allPM.com :: Black Belt Chronicles: Taking Work Home – A Good Idea? By Harry Rever, PMP

Black Belt Chronicles: Taking Work Home – A Good Idea? By Harry Rever, PMP – Director of Six Sigma

Published on Thursday, July 01, 2010 - 03:33 PM

An enthusiastic and passionate Six Sigma Black Belt, Will, attempted to apply a few Six Sigma techniques in the home environment with his wife of nineteen years, Jenn, with mixed results.

Will: Hey Karen, we’ve been tasked with improving your back office productivity.

Karen: We’re fine here in my office. I have metrics to prove it. You should go help another office.

Will: Really? What is your productivity measure?

Karen: We measure the percentage of time we turn orders around within 48 hours. We meet it every day. No problem here. Check out our chart.

Will: That’s impressive; a nice straight line. Does it tell you anything?

Karen: Yea, that we are good.

Will: How do you meet that 48 hour target every day?

Karen: We do what it takes; whatever it takes. I’m a doer Will; I get things done.

Will: What do you mean you do whatever it takes?

Karen: Look, the customer requirement is to turn orders around within 48 hours. We meet that target. What is the big deal?

Will: Well, I’d suggest another measure that might be more informative for you. Why don’t you measure actual turnaround time; not just the percent of orders that meet the 48 hour target?

Karen: Why? We’re at 100% on our metric. Why change?

Will: From what I can tell, you are running a lot of overtime, on some days, to meet your target or you have to pull people off their normal jobs to help out when orders get backed up. None of that is reflected in your current measure. Things look perfect with that 100% line.

Karen: How we manage the business is my job. We’ve measured this way for as long as I’ve been here; we meet the measure every month, what’s the problem?

Will: Right now, you can’t differentiate between an order that takes 27 hours and one that takes 45 hours. They all look the same with your current metric. You’re missing out on valuable information.

Karen: 48 hours Will. Anything under it is good. Is this really so hard for you to understand?

Will: If you measure actual cycle time, continuous data, you will have a much better understanding of the variation in your process; you’ll be able to differentiate between orders. It will be easier for you to improve results. And, there is a cost with variation so you’ll have a better understanding of costs.

Karen: We don’t measure that way.

Will: I realize that. I’m suggesting you start. This way you can measure not only the average turnaround time, but you’ll have information on the variation around that average. You’ll have a much better grasp of the impact of your team’s improvement efforts. Here is a control chart showing your team’s daily turnaround time from last month. You actually average 36 hours.

Karen: So, we have a measure where we are doing well and you want to change it; you Six Sigma Black Belts kill me.

Will: I’m just trying to help Karen. The fact is you are fooling yourself now with your current measure. Things look good on the chart but there is a lot going on to get those numbers that are not reflected in your measure. If you move to continuous data, actual cycle time, you’ll have a better grasp of your process.

Karen: I’ll think about it. We’ve measured it this way for years.

Will: Remember, there are costs to variation. The economic loss curve shows that the further away you are from the target, the more costs you have to the business and the more customers get upset. Your goal should be to reduce variation and then shift your actual turnaround time down; continuous improvement; that’s the goal.

Karen: And I suppose you’re here to assist me and my team with these metrics and these continuous improvement efforts, right?

Will: You bet. That’s my job.

Karen: Why can’t we ever leave good enough alone Will?

Will: No worries Karen. Your life will be much easier once we get these new metrics in place. You’ll have more time to spend working with and developing your managers.

Karen: I’ll hold you to that Will.

Will: Now, about those other metrics.

Karen: One thing at a time Will.

Harry Rever is Director of Six Sigma for International Institute for Learning. He is a dynamic presenter and practitioner of Six Sigma and Project Management with an innate ability to teach the concepts of quality improvement in an understandable and more importantly, applicable manner. With over nineteen years as a project manager, process improvement consultant and trainer, Harry has numerous examples of what works (and what doesn’t) when managing projects and applying statistical process improvement concepts. He has experience leading people including supervising project managers, quality analysts, and sales teams. Harry has trained thousands of employees on Six Sigma, process improvement, and project management and he frequently presents at conferences and seminars. He has certifications as a Six Sigma Black Belt, Quality Manager, Quality Consultant, and Project Management Professional. Harry earned his MBA from St. Edward’s University in Austin, Texas and has Bachelors degrees in Marketing and Management from Texas Tech University. He is a senior member of ASQ and a member of PMI.

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