Are You Making These Mistakes With Your Six Sigma Projects?

Six Sigma principles provide high value and success to organizations that use them; but only if the implementation is well-planned. A cleverly laid Six Sigma implementation can lead to a rewarding experience and amazing benefits for the organization. Conversely, a deployment with flaws can bring up disappointing results. There are certain drawbacks seen with Six Sigma implementation when it is not done the right way. Below mentioned are the most common mistakes seen that result in significant wastage of time and resources; thus leading to failure of the entire effort of implementing Six Sigma. So, make sure you avoid them and keep your team on track.

Wrong leadership

One of the main reasons for a Six Sigma project to be successful is effective leadership. It is very important to have leaders, and that too the “right” leaders. Six Sigma projects need to be led by experienced professionals with a Six Sigmacertification in India. The Six Sigma leader has the responsibility of assigning tasks and duties to other members of the team; so if he isn't on the right track, he won't be able to keep the project on the right track too. Also, it is often seen that Six Sigma projects are being carried out without any leaders. The staff is trained and ordered to move ahead. But, without a leader, there will be no direction, and the results, if any, will only be short-lived. Therefore, a leader who offers direction, commitment, and support is very important to drive success.

Wrong strategy

The implementation of the Six Sigma strategy must be in line with the goals of the organization in order to achieve the right results. It should involve the organization’s schedule, tools to be used, and the plotted course. But, this is generally not seen. Lack of alignment is often seen which causes confusion among the key stakeholders and associates about the value of the organization and its processes.

Wrong projects

It is sometimes seen that leaders take up projects that are outside the team’s capability and expertise, or those that do not focus on the business objectives. But, it is important that the Six Sigma projects meet the standards of the business so that resources and efforts are not wasted. The projects taken up should be based on the goals of the organization, on finances, and on the customers, otherwise the set goals will not achieved. Also, it is important that you start off with small projects, and do not get greedy to take up larger projects when you aren’t ready for it. Manage and focus on a single aspect, and eliminate variations as much as possible.

Excessive training

Obviously, expert training towards Lean Six Sigma certification in India is important; but excessive training can be harmful. With too much training, the team may always look towards implementing all tools and tactics in every project, which is not required. Also, with excessive training, teams are more focused on those certification goals, and ultimately fail project execution. So, along with training, teams must equally be focused on the business goals and know how to bring benefits for the organization.

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How To Efficiently Organize Your Workplace With 5S Lean?

For Lean fanatics, 5S is a way of life; it is the way of bringing order and sense to the world around. 5S is a Lean system that is used for organizing, cleaning, developing, and sustaining an organized and efficient work environment, ultimately leading to productivity. It is the name given to a workplace organization method that uses a list of 5 Japanese words – Seiri, Seiton, Seiso, Seiketsu, and Shitsuke. To make it adaptable by organizations worldwide, these 5 Japanese words have been replaced with English synonyms, namely Sort, Set in order, Shine, Standardize, and Sustain. Therefore, 5S represents the activities that you must undertake to create a clean working environment by implementing these 5 important practices. Utilizing these 5 practices will help you organize your workspace for efficiency and effectiveness by identifying and storing the items used, maintaining the items, and sustaining the new order. After all, organization is one of the keys to an effective workplace. Let us understand in detail these 5 basic actions that are taught in professional 5S Training Program India. 

Sort

This involves removing all the unnecessary items from the working area that are not needed for the job at hand. These could include anything from tools, equipment, and machinery, to documents and containers. Therefore, sorting mans keeping only those items that are needed in your workplace.

Set in order

Now that you have only the most required things with you, you need to systematically arrange them one by one by providing a designated place to each item. You could designate locations by hanging signs from above, or labeling all the items, or marking lines on the floor. Whatever you do, you must give every item a permanent place, which can be taken to be used, and then returned to that particular place again when not in use.

Shine

You now have everything in place, with the unused items removed. This means half the work is already done, and the workplace is now clean and organized. But, this is not enough. You now need to ‘shine’ the workplace, meaning that you must clean up the area to make it look professional. Have your entire working area repaired, refurbished, fixed, and even painted, if required. Remember that working in a clean area leads to improved morale and better productivity.

