Category: Project Selection & Tracking

Companies new to Six Sigma need an agreed-upon, easily communicated picture of current processes (“as is” state). Building a SIPOC diagram is a good starting point.

With many companies integrating Lean and Six Sigma methodologies into a single improvement tool kit, value stream mapping has emerged as a preferred tool to identify process improvement opportunities. A number of valuable points can be made about applying value stream thinking to project selection across a range of industries and processes both in the […]

An important factor contributing to the success of a Six Sigma healthcare project is the initial defining or scoping of the project. After the primary focus area of a project has been identified, scoping is the activity of breaking down the focus area into the many specific processes, sub-divisions of the business and/or segments that […]

Look around your workspace. Is your in-box stuffed to overflowing? Do you have a long list of new emails that will take you days to get through? Is your voice mail rejecting new messages? Are people waiting for your work output? All of those items represent “work in process,” also called “things in progress” (TIP). […]

When software developers and project managers begin to learn about Six Sigma, it is natural that their first orientation is from within the processes most familiar to them. Developers looking at Design for Six Sigma (DFSS), for example, will often find a way that it aligns with their software development life cycle (SDLC) and then […]

Once a healthcare organization has decided that Six Sigma can be an effective approach to improving the many services it delivers, the question then becomes how does it know where to start implementing the methodology’s statistical process tools. Process issues or variability in healthcare may exist around a particular piece of technology, within a certain […]

Although the concept of “earned value” comes form the field of project management, it is one of many tools that are consistent with Six Sigma. It is particularly useful for fact-based conversations and as a control mechanism for any large project.