Validate business issues early on in sixsigma events
When being presented with a business problem one of the first steps to undertake before embarking on an improvement plan or kaizan event is to validate the problem. Carrying out these steps will not only help the improvement team understand the issue but will also generate thoughts on potential solutions that can be utilized in later stages.
Validating the problem at the start of the improvement project helps:
1. Prove that the problem exists
2. Analyze the impact the problem has
3. Ensures that its important to the business
4. Ensures that its important to the customer
5. Ensure that the problem can be improved or irradiated
Validating the problem can be carried out in a number of steps and is likely to include
1. Analysis of data – for example measuring defect rates, customer service levels.
2. Identify then interview stakeholders (capture desired outputs and review inputs)
3. Construct a SIPOC diagram
4. Review of the process (including business process maps if they exist)
Its important to remember the scope should be to validate the problem, there is a tendency that this stage can result in further exploration into problem finding rather than validation and project managers should ensure appropriate focus.
Once the problem has been validated, the project team may progress onto root cause analysis and potential solution design safe in the knowledge that the problem has been captured, validated and the impact to the business quantified.
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