Value stream mapping (VSM) provides a way to visualize an entire process, from the gathering of raw materials to the delivery of a final product to customers. It’s become one of the most useful practical tools Lean Six Sigma offers.

VSM differs from a process map in that it identifies both value-added and non-value-added steps in a system. VSM also typically goes into greater detail, including information on the time taken for each task, the number of employees needed, and the inventory required. 

Tina Agustiady, a Master Black Belt and professor in Villanova University’s Essentials of Lean Six Sigma course, said VSM allows decision-makers to “see the flow of materials and information.”

“It enables everyone to see not only the waste but the sources of the waste. It provides a system-level view of the process from the customer’s perspective,” Agustiady said. “VSM establishes the foundation for improvement activities that yields bottom line results. It allows prioritization of improvement ideas with the highest impact.”

When to Use Value Stream Mapping

Students in the Essentials of Lean Six Sigma course learn to use the methodology to maximize efficiency, producing products and services that better meet customer needs while also getting produced faster and at lower cost.

VSM is critical in achieving that goal. To optimize a process, business leaders must first know every detail about how it currently works. That includes identifying and eliminating work that does not add value to customers.

This is a far larger problem than most people realize. Typically, value-added activities account for only about 5% to 10% of a business’ actual time, according to Agustiady. Non-value added time is almost 50% of total time.

VSM compels businesses to look at their operations from the point of view of what adds value to the customer, not what adds value to people within the operation.

The Eight Wastes of Lean

When detailing how an operation works with VSM, project teams look for anything that falls into one of the eight wastes of Lean. Those wastes are product defects, extra processing, inventory, non-utilized talent, overproduction, transportation, waiting and wasted motion. Examples of typical areas of waste can include the following.

• Requiring extra levels of unnecessary reviews by managers 
• Employees who duplicate the effort of other employees
• Unnecessary spending on unneeded inventory
• Workers walking a long distance to accomplish their jobs because the right tools are not nearby or readily available
• Making more products than existing consumer demand requires

Finding waste requires a relentless focus on customers. Project teams must assess every step of a process through the eyes of the customer. That requires knowing what customers want in great detail. This may require taking a formal survey of customers to get feedback.

Steps in the Value Stream Mapping Process

The overarching idea of VSM is creating a visual graphic that depicts the current state of an operation, followed by a VSM that reflects the desired future state of an operation based on customer needs and what a project team finds out about a system’s current state.

The steps for VSM include the following:

Choose Where to Apply Value Stream Mapping

Keep in mind that while VSM provides detail on how a system works, the goal is to identify steps and processes that add value and those that do not. Businesses can apply VSM to one product or a “product family” that all follow similar processing steps.

Create a Team

Create a cross-functional team that includes managers and supervisors that oversee different aspects of the operation, as well as representatives from employees in those areas. The American Society for Quality notes that 10-member teams are ideal. Smaller teams might miss important issues, while larger teams may become difficult to manage.

Gather Data

This step is where managers should use a Gemba Walk, which means visiting where a process occurs and finding out exactly how it’s done, who does it and the equipment used.

Kaizen Meeting

At this stage, or sometimes earlier, a team meets at a three-day Kaizen meeting to draw up the current VSM, create a “future state” VSM and create a preliminary plan to get from the current state to the future one.

Villanova students learn the details of creating a data box for each activity in a process, as well as other information required on a VSM (production requirements, types of information flow, time between activities, etc.). Areas where improvement is needed are typically marked with a symbol such as a burst.

Examples of Value Stream Mapping in Use

A 2019 study from India investigated the application of VSM to an auto-ancillary manufacturing business. They found VSM had a positive impact on Takt time (the amount of time a company has to produce a product to meet consumer demand), process inventory level, and bottleneck time. The changes made through the VSM process also “helped to achieve higher customer satisfaction in terms of increased quality, reduced cost and on time delivery,” according to the study.

That type of positive impact is experienced in every type of industry. A whitepaper on the use of VSM for a lock manufacturing company found that it resulted in a “drastic reduction achieved in production lead time and WIP (work-in-progress) inventory.”

