Page 215 - Lean six sigma demystified

Chapter 5 Redu C ing d efe C t S with Six Sigm a 193

3. And measurement can help keep customers, suppliers, and leaders
informed of your progress.
Are you collecting measurements that aren’t really useful for any one of
these three purposes? Do you really need them? Is some other measurement
used in their place? (20% of the measurements cover 80% of your needs.)
First, start systematically suspending measurements that are questionable.
Then, if anyone comes out of the woodwork to complain about missing the
information, ask, How are they using the information? Would some other mea-
surement serve them better? Second, if a suspended measurement isn’t resur-
rected in two or three months, kill it. Third, start looking for the “vital few”
measurements of “failure” that everyone relies on to make improvements and
informed decisions. In any business these are invariably defects, delay, and cost.
You’ll also need measurements of success: profit, ROI, and so forth.
Here are four basic steps to create your own process measures.

1. Define what results are important to you and the business.
2. Map the cross-functional process used to deliver these results.
3. Identify the critical tasks and capabilities required to complete the process
successfully.
4. Design measures that track those tasks and capabilities.

What are the most common measurement mistakes?
1. Piles of numbers. Use the balanced scorecard (QI Macros template) to
identify the vital few.
2. Inaccurate, late, or unreliable data. If it isn’t collected systematically and
automatically in real time, it’s often suspect.

3. Trying to meet a target instead of trying to understand the process.

4. One size fits all: Trying to use too broad or too specific a measurement.
5. Gauge blindness: Trusting the measurement even when there is evidence
to the contrary (e.g., a sticky gas gauge can leave you stranded.).
6. Micrometer versus yardstick. Precisely measuring unimportant things
without imprecisely measuring the important ones.
7. Punishing the people instead of fixing the process. Use your data to learn
something and make things better.
Simplify and streamline your measurement system to keep the important stuff
and to abandon the unimportant stuff. You’ll be surprised how much unimportant