8. Defining the Six Sigma Infrastructure
With Dan Kutz
Any major change initiative requires a clearly defined supporting infrastructure to drive the program. Infrastructure is defined as the underlying foundation and basic framework of personnel and supporting systems needed to support Six Sigma deployment activities. Because every part of a company participates in Six Sigma activities, the infrastructure must be clear, consistent, and comprehensive.
An effective infrastructure facilitates the development of the core competency that will establish and link Six Sigma project teams to (1) projects, (2) financial targets, and (3) the strategic plan. These project teams will be multifunctional and will need multi-functional support to execute the projects.
If Six Sigma has any chance of being successful, the infrastructure will span from the CEO and his leadership team to business leaders and to people executing the projects. Remember we learned earlier that one of Kotter’s eight stages of leader change is “Create a Guiding Coalition.” Thus, there is the goal of the Six Sigma infrastructure.
The infrastructure creates a strong network among the Executive Team, the Six Sigma Champions, the Belts, and the functions and businesses. This makes sense because the CEO’s leadership team holds the accountability for executing the corporate strategic plan, and Six Sigma projects are instrumental in moving along the strategic plan.
One learning challenge of a Six Sigma deployment involves training the Six Sigma project teams. The human resources on these teams must learn how to work as a Six Sigma team. A new roadmap and a new set of tools, plus a more distinct focus on project accountability, add to the changes confronted by an organization when creating a Six Sigma environment.
Equally more important and complex is the learning challenge of the senior executives. Teaching the leadership team to learn how to lead a team-based organization is essential to strategic and long-term success. Because executing the strategy is a clear responsibility to which the senior executives are accountable, it follows that becoming a dynamic team leader within the Six Sigma deployment will support the strategic efforts.
Executing a good strategic plan entails the coordination of multifunctional internal activities. Senior executives must learn to deal with a multifunctional arena rather than the traditional functions. Hundreds of Six Sigma teams launched simultaneously is the outcome of an exemplary deployment of Six Sigma. Each of these teams need at minimum
1. Clear purpose for the Six Sigma team structure.
2. Clear Six Sigma program expectations.
3. Six Sigma project charters.
4. Six Sigma infrastructure tracking the number of teams.
5. Centralized repository for project results.
6. Six Sigma team goals.
7. Six Sigma team reporting mechanism.
8. Rewards and recognition alignment.
9. Six Sigma training and development plan.
10. Six Sigma team performance measures.
11. Deployment management of Six Sigma teams.
To accomplish all of the preceding requirements demands an extensive infrastructure with supporting systems. Preexisting resources are largely used to staff this infrastructure. Deploying a Six Sigma program, however, does not assume a requirement to add outside resources in a lot of new positions. The additional costs will usually have to do with the external consulting group you hire.
For example, the only resource that Larry Bossidy added when he launched Six Sigma into AlliedSignal was a corporate program leader. Larry brought in Richard Schroeder from ABB to drive the program. All the other resources for AlliedSignal’s Six Sigma program already existed within the company. A small number of additional resources were added by the businesses as needed.
Because accountability represents the hallmark of successful Six Sigma deployments, defining the Six Sigma infrastructure and staffing and training the infrastructure players should happen very early in the Six Sigma deployment. Training is essential since, as Larry Bossidy has advised in his book, Confronting Reality, you must “Learn the guts of the initiative.” He also adds that key members of the leadership team should learn the guts of the initiative. Early leadership training becomes a natural part of Six Sigma deployments to allow the program leaders to learn the guts of Six Sigma before the program gets too far along.
Defining the Six Sigma infrastructure is a little tricky. There should be a small centralized unit to ensure consistency and cost effectiveness of Six Sigma activities across the businesses and functions. There should also be a decentralized process that allows each business and function to tailor the Six Sigma deployment to its special needs. There is a big difference in deploying Six Sigma into the Human Resources function when compared to deploying into product development and R&D. So, our recommended infrastructure has both centralized and decentralized elements in it.
The Six Sigma Infrastructure
The aspects of the infrastructure that will be addressed are the following:
• CEO and Executive Team—Corporate and Businesses
• Six Sigma Initiative Champion—Corporate
• Six Sigma Deployment Champions—Business Unit
• Six Sigma Project Champions
• Master Black Belts
• Black Belts
• Green Belts
• Six Sigma Project Team Members
• Six Sigma Finance Support
• Six Sigma Human Resource Support
• Six Sigma Project Tracking
• Six Sigma Steering Teams
• Six Sigma Certifications
CEO and Executive Team
The commitment of the CEO and the Executive Team is essential to the success of the Six Sigma deployment. The Executive Team consists of the CEO and his or her first-level reports or sometimes his or her second-level reports. There is a difference between a show of commitment and a show of support. Larry Bossidy and Fred Poses constantly demonstrated commitment of the first years of the AlliedSignal deployment.
Larry met with every Black Belt class that was taught at the AlliedSignal Learning Center in Morristown, New Jersey. He held detailed program reviews every quarter with every segment in the company. Leaders that simply show support will not stop activity in the initiative, but will not actively drive the program in a strategic direction. Supporters tend not to create a sense of urgency around the initiative.
Larry says in Confronting Reality, “Leaders must have the courage of their convictions to follow through, and they have to be both inspiring and unrelenting. People need to know that there will be consequences for not getting behind the initiative.” This group must be prepared to lead the Six Sigma as a strategic initiative, complete with strategic goals and expectations. Because Six Sigma programs historically generate revenue for the company based on savings, the Six Sigma deployment should be run as a new business within the company. My Black Belts generated a validated $95 million during the first year. This was roughly equivalent to the same results of adding a new business with the first year revenue of almost $1 billion.