Using VSM allows organizations to make changes quickly based on accurate, current information. It’s one of the most-used Lean Six Sigma tools for the simple reason that, when done correctly, it can help lead to optimized processes that lower costs and satisfy customers.

The tools and techniques of Six Sigma offer business leaders a data-driven approach to solving entrenched challenges that have proven difficult to address in the past. The key to Six Sigma is applying the correct tool to meet the challenge, finding the underlying causes for product and service problems, then developing and testing the proper solutions.

What is Six Sigma?

Many people ask about the goals of Six Sigma and how it fits into other areas of business. Six Sigma provides proven, data-driven process improvement techniques that healthcare professionals, project managers, HR professionals and more can use to achieve strategic goals.

As for goals, Six Sigma seeks to:

• Find and eliminate causes of defects and errors
• Reduce cycle times and cost of operations
• Improve productivity
• Better meet customer expectations
• Achieve higher asset utilization
• Provided an improved return on investment

Six Sigma also relates to sustainability because, without data, decisions are made on a trial and error basis. Sustainable environments require data to back up decisions, resulting in methods that improve future generations.

The Six Sigma Standard

The standard for a Six Sigma organization is to create processes that result in no more than 3.4 defects per million opportunities (DPMO). That translates into 99.99966% of all opportunities being free of any defect. Organizational leaders achieve this by applying continuous process improvement to their operations, identifying areas where there is variation in a process, and finding ways to eliminate that variation. While it’s a straightforward goal, achieving a 3.4 DPMO becomes harder in complex operations.

Six Sigma Means Different Things to Different People

For business leaders, Six Sigma could represent a strategy to run the organization, increase competitive advantage, make products and services better, or develop a common language across the organization. Others may perceive Six Sigma as a quality metric to strive for or a method that can lead to better workplace morale and more efficient methods to accomplish tasks.

For some people, Six Sigma is a philosophy, according to ASQ, in that it views all work as processes that people can define, measure, analyze, improve and control. If you control the inputs to a process, you control the outputs. At its core, Six Sigma is a system that provides tools to reduce errors and the metrics by which to measure progress.

Six Sigma’s Practical Application

Six Sigma started on the manufacturing floor at Motorola, where engineer Bill Smith, now known as the Father of Six Sigma, created the system in 1986. Jack Welch later made Six Sigma a central part of operations at General Electric. But the principles of Six Sigma and the tools used to attain 3.4 DPMO apply to any process in any industry and have been used by public agencies and nonprofits. The Armed Forces also have adopted it in many different areas to improve military efficiency.

Innovations in big data have also improved application of Six Sigma, providing practitioners better quality data that helps them better understand where the challenges lie in a process.

Six Sigma requires measuring every aspect of an operation, applying a continuous effort to making improvements, and a commitment from every person in the operation (especially top management). Six Sigma also focuses on producing measurable results (such as improved revenue).

Six Sigma DMAIC and Six Sigma DMADV

DMAIC is a methodology used in Six Sigma and applies to existing systems that need improvement. It’s an acronym that stands for define, measure, analyze, improve and control. Using the Six Sigma DMAIC model, you would:

• Define the problems and project goals
• Measure data relating to the current process
• Analyze your findings to identify problem root causes through cause-and-effect relationships
• Improve existing processes based on data analysis
• Control the process to avoid variation in the process going forward

DMADV is used when creating a new system. It’s an acronym for define, measure, analyze, design and verify. Using DMADV, you would:

• Defining design goals for the new process
• Measure the required quality characteristics, product or production process capabilities, and associated risks
• Analyze your findings to develop an appropriate solution
• Design the new product or process
• Verify that that the new process works as intended

Levels of Six Sigma Expertise

Six Sigma offers a straightforward way to accumulate knowledge in the system and demonstrate expertise – a belt ranking system based on the system used in karate. The designations include Yellow Belt (Villanova calls the course Essentials of Lean Six Sigma) (for beginners), Green Belt (work on projects at the direction of Black Belts), Black Belt (project leaders) and Master Black Belt (oversee all Six Sigma projects for an organization).

Most business leaders know that works well on the manufacturing floor – Toyota alone has proved the advantages of employing Lean-style methods for decades. What organizations have started to understand in growing numbers is that Lean and Six Sigma can apply to any process, no matter the industry or the department involved.

