DMAIC (Define-Measure-Analyze-Improve-Control)

No matter how you approach deploying improvement teams in your organization, they will all need to know what is expected of them. That is where having a standard improvement model such as DMAIC (Define-Measure-Analyze-Improve-Control) is extremely helpful. It provides teams with a roadmap. DMAIC is a structured, disciplined, rigorous approach to process improvement consisting of the five phases mentioned, where each phase is linked logically to the previous phase as well as to the next phase.

There are many resources that describe the DMAIC process. Our purpose here is to focus on special considerations for using the Lean Six Sigma DMAIC process in a service environment, including both methods and tools that are particularly helpful as well as hints on how to model the people side of each phase.

* Elements of Define (DMAIC)
* Elements of Measure (DMAIC)
* Elements of Analyze (DMAIC)
* Elements of Improve (DMAIC)
* Elements of Control (DMAIC)
* Process Simulation and Modeling
* Difference Between DMAIC and Design For Six Sigma (DFSS)



Elements of Define (DMAIC)

The first phase is Define. During the Define phase, a team and its sponsors reach agreement on what the project is and what it should accomplish. Presuming that a draft of the Project Charter is already in place, the main work in the Define phase is for the project team to complete an analysis of what the project should accomplish and confirm understanding with the sponsor(s). They should agree on the problem, which customers are affected, and how the current process or outcomes fail to meet their customers’ needs through "Voice of the Customer or Critical-To-Quality (CTQ)." The outcome of the Define phase is:

* A clear statement of the intended improvement (Project Charter)
* A high-level map of the Processes (SIPOC)
* A list of what is important to the customer (CTQ)
* An understanding of the project's link to corporate strategy and its contribution to ROIC

The tools most commonly used in the Define phase are:

* Project Charter
* Stakeholder analysis
* Suppliers, Inputs, Process, Output, and Customers (SIPOC) process map
* Voice of the Customer
* Affinity Diagram
* Kano Model
* Critical-To-Quality (CTQ) tree

The following sections provide a brief description of the above tools and techniques.
Project Charter

The charter is a contract between the organization’s leadership and the project team created at the outset of the project. Its purpose is:

* To clarify what is expected of the team
* To keep the team focused
* To keep the project and team aligned with organizational priorities
* To transfer the project from the champion to the team

Back to Define Tools
Stakeholder Analysis

A DMAIC project will require a fundamental change in the process. In an effort to mitigate the resistance to change when the improvement is implemented, it is crucial to identify the stakeholders early on, and to develop a communication plan for each of them. Typical stakeholders include managers, people who work in the process under study, upstream and downstream departments, customers, suppliers and finance. Regular communication can create more buy-in, identify better solutions, and avoid pitfalls.

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SIPOC Process Map

A SIPOC is a high-level process map that includes Suppliers, Inputs, Process, Output, and Customers. Quality is judged based on the output of a process. The quality is improved by analyzing inputs and process variables. An example of a SIPOC Process Map is provided below.


Using DMAIC to Improve Service Processes

SIPOC Process Map example
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Figure 1: SIPOC Process Map example

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Voice of the Customer

The "Voice of the Customer" is a process used to capture the requirements/feedback from the customer (internal or external) to provide them with best-in-class service/product quality. This process is all about responsiveness and constantly innovating to capture the changing requirements of the customers over time.

The "Voice of the Customer" is the term used to describe the stated and unstated needs or requirements of the customer. The “Voice of the Customer” can be captured in a variety of ways: Direct discussion or interviews, surveys, focus groups, customer specifications, observation, warranty data, field reports, complaint logs, etc.

This data is used to identify the quality attributes needed for a supplied component or material to incorporate in the process or product. The VOC is critical for an organization to:

* Decide what products and services to offer
* Identify critical features and specifications for those products and services
* Decide where to focus improvement efforts
* Obtain a baseline measure of customer satisfaction against which improvement will be measured
* Identify key drivers of customer satisfaction

The following is a list of typical outputs of the VOC process:

* A list of customers and customer segments
* Identification of relevant reactive and proactive sources of data
* Verbal or numerical data that identify customer needs
* Defined Critical-To-Quality requirements (CTQs)
* Specifications for each CTQ requirement

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Affinity Diagram

An Affinity Diagram (sometimes referred to as a "KJ", after the initials of the person who created this technique, Kawakita Jiro) is a special kind of brainstorming tool. You use an Affinity Diagram to:

* Gather large numbers of ideas, opinions, or issues and group those items that are naturally related
* Identify, for each grouping, a single concept that ties the group together

Affinity Diagram example
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Figure 2: Affinity Diagram example

An Affinity Diagram is especially useful when:

* Chaos exists
* The team is drowning in a large volume of ideas
* Breakthrough thinking is required
* Broad issues or themes must be identified

Building an Affinity Diagram is a creative rather than a logical process that encourages participation because everyone's ideas find their way into the exercise.

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Kano Model

Developed in the 80's by Professor Noriaki Kano, the Kano model is based on the concepts of customer quality and provides a simple ranking scheme which distinguishes between essential and differentiating attributes. The model is a powerful way of visualizing product characteristics and stimulating debate within the design team. Kano also produced a rigorous methodology for mapping consumer responses into the model. Product characteristics can be classified as:

* Threshold / Basic attributes
Attributes which must be present in order for the product to be successful, and can be viewed as a 'price of entry'. However, the customer will remain neutral towards the product even with improved execution of these threshold and basic attributes.
* One dimensional attributes (Performance / Linear)
These characteristics are directly correlated to customer satisfaction. Increased functionality or quality of execution will result in increased customer satisfaction. Conversely, decreased functionality results in greater dissatisfaction. Product price is often related to these attributes.
* Attractive attributes (Exciters / Delighters)
Customers receive great satisfaction from a feature and are willing to pay a price premium. However, satisfaction will not decrease (below neutral) if the product lacks the feature. These features are often unexpected by customers and can be difficult to establish as needs during initial design. They are sometimes called unknown or latent needs.

