Читать книгу Lean Six Sigma For Dummies - Martin Brenig-Jones - Страница 45

After you’ve defined the problem, at least based on your current understanding, you need to clarify how, and how well, the work gets done. To understand the current situation of your process, knowing what it looks like is the best starting point. You need to know what’s currently happening, step by step, and how the process supports the delivery of the customer’s CTQ requirements.

Knowing the current performance of your process is essential because this knowledge becomes your baseline. Measure what’s important to the customer, and remember also to measure from the perspective of the customer. Gathering this information can help focus your improvement efforts in the areas that matter most and prevent you from going off in the wrong direction. Using graphs and charts (which we cover in Chapter 8) can help you make better sense of the data, as they provide a visual picture that demonstrates performance and can show you, among other things, the variation within the process. You can also calculate the Process Sigma using the method described in Chapter 1.

If you asked your customers to measure the process, would they measure it in the same way that you do? Use the CTQs as the basis for getting the right process measures in place. Understanding how well you meet the CTQs is an essential piece of management information. Chapter 7 provides more detail on getting the right measures.

Lean Six Sigma projects can take longer than you might like because the right data isn’t in place in the day-to-day operation. So often, organizations have data coming out of their ears — but not the right data. You need to develop the right measures and start collecting the data you do need.