One of the latest areas of focus for Lean and Six Sigma practitioners has been human resources. Peter Peterka, founder and CEO of training organization Global Six Sigma, told the Society for Human Resource Management: “The potential of HR’s effectiveness through Six Sigma and Lean is unlimited.”

As more HR managers adapt to this way of thinking, the need grows for employees who have earned certifications in Lean and Six Sigma and understand the value of continuous process improvement.

Applying Lean and Six Sigma to HR

Organizations employ the tools and techniques of Lean and Six Sigma to find and eliminate inefficiencies in an operation. At the same time, they also seek to create products and services that better meet consumer needs.

At its core, Lean focuses on eliminating waste, which is defined as anything in a process that does not add value to the consumer. Six Sigma focuses on eliminating mistakes (the hoped for result is 3.4 mistakes per one million opportunities). Both can apply to how managers run an HR department.

For example, an HR manager could create a qualification template to identify the ideal traits of job candidates for certain types of jobs. Once created, this template can be used repeatedly without having to waste time creating new ones.

HR might also decide to analyze why they are not retaining talented employees, because retention makes an organization more efficient and success more sustainable. They then could make improvements to increase retention in areas such as better training, corporate culture or compensation packages.

Another area that can benefit from Lean and Six Sigma is talent acquisition.

Lean Six Sigma For Talent Acquisition

The HR recruiting, onboarding and training processes tend to become complex and lengthy. That can lead to problems in attracting the most talented employees who always have other options. Six Sigma can offer help in this area through one of its most popular techniques, DMAIC.

DMAIC is an acronym for Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve and Control. When applied to talent acquisition, an overview of the process could look like the following.

• Define: An HR project team defines both the problem facing the company (not hiring enough talented employees) and the Critical to Quality (CTQ) aspect of the project (in this case, improving efficiency and success of the HR talent acquisition function).
• Measure: In this scenario, the measure phase would involve defining the business impact of inefficient hiring processes, such as a process that is too long and complicated and requires approval from too many managers.
• Analyze: In this phase, the HR project team can look at the root causes for problems in the process. A flowchart of the process can help identify where issues such as duplicate work or unnecessary waiting time have hampered the process.
• Improve: A more streamlined system is put into place. This could include making one person responsible for signing off on the new hire or putting a faster system in place to respond to resumes from talented applicants.
• Control: The control phase is about developing ways to measure success and ensuring that process changes that lead to improvement remain in place.

In addition to talent acquisition, the International Society of Six Sigma Professionals writes that HR can benefit from Lean and Six Sigma in areas that range from compensation, benefits and labor relations to HR legal issues and workplace health and safety.

Using Data-Driven Strategy in HR

One reason Lean Six Sigma appeals to modern managers is because it is data driven. By analyzing data from an operation, project teams can clearly find bottlenecks in a process and devise solutions to overcome them. 

Companies such as AIHR Analytics already have put this approach into action. The company recently detailed how it used a data-driven approach to help an international technology headhunting firm improve the success of its recruitment processes. 

They defined the CTQ and ran a wealth of data-driven tests to determine flaws and potential improvements for the system. The project not only increased efficiency of the current system but also discovered new areas where HR can collect data and make improvements such as optimizing recruiter time investment.

The Need for Lean and Six Sigma Experts

Writing for HR Executive, Ben Brooks, founder and CEO of career development platform PILOT, wrote that another useful Six Sigma concept for HR is Gemba. In Gemba – which loosely translates from the Japanese for ‘actual place” – managers go to the factory floor to see firsthand how a process works. This includes learning, in detail, the exact functions of the equipment and people involved in a process.

“When is the last time you were on HR’s proverbial factory floor?” Brooks wrote. “The higher up you are in your organization, or the longer you’ve been there, the more out of touch you might be with today’s employee experience and unmet needs.”

He suggested that with the many complexities that HR managers now face, they should look outside of the usual problem-solving tools they’ve used in the past. It’s an idea that proponents of Lean and Six Sigma all support, and one from which HR managers can benefit. 

