Implementing Lean Six Sigma in 30 Days: Implement the world's most powerful improvement methodology in 30 days

By Gopal Ranjan and Tanmay Vora

Implement the world's most powerful improvement Methodology in 30 Days

Lean and Six Sigma are two of the most important developments to come out of management theory. On their own they offer clear strategies for improving efficiency and controlling quality; together they are an even more formidable prospect, providing organizations with a strategy that can bring in improvements in both, a task which can sometimes be a real challenge. Gopal Ranjan and Tanmay Vora, experienced in the fields of quality management and passionate about helping organizations drive improvement, present a clear strategy for implementing lean six sigma, giving you both the knowledge and the tools to drive improvement successfully.

Implementing Lean Six Sigma structures the implementation process over a month, and gives you clear guidance on what to do and when. Beginning with the theoretical basics of Six Sigma, it then takes you through the various stages of a Lean Six Sigma improvement program, from defining and analyzing issues with efficiency and quality, to taking the steps that can get your organization the results it needs. Practical, knowledgeable and accessible, this guide will make Lean Six Sigma your improvement methodology of choice

How can we improve? This is one of the most fundamental, but challenging, questions an organization can ask itself. It is never easy, but the ability to drive significant change that can bring positive results is immensely important for a business that wants to be successful in a rapidly growing market. Lean Six Sigma offers a way of answering this question, combining the approaches of both Lean and Six Sigma in a way that offers an opportunity for exponential improvement in a way that is manageable, flexible and sustainable. Spanning a month's implementation process, this book will take you on a Lean Six Sigma journey, where you will gain a clear understanding of the fundamental principles, and develop a clear perspective of the process as it unfolds. From defining the problems to be tackled, to their measurement and analysis, this book leads you towards the stage of innovation where you can take steps that ensure and sustain improvements.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Packt Publishing
• Release date: Oct 31, 2014
• ISBN: 9781783000357

Book preview

Table of Contents

Implementing Lean Six Sigma in 30 Days

Credits

About the Authors

About the Reviewers

Preface

What this book covers

Who this book is for

Conventions

Reader feedback

Piracy

1. What is Lean Six Sigma?

Six Sigma

The key concepts of Six Sigma

Accuracy and precision

Y=f(x)

Focus on defects and variation

Exponential improvement

Three Dimensions

Advantages of Six Sigma

Lean

Key concepts of Lean

Waste

Value and non-value adding activities

Process cycle efficiency

Process velocity

Advantages of Lean

The concept of Lean Six Sigma

Case study

Summary

Quiz

2. Planning the Implementation

Life cycle of Lean Six Sigma

Initiate (days 1-2)

Enable (days 3-8)

Typical distribution of various belts

Implementing your projects (day 9 onwards)

Green Belt and Black Belt projects

Replicate (ongoing)

Sustain (ongoing)

Project and program review

Communication

Summary

Quiz

3. Define (Days 9-11)

Project charter (day 9)

Voice of customer (day 10)

High-level process map (day 11)

Form team (day 11)

Checklist

Case study – the Define stage

Summary

Quiz

4. Measure (Day 12-17)

Key deliverables

Identifying key measures (day 12)

Data collection plan (day 12-14)

Clarification of objectives

Developing operational definitions and procedures

Collect data

Evaluation of sample size

Measurement system analysis (day 15)

Gage R&R

Data representation (day 15)

Pareto diagram

Bar chart

Pie chart

Histogram

Box plot

Multi-vari chart

Run chart

Control chart

A detailed process map (day 15-16)

Baseline performance measurement (day 16-17)

For discrete data

For continuous data

Case study – Measure

Summary

Quiz

5. Analyze (Day 14-19)

Key deliverables

Identification and prioritization of root causes (day 14-17)

Cause-and-effect diagram (day 14)

Data analysis (day 14-15)

Process analysis (day 16-17)

Hypothesis testing (day 18-19)

Hypothesis testing examples

Case study – analyze

Summary

Quiz

6. Improve (Days 20-25)

Key deliverables

Generate ideas (days 20-21)

Brain storming

Affinity diagram

Force field analysis

SCAMPER

Select ideas (day 22)

Implement solutions (days 22-24)

Work-breakdown structure (WBS)

Gantt chart

Risk assessment and mitigation

Some Lean manufacturing tools

5 S

Kaizen

Mistake proofing

Validate solutions (day 25)

Case study – improve

Summary

Quiz

7. Control (Days 26-30)

Key Deliverables

Process-monitoring plan (days 26-29)

Control charts (days 27-29)

Control charts for continuous data

Control charts for discrete data

Project documentation (day 30)

Case Study – Control

Summary

Quiz

8. Best Practices and Pitfalls

Best practices

The power of stretch goals

Ready-aim-fire

In God we trust, all others must bring data

Tangible targets linked to financial measures

Variation is the voice of the process

Celebrate achievements

Involve the owner of the process

Project goals should be aligned to organizational goals

Pitfalls

Our process is so different

Relying blindly on data

Projects with too large a scope

Needless use of statistics and tools

Part-time Black Belts

Over training

Inflated opportunity counts

Inadequate use of automation or technology

Summary

Implementing Lean Six Sigma in 30 Days

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Implementing Lean Six Sigma in 30 Days

Copyright © 2014 Impackt Publishing

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embedded in critical articles or reviews.

Every effort has been made in the preparation of this book to ensure the accuracy of the information presented. However, the information contained in this book is sold without warranty, either express or implied. Neither the author nor Impackt Publishing, and its dealers and distributors will be held liable for any damages caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by this book.

Impackt Publishing has endeavored to provide trademark information about all of the companies and products mentioned in this book by the appropriate use of capitals. However, Impackt Publishing cannot guarantee the accuracy of this information.

