/logistics

Lightning Sigma

Six Sigma has been deployed within operations of DHL Exel Supply Chain’s Healthcare Sector for over 4 years. Lightning Six Sigma followed in targeted areas, processes on particular sites and customers within our contract logistics operations as a way of getting quicker results than one would expect with a 6σ traditional deployment. Moreover in our environment of working within contract logistics it is very effective at being able to work in collaboration with customers on major continuous improvement projects.

What is Lightning Six Sigma?

The term Lightning Six Sigma portrays Breakthrough improvement being achieved very quickly. It is the blitzkrieg (lightning war) of Continuous Improvement seeking a speedy victory or result. Conceptually Lightning Six Sigma Suggests for the first 3 phases ie: Define, Measure and Analyse being completed in a working week with the Improvement and Control phases being completed within 60 days. Hence Six Sigma projects being achieved within two months. The key is being able to do pre-work before the event which is easily pulled together.

For organisations who are used to running Lean Kaizen events where one starts the continuous improvement project on a Monday with the aim of completing the task by a Friday this approach can be both effective and with quick results by focusing effort and resource. The goal of getting through the Improvement & Control phases by the Friday is an internal objective.

Other organisations like Volvo with their L6SK “Lean 6-Sigma Kiazen” approach have also formalised a similar approach by running a DMAIC methodology event in 5 days spending a day on each phase ie Define on a Monday, Measure on Tuesday, Analyse on a Wednesday, Improve on Thursday and Control concluded on a Friday.

In DHL we found an approach of exploiting the concept “seeing is believing ” as an effective way of demonstrating how Six Sigma can be deployed having evidence that using the methodology & rigour actually works, not being so fixed on completing each phase at said time thus sufficient measurement and analysis key input variables KIPVs are effec tively filtered down to the last few key inputs & tollgates are achieved before moving to the next phase.

Why Lightning Six Sigma?

Quite simply - as with Blitzkrieg lightning war you want speedy decisive victory using all the weaponry and resources at your disposal. Lightning Six Sigma wants a speedy result using all the resources, appropriate tools and with the rigour of a normal DMAIC project. The main difference being the resource is dedicated and focused to achieving the nec essary result within a shorter time frame. Another “why” around the timing is if you run projects and resource is spread across other sites and countries one is scheduling meetings every few weeks, with green belts who are only part time dedicated and have conflicting priorities, it takes longer and can be more frustrating for senior management who want quicker results.

The impact and improvements will also realise with a couple of months thus excellent for deploying projects that will have a reasonable rate of return within the next financial quarter. They are by nature in their approach less bureaucratic in terms of preparation for meetings.If one needs to demonstrate capa- bility or prove through “seeing is believing” Lightning Six Sigma is an excellent way of getting quick results and for certifying trained green belts. It is good for demonstrating success.

If the culture of the business is used to working in Continuous Improvement projects or Kaizen events this is also an excellent way of combining the key merits of both method ologies and delivering results with more rigour and proving “To be” processes actually work which makes the improving and controlling phases easier to manage as there is “buy in” from the people thus less supervision and monitoring required. People will quickly recognise and see the benefits of any change and will appreciate the impact of understand ing KIPV thus recognising they can only get to root cause by using appropriate tools. In summary, “Why” Lightning Six Sigma is because data, resources, time project require ments are all available so the approach is more efficient, effective quicker and decisive in delivery.

When is Lightning Sigma best deployed?

Lightning Six Sigma is best deployed with some pre planning when one knows the 5 key elements of running a Six Sigma project. Project Selection still needs a Problem known in advance, a process, a financial benefit, a metric and goal from the business and finally a customer metric. Accordingly running any Project Selection tool will normally identify such projects as they will be the ones with quick financial gains, when you know you have the necessary data and one is confident on timelines and having resource available. They are obvious “Go candidates” in a Go/No Go review. This ensures we are confident about the likely impact, amount of effort required and the probability of success. Therefore the Project selection process is an ideal way for determining when to run Light ning Six Sigma events. It is vital data is available and key people to hand to obtain any further information or to undertake samples where data is not available. Having key team players available to run the project is key. Within DHL Exel Supply Chain we found having Project teams with Yellow Belts and Green Belts (trained and certified) together with any supporting experts avail able for the week is key to the events success. Having resource to data crunch and do the analysis in Minitab is also key to effective delivery and maintaining momentum.

Furthermore, we have found to get maximum benefit deploying Black Belts on what may be classed as typical Green Belt projects can have a dramatic impact as the “shock troops” within your blitzkrieg approach. Black belts can also assist the team and bring the performance to a quicker conclusion through their experience. In addition one sees through the learning in action tools being used proactively is excellent project development. Following the military analogy of seeking a quick result deploying both Lean and Six Sigma specialists has also been very powerful. Deploying the Lean specialist team member to look at flow identify the “hidden factory” looking for Muda to destroy, undertaking Value Stream and value Cycle maps is worthwhile reconnaissance for enhancing the Improving and Controlling phases later in the week.