Each of the five phases in the Six Sigma strategy, DMAIC, have three tollgates each. Teams complete each tollgate before moving on to the next phase. As students in Villanova University’s Lean Six Sigma Black Belt course learn, each tollgate is equal in importance. Making sure they are completed requires a process called tollgate review.

“Tollgate reviews are specific steps that must be done sequentially during each phase of a Six Sigma project. They ensure that nothing will be skipped and are key to the successful completion of the project,” said Marv Meissner, MBA, Professor of the Practice in Villanova’s Certificate in Lean Six Sigma program.

How to Manage Tollgate Reviews

Organizations have multiple options when it comes to how to handle tollgate reviews while following DMAIC methodology, an acronym that stands for Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve and Control. The five–phase process provides a framework for project teams to follow as they analyze current operations and develop changes to make them more effective and efficient.

Some companies may hold a long meeting at the completion of each DMAIC phase. Others may hold shorter meetings after the completion of each individual tollgate.

Whichever way is chosen, the idea behind tollgate reviews is to ensure each tollgate is completed successfully. Every detail is considered. Since DMAIC builds upon what is done in each phase, teams must take care in making sure each tollgate is complete.

In Villanova’s Lean Six Sigma Black Belt course, students are encouraged to hold a review after each tollgate. Meissner said doing so carries the following advantages.

• Project sponsors get the chance to review each step of the project, saving time and preventing re-work
• The discussion focuses on just one, specific tollgate
• Teams can more easily schedule shorter meetings
• Frequent meetings keep the sponsor actively engaged

The invitation list to the meetings should include Green Belts, a Black Belt mentor, the project sponsor or champion, and the appropriate project team members.

How to Prepare for a Tollgate Meeting

Preparation is key to a successful tollgate meeting. Team leaders should follow guidelines to ensure a tollgate meeting is effective.

• Send documentation to the project sponsor days before the meeting for review
• Determine the best format for the discussion and set an agenda in advance
• Include time to update attendees on changes to the charter, scope, team members, etc.
• If meeting via phone or internet, ensure everyone has the correct connection information 
• If using software, make sure that it is compatible for everyone
• Remind the sponsor which tollgate or tollgates are being reviewed
• Review prior phases and/or tollgates and then briefly review the current information, including the tools used and findings
• Request approval to move to the next tollgate or revisit a prior tollgate if needed
• Request additional resources if appropriate. If approved, let the sponsor know what the next tollgate and goals will be

As for the project sponsor, they also have specific duties to keep in mind. “The sponsor’s responsibility during a tollgate meeting is to provide guidance, insights, and suggestions,” said Meissner.

Additionally, the sponsor should update the team on broader level issues they may not know about, ensure the project remains within scope and makes progress toward the project goal. Sponsors also provide resource support, including staff and funding, and have the responsibility to stop a project if it is no longer viable.

The 15 Six Sigma Tollgates

Each phase of DMAIC has three tollgates. Here’s a brief overview of each, as taught in the Lean Six Sigma Black Belt course.

Define Phase Tollgates

Measure Phase Tollgates

4. Performance indicator identification – Specify what needs to be measured with a focus on leading measures that are upstream in the process.
5. Data collection plan – This makes it clear how data will be collected and sets down definitions and procedures.
6. Baseline performance measurement – This provides an evaluation of how the company’s current process is performing. Later, this will be compared to what happens after improvements are made.

Analyze Phase Tollgates

7. Potential root cause – Teams identify anything that might contribute to the problem by brainstorming as many root causes as possible. Nothing should be left out. 
8. Narrow root causes – Teams identify the root causes that most likely act as the largest contributors to the problem. 
9. Critical root cause – This cuts the root cause list down to the critical few that, if eliminated or reduced, will make the biggest positive impact on a process.

Improve Phase Tollgates

10. Generate possible solutions – The team reviews all possible solutions to each of the critical root causes.
11. Select solutions – The team selects the best solutions based on what is the most important to the customer, the company and the project. Data will drive this decision.
12. Implement solutions – The team puts the solution into place through an implementation plan that outlines when it will be implemented and any requirements for resources.

