"Do Teams and Six Sigma Go Together?"
Quality Progress
June 2003, pp. 25-28
In a study of organizations that have used teams to implement Six Sigma, the participants reported that the most important lesson they have learned was to "determine who the stakeholders are for a project and ask them for their input on how to improve the process."
Other lessons learned, broken down by category, are:
Senior Management
- Senior managers must believe in the Six Sigma philosophy and fully support it
- Senior managers must participate in the project
- Senior managers' day-to-day activities must show they support Six Sigma, and they must be actively involved in implementation
Communication
- Use every means possible to communicate on an ongoing basis
- Make sure the employees understand the purpose of the project and how it relates to their world
- The entire organization must understand what Six Sigma is and is not
- Communicate and advertise your work
- Frequent communication makes employees feel part of the change or project and limits their fear of participating or losing their jobs
Teams and Team Members
- Align the Six Sigma project to the vision, mission and values of the organization before initiating training
- Pick the best people to lead the project
- You need cross-functional representation when developing solutions for process improvements to make sure you are truly capturing the process and the voice of the customer
- Choose team members who understand the process and the project
- Teams are the key to gathering data, analyzing the results, and staying connected to the people on the front line
- Recognize and reward major contributors
- Invest in teaching principles and tools before a project is assigned
Metrics
- Clearly define your defects and metrics
- Results are more important than fancy documentation
- Use good metrics to ensure a successful deployment and positive impact on the business objective
- Make process management a building block of Six Sigma deployment
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