The book titled The Leadership Challenge by Kouzes and Posner (1995) sets forth the fundamentals of leadership with the following five principles:
1. Challenge the process.
2. Inspire a shared vision.
3. Enable others to act.
4. Model the way.
5. Encourage the heart.
Some process has surely been challenged or you wouldn’t be deploying Six Sigma in the first place. However, Six Sigma will be a new process within the company and must be challenged until the process becomes institutionalized and robust.
Once the Executive Team learns the guts of Six Sigma, the shared vision that is created should be dynamic and exciting. Because of the academic complexity of Six Sigma, the corporate-wide training plan will be developed. The training in the Six Sigma roadmaps and tools, along with the support and commitment to use them, will enable others to act.
Modeling the way means that the Executive Team has learned the language of Six Sigma, talking to the Black Belts, Green Belts, and Six Sigma Champions on every business trip. They hold detailed program reviews consistently and ask hard questions at those reviews. The Executive Team appears as if they have been trained as Black Belts themselves. Larry Bossidy and Fred Poses underwent extensive training in Six Sigma and knew it well. They were so inspiring that my Black Belts would follow those guys anywhere after they addressed a group of Black Belts.
Well-thought-out rewards and recognition systems encourage the heart of the resources committed to Six Sigma. The Executive Team makes sure that these new systems are in place. The Executive Team ensures
• Personal understanding and commitment to the deployment.
• Definition of the scope of the Six Sigma deployment.
• Integration of Six Sigma into other programs and initiatives.
• Strongly developed rationale for Six Sigma:
• Ties to benefits everyone can understand.
• Avoids the flavor of the month.
• Six Sigma program integrity, which includes people selection, credibility of results, institutionalization of methods, and reviews.
• The right leadership, ownership, and accountability in all Six Sigma roles at all levels.
• Promotion of Six Sigma across business units and functions.
• Business goals and metrics are understood and are the basis of all improvement efforts.
• Linkage of operational performance metrics (little Ys) to business metrics (Critical Ys).
• Personal engagement: Training class visits and rigorous program and project reviews.
• Communications of program expectations to Six Sigma Champions:
• Support and mentor Champions.
• Set accountability for Champions.
• Dedication of time for training and application.
• Questions about Six Sigma prepared for each site visit.
Some other roles and responsibilities for the Executive Team might include the following:
• Understanding methods and tools well enough to ask questions.
• Holding themselves and others accountable.
• Expecting and demanding the use of Six Sigma tools.
• Celebrating Six Sigma successes.
Leading a successful initiative is not easy. I saw Fred Poses at AlliedSignal spend 20–30 percent of his time for about three months to the Six Sigma launch. At the beginning, he held face-to-face meetings with all his General Managers, and they would explain what their projects would be, the forecasted financial impact of the projects, and who the Champions and Black Belts were going to be. He always asked, “Are these the right projects?” and “Are these the right people?” He also fired a plant manager who was subtly blocking Six Sigma. No one had any doubt about Fred’s commitment. Other leaders demonstrated their commitment in other ways:
• Motorola. Bob Galvin schedules Six Sigma quality reports first on the agenda for the monthly operations meeting and then leaves afterward.
• GE. Jack Welch educates himself on Six Sigma with multiday training sessions, completes a Green Belt project, and makes Six Sigma a leadership requirement.
• American Standard. CEO Fred Poses briefs himself on key projects underway at a plant/site before visiting that site.
• Cummins. A Six Sigma Champion is included on the BU Leadership team, with progress reviewed at every monthly BU review. The Senior VP personally reviews every Black Belt project once per month.
• Eaton Corporation. The Division President authorizes ROI-justified headcount increase to backfill key roles “vacated” by full-time Six Sigma players.
• Celanese. President Dave Weidman says no capital requests will be approved unless evidence of significant Black Belt and Green Belt work has been completed. He brought Six Sigma into Celanese from his AlliedSignal experience.
• 3M. The new CEO, Jim McNerney, launches the first Black Belt waves three weeks after the executive training workshop and attends the four-day executive kickoff meeting.
Early involvement in deployment planning is especially important to the executive team. Taking the right actions in the right order works to create a model Six Sigma deployment. If the Executive Team is not fired up right from the beginning, the company will sense the lack of commitment and the launch will be considered another program of the month. A successful change initiative is the legacy that the leadership leaves the company. Six Sigma lived on for a long time after CEO, Bob Galvin, championed the effort in 1987.
CEO and Executive Team—Training. Because Six Sigma has a unique language and technology and because many important business decisions affect the deployment, a substantial amount of training before Six Sigma is launched is required. Chapter 10, “Creating Six Sigma Executive and Leadership Workshops,” discusses the duration and the content extensively. Generally, during the first 90 days of the deployment, the executive training ranges from one day to four days. I recommend at least a two-day session because the training session is part education and part deployment workshop. Longer four-day sessions have worked well, leaving the leadership team with a clear concept of what Six Sigma is all about and a good start on a deployment plan with an action plan. A rough agenda would include such topics as
• Six Sigma overview
• Project selection
• People selection
• Tools and methodology
• High-level financial target development and first draft deployment plan
• Defined project clusters
Post-launch, the Executive Team might complete Green Belt training or an executive Green Belt training and might even complete a project. Jack Welch actually completed a Green Belt project on his watch.
Six Sigma Initiative Champion
The next role in the Six Sigma infrastructure is the Six Sigma Initiative Champion. This person is the full-time Six Sigma program leader who will ideally report directly to the CEO or a member of the Executive Team. He/she will lead Six Sigma as a strategic initiative across the corporation. This will be a centralized resource—for example, the CFO of a large railroad company was the Six Sigma leader.
