Six sigma is a business improvement philosophy that started as a metric or methodology. Six Sigma drive strategic change in an organization. It is important for operation as it can be used to increase top-line growth and reduce bottom line costs.
For project managers, it make sense to learn about process improving through the application of Six Sigma tools and methods. The disciplines of Six Sigma and Project Management are very similar and complementary.
Following are some similarities between Six Sigma and Project Management:
- Use of projects as the avenue for improvement.
- Utilization of established project management techniques to effectively manage a project and project teams.
- Necessity of actively involved and proactive project sponsors or champions to help ensure project success.
- Life cycle and phases.
- Need for a well-trained project facilitator to lead the effort.
In addition to the above Six Sigma add additional dimensions to project management such as:
- Powerful set of process improvement steps and tools.
- Statistical and process thinking, to understand and improve results.
- Understanding of variation, to reduce knee-jerk reactions.
- Quantitative analysis, to base decisions on facts and data.
Six Sigma projects are tightly linked to customer demands and enterprise strategy. The efficacy of Six Sigma projects is greatly improved by combining project management and process improvement practices.
The Six Sigma uses the DMAIC methodology (Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, and Control), which can be applied to any process in any industry. The Six Sigma 5 phases match up well with the established project management phases as shown below.
The five phases of Six Sigma are:
- Define
This step involves extensive planning and scoping to setup the project correctly. The project manager (champion in Six Sigma world) develop the project charter, which include the project sponsor, team members, objective and business case, including the project start and end date. In this stage the key measures are agreed on and high level process map and detailed project plan is formulated.
- Measure
Process decision must be based on accurate data and not guesses or inaccurate data, in this validation of the measurement system and data are done, including the measurement of the GAP analysis. Further probing might be required to insure the measurement systems are sound and accurate.
- Analyze
In this stage the data gathered are analyzed using different statistical tools, to look into improvement paths through the key metric. Note that the team didn’t do any change or improvement by this stage, but trying to understand the problem of underlying processes and root causes. This will provide the team a path to follow.
- Improve
The improve step verifies and validates recommendations and demonstrates, with data and charts, sustained improvement before final process changes are implemented.
- Control
After verifying the improvement, the new process is handed over to the process offer, similar to the closure phase of project management, in the DMAIC approach, the team closes down the project and handover to the owner. The essence of control is to provide long-term gains.
Incorporating the DMAIC of Six Sigma into projects, can help project managers to become more effective and lead them to breakthrough results.
Sources:
http://www.microsoft.com/project/en/gb/six-sigma.aspx
Lean Six Sigma – Green Belt (GARMCO book)
http://six-sigma-materials.com
When I first heard about Six Sigma in class, it sounded like something much more complicated than this. Going through your post made me realize the whole point of Six Sigma is in fact to simplify tasks and procedures. Coming from an IT background, I can see that incorporating the DMAIC phases into my daily routine can help me do my job better. When practiced correctly, it can also produce positive results for the company I work for.
I do have one question however: If a company is not currently practicing/promoting Six Sigma, is it of much use for an individual like myself to learn and implement Six Sigma (on an individual basis)?
Six sigma champion responsibility is to execute six sigma projects, hence I think its important to have the company support at end of the day to execute those projects. But to answer your question, I would say yes because you will learn the methods and a systematic approach into solving those problems where you will be able to combine them with what we learn in the Project management class.
I would recommend you looking into “lean six sigma” which I have done. It combines lean manufacturing methodology with six sigma, where I found lean manufacturing more useful on an individual level because you learn the concept of being lean and eliminating Waste!
Thank you for this great Blog post. To be totally honest I was not aware of Six Sigma before my MBA program, as in our field of work (financial sector) we do not use this method accordingly. However, I found this post interesting as I personally think by implementing Six Sigma a company could achieve competitive advantage. Another benefit would be that it would improve quality of product and services in the long run.
Thank you for this post about Six Sigma. Coming from a manufacturing and production field (Aluminium Bahrain B.S.C), Six Sigma is a big part of our organization. Our operational excellence department consists of 6 black belts and one master black belt. The department is mainly responsible of maximizing the organization’s efforts toward delivering a satisfactory product to our customers; also it allocates recourses to certain projects which are responsible of growing the business further. Your explanation above is very clear which defines the basic method of using Six Sigma in a company to have a sustainable competitive advantage over its competitors.
I have to say that this is a great post that got my attention. Coming from an engineering background and working at an construction field; this is highly beneficial for me to learn to implement in order to help me in the long run in my life because it will enhance and help me serve a better quality and services to our clients.
thanks for your post I found it very usefull and intersting.
Six sigma is very important in the construction field which im working in, its guide the trck of controling and improving of the projects.
Thanks Khalid for your post.
I believe the topic is very important as my organization is providing six sigma green belt for many employees.
as I believe Nowadays, the business environments and situations are getting more constrained and reaching towards perfect competitions.
Governments are trying to keep more rules and regulations to avoid any drop in the economy.
if all the organizations followed the six sigma, they would make big impact and difference in the business organizations.
Thank you for this post, I was actually not aware what six sigma was before as I thought it was just an HR tool. I now have a better understanding as it seems simpler than it sounds. The only comment I have is if its worth implementing in small or medium sized companies that have been running and smoothly operational for a long time without six sigma.