Chapter 10: Basic Six Sigma Team Management

Executive leadership groups working with Six Sigma leaders and experts usually put teams together. Any process improvement team should have, at minimum:

- A Six Sigma leader - A process owner - An expert on the process - Someone to manage budgeting and accounting Depending on expectations of needs, the team might also need to include technical resources, such as a programmer or IT leader, as well as individuals from human resources, compliance, legal, or other ancillary departments

Other tips, other than having small teams and not allowing regular team members from doing too much work, for selecting team members include:

- Choosing employees who are knowledgeable about the customer, product, or process related to the project. - Choosing employees who have shown a willingness and ability to work toward improvement in a team environment. - Selecting employees who have access to and an understanding of the data required to learn about and measure the process or problem. - Picking employees who can provide at least five hours of work per week to the team. - Matching the skills of employees to the projects at hand; if a project is likely to include all technical improvements, you would be less likely to add a team member who is skilled in marketing. - Removing political obstacles through team selection; if a specific person in an organization is likely to be an obstacle to a team, sometimes putting that person on the team can increase the chance that they will buy into the process.

List out a typical Six Sigma team

- Project leader - Process owner - Process expert - 1 to 3 other regular team members

How to create a Critical Path Diagram

A critical path diagram can be created for the entire project or for each phase of a project. 1. Identify the critical needs or activities to complete the project or phase of a project. 2. Put critical activities in order. 3. Assign a time to each task. 4. Create a diagram of the tasks, stacking simultaneous or parallel process and including time figures. 5. Draw a critical path through the diagram. - the critical path goes through the step with the longest time estimate. 6. Add up the longest times from each section.

Scribes or Minute-Takers

A lot of discussion occurs in the midst of Six Sigma brainstorming and team sessions, and someone needs to record that information. - The team leader should appoint one person as the official scribe for the team. Sometimes, that person is a certified project manager working in conjunction with a Six Sigma team leader. Other times, it is a member of the team who is seen as detailed and organized. - The Black Belt or other project leader should never be the scribe; it is too difficult to take notes while leading a discussion or exercise. - The scribe should create notes or minutes of the meeting in typed format and disseminate those notes to all team members as soon as possible following a meeting.

Six Sigma is typically managed on two levels within an organization.

First, the culture of Six Sigma must be managed at an enterprise-wide level, usually by a group or council of senior managers, such as executives, with the guidance of a Master Black Belt or Black Belt. - This group sets the tone for Six Sigma within an organization, provides final approval on projects, and holds others accountable for metrics, performance, and success. - While many of these individuals might also work as sponsors or champions on projects, as a group they don't tend to get involved in the day-to-day project details Second, Six Sigma must also be managed at the team level.

Sponsors/Champions

In most Six Sigma environments, these are the senior-level leaders who oversee projects at the highest level. Even the Black Belt must report to the project sponsor or champion. Sometimes, the sponsor or champion is the liaison between the team and the leadership council. The champion or sponsor is also responsible for assisting the team with obtaining funds and resources to ensure project success Other duties include: - Coaching the team, particularly at the project charter stage. The sponsor often provides input into what is in scope on a project and who might be included on a team. - Locating resources for the team, including support from other departments, money, equipment, time, and labor hours. - Handling matters of politics within a corporate structure so the team doesn't have to. - Working with other managers within the organization to help the team succeed in improving a process and transitioning improvements to a daily work environment.

Timekeeper

Not all Six Sigma teams use timekeepers, but they can help keep meetings on track, reduce the chance of scope creep, and increase overall productivity. - The timekeeper can be any person on the team who is not regularly engaged in leading meetings, brainstorming activities or recording team activities and notes. - The timekeeper shouldn't police time in a such a rigid fashion that the benefits of fluid discussion and brainstorming are lost, but he or she should gently steer teams toward following agenda schedules or provide the project leader with an indication that time is up for the topic at hand. - To function properly, a timekeeper needs an agenda to follow. It is usually the responsibility of the Black Belt or project manager to provide a detailed agenda for each meeting. The agenda should include clear indications regarding how long each item is expected to take. - Team leaders should pick a timekeeper who is organized and level-headed.

Two methods for creating a project timeline or schedule

Phase-Based Timeline Critical Path Method

What are the three basic team member types that exist with relation to a Six Sigma project?

Regular team members - These individuals participate in all activities of the team and attend all or almost all of the team's meetings. - Regular team members include project leaders, process owners and experts, and identified subject matter experts who the team or executives feel would be critical components of their group. Ad hoc team members - Provide expertise on an as-needed basis. - Usually, these are subject matter experts or employees who work directly with the process. - You don't want to take these employees from their job functions for every single team event, as that would negatively impact the state of current production. Instead, these employees are included in team meetings as needed when additional information or assistance is required. Resource team members - only included when the project team leader feels they are needed in a meeting or team event to provide expert information, counsel, or help in accessing resources. - usually members of ancillary departments such as accounting, human resources, or compliance. - resource team members might also be managers or leaders in departments that are related to the process being improved.

