The purpose of the Improve phase is to identify improvement recommendations, design the future state, implement pilot projects, train, and document the new pro- cesses. The activities performed and tools applied during the Improve phase are discussed below.
1. Identify improvement recommendations 2. Perform cost/benefit analysis
3. Design future state
4. Establish performance targets and project scorecard 5. Gain approval to implement, then implement 6. Train and execute.
Cp=Cpk=1.
Fig. 2.33 Process is just capable
Fig. 2.34 Process is NOT capable
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Figure 2.35 shows the main Improve activities mapped to the tools or deliverables most typically used during that step.
Identify Improvement Recommendations
The Six Sigma team should use the data collected in the first three phases of the DMAIC to identify improvement recommendations. The recommendations should be designed to eliminate the root causes. The team should anticipate things that can go wrong or the type of resistance that you may have, and design plans to work around these barriers
Quality Function Deployment (Revised)
The QFD House of Quality can be used to map the CTS to the Improvement recommendations, to ensure that the recommendations help to satisfy the CTS characteristics. The Customer Requirements on the left of the QFD matrix become the CTS’, and the technical requirements become the improvements.
The House of Quality can also be used to prioritize the recommendations, by weighting the CTS’ and multiplying the weighting by the strength of the relation- ship in the relationship matrix of the QFD matrix.
Recommendations for Improvement
The recommendations for improvement can be a listing, with a description of the recommendation ideas. During the design of the recommendations, input should be obtained from the process owners to assess the reasonableness of the solutions.
Fig. 2.35 Improve phase activities and tools/deliverables Improve Phase
Information from the following previously used tools can be used to develop the improvement recommendations:
• QFD
• Waste Analysis
• Process Analysis
• Cause and Effect Analysis (Diagram and Matrix)
• Why–Why Diagram
• 5S
• Kaizen
• Process Map or Value Stream Map.
Action Plan
The action plan for the improvement recommendations can be divided into short- term and long-term recommendations. Short term is 3 months or less, and long- term recommendations are those that can be implemented in greater than 3 months.
The action planning should include project plans, with resources, timelines, and risk analysis.
Change management is important when planning the improvement re commendations pilot projects. The following steps can be used to enhance the probability of success for the pilot projects.
1. Create a vision of the future state and communicate with the stakeholders.
2. Understand what is in it for each stakeholder, include them in the solution.
3. Identify who will be resistant to change, and who will be receptive. Gain some early adopters, and engage them in the change process.
4. Implement the change, incorporating training and appropriate resources.
5. Monitor improvement, measure, and assess results.
6. Implement new processes, systems, and organizational structures if needed.
Perform Cost/Benefit Analysis
Cost/Benefit Analysis
You can perform a cost/benefit analysis or a COPQ assessment, to determine the return on investment or savings that are estimated by implementing the improve- ment recommendations.
In a cost/benefit analysis, we need to decide whether the benefits of the project outweigh the costs. We can use the Benefit/Cost Ratio:
BC Ratio=
Present value of benefits Present value of costs
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If the B/C Ratio is greater than 1, than you can accept the project, the benefits outweigh the costs.
Cost of Poor Quality
The COPQ categories can be used to assess the costs that can be eliminated by implementing the improvement recommendations. The team can either use this or the Cost/Benefit Analysis, or compare the improvement in the COPQ before and after the recommendations are implemented.
Design Future State
It is important to design the new future state by developing a future state process map. The team should challenge the boundaries and incorporate quality and Lean principles.
Future State Process Map
The future state process map is simply a process map of the new process incorpo- rating the improvement recommendations.
Design of Experiments (DOE)
Design of Experiments can be used to identify key variables and levels that opti- mize process performance and improvement quality. It helps to design a robust process that is insensitive to uncontrollable factors. It allows you to look at many factors simultaneously and to assess the interaction of variables. It enables the identification of the critical factors and the associated levels for the process design.
The steps for performing a Design of Experiment are:
1. Set experimental objectives 2. Select process variables
3. Select an experimental design, identify hypotheses 4. Execute the design
5. Check that the data are consistent with the experimental assumptions 6. Analyze and interpret the results
7. Use/present the results, incorporate them into your future state design.
There are many types of experimental designs, the most common are:
• One factor experiments: allows for the manipulation of one factor.
• Two factor experiments: allows for the manipulation of two factors.
Improve Phase
• Full factorial experiments: Consists of all possible combinations of all selected levels of the factors to be investigated.
• Fractional factorial experiments: Studies only a fraction or subset of all the pos- sible combinations of factors.
Establish Performance Targets and Project Scorecard
In this step the team should identify the performance targets for the metrics identi- fied in the Measure phase. They also should track pilot project status using project scorecards.
Dashboards/Scorecards
You should also create dashboards or scorecards to assess the performance of your process after trying out the improvement recommendations in the pilot projects.
The project scorecards or dashboards can be used to identify improvements in your process against your metrics that you have identified. The metrics should relate to your CTS’ characteristics.
Scorecards should include the following ways to present your metrics (Pyzdek 2003):
• Assessment of improvement of central tendency and variation overtime. SPC Average and Range charts can be used to meet this objective.
• Graphical distribution using a histogram for the most recent time period.
• Assessment of quality or number of defects, using SPC percent defective chart.
• Outliers showing a distribution of individual defectives using a dot plot.
Revised VOP Matrix
You can revise your VOP Matrix from the measure phase to relate your CTS’, process factors, operational definition, metric, and more realistic targets for your metrics.
Gain Approval to Implement, Then Implement
The Six Sigma project team should create a presentation and deliver it to the pro- ject sponsor, champion, and other management that must approve the improve- ment recommendations. The champion presentation should be a high-level executive summary.
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The team can use the PDCA cycle to implement the pilot recommendation pro- jects. Plan: You can Plan your improvements; Do: Implement your improvements, usually on a pilot scale; Check: Verify that the improvement improved the process based on your metrics; and Act: If the improvements made a positive difference, implement them on a broader scale, if not, refine the improvements and try again.
You may go through the PDCA cycle several times.
Train and Execute
The team should develop detailed procedures, as necessary to ensure consistency of the new process. They should develop and rollout training. The train the trainer concept is sometimes used to reduce the resources needed to train. A core group of people are trained on the new process and then they train others in the organiza- tion, and become subject matter experts. The process owners should be included in the change process, and changes should be communicated to appropriate stakehold- ers. The team can use the future state process map as a training guide. They should assess the effectiveness of the training as part of the control plan in the next phase.