Page 35 - Six Sigma Demystified

16 Six SigMa DemystifieD

is covered in more detail in Chapters 4 through 8. Part 3 of this book addresses
the specific tools referenced in each stage of DMAIC.
Project sponsorship ensures that projects will not be authorized or funded if
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they fail to provide bottom- ine benefits or are too broadly scoped to be achiev-
able in an agreed- on timetable. The sponsor provides the functional authority
to break organizational roadblocks and works with other sponsors within the
managerial ranks to coordinate projects with overall business needs.
Business projects are championed at the top level of the organization. They
concentrate on vital aspects of business success, such as market share, viability,
profitability, employee retention, and so on. They may involve purchasing or
selling business units or ways to attract or maintain customer base. Because of
the scope of business- level projects, the time scale is measured in years rather
than months. Some business- level projects may take three to five years to cycle
through the Six Sigma process (Harry and Schroeder, 2000), whereas others are
completed in less than a year.
As projects are deployed, decisions need to reflect the data. Where data do
not exist, sponsors need to motivate the project team to acquire sufficient data
to justify decisions made at each stage of DMAIC by asking the right questions.
For example: Is the project defined for the correct problems? Does the project
attack the root cause or just the symptom? Are the best metrics used to gauge
project success? Have the data been analyzed properly? Is the improvement
plan sustainable?
Business success will be more closely aligned with project success when
management consistently integrates this way of thinking into its daily decisions.
Rather than reacting to the crisis of the day, management should understand
the differences between common and special causes of variation and react

accordingly. Financial incentives to sales or production should be based on met-
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rics encouraging ong- term customer satisfaction, business growth, and viability.
For example, yield estimates that ignore the hidden costs of rework or customer
returns provide poor incentive for production to satisfy external customer
needs or longer- term viability.
There is a wealth of information available to management on which to base
decision making. Six Sigma projects deployed at the organizational level can be
used to define, collect, and synthesize the data necessary for proper decision
making.

• Reliable customer data provide the distinction between internal perceptions
and actual customer needs. There may be a disconnect between internal