Six Sigma Process Basics
Six Sigma Process
In order to better understand the detailed methods of Six Sigma Process , it is important to first have a clear understanding of the basics involved. This begins with simple clarifications of what a process is, how it is defined and then how it is improved.
A Process
The first thing to point out here is that Six Sigma is a process improvement methodology. This is a key distinction in framing the project and it is one that Champions frequently get wrong during project identification, scoping, and selection.
A process is a sequence of activities with a definite beginning and end, including defined deliverables. Also, a "something" travels through the sequence (typical examples include a product, an order, a patient, or an invoice). Resource is used to accomplish the activities along the way.
If you can't see an obvious, single process in your project, you might have difficulty applying Six Sigma Process improvement to it. The start and end points need to be completely agreed upon between the Six Sigma Black Belt, Champion, and Process Owner (if this is not the Champion). Clearly, if this is not the case, there will be problems later when the end results don't match expectations.
Entities
In the preceding definition of a process, there is a "something" that travels along it. For want of a better name, I'll refer to this as an entity. Clearly, this entity can be fundamentally different from process to process, but there seems to be surprisingly few distinct types:
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Human. Employees, customers, patients
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Inanimate. Documents, parts, units, molecules
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Abstract. Email, telephone calls, orders, needs
The trick is to be able to identify the Primary Entity as it flows through the process with value being added to it (for example, a patient or perhaps the physical molecules of a product). There will, of course, be secondary entities moving around the process, but focus should be on identifying the primary.
Six Sigma Black Belt sometimes find this difficult when the entity changes form, splits, or replicates. For instance, in healthcare (in the ubiquitous medication delivery process), orders are typically written by the physician and so the Primary Entity is the written order. The order can then be faxed to the pharmacy, and is thus replicated and one copy transmitted to the pharmacy fax machine. The faxed order is then fulfilled (meds are picked from an inventory) and effectively the Primary Entity changes to the medication itself, which will be sent back to the point of request.
Similarly, in an industrial setting, we might see the Primary Entity change from customer need to sales order to production order to product.
Six Sigma Process Deliverables
The last element of the definition of a process is the deliverables. This is often where Belts make the biggest mistakes. Simply put, the deliverables are the minimum set of physical entities and outcomes that a process has to yield in order to meet the downstream customers' needs..
The deliverables need to be thoroughly understood and agreed upon in the early stages of the project; otherwise later during the analysis of what it is exactly in the process that affects performance, the Belt will have the wrong focus.