First published: October 2014

Production reference: 1251014

Published by Impackt Publishing Ltd.

Livery Place

35 Livery Street

Birmingham B3 2PB, UK.

ISBN 978-1-78300-034-0

www.impacktpub.com

Cover image by Jarek Blaminsky (<[e-mail]>)

Credits

Authors

Gopal Ranjan

Tanmay Vora

Reviewers

Professor V. K. Garg

Alaeddin Hallak

Sarabjeet S. Kochar

Sidhartha Mukherjee

Acquisition Editor

Richard Gall

Proofreaders

Simran Bhogal

Ameesha Green

Paul Hindle

Copy Editors

Tanvi Bhatt

Maria Gould

Paul Hindle

Alfida Paiva

Faisal Siddiqui

Project Coordinator

Priyanka Goel

Production Coordinator

Melwyn D'sa

Cover Work

Melwyn D'sa

About the Authors

Gopal Ranjan has extensive experience in developing breakthrough improvements and quality management systems. He is a certified Six Sigma Master Black Belt with more than 16 years of experience in the design and deployment of Lean Six Sigma methodology across different organizations. He is also a certified Balanced Scorecard Practitioner. He is also the Lead Auditor on ISO 9001 and ISO 27001 standards. He holds a BTech degree from India's prestigious Indian Institute of Technology, BHU, Varanasi, as well as a Master's degree in Business Administration in Finance. He is also a practicing NLP practitioner and holds a Master's degree in Psychotherapy and Counseling. He regularly writes articles and columns on varied subjects including management, science, psychology, and philosophy for newspapers and magazines. Currently, he heads the Quality function of one of India's foremost IT services companies, Datamatics Global Services Ltd. He can be reached at <[e-mail]>.

This book has benefited from the support of a large number of people. I apologize for not listing them all. A few people played a major role in making this book happen. First of all, I would like to thank my parents who always believed in me and encouraged me to explore new horizons and kept the tap of curiosity open. My wife, Anupam, who always stood by me and provided critical feedback about the content and the structure of the book. My elder brother, Rajeev, who always goaded me to pen down a book. My editor, Richard Gall, who went through the manuscript patiently many times and provided valuable assistance throughout the writing process. Our coordinator, Priyanka Goel, who ensured that everything was in order and the project was on time. Last but not least, my young daughters, Kashvi and Advika, for providing the pep and energy to bring the book to its logical conclusion.

Tanmay Vora is a quality professional who has 15 years of diverse IT experience leading corporate quality programs, growing software testing teams, providing process consulting, and driving improvement initiatives. He currently leads a corporate quality program at CIGNEX Datamatics where he spearheaded certification initiatives such as CMMI Level 3 and ISO 27001 (Information Security).

At QAspire Blog, which he founded in 2006, Tanmay combines his passion for writing with his deep interest in excellence, people, leadership, and human aspects of building a culture of excellence. He recently wrote his first book titled #QUALITYtweet – 140 bite sized ideas to deliver quality in every project, THINKaha, and he regularly contributes his writing to various blogs, magazines, and books. In 2012 and 2013, he was rated as one of the Top 5 Indian HR Influencers on Social Media by the Society of Human Resources Management (SHRM India).

Tanmay tweets as @tnvora and can be contacted at <[e-mail]>.

This book was not possible without the subject matter expertise of 
my co-author Gopal Ranjan. I totally appreciate his constant support and guidance.

My family has been a constant source of inspiration for me and I am grateful for the love and encouragement they provide in all my endeavors, including this book.

Thanks also to my editor, Richard Gall, for reviewing the manuscript, and the members of the Packt Publishing team who collaborated with us to make this book happen.

About the Reviewers

Professor V. K. Garg carries with him over 35 years of experience in the fields of information technology, management consulting, and academics. He has been on the boards of various companies for over 10 years and has worked with well-known organizations such as A F Ferguson, Larson and Turbo, Zenith Computers, NITIE, Lupin Laboratories, Rolta, Datamatics, and others. He is an acknowledged authority in the various areas related to project management. He has also been associated with various World Bank sponsored projects as an expert.

As a corporate trainer and consultant, he is associated with many leading IT organizations and institutions. He is the brain behind two of the training programs that have been highly appreciated by various State Electricity boards and Public Welfare departments around Project Identification Formulation and Appraisal (PIFA) and Project Implementation Monitoring and Control (PIME) with the help of World Bank. His training programs are well recognized, widely accepted, and attended by senior and middle management personnel from diverse industries and government agencies. He is a much sought after trainer, and his diverse disciplinary experience equips him with a wide perspective and deep insights into the challenges and issues of the business world.

Professor Garg is also a certified Six Sigma Master Black Belt and has been the guiding force behind over 200 Six Sigma and Lean Six Sigma projects in various organizations for more than 10 years.

He is the author of two best-selling books—Enterprise Resource Planning, and Workbook on System Analysis & Design, both published by Prentice-Hall of India Publications. Both these books have run into multiple editions. He also has to his credit numerous articles and research papers that have been published in leading journals and conference proceedings.

Prof. Garg is a gold medalist in Bachelor of Engineering and an MTech from the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Delhi.

Alaeddin Hallak is a senior business analyst and a Six Sigma Green Belt at HP Enterprise Services. He currently leads the business analysis team at SADAD Payment System, Saudi Arabia's national payment gateway that handles over 90 percent of the Kingdom's payment transactions. Previously, he was the lead BPM specialist for several Saudi government institutions including the General Authority of Civil Aviation, Jeddah Municipality, and Royal Commission for Jubail and Yanbu.

A graduate of Computer Science from the Jordan University of Science and Technology, Alaeddin holds several industry qualifications in business