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Six Sigma Learning Topic: Introduction to Process Improvement Teams

An excerpt from Motorola University’s The Six Sigma Black Belt Handbook by Tom McCarty, Lorraine Daniels, Michael Bremer, and Praveen Gupta

The Power of Teams

There are multiple things occurring whenever an organization tries to accomplish significant, meaningful improvement. Without a doubt, actions of the leadership team set the pace and guide the direction of change. When Art Byrne became CEO of Wiremold in 1991, the first thing he said in his presentation to employees was “Productivity = Wealth.” This is a simple yet powerful statement. Productivity is a key economic factor in terms of fighting inflation, staying competitive on a global basis, and promoting business growth. This is what the Toyota Motor Company has done so well year after year. In order to be competitive, all organizations need to work with an ongoing sense of renewal.

While the transition is taking place to “something new,” work still needs to get done, customers still need to get served, and day-to-day problems still need to get addressed. Implementation of the transformation needs to happen somewhere.

One of the most meaningful ways to differentiate an organization is to have the people inside gain a better understanding of the Voice of the Customer and to take a more active role in transforming the organization to meet those needs. This is equally true for publicly held companies, private enterprises, not-for-profits, and governmental organizations. Cross-functional teams are a key method for doing this. They provide an opportunity for people to take ownership of finding new ways to do work. The names may vary — Lean, Blitz, or Breakthrough teams – but these are largely cross-functional, multi-discipline teams that look at business processes.

Types of Process Improvement Teams

There are three types of teams described in this Part of the book. Kaizen teams, Lean (or Process Improvement) teams, and Six Sigma teams. All three focus on performance and process improvement. They each bring a different perspective to the world of improvement.

• Kaizen teams tend to address the physical processes that lend themselves to the use of visual analytical tools. If the team can observe what is being done to find improvement opportunities, this is a good team approach.
• Lean/Process Improvement teams tend to focus on cross-functional projects, with requirements that are not clearly understood or agreed upon between the different functional players (departments), or by the people working the process. They take a horizontal focus across the process to understand requirements and eliminate waste. Waste is anything done that does not contribute to meeting requirements.
• Six Sigma teams take a vertical approach to process analysis and go deep inside the process where the root cause of the problem is not easily understood. They are more analytical than a Lean team. Six Sigma teams use sophisticated tools to discover the “root cause” of problems, eliminate variation, stabilize processes, and sometimes even design a new process.

While some projects are definitely most appropriate for a specific approach, many lend themselves to a blend of the tools. So it is best for an organization that is using the Six Sigma Management System to be familiar with all three approaches because they each have their strengths and weaknesses.

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