The Initiative Champion has the responsibility for steering the initiative and will lead the Six Sigma Steering Team, which will have representation from across the business units. The Steering Team will include the Six Sigma Deployment Champions (described in the next section of this chapter) from the business units. The Initiative Champion will be charged to lead the overall deployment of Six Sigma, and be accountable for the strategic and financial impact of the program. Figure 8.1 shows a representation of the relationship between the Executive Team and the businesses (divisions). Each division’s Deployment Champion reports (dotted line) to the Initiative Champion for the first Six Sigma Steering Team.
Figure 8.1 The Initiative Guiding Coalition. The Six Sigma Initiative Champion is a member of the Executive Steering Team and has a Deployment Champion in each business reporting as the Six Sigma Steering team.
In addition, the Initiative Champion will steer the evolution of Six Sigma over the years to reflect Six Sigma’s alignment with the strategic plan. Don Linsenmann of DuPont has been doing this for several years. The Initiative Champion will also remove barriers for success and remove leaders who aren’t fully supportive of the program. The Initiative Champion is the primary conduit between the Executive Team, business units, Six Sigma Champions, and other Six Sigma resources. The following is a bulleted list of the general responsibilities of the Initiative Champion:
• Leads Six Sigma full time as a strategic initiative.
• Responsible for the Overall Six Sigma steering team.
• Promotes Six Sigma across the business.
• Delivers program strategic and financial impact.
• Ensures program integrity (people selection, credibility of results, integrity of methods, and reviews).
• Controls the development of training curricula and training plans.
• Removes barriers.
• Involved in strategic and business direction planning.
• Identifies cross-business opportunities and best practices.
• Creates Six Sigma Steering Teams where needed.
• Identifies leaders who divert resources from the effort, or who do not contribute.
• Attends selected classes and project reviews (stays engaged).
• Communicates expectations to Champions and Belts.
• Ensures active involvement and commitment of senior executives.
• Leads the evolution process for Six Sigma.
Because training is such a large part of a Six Sigma deployment, a priority for the Initiative Champion is to guide and coordinate the schedule of training events and the development of the training curricula. The Six Sigma training will be more cost effective and deployment effective if coordinated centrally by the Initiative Champion.
Selecting the Initiative Champion is the first show of commitment by the Executive Team. Who the team selects will directly reflect the importance of the Six Sigma program. I recommend the Initiative Champion to be a first-level report to CEO or some other member of the Executive Team (CFO, VP of Operations, VP of Technology, etc.). This person should be a seasoned executive with a strong history of driving results and a respected leader in the corporation. The CEO should select the Initiative Champion.
• Training Requirements
• In The First 90 Days:
• One-day executive session.
• Kick-off and participate in all Champion sessions.
• Kick-off and close Black Belt training.
• Partners with a Black Belt to complete a Green Belt-level project they select.
• Black Belt or Green Belt training.
Six Sigma Initiative Champions have been defined differently for different companies. Many companies assign the Quality Officer to the job. That seems to make sense, but the program will seem like a quality program rather than a strategic business program. Six Sigma addresses much more than process quality, although Quality Officers have done a great job. In AlliedSignal, the Quality Officer, Jim Sierk, was assigned as the administrative head of the program. But AlliedSignal also hired Rich Schroeder, who had a very strong quality background, to run the program day to day and report to Jim.
The Cummins Engines CEO, Tim Solso, named one of his best operating officers, Frank McDonald, to be the program leader. Frank was well respected in the company and approached Six Sigma as an operational initiative. With Celanese, a large chemical company, the President, Dave Weidman, named one of his best operating officers, Jim Alder, to lead the program. Jim also treated Six Sigma as an operational excellence program and did a great job of ensuring that Six Sigma activities led to bottom-line results.
History shows that Initiative Champions with a deep business and operational background tend to drive the program strategically. It appears the best candidates are the ones who ultimately want to run a business when they complete their term as Initiative Champion. Jim McNerney at 3M assigned Brad Sauer to Six Sigma, and Brad now runs a 3M business. However, anyone who reports to the right person and has the respect of their peers will do a good job. The Initiative Champion should act as if he or she is the Chief Operating Officer and drive the program from that standpoint.
Six Sigma Deployment Champions—Business Unit
For a large company with multiple large divisions, the deployment must take a decentralized focus. For example, in 1994, AlliedSignal had three major segments (business units): aerospace segment, automotive segment, and engineered materials segment. Each one of these segments had radically different products and markets, so it made sense that Six Sigma would be somewhat customized for each segment. GE is another classic example of a wide range of businesses. The GE Capital’s Six Sigma deployment was radically different than the manufacturing divisions because their business was so different.
Each major business unit should have a Six Sigma Deployment Champion who leads the business program. These resources should report to the business leader or business operations officer but have dotted-line responsibilities to the corporate Six Sigma Initiative Leader to retain the consistency in program across the company. The Deployment Champions will make up the Six Sigma steering lead by the Initiative Champion. As with the Six Sigma Initiative Champion, the Deployment Champions have a significant role within the business. Some of their roles and responsibilities include the following:
• Roles and Responsibilities
• Lead Division or Functional Area Six Sigma efforts.
• Lead Business Team workshops (with Master Black Belt support) to facilitate project identification, prioritization, and selection.
• Manage project sets within their business area.
• Coordinate with other Deployment Champions in other business units/areas.
• Identify cross–business unit opportunities.
• Report to Business Unit leadership and dotted line to the Initiative Champion.
• Maintain current project portfolios and performance data.
• Identify and communicate success and problems in delivering project results.
• Who Are They?
• In a leadership position.
• Involved in budget and strategic planning for the business/facility.
• Has ability to remove roadblocks such as personnel, capital, and time constraints.
