How to Pick the Right Lean Six Sigma Project

Video transcript below:

Hi, I'm Jennifer Ralston, CEO at HKPO and your Sensei On Demand.
Jennifer Ralston:
I find most students tend to have the same questions about the Lean Six Sigma Certification process. My goal is to help answer these questions up front for you. I'm going to shine the light on a critical aspect of the Lean Six Sigma Certification process, that is how to pick the right project. Getting the project right is so important because doing so makes the entire process more meaningful to you and your organization. I'm going to walk you through some amazing tips for picking the right project. And as we go through these tips, keep in mind that it's super important, above all, that any improvement project you pick is completely aligned with your overall organizational mission and strategy.

Tip number one, you're solving new problems. What is also very key is that you pick a problem that has an unknown solution. Many times people pick problems that have predetermined solutions, and they try to use the process improvement tools to prove that solution. This is not the path that we want. We want to go in using these powerful tools for problem solving. And frankly, we wouldn't want to waste your newly developed problem solving skills on problems that are already solved or even partially solved.

Tip number two, consider the scope of the project. Take a moment and think about the kinds of changes or the types of improvements you and your team will be making. Only when the scope is appropriately defined can you embark on making change for the better. It's your responsibility to determine very early on what's within the scope or not of your process improvement project. This will enable you to establish the process boundaries, it's also important to think about where you and your team have influence to make change, or is this something that's just off limits or out of scope.

Tip number three, once you and your team have established appropriate scope that the data can be gathered to establish your baseline, we then move to better articulate the problem. Ask yourself, how do I want to establish the process improvement as being a Lean Six Sigma project? To accomplish this it's important to frame and discuss around the problem statement and goal statement. A good problem statement does define the timeframe that the problem has been occurring, for example, six months to a year, and the baseline metric of the problem. And what follows is an equally good goal statement.

Which brings us to massive tip number four, create a SMART goal. What is that you might be thinking? Well, let's take a look at that acronym. A SMART goal is one that is specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. Let's look at a healthcare problem statement as an example. Over the past year, wait times in the emergency room have been two hours. Our goal statement for this example might be reduce emergency room wait times to 30 minutes or less by a specific date. Next, we must have a tangible project goal and a target date. You'll notice I didn't use a squishy date there such as end of year or end of quarter one, I use a literal date written down of when we're going to have this project complete and this project goal met. Being specific and realistic are essential elements to your progress.

The last tip, tip five, it's kind of just a safety net. It involves passing the proposed project through your strategic filter before getting started. Here's how it works. Simply ask two questions. Is your project based on helping make change for the better within your organization and does your process improvement project align with the existing strategic initiatives? And if so, which one exactly?