Where do projects come from?

Francisco,
 
You sound like you are in a difficult position, but maybe not as difficult as you think.
 
Most organizations I have seen that have employed Six Sigma for any reasonable length of time have a senior level management position called Manager Performance Excellence or something similar.  This manager usually coordinates performance excellence projects either with the black belts reporting directly to him/her or by dotted line.  If your company has this position, you should be discussing your proposed projects with him/her when the department you report to does not chose to sponsor your proposed project.  If your company does not have that position, your job will be harder, but not insurmountable.
 
The tone of your message bothers me a little.
 

Whose job is it to write the problem statement?
Whose job is it to write the charter?
 
The answer to both of those questions is it’s your job.
 
The Black Belt is responsible for establishing a monitoring system to identify potential problem areas, gathering sufficient data to fully define that a problem exists, and preparing a charter with sufficient information and a compelling business case to get the manager’s/department head’s attention on the problem.  The black belt is also responsible for preparing and delivering a presentation of the problem that is compelling from a cost savings (hard and soft) to make it difficult to impossible for the manager/department head to refuse the project.
 
Discuss your project with marketing, finance, etc, before your discuss it with the department head to gain the department head’s confidence that the ROI for the project is not just your opinion but is the opinion of experts in these matters.
 
The responses you are getting indicate to me that you need to learn how much information the department head needs before he/she will agree to sponsor a project.  It seems your presentations are not sufficiently compelling to convince the department head.
 
Like it or not, it is your responsibility to identify and sell projects to your department head.  It is a thankless, irritating job, but it is yours.  Learn what they want and give it to them.
 
If all else fails and you are sure the project should be accepted, ask permission to go see the department head’s boss (a high risk evolution), keep trying harder until you learn how to present a project to the department head and get it accepted, talk to the people on the floor who have to implement and get a consensus, or look for a new job.
 
Best regards,
 
Jim Shelor

Ditto on the KPI.  Until you have measures in place to demonstrate current preformance it is going to be difficult to generate interest in improvement.  Cycle times and accuracy of transacationals processes are usually there, you may have to dig a little.  Remember, you are the change agent, develop KPIs and then ask the question is the current performance acceptacble given that each defect cost x $$ and or customer dissatisfaction.

Welcome to the real-world of failed six sigma deployments and implementations … our cute little textbooks and the online programs forget to mention that this is what happens to the many six sigma implementations that fail … go figure.

Gopal,In what six sigma for total dummies book did you get those philosophical insights: top-down, bottom-up approach … congratulations on your ability to manipulate excel spreadsheets. but stay with that, six sigma deployment is not for someone with so little insights and such blatant ignorance and naiveté.

Fake Gary Alert,
Your response sounds just like your pseudoname (or is it original). One cannt help if you have a vacuous head to think a practical approach as philosophical approach. This is not from any Six Sigma book or whatever…. it is out of experience of successful deployment of the initiative. So my advise would be that instead of shooting off your mouth and showing your vacuous thinking like this, try to figure out the essence of what is being discussed.