six sigma project management essay

six sigma project management essay

The Integration of Six Sigma Principles in Project Management: Strategies for Success

1. Introduction to Six Sigma and Project Management

Initiating a project management cycle to a DMAIC project might provide an assurance function, but it is an extra activity and the cost and effort of project initiation, organization management alternatives, risk assessment, and boundary and integration management risks TVO (Team Value of Ownership) and needs to be carefully considered. What must be agreed is that both project management and Six Sigma are appropriate: agreed responsibilities, construction of appropriate deliverables, and effective communications should ensure delivery of the right output and generated financial assets.

These are, in themselves, differing approaches: the focus of Six Sigma is, and should be, business process improvement and waste elimination. Since projects include not simply states but business processes that operationalize generated goods or services and present the operational challenges raised in fraud elimination, error, and mistake. Six Sigma projects focus on customer satisfaction, reduction of cycle times, and reliability.

However, it is important to recognize that Six Sigma and project management serve different, yet complementary, purposes. Six Sigma makes heavy use of DMAIC to drive projects focused on solving a present problem, typically in a process. In contrast, project management uses phases of dedicated activity, often in cross-functional, integrated teams, to build financial assets for the organization through management of plans and schedules to reach discernible success criteria.

Six Sigma is designed to achieve continuous process improvement by increasing the consistency and effectiveness of work activities. As embodied in the DMAIC (Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, and Control) methodology, Six Sigma sets a clear methodology for addressing problems and ensuring that any improvements are sustained. In many respects, a traditional project management methodology is reactive, dealing with an issue once it has been operationalized. However, by integrating Six Sigma tools and techniques into traditional project management stages, these stages can address potential issues earlier in the project development cycle.

2. Benefits of Integrating Six Sigma in Project Management

Improved teamwork is a significant benefit of Six Sigma integration. The entire team, including employees, partners, outside contractors, vendors, and suppliers, and the project support staff such as HR, procurement, and legal are all involved with complete satisfaction from Six Sigma tools. Moreover, through the deployment of Six Sigma operational principles, at the end of a project, the organization is expected to be far ahead of its rivals due to the company possessing a substantially improved system for doing its work. Furthermore, energy and a point of focus are required for the business team and sponsor to enable leaders to be quickly isolated. In summary, it is important for project managers to clearly identify the metrics that the project will impact and continue to sort out during Define/Baseline. Failure to properly achieve this will result in misinterpretation of the metrics that will create resistance from different sides.

The benefits of integrating Six Sigma in project management are many. They range from increased operational efficiency, improved customer satisfaction, cost reduction, improved communication, improved organizational effectiveness, and increased ROI. Other tangible benefits include cycle-time reduction, lower defect rates, reduced process variation, improved supply chain management, increased customer and stakeholder satisfaction, proper setting of realistic expectations, improved coordination and employee satisfaction, faster project completion, knowledge sharing, staff development, and the belief leading to successful project outcomes. Furthermore, the integration of Six Sigma in project management enables project leaders to focus more on business issues that are fundamental for ensuring project success. The creation of an effective work environment for successful project delivery is key to the success of all projects.

3. Key Strategies for Implementing Six Sigma in Project Management

The strategies proposed are the key to a project manager becoming the visionary, integrator, and advocate of Six Sigma that is necessary, especially in the integration of Six Sigma and Quality Function Deployment. The objective is not to create Six Sigma specialists with black belts. Lead the project managers to become the main stakeholders in priority projects, ensuring the appropriate Six Sigma structure to support the project and its deliverables. This structure involves black and green belts getting involved for priority issues and their ability to capture leadership and project management obligations during the Definition phase in DFSS model. For common business processes, the objective is to move toward potential Six Sigma projects ownership by the business project manager, with assistance from others on a project-by-project basis. The ultimate goal is to become self-sufficient after full completion of training for the business project manager who can then replicate results obtained in one of his stringent business processes.

4. Case Studies of Successful Six Sigma Project Management Implementations

The information contained in this case study was gathered from the Boeing annual report. This study included a continuous improvement program, funding improvement initiatives with the savings we get out of defect elimination and efficiency improvement. The first initiative resulted in a $6 million bottom-line swing from a plant that improves the product from 360-minute requirements to a two-minute inventory result. Management also supported the information infrastructure necessary to enable Six Sigma. Key to success in these installations was dedicated utilization of Cost of Quality tracking and reporting, structured DMAIC process application, and a robust data analysis method. Due to the early success of the small projects, the Star-Lite project resulted in funding and participation delivered substantial financial gains. Furthermore, DSTS management committed to a policy that thereafter a portion of all cost savings benefited the operations process owners. This money was used to fund additional Six Sigma project work to produce more bottom-line impact.

4.2 Consumer Goods – Aircraft

The first example dealt with the costs and resources needed to manage an environmental program. In the first phase of the project, through interviews with senior management, a method was developed for deciding what projects were to use Six Sigma tools. Although the Six Sigma organization was somewhat resistant to applying Six Sigma to administrative projects to start, such a transformation was resolved in the same manner as addressed in the Avatar project. These meetings established retention, the data buried in the various information systems and quantified an estimated cost, and a project was initiated to attack the problem. Although many benefits were obtained following application of the problem-solving process, a key element of the project’s success was commitment from the executive staff.

4.1 Government Services

5. Conclusion and Future Directions

We recommend the mandatory definition and inclusion of what is achievable into bold scope definition with targeted performance objectives. Tremendous amounts of money are at present being expended on projects without corresponding value-added results. The wasteful benefits of many projects by firms, governments, and others add to the worrisome need to link actual results to quality management principles. We conclude that Six Sigma principles could be derived and inserted during the project preparation/initialization phase of the traditional project management components with principles such as clear definition of the objectives of the cost, schedule, and quality scope of the project (Scope and Design).

Interest and application of Six Sigma principles has been on the increase in manufacturing operations. This project highlighted some of the limitations of its application in a system-based and process-oriented project activity, such as the cost and complexity of the methodology associated with duration and cost. The data and errors available, especially at the project initiation stages, are also abysmally low. Conventional project management addresses this stability of project data through the Planning, Scheduling, and Controlling components. During project implementation, project data is collected, errors rectified, and decision making enhanced. These are what modulate project performance; carry a project on schedule and budget and according to scope and friendly use. There are always mechanisms that help modulate project performance.