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Typical CI Roles: SummaryRole ResponsibilityBlack BeltGreen BeltYellow Belt
• Complete Technical Requirements of Project• Lead Project
• Schedule• Resources• Value• Scope• Enthusiasm
• Achieve Project Goals• Document project in Story Board format• Set up required meetings with team members, Coach and Sponsor
Coach (BB or MBB)
• Provide technical expertise • Meet with Belt at least 2x during each phase of the project for a technical review
Sponsor • Provide resources for the Project Team• Work with belt to remove obstacles or find alternatives• Issue resolution• Decision making at critical points• Reinforce schedule, resourcing, scope, technical elements• Ensure project documentation• Reward success
Senior business owners who sponsor projects, and whose role is to: Actively backs the programme.
– Ultimately responsible for success in their area. Identify suitable people and projects in their area. Approve, fund and facilitate project. Regular project tollgate reviews
– Address and remove issues and barriers– Provide critical thinking Assess improvement
Sponsors ensure their Projects Are Successful: Own the success of the project and help deliver it
– Select the right people for the projects – Hold regular project progress reviews– Anticipate problems and provide appropriate help – See the role as a co-coach to the Master Black Belt
Be proactive in supporting the project– Cheerleader for the team, promote the project– Attend the kick-off team meeting and other key project meetings
Project selection is critical because:– Successful & impactful projects (business impact) sustain the momentum
– The GB/BB training are dependent upon a project that can be completed in less than 6 months.
– Clear linkage to corporate objectives is a must…If you think you cannot spare your best resource to focus on this project… you don’t have the proper project.
The most common root cause for project delays is poor project selection & definition
Typically supervisor levelWorries about overall process health Has responsibility to manage and improve a process Buy-in is essential to sustain an improved process
Organizing Technical CoachingProject leaders will avoid major pitfalls Lessons you do not want your belts to learn ‘the hard way’… Check your measurement system before relying on your data
Baseline your performance before making improvements
Would you be proud to talk about this project at a shareholders meeting? A customer conference?
Does the project have the resources it needs to succeed? Does the team anticipate any barriers to timely completion? Is this project still “a go” as is? Are there any issues, risks or items for decision at this point?
Next Steps When will the Data Collection Plan be ready for review? When will the data collection be completed?
Based upon controlling these critical factors (X’s) at their optimum levels, what would be the potential impact on the problem area? Are these levels realistic? (practical significance)
Are these learnings transferable across the business?
IF “quick hits” have been implemented, have you been able to quantify their impact?
Do you have any resource constraints?
Is the project on track for completion? What is the updated timing plan?
Are there any issues, risks, or items for decision
Management Gut Check Are any of the new improvements transferable across
the business? Is there a plan for sharing this best practice?
What are the practical implications of the solutions being recommended? (costs, resources, timing, impact, etc.)
Is the timing plan realistic?
Are the improvements attained sufficient? If not, should additional improvements be requested of this team or should a new project be chartered in this same area?
Do you have any resource constraints?
Is the project on track for completion?
Are there any issues, risks, or items for decision?
No reporting system in place to track improvements
No audit plan established
Useful Questions
Has control been turned over to the process owner? Has he/she formally taken responsibility for it? What have you done to ensure that this is permanent?
Why was the control strategy chosen? What is the Reaction Plan? What training requirements were there?
• Pragmatic, fast approach – often a “target-rich” environment• Typical of early efforts in launching Lean Six Sigma• Emphasis on internal knowledge of process - participants know customer and
business needs• Fixing obvious pain points demonstrates that CI can really help people• Can be data or experience-based• Validated with minimal data collection effort
• Driven by customer requirements, competitive analysis and business strategy
• Enables you to pick less obvious targets with greater long-term impact potential
• Based on defined strategic, customer and business imperatives• Emphasis on outcomes and exploration of associated cause and effect relationships• Relies on intimate knowledge of business processes and operations• Validated and quantified with data• Supports the development of business and process dashboard
• Involves the identification of multiple, bundled and integrated project efforts involving the same process
• Relies on intimate knowledge of business processes and operations• Validated and quantified with data• Typically these are organized as a Yellow Belt wave with all the projects on a
specific ‘theme’• This makes it possible to achieve dramatic results while keeping the scope of
individual projects narrow
A Focus on Specific Process or Performance Issues
CI activity is focused on the following “Clusters”:• Back order fulfilment time reduction• Seminar Cost reduction• Marketing/Technical Collatoral design cost reduction
• Related to a key business issue• Leadership see it as a high priority• Clear start and end points can be identified• Significant opportunity for improvement exists• The defect or inefficiency can be clearly stated• We can clearly identify customers and get their input• The issue is stated as a “need” not a “solution”• The scope is narrow enough for a 4-6 month project run• The process has a clear owner• The process is not subject to alteration by other initiatives• THE SPONSOR HAS THE ABILITY TO COMMIT TIME AND
• Accelerate launches, POAs• Increase field rep time with physicians• Improve & accelerate training• Improve KOL experience across multiple contact points• Pay vendors on time• Improve reporting processes• Improve targeting process• Simplify & accelerate regulatory and review processes• Reduce inventory of marketing literature• Improve forecasting and reduction of inventory• Accelerate introduction of key medical knowledge to marketplace• Improve medical call center service levels• Improve recruitment, training, on boarding, performance management• Improve pricing scheme effectiveness• Streamline price approval process
Common CI Objectives in Pharmaceutical Sales, Marketing & Medical
The Maintenance team noticed a growing problem when needing to repair or perform scheduled preventive maintenance on the filling and packaging lines.
Critical parts were often not available in the stockroom even though the computers used for inventory control claimed in most cases ample parts should be available. These delays increased downtime which in turn increased missed or late deliveries.
Which Method do you think would be best to tackle this problem?What would be an appropriate way to scope the project?
Method 1 – Yellow Belt - Individual approach, qualitative toolsMethod 2 – Green Belt – part time, general analytical and statistical toolsMethod 3 – Black Belt – full-time, capable of advanced analytical methods
Case #2: Particle Size Distribution (PSD) problems
An API plant’s process capability indices were very low in a recent study. This was no surprise since for years they have had trouble controlling PSD and in fact have many investigations associated with the problem.
It seems everybody in the plant has a theory as to what’s causing the variation and poor capability numbers. The Drug Product plant is very discouraged as they are constantly taking extra measures at their site to do something they believe “should be handled at the API site.” This is a high volume API product that is produced continuously.
Which Method do you think would be best to tackle this problem?What would be an appropriate way to scope the problem?
Method 1 – Yellow Belt - Individual approach, qualitative toolsMethod 2 – Green Belt – part time, general analytical and statistical toolsMethod 3 – Black Belt – full-time, capable of advanced analytical methods
A plant which makes a commercial product has experienced much higher volumes than Marketing had ever imagined. Second and third production lines have recently been added to increase capacity. The fourth line won’t be available for another 18 months.
Data shows lines 1 and 3 tend to have similar profiles in terms of utilization rates, scrap, etc. However, Line 2 has a much higher rate of downtime. Site leadership is under pressure to speed up the process as best they can to meet demand until the fourth line is up and running.
Which Method do you think would be best to tackle this problem?What would be an appropriate way to scope the problem?
Method 1 – Yellow Belt - Individual approach, qualitative toolsMethod 2 – Green Belt – part time, general analytical and statistical toolsMethod 3 – Black Belt – full-time, capable of advanced analytical methods