Archive for DMAIC
Use DMAIC for your A3 Report
Posted by: | CommentsThe definition of an A3 Report is a simple storyboard that tells the whole story of an improvement event on one 11×17 sheet of paper. The left side defines the problem, the right side proposes solutions. That is the basic structure. However, A3 is much more than that. It is the tool used by Toyota to implement the PDCA process. Understanding A3 thinking and you can apply this to problem solving, proposals and status reports. But you have to pick a template and you have to follow some outline in creating an A3 to get it off the ground.
Typically, when I create an A3, I go about it a little differently by utilizing the Six Sigma principles of DMAIC. This acronym stands for Define-Measure-Analyze-Improve-Control. The Six Sigma process improvement process(DMAIC) is closely related to the PDCA lean process. The difference is the set of tools being utilized. I believe DMAIC has a stronger set for variation and process control. The PDCA process has a more simplified version. Depending on your needs either tool applied appropriately can be utilized. Lean has a tendency to be favored initially because of the lack of measurements within most organizations and that process is a little more forgiving. The important part is that you start the process. The chart simplifies the DMAIC process:
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Define -What is important?
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Measure – How are we doing?
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Anaylyze – What is wrong?
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Improve – What needs to be done?
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Control – How do we guarantee performance?
Whether you decide to use DMAIC or PDCA for your A3 makes little difference. The tools are just that, tools. The important part is that you have flexibility to format your A3 report in any way that most effectively can tell and demonstrate your story to your team and others. Your goal is not to complete the A3 report, it is to harness all of the benefits through implementation from the problem solving that took place.
I use A3 Reporting in the marketing process. It demonstrates and recaps the thoughts, efforts and actions that took place for a particular campaign, such as advertising or public relations or even a launch. This report can really highlight the value that marketing supplies. I will be discussing DMAIC and A3 and how it applies to the foundation of the Lean Marketing House™ in the upcoming weeks.
Related Information:
Lean Six Sigma Templates for DMAIC and A3
Why do The Pillars of the Lean Marketing House™ crumble?
Lean Marketing House™ – Foundation
Using A3 in Marketing
Posted by: | CommentsI know you are thinking A3 is your first choice of paper size. Saying to yourself, I can’t be changing paper size, and I am not going metric. However, what I am addressing is the Lean Tool of A3 reporting. I believe it is a perfect tool to summarize many of the marketing projects that you develop. Why use it? It is a formal process to document and report solutions in a storyboard fashion on a single sheet of paper. It actually takes a big piece of paper 11 x17 or (2) 8 1/2 x 11 sheets. The paper is laid out with the left side defining the problem and the right side proposing the solutions.
The benefits of A3 are :
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It helps define a standard for all to use.
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It provides a clear and concise method of reporting information.
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Method of operation is visible and accessible to all.
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It can promote communication, and team working.
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It leads to a reduction of waste.
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A continuous improvement activity.
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It creates an efficient working environment.
So what is so special?
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I think it has several qualities:
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It makes you think graphically.
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It forces you to make the story flow logically.
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It makes you condense words.
To go about laying the A3 Report out, I have included a diagram from Systems2win for you to use as a guideline. However, another format to follow for the A3′s can vary as long as your story line stays intact. The value comes from the thinking that goes into generating the A-3 reports (as Tim Berry says, “It’s the act of creating the plan that has value”, not conformance to a specific template. If you’re familiar with the Define-Measure-Analyze-Improve-Control (DMAIC) process it can make a great story line for most problem solving A3′s. However, using the DMAIC process you can:
Define how a particular problem was identified and why it is a problem.
Measure the current state of the problem and how the problem was investigated and Analyze what solutions were considered.
Improve the plan for solving the problem and how the Control or follow-up will be done.
The reason I encourage using the A3 in the marketing process is it demonstrates and recaps the thoughts, efforts and actions that took place for a particular campaign, such as advertising or public relations or even a launch. This report can really highlight the value that marketing supplies. However, always remember that the A3 report is meant to tell a story.
Related Post:
How do you create a scorecard?
Are Marketing Mistakes inevitable?
Posted by: | CommentsThese are the two basic paths that we could assume in our path to perfection. You can look at the fact that people will always make mistakes and therefore we must accept defects. We set up final inspection or checklist or just wait and see if the customer notices it. Or we can take the attitude that all mistakes can be eliminated by proper training and prevention. I prefer the latter.
Mistakes happen for many reasons, but almost all can be prevented if we take the time to identify when and why they happen. Let’s take the time to define some terms before we start. A mini-project charter per say. Mistakes(errors) are any non-conformity(deviation) passed to the next stage or worse yet, does not meet the customers expectation. A defect is the result of these mistakes.
Many companies will wait for the final product to sample for mistakes and a certain percentage of rejec
ts is acceptable. Other will do 100% inspection. But from a marketing standpoint, use direct mail as an example, how do you do that? The production of the direct mail piece itself may be measurable but the can you Poka-yoke the response? What response rate is acceptable or what you would call defective or broken? We will tackle this conversation in future posts but for now, let’s find out some suggestions on how to error proof a process.
The basic functions of Poka-yoke control are stop doing it(shutdown), control(make adjustments) and warning(red flags occurring). Maybe, more important, is the two terms, prediction and recognition. Prediction states that something is about to occur and recognition is something has occurred. The closer the source to the mistake that it is discovered the less costly is the problem. The whole point of Poka-yoke and as you instill the process detection, this will drive better feedback which generates the proper actions. This is a continuous process that once installed continues on and on.