Control Phase Tollgates

13. Monitor and control plan – The team creates a plan that sets up how to continue to measure performance of the solutions and ensure new processes and procedures are executed correctly.
14. Response plan – The team creates a plan to address potential problems that may arise.
15. Continual improvement plan – Continual improvement is a core concept of quality. All projects require a final tollgate that creates a plan to continue making improvements to the process in the future.

This logical, clear process provides detailed steps on how to successfully create and complete a project. It’s a process that is reliable and repeatable, giving teams a way to approach process improvements in any project.

DMAIC gives project teams a five-phase process to follow.

• Define – Define the problem that needs solving
• Measure – Assess the extent of the issue and quantify it with data
• Analyze – Use a data-driven approach to find the root cause of the problem
• Improve – Put changes into place that eliminate the root cause
• Control – Maintain the gains you’ve made with the changes

For each phase in DMAIC, Six Sigma offers tools that help teams achieve milestones and keep a project on track.

In the Define phase, a project charter is created, customer needs are defined, and the process is mapped. In the Measure phase, process performance indicators are identified, a data collection plan is created, and the process baseline performance is measured. In the Analyze phase potential root causes are identified, they are narrowed, and critical root causes are selected. In the Improve phase, possible solutions are identified, and final solutions are selected and implemented.

The final step is Control. In this phase, all the work done in the first four phrases culminates in a plan to maintain the gains made by the process improvements put in place. Without keeping valuable changes in place for long-term success, all the work done in the first four steps is wasted.

Tollgates for the Control Stage

Six Sigma tollgates mark the path to success for each DMAIC phase. Villanova University’s Six Sigma Green Belt course teaches students the tollgates for each DMAIC phase, including the following for the Control phase. All three involve making plans that maintain gains for the long term.

1. Monitor and control plan – Teams should put a process into place to measure performance of changes going forward. This ensures that people execute the new process correctly and do not slip back into the old way of doing things.
2. Create a response plan – The team should create plans to address any issues that might go wrong.
3. Develop a continual improvement plan – This plan involves creating steps to ensure that improvements continue to get made because if you stop, competitors will overtake you.

Maintaining gains made by the DMAIC project is the main goal of the Control phase. As taught in Villanova’s Lean Six Sigma Black Belt course, a big part of success in the Control phase involves determining exactly what needs to be measured to ensure gains are maintained. In other words, you must set down the guidelines to know what continued success looks like.  

It’s also important that the project team documents the best practices learned so that future teams can apply them. Another key item in the Control phase is to hold a celebration when success is achieved. After all the hard work put in, everyone on a project has earned the chance to pause and enjoy the victory.

Control Phase Tools

Tools and techniques that can be useful in the Control phase include the following:

Standard Work

Now that a new process is in place, it’s important to document exactly how that process should be carried out going forward. This is an extremely important step. Many of the people on the project and employees putting the new process into operation may not be around in the coming years. Standard Work involves creating an extremely detailed, step-by-step guide to doing the process correctly.

Documentation

This is another tool that focuses on the future. Every project learns best practices that can prove helpful to future teams who may investigate similar issues. Teams should take the time to create full reports on the challenges they met and how they overcame them. These reports also provide a useful guide for management in how the new processes work. Documentation also includes preservation of project charters, process maps, customer needs and requirements, and charts and graphs created for the project.

5S

This term stands for sort, straighten, shine, standardize and sustain. It’s a visual plan for how to arrange a workstation to optimize operations when a new way of doing things is put into place. By creating a 5S chart for workstations involved in the new process, teams can help employees better maintain those gains going forward.

Students in Villanova’s Certificate in Lean Six Sigma program learn these tools and others to reach target milestones in every phase of DMAIC. In the Control phase, it’s all about realizing gains, keeping them going forward, committing to continual process improvement, and passing along best practices to future project teams.

DMAIC gives project teams a five–phase process to follow to make improvements on existing operations. DMAIC is an acronym that stands for the following.

