Lean Sigma Overview and its Significance to Project Management

1. Lean Sigma Overview and its Significance to Project Management Harjit Singh, PMP harjitsinghpmp@gmail.com

2. Agenda • Introduction • Tools • Training and Certification • Training • Improvement Model • Lean Sigma vs. PM • Methodology • Q&A

3. Lean Six Sigma • Six Sigma • Business management strategy developed by Motorola in 1981 • An approach to improve the process quality by identifying and removing the causes of defects and minimizing variation in the processes • 99.99966% defects free • Bell shaped normal distribution (µ – LSL/USL = 6Ϭ) • DMAIC/DMADV project methodologies based on PDSA or PDCA cycles • Lean • Eliminate waste

4. Lean Sigma Tools • 5 whys • Process maps • Cause & effect or fishbone or Ishikawa diagram • Control charts • Correlation • Cost-benefits analysis • Histograms • Pareto charts • Regression analysis • Root cause analysis • Run charts • SIPOC chart

5. Certifications • Green belt • Black belt • Yellow belt • (Both green belt and black belt certifications are offered by the Institute of Industrial Engineers (http://www.iienet2.org/Default.aspx) and by the American Society for Quality (http://asq.org/ ) ) • Green belt and black belt are most common certifications

6. Training • How? • Companies in-house training program • Private providers • IIE/ASQ • Why? • Team development and facilitation skills • Running effective projects • Utilizing PDSA structured improvement model • Choosing appropriate quality tools • Who? • Individuals who manage teams or projects

7. Certification Process • http://www.iienet2.org/IIETrainingCenter/Details.aspx?grp=ICP • http://asq.org/certification/index.html • Individual company’s training department • May require to complete an improvement project

8. Guidelines for a Successful Improvement Project • Alignment with organization’s business plans or priorities • Sponsorship • Importance to organization’s leadership. For example: • Customers are experiencing problems with projects or services • There is a need to improve productivity or reduce costs while maintaining or improving quality • There is a need to increase sales by exceeding current customer expectations and capturing market share • Unknown solution that requires learning and testing prior to implementation • Feasibility of key measures of success • Availability of baseline data • Business impact (customer satisfaction, cost savings or revenue increases) • Within scope

9. DATA The Model for Improvement Learning / Action Cycles Improvement Implementation Wide-scale tests Small scale tests Hypothesis and ideas Supported by: Lean Sigma Methods and Tools

10. Three Fundamental Questions • What are we trying to achieve? • Understand the problem. Know what you are trying to achieve. Have clear and desirable aims and objectives • How will we know that a change is an improvement? • Measure processes and outcomes • What changes can we make that will result in an improvement? • What challenges do we have? What can be learn as we go along and how?

11. PDSA

12. Lean Sigma with Project Mgmt • Project Management deals with projects for which the solution is already known • Green/black belt deals with projects for which solution is not known • Powerful combination • Lean PM

13. Technical Lean Sigma Tools and PM • Initiate • Charter, 5 whys, cause & effect, pareto • Plan • Value stream map, 5 whys, fishbone • Execute • Workflow, control plans • Manage & Control • Balance scorecard, control plans • Close • Update strategy, prioritize next improvement plan

14. Social Lean Sigma Tools and PM • Initiate • Brainstorming, cause & effect, case for change • Plan • Brainstorming, interview/survey, team building • Execute • Status meetings, organizational effects • Manage & Control • Skip level meetings, balanced scorecard • Close • Celebrate lessons learned, rewards/recognition

15. References • HP Lean Sigma • Quality Digest: http://www.qualitydigest.com • Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six_Sigma

16. Wrap Up