Global Accreditation Body for Six Sigma Certifications

Articles and Blogs

Project Selection and Planning

Posted by 6sigmastudy® on February 23, 2021 | Lean & Six Sigma

Keywords: Six Sigma 6sigmastudy Six Sigma Yellow Belt (SSYB™) Six Sigma Green Belt (SSGB™) Six Sigma Black Belt (SSBB™) Lean Six Sigma Green Belt (LSSGB™) Lean Six Sigma Black Belt (LSSBB™) Free Articles Free Six Sigma Articles TQM Six sigma

Project Selection and Planning

Six Sigma is a methodology that is used to solve business problems. It achieves this objective by reducing variations in the process, decreasing errors in the system, increasing the yield of output, and reducing the defect rate.

Project selection and planning is one of the most important parts of the Six Sigma quality improvement process. Project selection is about prioritizing a project by assessing various project ideas. Projects will be selected on the basis of the benefits, costs, and risks. Benefits should outweigh the associated costs and risks. The success of a Six Sigma project depends upon well defined objectives, support from management, and an appropriate team. ‘Project charter’ is a key element of project management to deliver the project effectively.

Project charter documents the goals and objectives of the project. A project charter captures information on the following:

  • motives to carry out the project.
  • project objectives.
  • definition of accountability, team roles, and responsibilities.
  • expected costs and financial benefits.
  • project deadlines.
  • major stakeholders.
  • standards on which to judge the project’s success.

After successful documentation of a project charter, a ‘problem statement’ is defined. A ‘problem statement ’includes accurate definitions of conditions that can cause undesirable effects on the project and the organization. Problem definition is carried out in the “Define” phase of the DMAIC (Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, and Control) cycle. In order to define the boundaries of the project a ‘project scope ‘determined.

Project scope and problem statement should have the following characteristics:

  • Specific (precise goals and objectives for common agreement and assessment of achievement).
  • Measurable (the goals must be quantifiable to facilitate appropriate assessment of project progress).
  • Achievable (the goals must be realistic).
  • Relevant (the goals must be aligned with broad objectives of the organization).
  • Timely (the goals must be achievable within an agreed time span, which should be clear to all the stakeholders).

Post implementation of the project, essential measures should be taken to track achievement of project benefits and associated corporate objectives. These measures should be agreed with all the key stakeholders. Inappropriate project performance measures can misdirect the efforts of the team. For instance, if cost minimization is taken as a metric to measure the performance of the processes, the focus of the team may shift from defect and cycle time reduction to cost reduction, which may result in poor quality processes.

 

For more interesting articles visit here.

 

Enroll in the Free SSYB Course

Join 6sigmastudy™ LinkedIn Discussion Group