• Define – Define the problem that needs solving
• Measure – Assess the extent of the issue and quantify it with data
• Analyze – Use a data-driven approach to find the root cause of the problem
• Improve – Put changes into place that eliminate the root cause
• Control – Maintain the gains you’ve made with the changes

Six Sigma offers tools within each phase that help teams achieve milestones that keep a project on track for success. In the Define phase, a project charter is created, customer needs are defined, and the process is mapped. In the Measure phase, process performance indicators are identified, a data collection plan is created, and the process baseline performance is measured. In the Analyze phase, potential root causes are identified, they are narrowed, and critical root causes are selected.

The next step is the Improve phase, where teams begin to put solutions into place based on the data measured and analyzed in the previous steps.

Tollgates for the Improve Stage

Tollgates mark the path to success for each phase of DMAIC. Villanova University’s Six Sigma Green Belt course teaches students about the tollgates for each phase, including the following three steps for the Improve phase.

1. Generate possible solutions – This involves reviewing all the analysis from the previous phase on critical root causes and devising a solution for each. Teams should create more than one option for each root cause. 
2. Select solutions – At this point, the project reaches its major goal, which is selecting solutions to fix the problem defined at the beginning of the project. Teams should select data-driven solutions based on what is important to the customers, the company, and the project.
3. Implement solutions – The solutions for each critical root cause are put into place.

As taught in the Lean Six Sigma Black Belt course, the Improve phase involves generating data-driven solutions. Teams should base their choices on data to eliminate any assumptions. Black Belts learn to select solutions based on criteria developed by the business, the feasibility of the solution and the ease of implementation. 

Improve Phase Tools

Tools and techniques that can be useful in the Improve phase include the following:

Failure Mode and Effects Analysis

Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA), first used by the military in the 1940s, calls for teams to identify all the ways a process can fail. In the case of most businesses, attention is especially paid to errors or defects that impact the customer. It helps in finding defects in a process that may have previously not been considered. It can help teams manage risk when considering solutions during the Improve phase.

Stakeholder Analysis

As the team approaches the point where they share their solutions with the organization, they must prepare themselves for resistance to some solutions from managers and employees. Getting buy-in is as important to success as any technical part of the process. During Stakeholder Analysis, the team ranks individual stakeholders in terms of their attitude and position toward change. It provides a quick overview of who they need to spend the most time with educating them on the importance and benefits of making data-driven changes.

Kaizen Event

A Kaizen Event is an effective way of quickly implementing the best solutions. Stakeholders and experts come together for a finite amount of time to focus only on picking the right solutions from the options found by the project team. Generally, these events last three to five days.

Poka-Yoke

As solutions are put into place, mistake proofing measures – known as Poka-Yoke – can either prevent a mistake from happening or detect a mistake as soon as it happens. This allows for changes to be made before an error causes more serious damage. 

Students in Villanova’s Certificate in Lean Six Sigma program dive deeper into the DMAIC process and how to best apply Six Sigma tools in each phase. As with all things Six Sigma, it’s important to know all the tools available to better select the right one for your unique situation.

DMAIC gives project teams a five-phase process to follow as they move through a process improvement project. DMAIC is designed specifically to work with existing processes. The DMAIC phases are as follows:

• Define – Define the problem that needs solving
• Measure – Assess the extent of the issue and quantify it with data
• Analyze – Use a data-driven approach to find the root cause of the problem
• Improve – Put changes into place that eliminate the root cause;
• Control – Maintain the gains you’ve made with the changes

For each step, Six Sigma supplies tools to achieve milestones that mark a successful path to completion of a project. In the Define phase, the milestones or tollgates are creating a project charter, defining customer needs, and mapping the process. In the Measure phase, teams identify process performance indicators, create a data collection plan, and measure process baseline performance.

In the next phase, Analyze, teams begin to extract information from the data collected in the Measure phase.

Tollgates for the Analyze Stage

Each stage of DMAIC has a series of tollgates that mark critical milestones teams must achieve for a project to end successfully. Villanova University’s Six Sigma Green Belt course teaches students about the tollgates for each phase of DMAIC, including the following three steps for the Analyze phase.

1. Find potential root causes, identify anything that might be contributing to the problem. The project team should not rule out any possible root cause.
2. Narrow the root causes by identifying those most likely to contribute to the problem.
3. Find critical root causes – those where reducing or eliminating them makes an immediate, noticeable difference. These critical root causes are the focus of the next phase, Improve.