• Selection
• Selected by Initiative Champion and Business Unit Leader.
• CEO approves the selection.
• Training Requirements
• In The First 90 Days:
• One-day executive session.
• Two-day Champion training.
• Co-facilitate Business Team Workshops to facilitate project selection in their area.
• Post-Launch:
• Green Belt training and projects.
The Six Sigma Deployment Champions address the unique needs of their businesses and business strategies. They account for the business and financial results of Six Sigma within their businesses. They also work in concert as members of both the corporate Six Sigma Steering Team and their own business steering teams. Identifying and deploying Six Sigma best practices across the corporation is an important role.
Six Sigma Project Champions
The most critical role in a Six Sigma deployment is the Six Sigma Project Champion. The heart and soul of any Six Sigma program is the network of Six Sigma Project Champions. They are the catalysts for institutionalizing the grand change resulting from Six Sigma. These people are responsible for facilitating the selection of Six Sigma projects, fulfilling the Six Sigma training plan, and ensuring that each selected project is successful in meeting the financial and performance goals set. They also are instrumental in creating project charters that define each project. In addition, they ensure that the right resources are available for the projects.
Each Project Champion will usually be a process owner or a department head and lead and mentor anywhere from 2 to 20 Black Belts (most of which they have helped to select) and an assorted number of Green Belts. Within each business or function, the Project Champions will be members of the Six Sigma steering team for that business or the corporation.
• Roles and Responsibilities
• Communicate the Six Sigma initiative and Six Sigma strategy.
• Select projects and people.
• Track the progress of Belts (weekly reviews).
• Breakdown barriers for Belts.
• Create supporting systems:
• Project and results databases.
• Networks and resources.
• Incentive and reward systems.
• Maintain performance databases.
• Develop Master Black Belts.
• Who Are They?
• Leader in the business.
• Involved in budget and strategic planning for the business/facility.
• Has ability to remove roadblocks such as personnel, capital, and time constraints.
• Direct influence over resources in the process:
• People.
• Time.
• Influential in the strategic plan for the business.
• Involved in budget and annual operating plan development.
• Possesses good mentoring skills.
• Motivated change agent.
• Respected within the business for driving positive change.
• Selection
• By Deployment Champions and Business Unit or Area Leadership.
• Initiative Champion approval of selection.
• Training Requirements
• In The First 90 Days:
• Two four-day Champion training.
• Six Sigma overview.
• Tools and methodology.
• Project selection and prioritization.
• Project chartering.
• Project tracking and mentoring of belts.
• Co-facilitate and attend initial Belt training.
• Post-Launch:
• Green Belt training and project encouraged.
The best Champions are those who revel in conquering organizational barriers and driving change. The network of Project Champions creates the guiding coalition necessary to drive change. From my AlliedSignal experience as a Deployment Champion, I had 12 Project Champions on my steering team for the $4 billion per year engineered materials sector.
These Champions were instrumental in finding great projects to work on, finding great Black Belts to train, and getting great results ($95 million the first year). We met frequently and defined and drove action items to ensure Six Sigma was successful. They probably spent a minimum of an hour per week with each Black Belt or Green Belt they mentored. They consolidated and reported the financial results for each active project. They kept our Black Belt training sessions full of great people. Probably the most important action they took to institutionalize Six Sigma was to identify Master Black Belt candidates to develop into internal consultants and trainers. There was never any doubt in my mind about who really ran the program—the Champions. Said best, a senior Vice President with Cummins contended, “There are no unsuccessful Black Belts, just unsuccessful Champions.” The idea here is that the Champion is accountable for the success for every Belt under his or her network.
Master Black Belts
The role of the Master Black Belt (MBB) in the Six Sigma infrastructure is a fairly recent occurrence. The Master Black Belt has become a new corporate position, but only since about 1996 or 1997. The Master Black represents the technical glue that holds the Six Sigma methodology together. The MBB ensures that Six Sigma training is institutionalized and moves the company from being dependent on external consultants to the company being self-sustaining with its own internal consultants.
The risk with MBBs is that they are relegated to a training role instead of generating revenue through their mentoring of Black and Green Belts. The MBB is much more valuable working in the field with project support for the BBs and GBs. Training should only be a secondary role. MBBs have the ability to lead large multifunctional projects using a large number of Black Belts and Green Belts.
The return on investment is high when external consultants perform the training and the internal MBBs support the Six Sigma deployment. When your MBB is tied up for two weeks per month in training events and another week for training preparation, the time for value-added support is minimized. MBBs should be viewed as operational leaders driving strategic improvement activities.
The recommendation is to create a training steering team consisting of the MBBs and selected Champions. This team can internalize all the training and can schedule the training among MBBs. This way, each individual MBB spends a small amount of his or her time in training. It’s also a great way to define and deploy technical best practices and prioritize training development activities.
Commonly, the usual tour for the MBBs is two years after certification. After that, they usually roll into a business leadership role, with the ultimate goal of running a business. The MBB program is often viewed as a leadership development program, so candidates for the MBB program should definitely be high-potential personnel.
In the early months of Six Sigma deployment, the MBB developmental training is generally done by external consulting groups. This development would only occur for candidates that have been certified as Black Belt and have completed two to three outstanding projects. After a critical mass of MBBs are certified, the MBB development actions are carried out by the MBB steering team. Even then, for some highly technical topics, external help may be enlisted.
The following are listings for roles and responsibilities, who they are, selection process, and training requirements.
• Roles and Responsibilities
• Generates revenue: Coach and support Black Belts for results.
• Develop and deliver Six Sigma training.
• Assist in project identification.
• Partner with Six Sigma Champions.
• Identify and deploy best practices.
• Partners with Six Sigma Champions.