To enhance the time and effectiveness of the process video is another tool which can speed up the time and quality of Lightning Six Sigma events. Cameras are also very useful if left running to catch what happened through out the DILO (Day in the Life Of) an operation also they can allow team members to multi task. Cameras can be a problem in some organisations and countries culturally, one way of avoiding perceptions or concerns of spying is to get staff to film their own processes. They feel in control and follow discussion can be quite productive as they are involved.

Where to Run Lightning Sigma Events?

The events can be run virtually anywhere within an organisation or process. The event and project would be run close to the action with the “War Room” close by to plan and organise the project. DHL Exel Supply Chain has run a number of different types of projects from looking at different processes from opportunity sales manage ment using features and benefits and customer needs.

In multi site operations where processes are standard and can be deemed generic these are ideal for Lightning Six Sigma events. I know other organisations like DHL Exel supply Chain conclude the DMAIC methodology with a “T” for Transferable. This may require a Lightning Six Sigma project to breakthrough in another area. Accordingly the more tools that are completed in similar projects it becomes fairly easy to complete SIPOCs knowing the KIPVs, Cause & Effect matrices etc .

Where we find poor variation or capability or Cp scores in a process of less than 1.0 or 3 Sigma this is a go area for selecting projects. Deployment works equally well in operations where Lean Six Sigma deployment is quite mature and in those operations were the deployment is fairly new. The main difference in approach is the deployment of certified Black or Green Belts as mature organisations can do much of the work where as the new organisation will need some heavy weight experience Six Sigma people leading and driving the project.

Who needs to be engaged in Lighting Six Sigma events?

As previously mentioned this needs the project team identified in the Project Charter together with key people ie process owners, subject matter experts, operators and staff on standby from the process who can be called upon to assist with any phase. The people planning needs to be pulled together in the pre-work to ensure the event can go ahead.

As a result, pre-work is important. If the pre-work is limited the Black belt has two options to either delay the project until the event of pre-work is complete or actually deploy resource to capture the data requiree ments. The latter may seem illogical, however, we have often found whilst we have a plethora of information and KPIs in the business it is rarely adequate and often many of the KIPVs are not actually measured so having Yellow or Green Belts to assist in the first two days is an effective way of being able to perform the MSA.

As logistics operations can employ a lot of people in our processes and key people become “measuring devices” eg within a Goods In operation where the quality of the goods can be subjective on what is defective even with photographs showing what is a pass or fail. In our industry we have the added objectives of “Patient safety” and the “Quality of Product” to consider at all times to eliminate risks to medicines and devices within the supply chain.

Hence having an appreciation of where the data is captured and running Gauge R&R on operators.

How to deploy Lightning Six Sigma

Lightning Six Sigma is deployed at the location where there is a defined problem. Pre-work needs to ensure a Project Charter is completed together with other analysis prior to starting an event. Where data is readily available some good outputs of analysis can be undertaken to establish effective Voice of the Customer or Voice of the Business. I have seen some projects where the analysis of customer complaints can be tracked throughout the process by operator which can then be marked on plans thus it is common to find errors occurring at certain points within a warehouse at particular heights and in certain locations. This together with using the Lean value cycle maps is excellent in getting to root cause analysis.

One project we ran for a warehouse created the debate from the Cause and Effect that MHE ie the type of fork lift equipment and the operators were key factors ie the type of equipment used as the warehouse had differ ent types of truck that could be used and the experience of the operator.

Anyway running one way Annova’s and T Tests on the types of trucks, operators and methods I recall surprised the line management that when experiments were running the time it took an in experience operator to do the same task was not significant. Moreover, running experiments using different pieces of equipment turned out to be not significant but the way ie method of use was the key factor. Doing this all within a Lightning Six Sigma project that was actually concluded in less than 5 days showed how with having Black Belts available everything could be set-up quickly to run the tests and do the analysis. If this was done in a normal way it is believed to get to this conclusion would have taken weeks it was actually done in a few hours as the resource, people and equipment were all available. The net result of the project being less equipment and people to do the operation. A capability analysis of the process should be undertaken within the pre-work. Within the Healthcare Sector we have found a number of clients who have deployed Six Sigma are aware of KPIs being made up of averages so the GE saying/cliché “Customers feel the variation and not the mean” is quite true. To address this concern calculating sigma values and running base data for KPIs through Minitab to aim for Cp scores above 1.5 mean statistical control of processes, capability is known and understood and data is available in the format required

To make the Lightning Six Sigma event operate efficiently the use of “story boards” are an effective tool to capture the work as it happens. This makes reporting very easy and efficient. There are two types of story boards used a MBF Management by Fact macro written in Excel which tracks results against key metrics against a secondary metric cap turing all trends in performance. Capture key events and all actions during events.

The use of cameras are also ideal for workshop sessions where process maps are drawn up with other diagrams which can be photographed and either used within Power point story boards or used to capture informa tion for transfer into templates. Therefore as tools and the outputs of analysis have been completed they can be captured with each phase of the project’s programme review. Using tools within your normal business processes eg FMEAs within our DePICT (Define, Plan, Implement, Control, Transition ) project management process, understanding KIPVs and KOPVs from process mapping and DILO studies, the wider use of analysis from KPIs so one understands sigma values, standard deviations brings SPC to the business life – things become much easier to deploy.

by Mike Meakin Master Black Belt DHL