "quick-fix" route is taken. In this case, the foundation is either weak or not built at all and Invariably the house will fall.

The next obvious question is "what makes a strong and sustainable foundation?". I have seen through my career as a contract instructor for many large Lean and Six Sigma training and deployment that the inputs that result in a good foundation vary by provider. I have seen implementations succeed and fail. Most failures come from the lack of understanding the target or goal in terms that we can all understand equally. Another key input is what I call "the stomach". This is the plan and the discipline to get to that target with measurable results. Many companies lose their "stomach" at the first sign of adversity or hierarchical push back (another sign of a weak foundation). We all know that to truly alter your health positively takes work perseverance and discipline. For most of us, it also takes a good support system. It is no different for an organization.

Kevin Clay
kclay@sixsigmadsi.com
www.sixsigmadsi.com

Four Secrets for Leading Successful Change ...

2012-05-31T09:53:00.001-07:00

Four Secrets for Leading Successful Change… http://goo.gl/fb/ho4Xe

The Power of Story Telling and Learning...

2012-05-24T13:39:00.001-07:00

"What Do William Shatner, Conan O’Brien and Process Improvement have in Common?" ... http://ow.ly/1MHuNZ

Getting the Most out of Your Capability Studies ...

2012-04-23T15:22:00.001-07:00

Getting the Most out of Your Capability… http://goo.gl/fb/35i3s

Calculating the Real Value of Process Improvement: Factoring inIntangible Benefits ...

2012-04-22T07:02:00.001-07:00

Anytime you’re starting a process improvement (PI) project, it’s essential to have a clear and concise initial problem statement. When teams are unable to focus on the real issue, they lose valuable problem solving time. Team members become disenfranchised from the process since they seem to be going in circles without making any progress.... http://goo.gl/fb/zo4CO

Lean Implementation at Mission Linen in Sacramento ...

2011-04-15T15:24:00.000-07:00

This week I spent time with Mission Linen in Sacramento, California in the first week of a Lean (and partly Six Sigma) Implementation. They have a vendor presently implementing what they are calling "Lean Six Sigma" in a few of their other facilities. I had a few of their employees in my Lean and Six Sigma course and they saw a different side of Lean and Six Sigma. They asked me to lead the implementation at their Sacramento facility. Through the concepts of Pull, Kanban, and Flow, they see production of their core items in a whole new way. This will have a significant effect on their throughput. It's great to see a plan come together ;)

Training is sometimes “a job” (but most of the time it’s just fun :) ...

2011-04-01T09:41:00.000-07:00

I was in the home of the Astro's Baseball team teaching a Six Sigma Week #2 course. For those of you who watch my Facebook page, you will think to yourself "but Kevin has not taught a week #1 in Houston in more than six months". You are correct … I was subbing for another instructor. We had a small class (of three) but they were very engaged in class (even though we had a series of sunny Spring days and a clear view to the outside through a large window;). This was a tough class, because i ended up catching Strep Throat on Tuesday morning and taught all day with an ever increasing fever (102 by days end). I went to the Clinic in Walgreens (a great business model, by the way to have a clinic right next to the pharmacy!), received some antibiotics. I felt fair the next morning but taught the whole day and was worn out by 5pm. Wednesday was the kicker, because not only did i teach all day with strep throat, but i ended up with Laryngitis. By the end of the day I had to use all but use sign language to be understood. Not to fear though... I made it through the day, and the class was still engaged. I gained some of my voice back for Thursday's session but had to actually use pictures to be understood sometimes. We made it a game of Pictionary at one point in the class. All in all, it was a great class. A picture is on my Facebook page.

I have a lot of fun teaching and consulting, but the man upstairs likes to humble me every now and again. He sure did a good job this week :)

Next week, i will be headed to Toronto Canada to help a company that's implementing Six Sigma at Kraft Foods worldwide.

Six Sigma Project Selection: Don't Pan for Gold in Your Hot Tub!

2011-01-29T13:28:00.000-08:00

I saw a post on isixsigma.com by a gentleman named Gary A. Gack about Six Sigma project selection in Software Development. I wanted to exapand on this (and contract a bit) on How to Select a Generic Six Sigma Project. I used some of Gary's excellent concepts.