• Who Are They?
• Successful Black Belts.
• Certified Black Belts.
• Known for successful projects.
• More senior employees.
• Strong coaching/mentoring skills.
• Deep business understanding for project identification and chartering.
• Technically adept.
• Comfortable training.
• Proven mentoring skills.
• Proficiency in the Six Sigma tools.
• Ability to teach concepts effectively.
• Documented and validated success with the methodology on at least two major projects.
• Desires to pursue advanced statistical tool training.
• Ability to apply tools and methods to areas outside of their current focus:
• Example: Manufacturing person applying tools to business process.
• Project Champion endorsement.
• Selection
• Prerequisite: Has completed Black Belt training and at least two very successful Black Belt projects.
• Strong candidate for future company leadership roles.
• Nominated by Program and/or Project Champions.
• Selected by Program Leader.
• Approved by CEO.
• Training Requirements
• Launch:
• Complete Black Belt training.
• Complete two or three successful projects.
• Teach Green Belts.
• Post Launch:
• One week per month for five months (25 days), plus two elective weeks (10 days).
• Technical skills (50 percent).
• Leadership and change management skills (30 percent).
• Teaching skills (20 percent):
• Statistical and Lean tools.
• Project management.
• Change leadership.
• Teamwork.
• Control systems.
The preceding lists indicate just how important the MBBs are to the infrastructure. They are technical experts who know how to get results using sophisticated techniques. They are also the future leaders of the company. There will be trepidation in the MBB candidate when selected. The candidate will want to know how this is going to affect his or her career. Human Resources must provide a career path for MBBs to ensure that they know it’s a good deal.
A tendency for companies just starting Six Sigma is to hire MBBs from other companies. The thought is that the Six Sigma deployment can be accelerated with these resources. I suggest it is much better to develop internal resources to fulfill that role. Your Six Sigma consulting group can easily provide you with the Master Black Belt services during the first year of your launch. The process of developing Master Black Belts internally sends an important message that Six Sigma provides another career path for future leaders. The drawback from hiring from outside the company is that there is inconsistency in the way companies develop and certify their MBBs.
The externally sourced MBBs may arrive at your company a little light on technical skills and leadership skills. Companies and external consultants have different developmental roadmaps. My company recommends a minimum of five weeks of training plus electives. Some companies only require two weeks of training. These external MBBs will be constrained by the Six Sigma methods they learned at their previous company, which will be different from the Six Sigma you are deploying. They will be in conflict with the external consultants you have enlisted to launch the program. Instead of removing variability, these external MBBs will tend to introduce variability. Beside, it only takes about one year to develop an MBB internally. Why not invest in your own people to move Six Sigma forward?
Six Sigma Black Belts
In continuing our discussion of “Belts,” we will now turn our attention to Black Belts. Black Belts represent the coalition of complex problem solvers. They will become your process improvement experts. They are trained in detailed roadmaps for solving problems in different arenas: manufacturing, product development, transactional business processes, supply chain, health care, and others. The first candidates should be selected from among the highest potential resources:
• Future leaders
• Technical experts
• Great mentors and coaches
Like the selections of the Six Sigma Initiative Champion and Six Sigma Deployment Champion, the quality of the candidates selected in the Black Belt training launch will indicate the company’s commitment to really making a difference. There is a tendency by the businesses in the early days of Six Sigma deployment to sandbag the student count with a number of mediocre candidates.
The thinking is, if this is just another program of the month, why should I send one of my high-potential people and lose them for four or five weeks of training? The candidates for Black Belt training should be carefully reviewed for each wave of training to ensure the right people are in the right places. However, the good news is that Black Belt training will convert a former “dirt bag” into a high-performing asset.
The company should target 75–100 percent time dedication for Black Belts. The level of time dedication is always a question at the beginning of the Six Sigma launch. The fear is that if the people are full time, how do you fill gaps in performance? I recommend that Black Belts are full time, but they really don’t need to be.
The issue is that if you pick great, high-impact projects, the decision addressing the dedication time becomes easy. If your organization has identified a project it believes will deliver a million dollars (not that unusual for Six Sigma projects), then having the Black Belt dedicated only 50 percent of the time on the project is ridiculous.
I will say that pending the decision to create a bunch of 100 percent Black Belts, with the exception of the first project in which the Six Sigma roadmap is applied the first time, a 100 percent Black Belt should be driving at least two or three projects simultaneously. Whereas, a part-time Black Belt is only able to drive one project at a time. The cycle time for completing a series of projects in parallel fosters better ROIs than a series of projects done sequentially.
Because the average value of a well-defined Six Sigma Black Belt project is $250,000, you have the choice of levying the worth of each of your Black Belts of one million dollar plus for full-time resources or less than $750,000 for part-time resources. Either way, it’s a great return on salary and benefits. It’s also a great return on the four weeks of training—thus, the importance of having a dynamic Six Sigma supporting infrastructure to make sure all this happens.
The following lists provide you with a brief overview of a Black Belt’s roles and responsibilities, their characteristics, selection process, and training requirements.
• Roles and Responsibilities
• Lead strategic, high-impact process improvement projects.
• Master basic and advanced quality tools and statistics.
• Deploy techniques of measurement, analysis, improvement, and control.
• Participate in intensive 4- to 5-week training program.
• Manage a BB project as a major plant or system project.
• Significant dedication of time to a project.
• Full-time role for 1.5 to 3 years.
• Who Are They?
• High potential as future leaders of groups or businesses (leadership qualities).
• More senior employees.
• Known and respected by area and business unit leaders.
• Exposed to multiple departments and/or sites.
• Employees known to “get important work done.”
• Technical experience in their area of current focus (either with the company or from recent employment).
