Escolar Documentos
Profissional Documentos
Cultura Documentos
Deployment: 7 Stumbling
Blocks To Overcome
WATCH FOR THESE successful deployment strategy for any continuous improvement method
LIKELY PITFALLS
WHEN DEPLOYING
A hinges on an understanding of typical hurdles that must be crossed and
requires leaders to secure enough resources with a stalwart commitment
to attack common challenges.
For lean Six Sigma, it’s no different.
AND SUSTAINING There are seven common stumbling blocks that can impact the deployment and
maintenance of a lean Six Sigma program, especially in service industries.
A LEAN SIX SIGMA Granted, none are revolutionary or new to most practitioners, but each of us can
benefit from a refresher course to ensure we don’t stumble over these common
INITIATIVE IN A
obstacles.
SERVICE INDUSTRY
Stumbling Block One: Waning Support, Whining Management
SETTING.
A lean Six Sigma deployment must start from the top. I have seen companies
with senior leaders fully onboard with projects, the right people assigned, impres-
sive dollar savings projected and fantastic quality improvement goals.
Then, two months into the project, support wanes. Day-to-day work problems
rage at the senior level. Middle managers whine until it reaches senior leaders.
Projects are put on the back burner and resources pulled to extinguish those
By William daily fires.
Leaders must understand waning support will very swiftly kill any deployment.
“Mike” Kelly, Leaders must meet the time commitments for all team members, including each
Wells Fargo Master Black Belt (MBB), Black Belt (BB) and Green Belt (GB). For instance,
20% of someone’s time means one business day a week or one to two hours a day,
Home and not extra time on Saturday or an additional extra two to three hours each day. A
100% time commitment means working on projects the entire five-day work
Consumer week, not working seven days a week for 14 hours a day.
GB or BB candidates should be the organization’s top performers. This status
Finance Group should be seen as a growth opportunity, not punishment for prized employees.
Whining persists when roles aren’t clearly defined. During deployment, key
areas to cover are project or candidate selection, training or project timelines, and
a responsible, accountable, consultative and informative (RACI) matrix listing the
people and groups within an organization responsible for the deployment.
Example: At one organization, during an international logistic project to
improve cube use of transport trucks by 20% (see Figure 1), confusion over
resources stalled progress. Seasonal activity was specific for each region and wide-
ly known. Yet the stumbling block became predictable after a few months; con-
fusion on resources occurred during peak times when inventory was being dis-
tributed and transferred.
A lack of personnel and resources prolonged the project. Instead of waiting 12
months to get to the improve phase of the define, measure, analyze, improve and
control (DMAIC) process, the senior leader could have planned to use tempo-
rary staff during peak times and perhaps could have prevented a delay.
Tip to overcome stumbling block one: When championing a project, be aware of
upcoming business and resource pains. Budget or borrow for the project so it can be
16 I A U G U S T 2 0 0 7 I W W W . A S Q . O R G
7 Stumbling Blocks to Overcome
Open capacity
Desired
improvement
S I X S I G M A F O R U M M A G A Z I N E I A U G U S T 2 0 0 7 I 17
7 Stumbling Blocks to Overcome
repeatable and reproducible. Don’t assume the Figure 2. Signature Pad Project Example
data are repeatable and reproducible just because
the company has always been using the data.
New link to
Don’t accept the notion that because the data are signature pad
not from a gage or an assessment that they cannot
be validated as repeatable and reproducible.
“Repeatable” can be defined as the ability for a Application entry Existing point of sale
customer service representative (CSR) to help computer computer linked
customers solve the same problem the same way to signature pad
18 I A U G U S T 2 0 0 7 I W W W . A S Q . O R G
7 Stumbling Blocks to Overcome
calling a meeting. When meetings are intertwined ods used to effectively run meetings are time boxing
with a lean Six Sigma project, it’s like driving a car an agenda and token discussion meetings.
into a pit of quick sand. If it’s necessary for the proj- • Time boxing agenda items at meetings involves
ect to have many meetings, then the Champion will following strict time limits on topics. The project
need to allocate a team resource for those meetings. leader becomes the time enforcer.
This might sound extreme. But the individual who
• Token discussion meetings incorporate a token
sits in the team meetings must absorb the impact on
object to signal to the group who is allowed to
different areas and communicate those impacts at
talk in the meeting. Only the person physically
the appropriate meetings, in addition to doing his or
holding the token (such as a stuffed animal or a
her daily work. This person should have his or her
stress ball) is allowed to talk. The project leader
regular workload reduced to accommodate the
controls the movement of the token and keeps
added responsibility.
the token from being dominated.