The Analyze phase takes all the data collected in the Measure phase and uses it to gain insight into the root causes of problems. Students in Villanova’s Lean Six Sigma Black Belt course learn that the Analyze phase involves data analysis of inputs, processes and outputs, all in the name of finding the cause of problems. 

Certain Six Sigma tools may prove especially helpful in this phase, including the following.

Cause and Effect Diagram or Fishbone Diagram

This diagram provides a way to quickly visualize how one task in an operation impacts the next. Typically, teams list a problem on the right side of the diagram, and then the team progresses to the left backward through a process, looking for potential causes. Causes typically involve the 6M’s – manpower (people), methods, measurement, mother nature (environment), materials and/or machinery.

The Five Whys

The Five Whys strategy also allows teams to find root causes of issues. Teams state a problem and then ask a series of “why” questions that dig deeper into the core of any issue. For example, the problem statement might be “We always deliver late to client X” or “We spend many hours each month fixing design flaws.” A series of why questions can unearth root causes, rather than wasting a team’s time dealing with symptoms of the problem. 

Process Map

This may have been done in an earlier phase, but it comes back into use now as teams track down root causes. The process map shows all the activities involved in delivering the final output (typically a product or service). It offers detail on where all the inputs enter the process and where handoffs are made from one person to the next. It also allows teams to see which inputs are controllable and which ones are not, as well as which ones add value and which ones do not. By having a visual map of an entire process, teams can quickly find operational roadblocks.

Regression Analysis

In the Analyze phase, the point is not to try out new approaches (that comes in the Improve phase). Rather, teams look to drill down and find what the true causes of variation are in a process. Regression analysis is one way of doing this, measuring the impact one variable in a process has on other variables, as well as on the final product. It can also help prove or disprove a hypothesis statement, which is an estimate based on the statistics of what is causing a problem.

If the data collected in the Measure phase is sound, the team will gain many insights using that data in the Analyze phase. They will look at every detail of a process and form hypotheses on what is causing an issue and use further analysis to prove or disprove those theories. All this leads to the Improve phase, where solutions are formed and tested. 

This is an overview of tools and ideas put into play during the Analyze phase. Students in the Villanova’s Certificate in Lean Six Sigma program learn in much greater detail how the DMAIC process is handled and how to best apply Six Sigma tools to varying circumstances.

DMAIC provides a five-phase process for Six Sigma project teams to follow as they improve an existing process, product, or service. The five phases are:

• Define – Define the problem that needs solving
• Measure – Assess the extent of the issue and quantify it with data
• Analyze – Use a data-driven approach to find the root cause of the problem
• Improve – Put changes into place that eliminate the root cause
• Control – Maintain the gains you’ve made with the changes

Each phase comes with its own set of goals and tools used to achieve them. tools. In the first phase, Define, project leaders create a team, identify a problem and set a goal. The project manager chooses team members who bring the expertise needed to the project, and they begin to create a problem statement, define customer needs and requirements, and map out the process.

In the Measure phase, teams begin to delve deeper into data.

Tollgates for the Measure Phase

Each stage of DMAIC has a series of tollgates. These tollgates mark critical milestones that teams must achieve to be successful. As taught in Villanova University’s Six Sigma Green Belt course, in the Measure stage, there are three major tollgates.

1. Establish the performance indicator identification, which specifies what teams will measure in a process. The focus is on finding the key performance indicators from as early in the process as possible.
2. Create a data collection plan that clearly spells out the definitions and procedures for collecting data.
3. Develop a baseline performance measure that shows how well the company is currently doing, which helps illustrate the importance of the project. The goal is Six Sigma, or 3.4 defects per million opportunities.

Some of the key tools used during the Measure stage include the following. Keep in mind that not every Six Sigma project uses these specific tools. Six Sigma practitioners should use the tools that work best in each situation to achieve the tollgate milestones.

Data Collection Plan

Everything flows from this plan in the Measure phase. It’s one of the most important (and longest) phases in DMAIC. Organizational leaders will make decisions based on the analysis of data collected in the Measure phase. It’s crucial to collect accurate data on current performance.