• Desire and ability to drive change.
• Self-starter/self-directed.
• Not satisfied with the status quo.
• Mathematical competency.
• High energy; driven.
• Effective facilitator.
• Works well in team environment.
• Selection
• Deployment Champion, Project Champion, Business Unit Leader, and Department Heads nominate Black Belt candidates (after they have attended Champion training).
• Key question: “Can this person deliver project results?”
• Selection approved by Deployment Champion.
• Training Requirements
• Intensive training in the shortest amount of time possible.
• In-depth instruction on the tools in the improvement roadmap.
• One week per month for four months (20 days).
• Technical skills (70 percent).
• Project leadership, presentation, and change management skills (30 percent).
• One week per month for five months (25 days) for Design for Six Sigma Black Belts.
Training and developing Blacks Belts is a huge investment of money and time. Most companies certify about 2 percent of their population as Black Belts. This investment gets an outstanding return if there is an effective process to systematically prioritize and select projects, provide the resources necessary to complete the projects, and determine the final business impact of completed projects. The side effects of a Six Sigma deployment is that your organization will get better at these actions than they already are. These are the actions that will carry your company through a strategic plan and attain your final vision.
Six Sigma Green Belts
Green Belts are the tactical arm of Six Sigma. The role of the Green Belt varies but is nonetheless important. They lead their own projects within their relatively narrow area. For example, an Iomega administrative assistant worked on a project to reduce and control travel expenses. Although this is not a major business process, it nonetheless accounted for a few million dollars in the G&A budget. She ended up saving the company about $250,000 a year in travel costs with a well-defined and controlled new process.
Green Belts may find themselves supporting a Black Belt in a large multifunctional project. A Black Belt working on implementing an online sales project may well have Green Belts in functions included in the project in support. This infrastructure allows Black Belts to pursue multiple large-scale projects because he or she has technical help for each project.
For example, while working in an ABB manufacturing plan in Athens, Georgia, I functioned as the plant Master Black Belt. We had no Black Belts, and I had to train my own Green Belts. I had about 10 Green Belts in a 300-person factory. In less than 10 months, we completed 30 projects and brought over one million dollars to the bottom line. All we would have needed to do that was one Black Belt and 10 Green Belts on the team—less than 4 percent of the population.
My own personal philosophy is that Six Sigma deployments are best when focused on training and deploying hundreds of Green Belts, especially if there is a core of Black Belts and Master Black Belts ready to support and mentor them. Jack Welch even made it a requirement that all his leaders were trained as Green Belts.
The tools set for Green Belts is very similar to that of the Black Belts minus the sophisticated statistics and experimental design tools. The Green Belt training is about 50 percent of the Black Belt training, so the ability to deploy a large number of Green Belts is enhanced.
Green Belts are especially effective while working in the business process area. The processes are usually more simple and the need for fancy statistical tools is less. The following lists provide you with a brief overview of a Green Belt’s roles and responsibilities, their characteristics, selection process, and training requirements.
• Roles and Responsibilities
• Participate in strategic, high-impact process improvement projects with Black Belts.
• Lead high-impact projects within departments.
• Master basic quality tools and statistics.
• Help deploy techniques of measurement, analysis, improvement, and control.
• Participate in a two-week training program.
• Part-time role: 25 to 50 percent of time.
• Who Are They?
• Lower level managers/staff.
• Well respected within department.
• Enthusiastic about process improvement.
• Strong desire to learn.
• Selection
• Deployment and Project Champions nominate Green Belt candidates and review volunteers who step forward.
• Deployment Champion and Business Unit Leader approve selection.
• Key question: “Can this person deliver project results in their area of work?”
• Training Requirements
• Intensive training in the shortest amount of time possible.
• In-depth instruction on the basic tools in the improvement roadmap.
• One week per month for two months (8–10 days).
• Technical skills (70 percent).
• Project leadership, presentation, and change management skills (30 percent).
• One week per month for three months (12–15 days) for Design for Six Sigma Green Belts.
A dynamic Green Belt program is important. Great Green Belts can go on to get certified as Black Belts or Master Black Belts. The Green Belt role allows a much wider variety of people to participate in Six Sigma and enjoy having a visual impact on the company. Each Green Belt can lead several teams per year, and your company can be characterized as a company that has hundreds of great teams working on process improvement all the time.
Green Belts add depth and critical mass to the deployment and institutionalization of Six Sigma. Most companies train 20 to 30 percent of their populations as Green Belts. They gain results through leading projects of a smaller scope, generally in their functional areas and supporting larger BB projects. Green Belts are worth about $100,000 per year if managed correctly.
Green Belts will transition to BBs with additional training, coaching, and expanded project focus. Finally, the GB program is a good training program for managers of Black Belts and Green Belts—for example, Test Lab Manager, Maintenance Manager, Customer Service Manager, and many others.
Six Sigma Project Team Members
Every Six Sigma project has a team. The Black Belt is not the Lone Ranger. He or she also mobilizes a team, teaches and mentors them through a project, and strives for equal acknowledgment for results. The Six Sigma team is the most exciting part of Six Sigma. In Warren Bennis’s book titled Organizing Genius, he contends that the great leaders of tomorrow exist in a fertile relationship with a Great Group.
The leaders that understand the importance of teamwork in today’s complex marketplace will be the heroes. This follows the philosophical saying, “None of us is as smart as all of us.” The concept of Great Groups is important, because every great leader has a Great Group in support. Six Sigma is an ideal way to create Great Groups.
Great Groups harness the creativity of every individual in the group. Just about every project review I’ve seen had documented a creative innovation that would not have been developed by an individual. The following lists will provide you with a brief overview of a project team member’s roles and responsibilities, their characteristics, selection process, and training requirements.
