Six Sigma Pizza - Pie 12

So far...

We are on the verge of completing the Define phase. In our attempt to uncover the potentials of Six Sigma as a business improvement tool, we applied the basic principles of defining a business problem, splitting it into a number of process problems.

The Champion will first prioritise his problems before solving them.

We saw how the process problems were prioritised using simple techniques like Kano Model and Pareto Chart. We assessed the customer needs and drill down to the corresponding process parameters. Then we completed the project charter after understanding the expected condition and measuring the current condition.

We discussed the importance of SIPOC and RACI matrix in the previous chapter.

Now…

The next day had started very early in the morning. Ben and Anand joined me for a brisk walk on the beach at 5.20 am.

"I thought we are too early and going to be alone on the beach. Amazing to see such a huge number of people coming for a walk at this time!" Anand exclaimed with keeping his long sight on the beach.

"Anand it shows how lazy you become nowadays. I use to see people going for a walk here at this time or even earlier", said Ben.

"How come you know? I don't think you come here frequently! You might have come here on your way to Chennai or back home!", replied Anand with a mischievous tone.

"Anand we all lost the race to the Sun. See how early he started his duty. Early morning six here looks like 8 am of Mumbai…"

We discussed the project progress and the way the team members are taking part with a common goal of improving the business.

 "We could feel that Ben's confidence has gone up and he is approaching the problems differently nowadays", said Anand.

He also indicated that people were interested in understanding the business scenario with the help of data. For many, simple data analysis makes much sense. "They are either finding an answer to the blind areas or reaffirming their thoughts using data. Data has become our new business language" Anand continued.

"We are using spreadsheets for our data. For many years, we used spreadsheets only as a storage point. Now we started realising the power of data."

"Kannan, You know? We are in dire need of measure phase training. We want to understand more about data and statistical analysis. I believe our people will utilise this prowess in their routine life. However, we are a bit disappointed when you said we had already done with the current state data collection".

I replied, "Anand, you always have a genuine interest in your team. Your opinions always represent the thought of your team members".

"Like slices of tomato gelled with the cheese on the pizza…" Ben laughed out.

"No, Ben, I am serious".

"Ok. So, we shall call Anand as VoT – Voice of Team" he continued laughing. By the time we had done with our walking on the concrete beaches of Pondicherry.

On our way back to the hotel, I suggested Ben arranging an out of office training venue for two days. "I will cover some basics of data, data analysis with some simple statistics. However, I need the whole two days without much distractions to people. I will also introduce them a simple data analysis software, Minitab during that session".

We agreed Monday and Tuesday of the coming week, as that would be their leaner period for sales.

The Stakeholder Analysis

We started that day with a breakfast session at the office.

"Hey, you all seem to be energetic and happier today. What happened?" I asked them.

"Today you are leaving early sir, that why!", the cracker came from an unexpected corner.

"Ganesh?!" wondered Ben.

Intentions are always good

I started pretending as if I am serious. "Ganesh, we have a problem with our company. We need your support. You may need to spare some time of yours and your team members. Will you help?"

The hall became silent. "Yes, sir, I am ready. Tell me what to do. We will support in all the ways possible" an emotional response came from Ganesh.

I asked "Pawan, will you?"

"Tell me, sir, what to do? I am ready".

Balaji, Manoj and Abhishek said they were in.

Then I continued, "This is what our next step in the Define Phase, the Stakeholder Analysis. You are all the stakeholders of the project. In this stage, we are going to document your interest levels in supporting the project".

"Now that we are all supporting. Am I right?" asked Abhishek.

"Yes. Every member of an organisation wants to support such initiatives. However, remember that all these initiatives were not part of your daily routines until a day before. Our daily routines are like whirlpools or chakravuyha. Once we reach the office, we get sucked into the whirlpool of our routines."

"Change in the production plan, some urgent orders, quality rejections, customer shouting at the counters, your team members had not turned out for the day… and so on…"

Most of our failures are not due to lack of intention, but due to lack of actions.

"As a green belt, you need to meet every stakeholder with a document clearly stating what kind of support the team may require from them. For example,

• additional workforce temporarily to collect more samples from Production Manager,
• analysing more number of samples from Quality Manager,
• installation of some sensors in the baking line from Maintenance Manager.

Based on the availability of resources in their disposal, they will say to what extent they can support you in the project. We tabulate all the stakeholders' current condition against their expected support level. The teams will present this analysis table to the Management in the Steering Committee Review".

I showed a sample stakeholder analysis table on the screen.

The Right Perspective

"How this is going to help in the project? Because we have a lot of such issues going around here. We do not know how and where to escalate them. If we go to Anand Sir or Ben Sir, it is seen as a complaint. How this tool will help us?" Ravi, the Master Chef, thrown his questions in the open.

Ben quickly replied, "I appreciate Ravi. We suffer much with this problem. I see that when you believe that the intentions of all the team members being good, then we will understand that their resistance is due to lack of resources at their side. So, once this is objectively highlighted to the Management, then the required resources could be planned based on the priorities and exigencies."

"Do you remember, when Kiran said he could not measure the temperature of pizzas, we asked him 'why?'; he said we did not have a temperature sensor. Then we got it arranged from my friend's company the very next day. So, the stakeholder analysis is an objective assessment of stakeholders' ability to provide the necessary support to the project. If one of the stakeholders is unable to support, instead of complaining, we must understand the real problem and provide resources they need" Ben concluded authoritatively.

"Fantastic!" I said.

Communication Plan

The noon light had started brightening the hall. That reminded me that I had only a few hours left for the day.

We moved on to discuss the communication plan.

"This should have been the very first step before embarking the journey of Six Sigma in an organisation. Every improvement or solution is a change. By nature, we – human beings resist changing. So, people within the Six Sigma team who are going to be part of the change, the stakeholders, the parties who will be getting impacted by the changes and the other people who are going to see and experience the change need to be informed about what is happening in Six Sigma initiative.

A thorough communication plan is an essential requirement of a Six Sigma initiative. This plan ensures that the communication chain is not broken across the organisation".

I displayed a sample communication planner.

Next

With the completion of Stakeholder Analysis and Communication Plan, we are completing the Define Phase with this Chapter. Cheers!

We will be starting the Measure Phase in the coming Chapter - as indicated in this Chapter - with a '2 day out of office workshop on data analysis'.

The time and effort required to learn the tools, techniques or the methodologies vary across the 5 phases of DMAIC. The learning or skill acquisition will be predominant in Define and Measure phases while in the Analyse and Improve phase; the primary focus will be on applying the learning.

We need to spend a significant amount of time learning in the measure phase. When it comes to the application of these learning in actual projects, measure phase will consume the least amount of time among the 5 stages of DMAIC.

I am eager to discuss the data and statistical analysis in the coming chapters.