Saturday, March 29, 2014


A Committed Champion Is Absolutely Vital Foundation for Project Success

      The other day, I was reminded again how important it is to have a committed champion to your project.  Not just involved but committed.  Many years ago, a quality/six sigma mentor compared the difference between involvement and commitment with a bacon & egg breakfast analogy.  He noted for that breakfast, the chicken was involved but the pig was committed.

      I’m sure everyone knows the key responsibilities a six sigma, or other type of improvement project, champion needs to have.  All are important but two keys from my past experience are to provide political cover and remove organizational roadblocks.  Organizational experience and savvy play a huge role here.  One or more members of the organization who are happy with the status quo may, correctly or incorrectly, perceive they are going to lose power and influence with the change and will dump as many barrels of molasses in front of the team as they can.

      While you cannot always ‘choose’ your champion, you need to provide him or her with proper care and feeding.  Frequently your champion will be very busy but find the time and medium to communicate, then communicate, and finally communicate some more.  Remember the basics of preferred communication styles.  And above all else, whenever something escalates during the project, get a heads-up to him or her immediately.  There’s an old adage to ‘never surprise the boss’.  It applies to project champions too.

      So take care of your champion.  You have enough challenges with the internal aspects of your project.  The champion will assist with the external aspects which can undermine the project.  Do whatever it takes to keep your champion committed.  It is essential.

Sunday, March 16, 2014


Understanding Probability is a Key Foundational Element for Six Sigma Statistics

      When I took my first two statistics classes as an undergraduate, I enjoyed both but never completely mastered the basics as well as I should have.  I memorized how to apply the various formulas for appropriate situations, did dozens and dozens of practice problems, and got through both classes by rote.  It wasn’t until years later when I took applied, inferential statistics training as part of my quality assurance duties, I realized where I dropped the ball the first time.  I never REALLY learned AND understood the basics of probability.
      Probability is a core foundational element of inferential statistics.  Some examples are probability distributions, confidence intervals, and that always challenging concept for new belts to master called hypothesis testing. I can’t think of an area where it doesn’t come into play. 

      I’m not going to go over all of them but one concept which is important for ‘statistical thinking’ is that of MECE or mutually exclusive, collectively exhaustive.  When two events are mutually exclusive, they both cannot occur at the same time.  If you add in collectively exhaustive, where the two events consider all possible outcomes, you have formulated an all-encompassing hypothesis.  Very powerful.

      If you are working with Yellow Belts, Green Belts, and even Black Belts who struggle with hypothesis testing and other similar concepts, recommend they go back and learn probability.  They should take whatever time and practice is necessary.  I’m very confident if they do, some of the fog around six sigma statistics will lift and the bright light of understanding will come shining through.

Saturday, March 1, 2014


Practical Process Improvement: Is Doesn’t Have to Be a Manhattan Project

Many years ago when I worked for a Fortune 500 publishing company, I got into a six sigma discussion with one of our contractors.  His firm was much smaller and this individual had a few decades of ‘in the trenches’ experience in operations.  The conversation continued until one point where he said six sigma is a good idea but like too many other initiatives he had been through, we would turn it  into another ‘Manhattan Project’ which wasn’t necessary for the situation.

After many years’ experience, I tend agree with his assessment at times.  There’s an old saying that when you give someone a hammer, everything looks like a nail.  Many of us trained and experienced with the application of six sigma take the same approach as someone with that hammer.  We treat every process improvement opportunity as a situation which requires a full blown six sigma project with complete treatment of DMAIC.  That isn’t always necessary.

A situational, scaled approach is better.  Long before six sigma, quality professional used the Shewhart/Deming ‘Plan/Do/Check (or Study)/Act’ improvement cycle approach to problem solving.  You remember that don’t you?  Baseline performance at the plan step and test those ideas at the do step.  At the check step, compare performance before and after, then if successful, act to standardize performance.  Deceptively simple but from my experience very effective.

Six Sigma’s DMAIC framework is appropriate for many process improvement projects but not all.  A more basic approach can do wonders in the right circumstances.  Remember you don’t have to take a bazooka to an anthill.