• Roles and Responsibilities
• Participate in strategic, high-impact process improvement projects.
• Attend team meetings.
• Apply basic quality tools within project.
• Identify areas to apply techniques of measurement, analysis, improvement, and control in day-to-day job.
• Communicate project progress to departments.
• Part time role: 10–15 percent of time.
• Who Are They?
• Level dependent upon project level.
• Well respected within department.
• Enthusiastic about process improvement.
• Strong desire to learn and have an impact.
• Selection
• Project Champions, Black Belts, and Green Belts.
• Caution: Select team members who know the process area and who realistically can find time to contribute to the project.
• Training Requirements
• Four to eight hours of process improvement roadmap and tools overview.
• Training covers what tools are and when they are used.
• Training may be delivered via e-Learning or by Belt, in advance of or at the start of project participation.
By giving Six Sigma Teams (Great Groups) a strategic, high-impact project, a process improvement expert (Black Belt or Green Belt), the resources to complete the project, and a clear problem-solving roadmap, the creativity soars! The Six Sigma tools are designed to consistently get the group to look at the problem in many different ways and, along the way, creative and innovative solutions are developed naturally.
Six Sigma Finance Support
Because the activities of the entire Six Sigma infrastructure are aimed at having a financial impact on the company, the finance team is an integral component to the infrastructure. The integration should happen early in the deployment. One of my very successful clients actually dedicated financial analysts solely to Six Sigma, creating Six Sigma Black Belts within the financial community. That is an approach to consider seriously.
• Establish common measures of project benefits.
• Sign off on project estimates and results.
• Provide input to the project selection and chartering process.
• Identify risks and opportunities associated with projects.
• Work with MBB, Champions, and Director to quantify benefits:
• Confirm the Project Y objective as defined by the BB is appropriate and will result in “real” value.
• Participate in business-level Six Sigma reviews.
• Ensure Finance is an active participant in opportunity analysis with leadership team.
• Support identifying qualify and quantify opportunities.
• Determine potential impact to revenue growth, operating income, and cash flow.
• Ensure project assumptions are reviewed before project commences.
• Operating income impact is the acid test:
• Validate assumptions.
• Determine what investments are associated with the project (should be low or no capital).
• Update project information to reflect what is known.
• Update financial expectations upon project completion.
• Validate revenue, operating income, or cash flow claims.
• Include in unit cost updates.
• Include in next rolling estimate.
• Periodically review control plans.
• Variance analysis.
• Schedule checks of previously completed projects (self-audit).
• Linkage of financials to performance measures.
• Project-level detail is crucial to success.
• Relate performance measures to P&L and balance sheet items.
• Offline analysis may be needed to understand COPQ levels and impact to Financial Statements.
• Achieving targets depends upon building a path to plan.
• Update information using actual/estimate data.
• Periodic review of financial methodology is required for consistent project valuations.
As you can see, the role of finance is not trivial in deploying Six Sigma. In fact, at the railroad company, CSX, the CFO was the Initiative Champion. Finance can be involved in all phases of selecting and completing the Six Sigma projects. These are a recap of other opportunities for financial involvement:
• Project Identification
• Strong participation in opportunity assessments.
• Strong participation in project selection.
• Initiating Projects
• Determine incremental investment.
• Validate assumptions in project charter.
• Monitoring Projects
• Participate in periodic reviews with project team leaders.
• Participate in periodic reviews with business leaders.
• Completing Projects
• Determine results versus project plan.
• Update forecasts/estimates.
The finance resources must be willing to ask this question every time a Six Sigma Team reports a financial savings: “Whose budget do I reduce by this much next year?” In the hands of excellent financial resources, Six Sigma becomes a valid bottom-line initiative with lasting impact on the company’s performance. But you can see that there is significant predeployment activity required to launch Six Sigma on solid financial ground.
Six Sigma Human Resource Support
Because of the heavy focus on training and professional development, the HR function is expected to be heavily involved with the Six Sigma deployment. To add to the development focus, Six Sigma also adds new positions—Master Black Belts, Black Belts, Green Belts, Initiative Champions, Deployment Champions, and Project Champions. Creating job descriptions and career paths for these new roles is crucial to the success of the deployment. The following lists address roles and responsibilities and training requirements for the Human Resources function.
• Roles and Responsibilities
• Assist in personnel selection.
• Develop workforce practices that enable Black Belts and Green Belts to achieve high performance in their workplace.
• Work with Executives and Managers to establish appropriate recognition and rewards.
• Develop Six Sigma education and training support that contribute to employee performance.
• Assist in establishing appropriate career plans and career paths for MBBs, Black Belts, and Green Belts.
• Assist MBBs, Black Belts, and Green Belts in developing their training plans.
• Training Requirements
• Attend Six Sigma Business Team and Deployment Champion training.
• Attend a one-day HR Workshop.
• Improvement program organization structure.
• Recognition and rewards.
• Appraisal and performance.
• Retention and career-path planning.
• Change management considerations.
• Communication plan.
• Team effectiveness.
The roles of the HR function are wide and comprehensive. It’s almost like starting a new business within the company that is expected to develop people and generate revenue. The HR function will be effective when the HR folks learn the internal workings of Six Sigma. In fact, some of the best Green Belt projects come out of HR.
Six Sigma Project Tracking
When you have hundreds of project teams in action across your company, keeping track of that activity and, more importantly, the results becomes very difficult very quickly. You will be anxious to report the results to Wall Street, and the numbers you present had better be accurate. The backbone of the Six Sigma infrastructure is an automated project tracking system.