Gary post can be found on isixsigma.com at: (http://www.isixsigma.com/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=758&Itemid=1&Itemid=1)

One of the most frequent questions asked by students new to Six Sigma is something like, "What types of problems should we address with Six Sigma?" While there is no one-size-fits-all answer to this sort of question, there are criteria that are universally applicable and provide a project selection framework that covers general top-level considerations.

The first rule is, "Don't pan for gold in your hot tub!" Go where the money is. Six Sigma is about significant step changes in organizational effectiveness, and those changes can happen only if the methodology is applied to significant problems that consume an important share of organizational resources.
Considerations for Project Selection

Other considerations that should strongly influence Six Sigma project selection in software include:

Replication Potential – “Don’t Boil the Ocean”! Ideal are small and manageable projects that can be used to prove an approach or solution concept in a limited pilot area and then rolled out to a much larger population to multiply the benefits.

Example: Instead of taking on a project to fix the effectiveness of the Finance department (which can be a futile effort), use data and prioritization tools like Pareto Analysis to determine a more finite scope (“The Biggest Bang for the Buck”) within finance like the Billing/Invoicing process … and even this can be scoped down depending on the size of your company.

Measurability - Consider projects in which it is feasible and affordable to use or create and/or investigate measurement data that can quantitatively demonstrate the business case. This means selecting areas where baseline data can be collected to enable pre- and post-improvement comparison.

Example: The invoicing process currently has a baseline of 2,300 (average) defective (need to be reworked) out of 150,000. This can be further equated into a dollar value.

Employee Acceptance - Ease of use and efficiency considerations play an important part in Change Management. Working in a cooperative setting can be critical to success. Mandating Six Sigma is often ineffective; look for interested volunteers, and think about incentives.

The role of a Six Sigma practitioner is not to “Push Change” but to be a Facilitator of Change using the process owners (what we call the “Subject Matter Experts”) as the leaders of change in their area by feeding us experiential data as well as pointing us in the direction of quantifiable data. In a Six Sigma team effort the SME is always “the most important person in the room” … if you remember this then Change will be Accepted.

Realistic Resource Allocation - Rarely is it possible to realize meaningful improvement without some investment. Hence team is going to work on a Six Sigma project, it must be given time to do so. If a team cannot be given some "slack," either by assigning additional resources or reducing delivery expectations, it is unlikely the team can successfully execute a Six Sigma project. In general, a Six Sigma team working on a significant project will require 20 percent of a Green Belts time and 10 percent of one or more Yellow Belts time. While these figures are based on experience, they, of course, can vary by project.

Appropriate Scope - Many problems are not appropriate targets for Six Sigma - not every project is a Six Sigma project. If the problem is local and can be resolved by assigning a skilled resource (e.g., improve response time of a specific system), it is not a Six Sigma project, it is a Lean or a “Just do it” project. Problems appropriate for Six Sigma are: recurring, important to the organization, those for which the solution is not obvious, and those that are capable of being scoped to enable demonstration (pilot) of a solution in a four- to six-month time frame.

There is a Problem (or Opportunity) with an Existing Process – Six Sigma’s DMAIC process is about addressing existing deficiencies within a process at any scale. DMAIC is not for assessing a new process design. This assessment of a new process design is reserved for a methodology called DFSS (Design for Six Sigma).

Credits:

Parts of this White Paper is summarized from a post on isixsigma.com by Gary A. Gack. The post can be found at: (http://www.isixsigma.com/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=758&Itemid=1&Itemid=1)

Additional Comments by:
Kevin Clay, Instructor and Consultant for SixSigma.us
kevin.clay@6sigma.us

Project Closure and Y=f(x1,x2,x3...xN) ....

2011-01-17T10:11:00.000-08:00

Have you ever head the saying that the "the Cobbler's children have no shoes"? Sometimes you get so caught up in teaching the Lean and Six Sigma methodology that you forget that the methodology can improve the outcome of what you teach. It is no myth that the most difficult "output" of any Lean and Six Sigma Implementation is actual consistent project closure. We tend to "get the train going" with the training of new Green Belts, Black Belts, and Champions and then let them loose to "Slay Dragon's" ... often times with weapons that they don't know how to use.