An example of Kano Model is provided below.

Kano Model example
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Figure 3: Kano Model example

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Critical-To-Quality (CTQ) tree

The purpose of Critical-To-Quality trees is to convert customer needs/wants to measurable requirements for the business to implement.

For example: A retail merchant was receiving a significant number of complaints regarding their homeowner warranty policies from their customers. By analyzing customer survey data and developing the CTQ tree, the business was able to identify critical-to-satisfaction requirements. These requirements became the focus for improving customer satisfaction. The business eliminated mandatory warranty visits and made all warranty visits optional. Eliminating mandatory visits satisfied the customers who thought there were too many visits and adding an extra optional visit satisfied customers who thought there were too few visits. Expanding the time frame for scheduling warranty visits from two weeks to three months eliminated the inconvenience for customers who had busy schedules and found the time frame difficult to manage.

The business took a general, difficult-to-measure need (to improve homeowner warranty satisfaction) and developed specific, measurable, and actionable requirements to drive improvements in customer satisfaction.

Critical-to-Quality (CTQ) tree example
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Figure 4: Critical-to-Quality (CTQ) tree example

Key Concept

The tools most commonly used in the Define phase are:

* Project Charter
* Stakeholder Analysis
* Suppliers, Inputs, Process, Output, and Customers (SIPOC) Process Map
* Voice of the Customer
* Affinity Diagram
* Kano Model
* Critical-To-Quality (CTQ) Tree

Back to Define Tools
Reference

* iSixSigma.com
* http://www.army.mil/ArmyBTKC/focus/cpi/tools3.htm#m

Lean Six Sigma

The root of both Lean and Six Sigma reach back to the time when the greatest pressure for quality and speed were on manufacturing. Lean rose as a method for optimizing automotive manufacturing; Six Sigma evolved as a quality initiative to eliminate defects by reducing variation in processes in the semiconductor industry. It is not surprising that the earliest adopters of Lean Six Sigma arose in the service support functions of manufacturing organizations like GE Capital, Caterpillar Finance, and Lockheed Martin.

Lean Six Sigma for services is a business improvement methodology (details on DMAIC) that maximizes shareholder value by achieving the fastest rate of improvement in customer satisfaction, cost, quality, process speed, and invested capital. The fusion of Lean and Six Sigma improvement methods is required because:

* Lean cannot bring a process under statistical control
* Six Sigma alone cannot dramatically improve process speed or reduce invested capital
* Both enable the reduction of the cost of complexity

Ironically, Six Sigma and Lean have often been regarded as rival initiatives. Lean enthusiasts note that Six Sigma pays little attention to anything related to speed and flow, while Six Sigma supporters point out that Lean fails to address key concepts like customer needs and variation. Both sides are right. Yet these arguments are more often used to advocate choosing one over the other, rather than to support the more logical conclusion that we blend Lean and Six Sigma.

How is it that Six Sigma and Lean are complementary? Here’s a quick overview



Six Sigma:
* Emphasizes the need to recognize opportunities and eliminate defects as defined by customers
* Recognizes that variation hinders our ability to reliably deliver high quality services
* Requires data driven decisions and incorporates a comprehensive set of quality tools under a powerful framework for effective problem solving
* Provides a highly prescriptive cultural infrastructure effective in obtaining sustainable results
* When implemented correctly, promises and delivers $500,000+ of improved operating profit per Black Belt per year (a hard dollar figure many companies consistently achieve)

Lean:

* Focuses on maximizing process velocity
* Provides tools for analyzing process flow and delay times at each activity in a process
* Centers on the separation of "value-added" from "non-value-added" work with tools to eliminate the root causes of non-valued activities and their cost
o The 8 types of waste / non-value added work
+ Wasted human talent – Damage to people
+ Defects – "Stuff" that’s not right & needs fixing
+ Inventory - "Stuff" waiting to be worked
+ Overproduction – "Stuff" too much/too early
+ Waiting Time – People waiting for "Stuff" to arrive
+ Motion – Unnecessary human movement
+ Transportation – Moving people & "Stuff"
+ Processing Waste – "Stuff" we have to do that doesn’t add value to the product or service we are supposed to be producing.
* Provides a means for quantifying and eliminating the cost of complexity

Did You Know?

Approximately 30% to 50% of the cost in service organizations is caused by costs related to slow speed or performing rework to satisfy customer needs.

The two methodologies interact and reinforce one another, such that percentage gains in Return on Investment Capital (ROIC%) are much faster if Lean and Six Sigma are implemented together.

In short, what sets Lean Six Sigma apart from its individual components is the recognition that you cannot do "just quality" or "just speed," you need a balanced process that can help an organization focus on improving service quality, as defined by the customer within a set time limit.


Key Concept

In short, what sets Lean Six Sigma apart from its individual components is the recognition that you cannot do "just quality" or "just speed," you need the balanced process that can help an organization to focus on improving service quality, as defined by the customer within a set time limit.