A system such as this will allow you to assess the status of your initiative in close to real time. You will know how many projects are active, how many are completed, and how many are stalled, and forecast the business impact of the ongoing projects. All this is necessary information if you plan to report results to Wall Street. A project tracking system can accomplish the following:
• Tracks company-wide program.
• Tracks goals versus actual performance.
• Highlights accountability.
• Decreases reporting time.
• Improves communications.
You will know this for all businesses and functions, and Champion by Champion. Chapter 14, “Defining the Software Infrastructure: Tracking the Program and Projects,” is focused on a project tracking system. The good news is that the system will be available for any change initiative that you drive in the future.
Six Sigma Steering Teams
We’ve already seen the discussion of the Executive Steering team and the steering team of Deployment Champions with the Initiation Champion at the head. But there will probably be other steering teams needed to keep Six Sigma on target. These steering teams are focused on specific and relatively narrow applications of Six Sigma and Lean. These steering teams would be deployed as needed. The steering team takes on accountability for the new applications and provides leadership and direction for their part of the program.
While at AlliedSignal, the chemical laboratories at the chemical plant were interested in a laboratory version of Six Sigma. I spoke with the Laboratory Council and we agreed that I would launch a pilot version of the program and the council would be accountable for the teaching and deployment. That’s exactly what happened, and we realized a huge improvement in lab performance. Other steering team examples are as follows:
• Business Process Improvement Steering Team
• Product Develop and R&D Steering Team
• Sales and Marketing Six Sigma Team
• Manufacturing Steering Team
• Supply Chain Steering Team
• Human Resources Steering Team
• Equipment Reliability Steering Team
• SAP Implementation Steering Team
Steering teams pick up the responsibility for driving a training plan for their constituents and the accountability for their programs. The teams make life much easier for the Six Sigma Initiative Champion because he or she now has the businesses and functions taking ownership of the program.
He or she may also use the steering teams as a set of board of directors to help the Initiative Champion lead the program strategically. Figure 8.2 depicts the organization of the Six Sigma Steering Teams, all of which report to the Six Sigma Steering Team lead by the Initiative Champion.
Figure 8.2 The Initiative Guiding Coalition. The Six Sigma Initiative Champion established various Steering Teams, with the first team consisting of the Six Sigma Deployment Champions from each division.
Six Sigma Certifications
Because of the depth and length of Six Sigma training for all the Belts and the accountability for results, certification is usually a requirement. Each company defines it own certification. The Six Sigma Steering Team will guide the development of certification requirements to ensure consistency across the corporation.
At this time, there is not a national standard for certification and there shouldn’t be. Six Sigma is a business program, and it should be up to the businesses to determine success as a Black Belt or other Belt. The following lists summarize the usual certification requirements for Master Black Belts, Black Belts, and Green Belts.
• Any Six Sigma “Belt” is certified on two criteria:
• Criterion one: Business results.
• Criterion two: Mastery of tools.
• Sign-offs:
• Business results: Business or functional leader and finance director.
• Tool mastery: Champion and/or Master BB.
• Elements:
• Check-off sheet.
• Final report.
• Final formal presentation at a high level:
• Implemented control plan owned by the business or functional leader.
• Reward and recognition.
• Master Black Belt candidates are chosen based on
• Demonstrated ability in achieving results.
• Interest in driving the Six Sigma program deployment.
• MBB development program is tailored to needs of candidate and company, and generally contains
• Assignment of a mentor.
• Additional (off-site) training.
• Statistical methods.
• Leadership.
• Setting of specific goals.
• 12- to 24-month process, depending on capability and prior experience of candidate.
The following is an example of the final certification report check list for a Black Belt or Green Belt candidate. This example represents certification requirements for the manufacturing operations Belts.
Black Belt or Green Belt Certification Checklist
These two sections provide guidelines for Six Sigma Black Belts or Green Belts to be certified. The first section details the items to be delivered to the Director, Six Sigma. The second section provides Six Sigma Champions and Master Black Belts a checklist for Six Sigma tools.
Certification Deliverables
• Project Cover Sheet
• Signatures of Plant Manager, Project Champion, and Master Black Belt
• Copy of Final Report
• Copy of PowerPoint Presentation
Six Sigma Tools Checklist
1. Measurement
• Process Map (Required)
• Cause and Effects Matrix
• Measurement Systems Analysis (Required)
• Capability Study (Required)
2. Analysis
• Multi-Vari Study
• Correlation
• Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (Required)
3. Improvement
• Evolutionary Operations
• Plant Experimentation
• Fractional Factorial
• 2K Factorial (Required if Appropriate to the Project)
• General Factorial
• Response Surface Methodology
• SPC
• Control Plan (Required)
Six Sigma Infrastructure Summary
The Six Sigma infrastructure provides the necessary flow of information from the Executive Team to the businesses. Figure 8.3 shows the infrastructure in action. The Initiative Champion leads the Six Sigma Steering Team, made up of at least the Deployment Champions from each business. The Deployment Champions each have their own Steering Team for the businesses made up of the Project Champions and Master Black Belts. The Project Champions lead the Black Belts and Green Belts in their areas.
Figure 8.3 The Six Sigma Guiding Coalition. The Six Sigma Initiative Champions lead the Deployment Champions. The Deployment Champions lead the Project Champions. The Project Champions lead the Black Belts and Green Belts.
Figure 8.4 shows the project executive triad. For every Six Sigma project, the Project Champion, Master Black Belt, and Black or Green Belt work closely together to identify, charter, resource, and manage the results of each projects.
Figure 8.4 The Six Sigma Project Guiding Coalition. The Project Champion, Master Black Belt, and Black Belt work closely on managing each Six Sigma project for results.
The infrastructure becomes a tight network focused on results. Everyone is clear about their roles and responsibilities and their accountabilities. This is the way all change initiatives are successful.