As MBB's, we teach the methodology and help to implement, but we often fall into the trap that many college professors fall into ... WE have a deep intimate knowledge of what we are teaching, and we expect (often subconciously) our budding belts to fill in the blanks. We expect the potential belts to ask questions, but alot of times they get so much information that they don't even know how to formulate the questions. This "input" leads to students that go back to work and either consistently communicate with me or SSDSI's other MBB's to "fill in the blanks" and complete the projects ... or they go back to work and revert back to their "reactive" modes and the project is pushed off indefinitely. Thus, project closure becomes an issue.

Being a Lean and Six Sigma practitioner, I have developed an informal Six Sigma project from this "opportunity". My "Y" is project closure rate. My "X's" include many aspects of each belt curriculum, tools, and project structure information. What i have found so far is really a "no brainer" ... Belt students want education but need structure. I took the Voine of the Customer, and they said "we need help getting started". I have added that structure into my RESOURCES page in the form of a Six Sigma Green Belt Project Progression (Flow Chart) and Tollgate Reveiws for each of the DMAIC process. The flow chart helps the student to undertand the basic flow of a project. The Tollgate reviews are the "rubrics" by which each of the phases are assessed before moving on to the next phase. This structure ("input") has led to a marked increase in project closure ("output").

If you want to learn more, contact me at kclay@sixsigmadsi.com or call 479-739-4940. Check out my other blogs at http://www.sixsigmadsi.com/.

Lean Adventures in the Shenandoah Valley...

2010-10-22T17:25:00.000-07:00

This week I was in the Shenandoah Valley, in Virginia at a Client teaching a Lean course. It was a great week! The weather was great! The leaves are in the midst of changing to Red and Gold.
Part of my requirement this week for the Lean course was to help the company define a new direction that will help them tranform their company. The comment that i heard from the class was "we have so many problems that we do jot know where to start" like filling a teacup with a firehose. We began with a lesson on developing a Value Stream Map of their high volume product (the biggest bang for the buck"). This told us that they spent less than one percent of their time in production actually adding value to their customer. Next we learned about Flow and Pull (amongst other lean tools) and how these concepts can greatly increase the value that is added to the customer and reduce the leadtime to produce their product. The end result of a 4 day course was the plan to implement a Pull System on their major product line which will reduce the leadtime to their customer from 10 days to 5 days (only because of shipping constraints).

It is the most gratifying thing in this world to see a student when the light turns on and they "get it". In this case "getting it" is an annual multi million dollar savings.

If you want to learn more, contact me at kclay@sixsigmadsi.com or call 479-739-4940. Check out my other blogs at http://www.sixsigmadsi.com/.

Explaining Six Sigma? ... "Controlling the Inputs" ...

2010-09-26T13:19:00.000-07:00

In my Lean and Six Sigma courses I teach the concept of Six Sigma with a story that helps my students to easily understand the concept. I tell them a story of a football coach that is evaluating five kickers as field goal kickers for an upcoming game. He has a GPS solution that tells him exactly where the ball crosses the field goal. He gives each of his kickers 100 chances to kick the ball through the field goal from the center of the field at 35 yards back. His first four kickers take their turns. Each kickers kicks all 100 balls between the uprights, but all four kickers were "all over the place", meaning that they never consistently crossed the goal post at the same point. The fifth kicker also kicks all 100 through the uprights but he consistenly "splits" the uprights.

I then ask the class, "Who are you going to choose when it comes time to kick a field goal during the game?". Most will choose the fifth kicker. Why? ... because he is more consistent. The fifth kicker will be more predictable because he has learned to have better control over the critical inputs when kicking the ball. If you were to film all 100 kicks that the fifth kicker made, you would see little variation in his kicking method which leads to little variation in his output, which is the ball "splitting the uprights".

This is a good segway into the discussion of the Normal Curve and how the Capability of the fifth kicker is more optimal that that of the other four.