A data collection plan contains specific instructions on what data will be collected. It also details who does the collecting, and where and how they do it. This ensures that the data collected is clean, accurate and pertinent to the problem the team is trying to solve.

Capability Analysis

This establishes a framework for assessing whether the current operation is meeting specifications. Capability analysis provides a statistical measurement of the variability in a given characteristic of a process. It’s key because reducing variation is one of the main goals of Six Sigma.

Pareto Chart

A Pareto Chart is a cause analysis tool. It represents statistics in a bar graph, with the length of bars representing the frequency of errors and the costs in time and money. The longest bars are typically on the left with the shortest on the right. A Pareto Chart is especially useful for analyzing the frequency of errors, or for focusing on one specific area if the team is dealing with multiple problems.

Check Sheets

The collection of data can get out of control quickly if not properly tracked. As taught in the Lean Six Sigma Black Belt course, Check Sheets track the amount and type of data collected, providing a convenient place for all team members to know what data they have as they build a performance baseline.

In using these tools, teams seek to collect data on performance and stability of the current process. They also want to validate the data, how it is measured and determine the capability of the process. 

Data collection for the Measure phase is a long, involved process. But the above tools can help manage the process better. Clean data is critical to the next phase of DMAIC, Analyze, where teams begin to identify the root causes of problems in a process.

If you are currently leading or aspire to assist or manage a Six Sigma project, Villanova’s Certificate in Lean Six Sigma program can help teach the ins and outs of DMAIC methodology and how to identify and apply Six Sigma tools to your organization’s specific circumstances.

The Six Sigma strategies methodology utilizes the acronym DMAIC, which stands for Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve and Control. This five-phase process provides a framework for teams to follow when launching an improvement project. 

Organizations use DMAIC to address problems in existing operations. The goal for each phase is as follows:

• Define – Define the problem that needs solving
• Measure – Assess the extent of the issue and quantify it with data
• Analyze – Use a data-driven approach to find the root cause of the problem
• Improve – Put changes into place that eliminate the root cause
• Control – Maintain the gains you’ve made with the changes

Tollgates of the Define Stage

Each stage of DMAIC has what are known as tollgates. They represent critical milestones teams must reach for success. As taught in Villanova University’s Six Sigma Green Belt course, in the Define stage of DMAIC, there are three major tollgates.

1. Create a project charter that makes the business case for the project and includes the problem statement and project scope.
2. Define customer needs and requirements based on Voice of the Customer.
3. Map the process, identifying all the steps taken to deliver a product or service.

Some of the key tools used during the Define stage to successfully pass through the tollgates include the following.

The Project Charter

This essential tool provides a framework for the entire project. As the team creates the project charter, they must address key issues, which include the following.

A problem statement – What is it that the organization is doing wrong? How are customer needs not being met? When, where and how often are problems occurring?  

The business case – Why is the project worth doing? Why does it need to be done now, before other projects? What are the benefits of the project? What are the consequences if it’s not done?

Goal statement – Define where the organization is now and where this project will take it.

Define Customer Needs

The key tools to use here involve capturing the Voice of the Customer. This can be done in many ways, including surveys, focus groups and direct feedback received from customers. 

Once information is gathered, a Tree Diagram is useful for breaking feedback into increasingly smaller and more detailed issues. This helps teams identify the underlying problems behind what is and what is not working for customers.

Map the Process

This is an area with many tools that look at processes in different ways. A few of the most popular tools include:

SIPOC – A SIPOC diagram provides a high-level overview of a process. It identifies suppliers, inputs, the process of converting inputs to outputs, the outputs and the customers who receive the product or service.

Value Stream Map – Creates a visual, step-by-step guide to how a process and information flows until delivery to the customer of the final product or service. It can help teams identify what does and does not provide value to a customer. Value stream mapping a process can help teams find barriers, wasted steps, and help them better understand issues such as work-in-process, lead time, cycle time and changeover time.

Applying these tools can help set up project teams for success in the Define phase and beyond. In the Measure phase, teams dive into more statistical research, using data to describe the current state of the process. Villanova’s Certificate in Lean Six Sigma program dives deeper into how Six Sigma practitioners should approach each phase of DMAIC, as well as the tools to use for success.