Once a timeline is established, what is the next step?

Set up milestone meetings and dates to help keep the team on track and notify the sponsor or champion of progress. - In a DMAIC project, milestones are usually set at the end of each phase (Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, and Control). - However, teams can set custom milestones, and sponsors might require specific milestones if they are approving large resourcing or funding requests for a project. - The milestone dates are when the team or the Black Belt will meet with the sponsor to present the findings or results of each phase of the project. - The team might set up internal milestones for the Measure phase, stating that definitions will be created by January 25, temperature data collected by February 5, and time data collected by February 10. - By breaking each phase, and each larger task, into smaller parts, it is easier for the team to stay on track and complete work. Smaller tasks seem more manageable, so they are more likely to be accomplished.

Six Sigma leaders

Six Sigma projects are usually led by certified Black Belts, although some organizations do allow Green Belts to act as leaders on small initiatives with occasional feedback and guidance from Black Belts. - In most organizations, the Black Belt holds primary responsibility for the regular work performed by a team and usually only works with one team or project at a time. - Best case scenarios let organizations align Black Belts with projects in areas they are already familiar with. - Master Black Belts play an overall role in leading multiple Six Sigma projects. Master Black Belts act as coaches to multiple teams; providing education to both Black and Green Belts, helping team members to constantly improve their grasp of Six Sigma methodologies.

Project managers

Some organizations use traditional project management techniques alongside Six Sigma improvement methodologies. In these organizations, a project manager is usually assigned to a Six Sigma project. - While structures vary by organization, the project manager does not usually lead the team. - Instead, the PM offers leader support to the Black Belt by keeping up with documentation and timelines, helping keep meetings on track, and ensuring items are followed up on after meetings. - With a PM worrying about timelines or whether the meeting is getting too far off track, a Six Sigma exert is free to concentrate on the brainstorming session or statistical analysis at hand.

What are the advantages/disadvantages of a phase-based timeline?

The benefit of this approach is that you can generate a timeline quickly. The disadvantages are that someone without experience of Six Sigma and a fair amount of knowledge of the process being improved can easily misjudge the time required for each phase and leadership might consider this a hard timeline, which can create unrealistic expectations.

Who does a Six Sigma Black Belt report to?

The project sponsor/champion

Who is usually responsible for the final result of a project, which means he or she usually wants regular reports about progress?

The senior leader, sometimes the senior leader is the project sponsor/champion.

True or False: While ad hoc or resource team members can serve several projects and handle their own work on a daily basis, regular team members should not be asked to serve on more than one team and handle daily workloads.

True

Critical Path Method

a method for creating a project timeline or schedule, but is a more detailed way of defining timelines than the phase-based method, and therefore requires more information and input from a project team. - a critical path diagram could be one of the activities the team undertakes as part of the Define phase. - you can use the critical path method to estimate timelines for extremely complex projects or processes.

Phase-Based Timeline

a method for creating a project timeline or schedule. Six Sigma projects usually follow a specific series of phases. - DMAIC breaks a project into five phases: Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, Control - Experienced Six Sigma experts with some data and information about a project and process can usually provide a very basic and raw estimate of time by assigning a certain number of weeks to each phase. It's also worth noting that most of the phases are likely to overlap. - To create a raw timeline for a project, a Black Belt or other Six Sigma leader usually starts with an overall time requirement. He or she either estimates the total time required for an improvement or works with a deadline imposed by the leadership group

One of the challenges when dealing with budgets in a Six Sigma project is that all team members are ___.

not always completely aware of financial drivers. - In some cases, financial information might even be restricted. Some information and analysis might need to be performed solely by a project-leading Black Belt in such cases, especially if data is critical or sensitive.

Most Six Sigma process improvement teams are relatively ___. How many regular team members is considered a good number on average?

small 5 regular team members. Adding too many regular team members can create communication problems, make it difficult to manage brainstorming sessions, and cause burnout.

To best manage a Six Sigma project and team, leaders have to ensure all team members, leaders, and sponsors agree on what ___ means.

success - Six Sigma teams must create a well-defined measure of success.

While success is rated by end customers in terms of performance, quality, and satisfaction, Six Sigma teams also answer to corporate leadership. For leaders, success is also measured in terms of ___ and ___.

time and budget

process owner

usually someone who is directly responsible for the process in a leadership capacity. - Usually, the process owner is the person who is going to "receive" a solution implemented by a Six Sigma team once that solution is ready to be rolled out to all team members or used on a daily basis. - Because of this, the process owner is usually included in the team because he or she must understand how and why any change is made. - He or she will become responsible for maintaining and monitoring those controls once the process is transitioned from a team environment to day-to-day production. - A process owner usually also acts as a process expert on a Six Sigma team. - When leading or managing a Six Sigma team, Black Belts and others do have to be wary of process owners who are resistant to change or who believe they have all the answers.