If you want to learn more, contact me at kclay@sixsigmadsi.com or call 479-739-4940. Check out my other blogs at http://www.sixsigmadsi.com/.

It's off to another week of "fun in the sun" in San Diego...

2010-05-16T09:39:00.001-07:00

It's off to another week of "fun in the sun" in San Diego. This week i am teaching a Lean Agent course to a class of 13.

There is a great article on isixsigma.com about the "Use of Theory of Constraints to Better Focus Lean Six Sigma Efforts"

2010-04-28T10:32:00.001-07:00

There is a great article on isixsigma.com about the "Use of Theory of Constraints to Better Focus Lean Six Sigma Efforts" http://ping.fm/cXDTP

Simple Hypothsis Testing Roadmap in Lean Six Sigma ...

2010-04-21T14:43:00.000-07:00

I was teaching a Black Belt course in Washington, DC and i was asked to simplify the basic roadmap in a Hypothesis Test. In the example below, we are testing whether there is a correlation between two variables.
Example:

1. What is the practical question?
- Does an increase in tire pressure cause an increase in tread wear?

2. What is the X?
- Tire Pressure

3. What is the Y? (What am i measuring)
- Tread Wear

4. State the Null (Ho) and Alternative (Ha) Hypothesis
Note* in this example we are using Correlation: the Null Hypothesis is "r=0' (or there is no correlation)

- Null Hypothesis (Ho) = There is no relationship between tire pressure and tread wear
- Alt Hypothesis (Ha) = There is a relationship between tire pressure and tread wear

2. Gather data, Run the analysis and determine the P-Value

- Run a Corellation (the following metrics are an example of the outcome):
- r=.554, p-Value = .0228

3. Determine the Alpha Risk (100% - Confidence Interval)
- In this case the Confidence Interval was 95%, therefore the Alpha Risk is 5% (or 0.05)

5. What does the P-Value tell me ... (Reject or Accept the Null)
- Remember the saying: If P is low, then the "HO" must go! If P is high then keep the guy!
- (Remember that "P" is dependant on the Confidence Interval)

5. In this case we ....
- Reject the Null (because the P-Value (.0228) is lower than the Alpha Risk (0.05))

If you want to learn more, contact me at kclay@sixsigmadsi.com or call 479-739-4940. Check out my other blogs at http://www.sixsigmadsi.com/.

Lean and Six Sigma Story at Subway

2010-01-23T16:25:00.000-08:00

I’m going to tell you a story that illustrates how Lean Thinking and Six Sigma Thinking both play an integral roll in my everyday life … which is a blessing and a curse ;) I was teaching a Lean Six Sigma Green Belt course in Atlanta. We were having a great class and everyone was engaged. I had worked up quite an appetite because I tend to be very animated and move around during class. Lunch time came and a few of the students and I went to the local Subway to eat. We weren’t the only ones with the idea. This was an industrial area, and this Subway was a local favorite. When we arrived, there were about nine people in line. While standing in line I watched the typical dance of the two Subway sandwich artisans. One was at the register, and the other was preparing the sandwiches. I noticed that most of the patrons wanted their subs toasted, which is also my preference. While watching the young man prepping the subs, I saw that that he put the sub in the toaster, and stood and waited the 30 seconds that it took sub to toast. He then pulled it out and continued to engineer the sandwich which took another 30 to 40 seconds. This infuriated me! We could potentially wait in line for 10 minutes. Along, with the ten minutes it took to get here, I could potentially have 30 minutes to eat and call my bride. And the worst thing was, no one seemed to notice the unneeded delay.

In my lean and six sigma class, we discuss how to reduce cycle time in a process. In most cases a customer would be more satisfied if he were to get the product or service more quickly. In my case, the Subway scenario was no different. We teach the concept of serial vs. parallel events. Serial events happen one after another … when one process stops, the next one starts. In my teaching and consulting experience, I have found that many systems that are dominated with serial events, could look more into those events because they most could happen in parallel with another. Take for example, the young man toasting the subs. He had two serial events going on within the sandwich making process, toasting and adding the condiments. He did not add the condiments until the sandwich had been toasted. Could this have been done in parallel? Sure! He could have staggered the “sandwich engineering” of the previous patron, while the sub of the next patron was toasting thus reducing the time to create the sub. I have since learned that this is the process that Subway uses, and what I witnessed was due to inexperience.