Example: Undoubtedly, a calendar that looks like
Figure 3 would impede any project. During a docu- In both of these meeting arrangements, only the
ment generation and mailing verification project, the open action items should be addressed. The group will
GB was invited to meetings requested by the Champion move through the agenda, complete future action
and deployment Champion after a major revelation item assignments and adjourn. Meetings do not need
was uncovered in the analyze phase. The GB’s time in to last two, three or four hours. Usually one hour is suf-
meetings consumed 50% to 75% of his day, which ulti- ficient. A goal of a team as it becomes a well-oiled
mately stalled the project from making improvements machine could be to have 30-minute meetings.
and implementing the new processes. In this case, the Meetings must be simple, direct and quick.
Champion could have been the spokesperson or
assigned an additional resource to the team. That Stumbling Block Five: The Ever-Moving
would have allowed accurate presentation of the find- Voice of the Customer
ings in all the relevant meetings and forums without
slowing or stopping the solution implementation. During project selection, many leaders want to
Tips to overcome stumbling block four: Two meth- focus on what the customer is saying and start projects
S I X S I G M A F O R U M M A G A Z I N E I A U G U S T 2 0 0 7 I 19
7 Stumbling Blocks to Overcome
based on customer perceptions concerning what is what the customer will feel. In turn, making this
wrong, broken or uncomfortable. In the service world data-business measure connection:
this is a great concept: If customers are happy, they • Prevents the pipeline of services from perpetuat-
are likely to expand service, buy more products or tell ing this unwanted customer experience.
others about a great experience.
• Prevents the rework and repair from dragging
There are risks in any project selection, but beware
out over a long period of time.
of squeaky wheel customers who want just their issues
resolved. All customers are important and should be
treated in that manner. But Champions must be Stumbling Block Six: The Black and Blue
aware that pulling resources or diverting projects or Repercussions of Quick Hits
teams to squeaky customers should be carefully ana-
lyzed before making changes. A quick hit occurs when focus is placed on a trou-
Example: Five BBs and GBs were tasked to attack bled area and a commonsense, no-brainer solution
the top five customer experience issues and make presents itself.
improvements. This approach immediately tied to Example: A store was trying to sell vacuum clean-
the top level indicators of overall customer satisfac- ers. Sales were slow, and a team from corporate was
tion and based the projects on an automated data sent to investigate. The team even visited a competi-
source. During the project, two of the five BBs and tor for insight. The store had the latest inventory and
GBs—well into the analyze phase—were pulled away plenty of it. The competitor was selling similar brands
from the project and reassigned to a second project. typically priced higher.
Squeaky wheel customers received poor service, and The team eventually observed something that
a root cause and solution plan was needed quickly. would seem obvious, but it wasn’t: The vacuums
Emotions ran high and questions abounded: needed to be on the floor for customers to touch and
• Was the initial work on the first project done for examine closer, instead of high, out of the way on
nothing, and would rework be necessary when full store displays and inaccessible. Inventory needed to
attention could be returned to the first project? be accessible for customers to pick up and buy.
In this scenario, the quick hit was to move every-
• Why are resources being pulled away from the
thing to floor level and put items within reach of
first project, which affects 100 times more cus-
potential buyers. The move seemed like an obvious
tomers than the new one?
answer, but the practice of displaying the vacuums
• Who does the squeaky wheel customer know at high and away from customers continued for a year
the company to influence this reassignment before it was changed.
decision? Tip to overcome stumbling block six: One way to
Undoubtedly, the team members were less enthusi- approach quick hits is through a kaizen blitz. A prob-
astic to work on the second project and wondered if lematic area is selected and everyone who works in the
they would be pulled away yet again. area brainstorms for one day for solutions. Some go as
Tips to overcome stumbling block five: Assessing far as physically moving a process around to alleviate
the voice of the customer can be done in many ways: bottlenecks, overburdened queues or redundancies.
• Formal in-person surveys. Initially, kaizen blitzes can result in great accom-
plishments because they involve organized quick hit
• Customer service call centers.
task forces. The danger? They can be addictive and
• Third-party surveys. pop up everywhere. The risk is that many changes in
• Comment cards. any process will increase variability in the total
process. Associates need enough time and experi-
• Warranty cards.
ence in learning the new processes so changes
• Online surveys. become almost second nature.
