Page 96 - Six Sigma Demystified

Chapter 4 DEF INE STAGE 77

• Outstanding items. Past- dated action issues.
• Roadblocks. Issues that are stalling the project, for which an immediate
action item cannot be assigned.
• Conclusions. Findings from each stage of DMAIC, supported with data in
their analyzed form.
Communication helps to reduce future problems: When sponsors and stake-
holders see progress as it occurs, they understand the direction of the project
and can see natural solutions to issues. Reducing surprises is important because
surprises create confusion and roadblocks, which can slow down or perma-
nently stall a project.

Project conclusion

At the end of the project, in the control stage, the financial benefits are con-
firmed by the accounting or finance department. The project sponsor approves
the findings and its control strategy. This control plan provides a monitoring
scheme for tracking the financial and operational benefits gained and the
process- level metrics associated with the project deliverables.
It is also important in this stage to document the “lessons learned” during the
project cycle. These often provide valuable input to future projects or to the
master black belt responsible for the Six Sigma program deployment. These
issues are discussed in further detail in Chapter 8.

Top- Level Process Definition

There are several useful tools available for defining the as- is process:

• Flowcharts historically have been the preferred tool for documenting pro-
cess activities. The graphic approach is appealing to operational personnel,
who may find reading text in paragraph form laborious. The simple
branching scheme of flowcharts easily highlights process complexities.
• Process maps have become the preferred choice recently for documenting
process activities because they provide an additional level of detail (be-
yond the flowchart) to indicate functional responsibilities for each process
step. An example top- level process map is shown in Figure 4.4.
• SIPOC analysis is a tool for identifying the process inputs, outputs, and
stakeholders. It is particularly useful at this stage to ensure that all the