This experience made for a good discussion in class, so I thought I would share it with the world.

If you want to learn more, contact me at kclay@sixsigmadsi.com or call 479-739-4940. Check out my other blogs at http://www.sixsigmadsi.com/.

Part 2: Implementing TLS (Theory of Constraints, Lean, and Six Sigma)

2010-01-23T16:23:00.000-08:00

I am flying back from teaching a Green Belt course in Las Angeles, California and as promised, I will continue my “journal” of TLS implementation efforts at an industrial organization.

In the last blog, we discussed how this organization was using the metric of “Yield” to score their production process success. We discussed that this metric only shows you what happens at the end of their process, and doesn’t give visibility to the success of the many internal steps. In order to implement TLS, we needed to have a better way to look at our process systemically. We also needed to have a way of determining where our constraints are. Following the “Lean” methodology, we decided to use O.E.E.(Overall Equipment Effectiveness) as a primary facility metric. We had an overall “Plant” OEE, and we had OEE’s per line and per product. OEE would give us visibility to how we were performing with respect to Performance (Ratio of Daily production to effective capacity), Quality (the number of Good vs. Bad product), and Availability (ratio of used production time to available production time). We also needed to take data on each of the critical steps in each line to understand where our constraints or bottlenecks were. We defined six critical points that were common to each line (because the lines were almost replicates of each other).

Our plan at the moment is to define each critical point in the lines in a metric and describe throughput (with a common denominator) of each point. We will track the throughput on a continual basis. This will tell us our constraint, and we will set our process TAKT time to the constraint. We know what our goal TAKT time is … but we cannot set our process TAKT time to produce more than our constraint. Therefore, if our process TAKT time does not meet our goal TAKT time, then we use Lean and Six Sigma tools to cross the chasm. In my next blog, I will talk more about our Implementation progression and about the synergy between the three methodologies that make up TLS (Theory of Constraints, Lean and Six Sigma). I will also give more information on TAKT time to those who have not heard of the concept.

“Until the next thought”

Lean and Six Sigma Project Selection for the Un-employed ...

2010-01-17T20:33:00.000-08:00

I teach Lean and Six Sigma classes all over the U.S. (as well as abroad) and a good number of the students that I teach aren’t from an organization. These students are unemployed and looking for a “resume booster”. Most of them are somewhat fearful of making the investment in a Lean and/or Six Sigma certification because they cannot “wrap their heads around” how they are going to take on a cost savings project when they do not presently work for an organization. Well, let’s explore this quandary …

There are many organizations struggling in the U.S., especially now in the economic “downturn” that need help. There are many Small to mid size for profit organizations that presently do not have the means to hire a consultant. I ask my students if they know of any of these companies, and I always get a resounding “yes”. I ask them “what is the worst they can tell you when you offer a “pro bono” Lean and/or Six Sigma project to help them improve?”.

There are many non-profit organizations that are struggling to serve their communities because they do not have the talent to “streamline” processes. I ask my students, “is there a food bank in the area?” This is a perfect place for a project.

The one place I always bring up as a source for potential projects are students local churches, or other places of worship. What better organization to improve! I have had some great projects that helped to improve the operations and financial means of student’s local churches.

Remember, Lean and Six Sigma are not just for employees, but they are for anyone who can look at any process systemically and see that it can be improved.

“Until the next thought …”

Kevin Clay
479-739-4940
kclay@sixsigmadsi.com
http://www.sixsigmadsi.com/

TLS (Theory of Constraints (TOC), Lean, and Six Sigma) Implementation Story

2010-01-17T20:27:00.000-08:00

I’ve been remiss in my promise to start a blog about the emerging quality methodology, TLS (the Synergy between Theory of Constraints (T), Lean (L), and Six Sigma (S). A very busy pre-holiday, and a fun filled family holiday commanded most of my time. I am happy to say it is a new year and my promise is to share my limited (but growing) knowledge of this new grass-roots methodology.

