Assignment Topic:
You can choose to apply the methodology onto any topic you wish (I work as a cybersecurity analyst). For example, some of you may have a problem at work that needs to be solved. As this is an introductory course you do not need to focus on some complex problem. It could be as simple as
making your workplace more efficient
. If you are fascinated by this methodology and want to do something more, I am not going to dissuade you from it, but be sure to know that it will take much longer than I previously stated. For those of you who are not able to do a process improvement project at work, why don't you think about your personal life? There are some
great examples of how the Lean Six Sigma methodology can be applied to your home
. As you can see from the second example, it is okay to have fun with this methodology.
Setup instructions:
Before you begin, you will need to pick an area in which you would like to make an improvement. This process is formal, so you should have an objective result that you would like to achieve and that will require you to spend some time creating a baseline and showing the improvement that you achieved.
Please take a few minutes to describe the setting of your Lean Six Sigma project. Be sure to describe the environment (what is it like where you are?), relevant actors (who is involved?), and what general challenges you are facing.
Please outline the problem you would like to solve. In your answer be sure to cover:
What is the problem?
How does it affect the customer(s)?
Describe the process and what its critical outputs are.
Please establish a current objective baseline for improvement. In your answer, be sure to include:
Collect any objective data that you can about the process. You may measure time, output, defects, or anything else that you deem relevant.
What is your sense of the accuracy of your measurement? It is important to be objective about how well you can measure the process' performance.
What is the gap between current performance and where you believe the process should be?
Please analyze the problem and select which root causes you are going to fix by:
List any potential causes of the problem you can identify.
Identify how the process inputs affect the process outputs - find root causes. Hint: you could use a
Fishbone diagram
to illustrate your thinking.
Prioritize which root causes to pursue in the Improve step.
Please list the steps you have taken to improve the process by applying one of the lean tools to the problem. Be sure to specify specific actions you have taken to improve the process and explain in detail how you applied the tool(s).
Please detail how you plan to make the changes you initiated sustainable? What controls would you put in place to make sure the new process does not change over time?
Please share your thoughts of what you learned from this assignment and how you could use this methodology in the future to improve processes. Do you have any ideas for other projects?
