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Finding and Selecting Good Six Sigma Projects

By B. Krishna

Obvious Areas For Improvement
External Defects

Anything you have recently been audited or formally rejected for

Anything you haven't been audited or rejected for, but you know is out of specification or not meeting regulations

Anything you inspect and/or contain to protect the customer

Anything you cover for by having a guy in the customer's plant, etc.

Internal Defects

Any scrap issues, parts, or materials

Anything you rework/recycle in house - you should keep accurate track of rework by defect

Anything you have a poka yoke for - you should know how often the poka yoke is catchingsomething and then try to figure out how to prevent it rather than catch it

Efficiency/Capacity Issues

Anywhere you make less parts than expected

Anytime you are currently working non-customer driven overtime

Any process where you are running slower than expected cycle

Any process or machine with downtime

Any process with premium freight costs

Any process that has added labor to make the required cycle

Other Plant Cost Drivers or Measurables

Any cost driver with a negative variance may point to a project

Any plant metric that is important and runs at an unacceptable level or with large amounts of variation is a good indicator for a project

Next Page > Less Obvious Areas For Improvement
Page 3 > General Guidelines For Project Selection

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