Many new projects for Lean Six Sigma and DFSS certification (Green Belt and Black Belt) start in October and November every year because the beginning of the fiscal year starts in October, and employees set up a new goal for the fiscal year. Obtaining the Lean Six Sigma or DFSS certification is one of their goal.
I have to mentor seven Green Belt projects and four Black Belt projects for the fiscal year. I was so busy in these two months for setting up these projects.
When I start mentoring a project, I do the following three steps:
- Interview the project leader and his/her manager
- Create a project plan (Thought-Map)
- Create a project repository
1. Interview the project leader and his/her manager
I interview the primary stakeholders and try to understand the problem to solve, and the goal of the project. We don’t need to know a solution at this point because we identify a solution through the project. Rather, we identify an appropriate framework for the problem solving.
Based on the type of problem, I select a right problem solving framework in Six Sigma (DMAIC), Lean, and Design for Six Sigma (DFSS). It looks like Rock-Paper-Scissors because of three selections of frameworks.
2. Create a project plan (Thought-Map)
Creating a Thought-Map is critical for a certification project because the project leader (i.e., the candidate of the belt certification) must understand the framework or the thinking way for solving the problem.
A Though-Map looks like as follow:
- Identify the problem and its business impact (VOC)
- Confirm the project scope (Project Charter, SIPOC)
- Identify stakeholders (RASCI Matrix)
- Identify the project requirements (VOC, KJ, QFD)
- Prioritize the requirements (AHP)
- Identify the CTQ or KPI (QFD)
- Generate concepts and select the best (TRIZ, Pugh Matrix, Concept FMEA)
- Analyze current process or product (Process Mapping, Statistical Analysis)
- Design new process or product (Modeling)
- Identify and mitigate the risks (Process FMEA, Design FMEA)
- Understand the new process or product (DOE, Regression)
- Understand capability of the new process or product (Monte Carlo Simulation, Capability Analysis)
- Confirm the achievements (Statistical Analysis)
All projects are unique, and the Though-Map is a custom-made for each project. Creating a Thought-Map is pretty hard to a Green Belt candidate, so I create it for the Green Belt candidate. A Black Belt candidate must create it at the beginning of the project. This is a requirement for the Black Belt candidate.
The Thought-Map makes the project steps much clearer in terms of the framework or the thinking way. What the belt candidate need to do is to follow the Thought-Map.
3. Create a project repository
Each project generates many deliverables or files (Excel, Word, PowerPoint, Minitab, etc.). The deliverables are live documents updating in real-time, and sharing by the stakeholders. So I create a repository on SharePoint site for each project.
Why do I need to do it?
The primary purpose of Lean Six Sigma is reduction of variation. The variation comes from not only a process or a product, but a project.
According to a data, the typical rate of project success is only 50%. There is the large variation in project success, and the Lean Six sigma certification project could be the same. That’s why I make these three steps at the beginning of the certification project to reduce the variation in the project success.