Using any data that come from the customer will Changing too many things at once can reduce the
give valuable insight into what types of projects ability of Champions to hold teams and associates
should be done. During the project, one of the accountable for process changes. Teams and associ-
team’s first tasks should be to tie the customer data ates are more likely to return to the comfortable old
to an operation business measure so it can be ways of doing business.
assessed with daily operations and can help predict Another tip to overcome stumbling block six: Quick
20 I A U G U S T 2 0 0 7 I W W W . A S Q . O R G
7 Stumbling Blocks to Overcome
hits can be very successful if they are deployed on a The bottleneck was removed by having the scanning
controlled schedule, if change management is associates involved in some activities with the prep crew
deployed, and if controls are implemented. Bruises until the time scanning associates started feeding the
occur when there are too many quick hits and control scanners. This allowed the associates to closely watch
is lost, affecting associates’ confidence. the scanners’ maximum paperwork capacity. This bot-
tleneck and misallocation of headcount was visible
Stumbling Block Seven: Not-So-Standard from the process map, which then was turned into a
Operating Procedures value stream map.
Before the lean Six Sigma project, plenty was said
Something as simple as answering the telephone can about ideas to complete tasks and meet goals. But
be categorized as 101 different processes. Customer nothing had been written down and best practices
perception is measured on consistent behavior with were never studied or shared. The project followed
managed expectations of change. the DMAIC process, which clearly illustrated the bot-
Example: One customer calling a company was put tleneck that impacted productivity. But the value
into a “pooled resource.” Every time the customer stream map sparked the creation of an SOP. The con-
called, someone different answered using a different trol phase recommended an audit to ensure compli-
script. Five customers wanting to return merchandise ance to the new process and include measures of pro-
experienced three different processes. Customers mail- ductivity to ensure significant changes in the process.
ing a payment could send the money to three different Tip to overcome stumbling block seven: People who
addresses with dramatically different process times. encounter SOPs are either completely resistant or 100%
And everyone servicing the customers thought they enthusiastic. Usually, it depends on how much the SOP
were following the same procedure. relates to their tasks. New SOPs require behavioral
One way to establish standard operating proce- changes in humans, which is not like flipping a light
dures (SOPs) is to follow all of the supposed paths switch on or off. Human nature is to revert to a comfort
and create process maps. Often, service companies zone during times of stress. Even though audits are cost-
lack SOPs unless they are required to document and ly and classified as nonvalue adds, they are necessary to
audit processes as part of a Food and Drug ensure the behavioral change is maintained.
Administration regulation or ISO 9001 certification. Audits can be a short term solution if the process can
Creating these maps might require more help and somehow be measured and established as a proven
cause delays in the measure and analyze phase, but indicator of stability. Audits can also be used to identi-
they can be used to create best practices, identify sig- fy nonconformance of procedures.
nificant X’s and aid in writing SOPs.
Once process maps are identified, number values Always Look to Make Strides
can be added to process steps, such as head count,
value added time, rework percentage, cost per hour Business dynamics and personalities can impact any
of material, wait time, work in progress, and more continuous improvement deployment in any industry.
relevant numbers for each individual project. Adding There are common pitfalls to avoid in deploying and
the data to the process map will clearly illustrate lost sustaining a lean Six Sigma initiative in service indus-
productivity. The data also could be used in simula- tries. Organizational support, good data, effective
tion software to identify impacts and waste. communication, listening to the customer, deploy-
Example: One company couldn’t understand why ment wins, standardization and patience will increase
only half of the projected productivity capacity could the likelihood of success for a lean Six Sigma initiative
be completed during each shift. To improve produc- in service industries. There is not a perfect system or
tivity, the company made a capital investment in high- process, but common sense is a good tool to have in
speed scanning equipment. the lean Six Sigma toolbox.
During a lean Six Sigma project, a process map was
drawn and a time study was completed on the associ-
ates and the machinery. Company officials could now
see what was happening: WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THIS ARTICLE? Please share
• The prep crew was reaching maximum capacity.
your comments and thoughts with the editor by e-mailing
• The scanning associates were at barely 30% capacity.
godfrey@asq.org.
• The scanners were at 5% capacity.
S I X S I G M A F O R U M M A G A Z I N E I A U G U S T 2 0 0 7 I 21