Page 13 - The Six Sigma Project Planner

Introduction

One day, several years ago, I received a call from a colleague who was organizing a
conference on quality improvement in the healthcare industry. He asked if I could
help him find a speaker who had successfully completed an improvement project
involving healthcare processes. I had just begun consulting for an integrated
healthcare organization that had been pursuing TQM for a number of months, so I
called the Manager of Continuous Improvement and asked her. “No problem,” she
said. “We have over 50 projects in the works, and some have been underway for
several months. I’m sure that we can find one to showcase at the conference.”

She was wrong. Not a single project had produced tangible results. The organization
had top-level commitment, the resources had been allocated and spent, people had
been trained, teams were in place and empowered, but nothing had come from all of
the effort. Research has shown that this situation is not uncommon with TQM
deployments. Is it any wonder that TQM fell out of favor with the business
community?
Six Sigma is different. It demands results. These results are delivered by projects that
are tightly linked to customer demands and enterprise strategy. The Six Sigma Project
Planner is designed to help the serious Six Sigma organization choose and complete
projects that pay off. The Planner is designed specifically for use with Six Sigma
projects. It integrates the project management body of knowledge as defined by the
Project Management Institute and the Define-Measure-Analyze-Improve-Control
(DMAIC) Six Sigma format for process improvement projects. It combines project
management and business process improvement in a way that greatly improves the
chances for success.

How to Use The Six Sigma Project Planner
The Six Sigma Project Planner is designed to implement the Project Planning and
DMAIC phases of the process shown in Figure 1. It also addresses some issues
encountered in the post-project phase. The assumption is that the enterprise has
completed the project selection phase and that Six Sigma Green Belts and Black Belts
are choosing their projects from a portfolio of project candidates approved by Senior
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Leadership. The Planner is not a textbook on Six Sigma tools and techniques. It is
assumed that the user of the Planner has been through the appropriate training class
for his or her role in the project. For example, the project Black Belt will have
received training as a Black Belt and knows what is meant when the Planner tells him
or her to perform a gauge R&R study. For the trained individual, the Planner
provides direction on when a particular Six Sigma tool or technique should be
employed, assuming that the project team includes personnel who understand the
tools. It also provides numerous worksheets and summary pages to implement the
tools effectively.

1
The process of developing a portfolio of projects driven by customers and enterprise strategy is
treated in depth in Chapters 3 and 6 of The Six Sigma Handbook.
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