Learn how to define the scope of a Six Sigma project in the right way!

Have you ever noticed that starting a task is usually the hardest part? Once you start, it seems that everything flows naturally but until you get the initial idea, it seems like nothing happens!

If this happens to you when designing the goal and scope of a 6 sigma project, you are in the right place! I guarantee you that when you finish reading this article, your doubts will be completely clarified!

You will learn everything you need about the 3 types of benchmarks, how they influence the goal setting, what should be the minimum result to achieve and how to craft the scope of your project!

In order for your information to be even clearer and the implementation of the Lean Six Sigma project to be carried out in the best way, we have separated, in this article, topics full of information and golden tips. Check it out!

• What is Benchmarking?
• The 3 types of Benchmarking
• Defining the 6 sigma project goal!
• The Scope of the 6 Sigma Project
• Define the purpose of the Lean Six Sigma project
• Examples of Lean Six Sigma projects

Ready?

Benchmarking: what is it?

The benchmark is a widely used feature in the corporate environment to understand how our performance is relative to the competitor, relative to some other company or in relation to another area of our company.

Normally with the benchmark, you can understand if you are better or worse than the other, and then define well some of your goals. So many companies do this for both strategic and tactical levels.

In Six Sigma methodology, you should work on the benchmark concept at the beginning of your project, in the definition stage of the DMAIC method, after all, this is how you will define what results from you will be looking for!

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The 3 types of Benchmarking

Among the various forms of Benchmark, we have separated the 3 most useful so that you can prepare a good goal for your project. And what are they?

Competitive

- Performed between companies competing for the same market, usually direct competitors. It's the hardest kind of practice.

- Focuses on measuring functions, methods and basic production characteristics in relation to its direct competitors.

Collaborative

-Performed by a group of institutions studying a particular object, which can be a process, product or service, to share knowledge and solve common problems.

- Generally carried out between non-competing companies. It is based on the principle that best practices are not in the industry itself.

Internal

-Compares information from the same organization, which can be between departments or between business units. Quite common and accessible, however, limited to references and standards of the group or company.

Defining the 6 sigma project goal!

When doing one of the Benchmarking types studied above, you will have data to define which is the optimal value to be achieved. However, a Six Sigma project does not always aim to get straight to the point, because that can be unattainable!

This is even a very common mistake when designing the goal of a 6 sigma project. In the enthusiasm of wanting great results, the responsible ends up stipulating goals impossible to be achieved.

But do not worry. We'll help you to know exactly how to set the goal of your project!!!

With the ideal value of the process at hand, you'll have a performance gap, right? But what is this?

The performance gap is the difference between the ideal value of a particular process and the value you are currently in.

For example: if the ideal in steel production is to generate 10 kg of scrapper ton produced and its process is generating 18 kg, its performance gap is 8 kg.

But what's the purpose of this performance gap? It's simple!

The goal of your Lean Six Sigma project will be at least 50% of your gap. That is, in the example above, the goal of your Six Sigma project would be to reach 14 Kg of scrapper ton produced because the gap is 8Kg and you need to achieve at least 50% of that gap.

ATTENTION: It is worth mentioning that the minimum will be 50% of the performance gap, but it is not the only value that can be chosen. You can set more audacious goals, which will produce more results. Just study the process to glimpse what are the possible outcomes to be achieved!

Another important point in the elaboration of a goal is that it must have objective, value
and term. But how?

Looking at our example we could define this goal as follows: reducing the amount of scrap to 18 kg to 14 kg per ton in 4 months.

Note that we have all the requirements for a goal well defined in the example above, let's see?

• Objective: Reduce scrap
• Value: From 18 Kg to 14 Kg per ton
• Deadline: 4 months.

The Scope of the 6 Sigma Project

After stipulating your goal within the DMAIC Method Definition step, you must assemble the scope and timeline of your project.

The scope is where you will inform what will be contemplated in the project, what will be accomplished and also it is important to include what will not be contemplated, which will not be addressed in the project.

After all, just as you should know everything that will be done, it is also very important to know what you should not do, to not waste time and focus on activities that will not generate results.

In the schedule you will stipulate the dates for delivery of each stage of the project. It is extremely important to prepare a schedule, as this guarantees the commitment of your team to the project.

To help you through these steps, we separate two commonly used tools for scoping and scheduling. Let's see a little more about them?

Matrix Inside and Out

This is a very simple tool used to
elaborate the scope of the project. It basically consists of drawing a square in the center of a blank sheet with the word inside it.

So within that square you must put everything that will be addressed by your project.

By doing this, you are able to delimit the process you are going to study, making your goals more visual and facilitating the development of the necessary reasoning.

From the outside you should put everything that will not be addressed by your project, everything that you should not worry about.

Did you see? It is an extremely simple tool but it helps a lot to establish the limits of your project!

Gantt Chart

At the time of making a timeline, this tool is extremely useful. It has as main function to define the main steps of the process and which are the priority deliveries in each step.

As in the Six Sigma methodology we use the DMAIC method, it becomes very easy to use this graph. Just follow the 5 steps of this method and define in each of them what the main deliveries will be.

Define the purpose of the Lean Six Sigma project

Seeking ways to achieve the purpose of the Lean methodology is fundamental for the objective of the Lean Six Sigma project developed within the organization to be effective, and the desired results to be even more visual and achievable.

The Lean Six Sigma project when well defined plays a very important role during the implementation of the methodology, generating more direct decisions, a holistic view of the entire business system and greater chances of success.

So, now that you know how important it is to correctly define a Lean Six Sigma project, let's check out some examples of projects.

Examples of Lean Six Sigma projects

There are several reasons within an organization that influence the issue of need for change, whether due to losses and difficult phases for the progress of the company, or the vision of improvements that can optimize the organizational process as a whole.

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