A couple of weeks ago, I got a call from a company that I consulted with and trained their employees in an effort towards implementing the Lean and Six Sigma methodology around three years ago. At that time, they had a very engrained culture which ended up being stronger than the will to change of a few key people. I was recently called by a good friend in the company who had been moved into the operational side of the organization as a plant manager. We had a long lunch together where I learned that his job was to make his plant the benchmark for all other production facilities to emulate. During lunch, he asked if I would help him and his team in the efforts. He talked in length about what was going on in his facility, and listened intently. At the end of his rant, I asked him if he had heard of TLS. Our lunch started around 11:30 am and ended around three … by the end of lunch, my friend was excited to get started.

This company, like many other companies uses a KPI (Key Performance Indicator) that only shows them what their cumulative efforts of the day produced. In this case it was “Yield” … what they initially put into the system, and what was produced out of the end. This metric does not give you a systemic view of why you do not perform as expected. All the steps in between the beginning and the end are hidden. So, like many companies, this one tweaks the system when things do not go as expected, but their tweaks are based on a SWAG (Scientific Wild A!! Guess), not quantifiable data. This had a negative effect on their yield daily.

During the next week, my friend (the plant manager), we’ll call him Steve, met daily to develop a TLS strategy. During, my next blog (I will write that blog on the way back from LA on Friday (1/22/2010), we’ll discuss in detail the strategy that will be used in the hopeful transformation. In the next sequence of blogs on this subject, I suspect I will talk in length about the missing link to the Lean and Six Sigma puzzle, The Theory of Constraints (TOC) and how TOC help to define project focus.

“Until the next thought …”

Kevin Clay
479-739-4940
kclay@sixsigmadsi.com
http://www.sixsigmadsi.com/

Lean and Six Sigma “Quick Wins” … A slippery slope!

2009-10-01T10:11:00.000-07:00

I was teaching a Lean Six Sigma Green Belt course in Atlanta, Georgia and I had a good question about “Quick Wins” and how to define the term. We teach that in each phase of the DMAIC we will find these “Quick Wins”. These wins are a great tool to sustain excitement and support for the Lean Six Sigma project! If I go four to six months until I show improvement, I’m likely to lose support. If I show sustained improvements in small (and sometimes large) wins throughout the life of the project, then the level of excitement (and consequently support) is sustained.
The term “Quick Wins” is open to interpretation. I have sat on many teams that term every opportunity (some call problems) that they see in a process as a “Quick Win”. This is because it is innate in us to want to “solve the problem now” because we are sure that we have the solution and it doesn’t need to be analyzed further. What we may not have defined yet may be the interdependencies in the inputs in the process. My experience especially with new Six Sigma team that come from a Lean background is that determining significant inputs by analyzing metrics through multi-vari analysis and/or Design of Experiments (DOE) scares the “bejeezus” out of a lot of people! It is a lot easier to make a judgment call, point at what you think is the target and hope that you hit it.

But I digress. Defining “Quick Wins” was the question that was posed. How do I define what is considered a quick win? My definition is based in one sense on already accepted best practices that have been analyzed and risk managed. I find that in most of my Lean and Six Sigma projects that accepted standards are not controlled therefore they are not followed. They are effective improvements that do not need to be reinvented in our Lean and/or Six Sigma project. They just need to be controlled.

Another definition is a more loose definition. A quick win can be defined as any “common sense” fix. In this case we intimately understand how the “X” will affect the “Y”. This can be the “Slippery Slope” because the level of “common sense” is left up to interpretation. My control for this is to run a quick D-FMEA in order to risk manage even the “quick wins”.

I will continue to bring you more gems of knowledge from myself and my students as the months progress.

Don’t forget to look at our online and classroom training destination events at www.sixsigmadsi.com.

Regards,
“Until the next thought …”
Kevin Clay
479-739-4940
kclay@sixsigmadsi.com
http://www.sixsigmadsi.com/