Learn and Understand Lean Six Sigma (Part 1)

Content:

1. 1. Introduction
2. 2. What is Lean?
3. 3. What is Waste (Muda)?
4. 4. Principles of Lean Process
5. 4.1. Define Value
6. 4.2. Identify Value Stream
7. 4.3. Flow
8. 4.4. Pull
9. 4.5. Seek Perfection
10. 5. Build Your Lean Vocabulary

Introduction

Much of the business analysis and project management work is about improving the process implemented by considering a problem, finding the root cause(s), developing alternative solutions and recommending the best resolution for the situation. Improving decision making at all levels of an organization enhances the short and long-term performance of the business. PMs and BAs are strategic decision makers.

Poor decisions can lead to decreases in productivity and increases in waste. In Corporate America it is clearer than ever that lean process is the single most powerful tool available for creating value while eliminating waste in any organization.

In this series you will learn the power of Lean Six Sigma, the lean principles, the five phases of the DMAIC process, and understand the basic Lean Six Sigma tool set.

This series consists of 3 articles, organized as follows:

1. Part 1: The Lean Process (Eliminate Waste)
2. Part 2: Six Sigma (Eliminate Variation)
3. Part 3: Lean Six Sigma Challenge (Win a free copy of the 3D Business Analyst book)

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What is Lean? top

Lean process is the framework used to eliminate waste in a process (convert waste into value). It is called Lean because it offers a methodology to produce more with less human effort, less equipment, less time, less space, while providing customers with exactly what they want. Sounds ideal, right? Follow along to see how this can be done!

Lean process creates new jobs rather than destroying jobs in the name of efficiency.

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What is Waste (Muda)? top

Muda is a Japanese word for “waste”. It basically represents anyone, anything, or any activity that absorbs enterprise resources but creates no value from the customer’s perspective. In Lean process, there are 8 types of wastes:

Transportation: unnecessary transportations could be stakeholders, equipment, or documents between office locations Inventory: could be excess paperwork in your office, work in progress, or equipment that is holding space Motion: it’s the movement of employees with no purpose, like walking to get tools or to the copy machine, or looking for people Waiting: a group of people in a downstream activity standing around waiting because an upstream activity has not delivered on time, like waiting for information or

approvals from stakeholders could hold up the technical team from starting their system design Overproduction: production of items that is not needed, like adding requirements not requested by the clients (gold plating) or excessive or unread reports, etc. Excess processing: too many processing steps that are not actually needed, like too many inspections, work redundancy and multiple document drafts Defects: mistakes which require rework or change requests Non-utilized talent: like not inviting the appropriate stakeholders to your meetings

Now that the wastes are defined for you, change your perspective and make it a habit to observe any wastes in your day-to-day activities and work on reducing or eliminating them.

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Principles of Lean Process top

Lean production is a strategy that uses less of everything compared to traditional manufacturing. The focus is on eliminating waste or non-value added activities within a process. The 5 steps of the Lean Process are as follows:

4.1. Define Value top

Value is defined from the customer’s perspective in terms of goals, needs and requirements. This is called the “Voice of Customer (VOC)”. It is any feature or step in the process that the customer has requested, and is willing to pay for if done right the first time – the customer will not pay twice for the same product.

In Project Management (PMBOK), this process is called Collect Requirements

In Business Analysis (BABOK), this process is called Requirements Elicitation

In Lean Six Sigma, this process is called Define the Voice of Customer – VOC

Various tools* are used to define the Voice of Customer:

• Interviews
• Focus Groups
• Questionnaires and Surveys
• JAD Sessions
• Brainstorming
• Complaints
• Root-Cause Analysis (Fishbone Diagram)
• Kano model – to analyze customer requirements
• Quality Function Deployment (QFD)

* I'll be explaining these tools in future articles.

4.2. Identify Value Stream top

The value stream is the entire set of tasks (activities) required to create a specific product from requirements to its final state presented to the end user. Identifying the value stream of your project will allow you to realize the gap between the value stream (ideal stream) and the current stream in your organization. Many of the activities in the current stream could be eliminated almost immediately with dramatic cost savings.

To Identify the value stream, you will need to use the process mapping tools (like UML Diagrams) to capture the following:

• Current state map: which is the process exactly as it occurs now, not how it is supposed to or how you wish or think it should occur. See the example below from the requirements elicitation process
• Ideal state map: it is the value stream. The benefits of identifying the ideal state before thinking about the future state is that the ideal state shifts the entire paradigm for the team, so they think about what they want to achieve instead of focusing on fixing mistakes in the current map
• Future state: is the improved flow that we want to achieve based on using LEAN tools and methodologies. The future state is not created in this phase, usually it is created after incorporating the lean principles of Flow and Pull (after the analysis work is done)

4.3. Flow (make the process flow) top

Once value has been accurately defined, the value stream for the product is completely mapped, and the current state and bottlenecks have been identified, it is time for the next step in lean process: Eliminate the wasteful steps in the process that are causing the bottlenecks to make the process flow.

What flows in software industry? Information, documents, requirements, approvals, etc

The goal is to make the system flow as smoothly and easily as possible by eliminating constraints and bottlenecks

4.4. Pull top

Pull is a method of work where nothing is produced by a downstream workstation unless an upstream work station triggers a need.

Now let’s apply FLOW and PULL principles to eliminate wastes and relieve bottlenecks from the process and create a future state map. (Case study below)

Continue case study RECOMMENDED

To eliminate the motion wastes in communication with the Lead BA we need to relieve the bottleneck identified. Some solutions to relieve the bottleneck at the Lead BA could be:

• Reassign tasks between Lead BA, BA 1 and BA 2
• Relocate other team members’ physical location to more efficient locations based on their communication needs
• Apply PULL principle to reduce communication with SME’s (BA’s pull information when needed)

Now let’s create the future state of the functional map. Remember that our goal is to eliminate wastes and relieve bottlenecks by reassigning tasks between the Lead BA, BA 1 and BA 2.

*THIS IS JUST AN EXAMPLE TO SHOW HOW LEAN PRINCIPLES ARE APPLIED INTO A PROCESS TO ELIMINATE WASTES.THIS DOES NOT MEAN THAT THE ELIMINATED ACTIVITIES ARE ACTUAL WASTE, THE PURPOSE IS TO SHOW HOW LEAN THINKING MAKES DIFFERENCES BETWEEN CURRENT AND FUTURE MAPPING DIAGRAMS!

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4.5. Seek Perfection top

Perfection state is achieving/attaining a system that contains absolutely no waste, so that every activity along the process stream adds value to the customer.

• Perfection means keep looking for wastes and eliminating them
• Perfection is a never-ending journey, not a destination
• There is no end to the process of reducing effort, time, space, cost, and mistakes (Kaizen)

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5. Build Your Lean Vocabulary top

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You might also like to read:

• How to Create a Use Case Diagram - Part 1 (6 min read)
• How to Create a Use Case Document - Part 2 (3 min read)
• How to Write a User Story (4 min read)
• Business Needs vs. Requirements (3 min read)
• 7 Traits of a Great Consultant (5 min read)