Standardize

Now, the entire workplace is clean and organized. But, it is important that this procedure of organizing the area is consistently followed, and for this, it is important that the practice is standardized. So, you need to formally arrange for procedures where instructions and agreements are put in place. Also, responsibility must be assigned to specific people to see to it that these procedures are developed and followed.

Sustain

Once the procedures are standardized, every individual will be bound to follow them, which means that the process will be sustained. Such maintenance will encourage new improvements and make sure that an orderly workplace is sustained. If the procedures are not sustained, old habits of disorganization will resurface, and the efforts of putting up an organized workplace will be lost.

As you can see, these principles are very easy, but they definitely require a commitment. So, you need to make sure that everyone within your organization is encouraged to follow these procedures to commit to an orderly workplace. Although the 5S started as a procedure for the manufacturing industry, it has now spread to other working environments too. So, whatever kind of workplace you are operating in, you must also have your employees undergo a 5S Training Program India from professionals like TQMI, who have been pioneers in quality management and related principles since the past two decades.

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Six Sigma Vs. Lean Vs. Kaizen

With the emphasis completely on quality today, almost all organizations – big and small – are struggling to achieve and sustain quality systems. There has been a display of a variety of quality initiatives that have promised phenomenal results in reducing costs and increasing profits. Managers and team leaders have been flooded with different ideas over the years, with every system promising greater rewards. Out of these, many have failed, while many have succeeded like Six Sigma, Lean, and Kaizen. However, since the past many years, these three terms have lost their individual identity, and have been used interchangeably without people knowing the true meaning of these words. When people have their hands on one of these tools, they think they don't need the other because they all are one and the same thing. What they fail to realize is that every concept or tool has its own individuality and capacity to solve problems. This blog will help you learn about all these three terms separately so that you can differentiate between them and understand each one of them better.

What is Six Sigma?

Six Sigma is a set of tools and strategies that can limit defects and variations. It is a problem-solving methodology that is driven by data and focuses on customer satisfaction. It depends upon two basic methodologies – DMAIC (Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, Control) and DMADV (Define, Measure, Analyze, Design, Verify). Moreover, advanced statistical techniques like Pareto charts and root cause analysis are used to reach quantified value targets. Achieving a Six Sigmacertification in India from professionals like TQMI can help you grasp the skills of improving quality of business processes by limiting defects and variations, thus improving customer satisfaction.

What is Kaizen?

Kaizen is a Japanese term for ‘Change for the better’ which is also referred to as continuous improvement. This clearly shows that Kaizen is a journey and not a destination. Moreover, it is a mindset, and not a tool. It uses personal creativity and initiative to identify problems, and develop and implement ideas to solve them. Its philosophy believes that everything can be improved and everything can perform better and more efficiently. Another prominent feature of Kaizen is its belief that big results come from multiple small changes accumulated over time. However, Kaizen does not equal small changes; it equals everyone’s involvement in making improvements. To get into the details, Kaizen helps to identify the 3 MUs, which are Muda (wastes), Mura (variations), and Muri (strain).

What is Lean?

Lean is the methodology that is applied for waste minimization within an organization without sacrificing on productivity. It is a set of problem-solving tools that can reduce or eliminate the processes that don't add value. In this way, only valuable processes are adopted and wasteful steps are removed. Valuable processes are those that assist in improving quality and productivity. They also include those that may or may not add value for the customer, but are crucial for the continuity of a process. And, wasteful steps are those that include defects, over production, excess inventory, extra processing, unnecessary transportation, unnecessary motion, non-utilized talent, and waiting time. This means that Lean ultimately results in high quality, and thus customer satisfaction.

To sum it up, Kaizen is a continuous improvement process that standardizes processes and increases efficiency by involving everyone to eliminate waste. Lean is a process of eliminating wastes to improve process speed and quality. And, Six Sigma is a process to improve quality of the final product by eliminating the variations that lead to defects by measuring the deviation of the process from perfection. Although these processes may seem similar, they have a significant difference from one another. Now, to decide whether one is better than the other would be unwise. You can use all of these methods in their own ways within different processes and working of your organization so that you can save time and money, and boost quality and customer satisfaction.

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