09.10.

2017 How to Write an Objective Statement for Six Sigma

  CAREERS  PROJECT MANAGEMENT  SIX SIGMA  HOW TO WRITE AN OBJECTIVE STATEMENT FOR SIX SIGMA

HOW TO WRITE AN OBJECTIVE STATEMENT FOR SIX SIGMA

RELATED BOOK
Six Sigma For Dummies, 2nd Edition

By Craig Gygi, Bruce Williams, Neil DeCarlo, Stephen R. Covey

After you know what your problem statement is and how much improvement you’re aiming for with Six Sigma, you’re ready to craft your objective
statement. Your objective statement spells out the speci c, quanti able amount of improvement planned above the baseline performance that was
indicated in the problem statement. You also need to determine how long completing this project and achieving your goal will take.

The objective statement directly addresses the information in the problem statement. Just like the problem statement, the objective
statement must contain certain information in order to be e ective. A good objective statement contains all the following elements: metric,
baseline, goal, amount of time, impact, and corporate goal/objective.

That is, you want to improve some metric from some baseline to some goal in some amount of time with some impact against some corporate
goal or objective. This timeline should be aggressive but realistic.

To begin crafting your objective statement, start with the baseline performance you established in the problem statement. After you’ve set your
improvement goal, you can estimate the nancial bene t of achieving this goal. This estimate should be aggressive but reasonable, and you
shouldn’t worry about being accurate to the nearest penny.

You estimate the nancial bene t by assessing what will be di erent at the new operating level versus what it is today. Your task, with the
assistance of the nancial organization, is to identify the di erences and to estimate the annual bene t.

Linking Six Sigma projects to the key goals and objectives of the organization is always a good idea. Aside from the common sense bene ts,
this strategy is a good way to roll up all projects and the accumulated bene ts related to the company’s goals and objectives. In some
businesses, Six Sigma has created, for the rst time, the ability to quantitatively link improvement e ort to strategy.

The following are several Six Sigma–style objective statements that you can adapt for your projects, along with some painful examples of how not
to craft your objective statement.

Poor Objective Statement 1A: Reduce inventory levels as soon as possible.

Can you succeed at this goal? Can you get excited about working on this project? Well, those answers may depend more on the mood of your
boss than anything else! Consider your attitude and the enthusiasm of your boss if the statement looked something like this:

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Better Objective Statement 1A: Reduce raw material inventory levels from 31.2 days average to 23 days average with a maximum of 27
days by August 1, 2012. This project will save $235,000 per year for interest, space, and personnel in support of our corporate goal to
improve asset management and ROI.

Now management and team members know where the goal line is, how long they have to get there, and how much bene t their e orts will
create, and they have the reassurance that their e orts will be for a good cause. With this more speci c objective, everyone involved is more likely
to be chomping at the bit to get started.

If you were a manager needing software engineers to complete a design, would you sign up for an aggressive schedule and put your career on
the line based on the following objective statement?

Poor Objective Statement 2: Improve how long human resources takes to ll personnel requests.

Unless you have nothing better to do, you probably should look the other way when volunteers are being recruited to take on this project. But
your adrenaline may get owing if the objective was worded like this:

Better Objective Statement 2: Reduce the software engineer recruiting time from an average of 155 days to 51 days, with an upper limit
of 65 days. This change will meet the maximum goal of 70 days greater than 99 percent of the time. The new goal will be achieved by June
1, 2012. It will support our Employer of Choice goal and achieve an annualized savings of $145,000 per month.

Finally, one more example:

Poor Objective Statement 3: Retrain employees to eliminate inaccurate claims forms.

In addition to being another poor objective statement, this example has an additional no-no: the inclusion of the solution “retrain
employees.” If you already know the solution, why bother with the project in the rst place? The following example includes all the necessary
information but doesn’t undercut the project with a proposed solution:

Better Objective Statement 3: Reduce the defects per form from 2.3 DPU to less than 0.1 DPU by September 15, 2012. This change will
increase revenue collection by $3.2 million per month, resulting in an additional $25,000 pro t per month at an 8-percent pro t margin.
This project supports the corporate goal to increase revenue by 15 percent per year.

Objective statements like the “better” examples here are part of the reason Six Sigma projects are e ective and can generate breakthrough levels
of improvement.

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09.10.2017 How to Write an Objective Statement for Six Sigma

  CAREERS  PROJECT MANAGEMENT  SIX SIGMA  HOW TO LAUNCH A SIX SIGMA PROJECT

HOW TO LAUNCH A SIX SIGMA PROJECT

RELATED BOOK

Six Sigma For Dummies, 2nd Edition

By Craig Gygi, Bruce Williams, Neil DeCarlo, Stephen R. Covey

In Six Sigma, you make progress the old-fashioned way — one project at a time. In essence, projects are the unit of change; they de ne the
collective e ort by which most Six Sigma progress is accomplished. Projects represent — and in fact are — the level of granularity expressed to
manage Six Sigma change, from a single process improvement to a large-scale business improvement e ort.
РЕКЛАМА

inRead invented by Teads

SCOPE THE PERFECT PROJECT

A Six Sigma project starts as a practical problem that adversely impacts the business and ends as a practical solution that improves business
performance. The focus of a project is to solve a problem that is hurting key performance elements, such as the following:

Organizational viability

Employee or customer satisfaction

Costs

Process capability

Output capacity

Cycle time

Revenue potential

Begin your project by stating performance problems in quanti able terms that de ne expectations related to desired levels of performance and
timing.

As you de ne your Six Sigma project, pay attention to issues that warrant a Six Sigma level of e ort. Consider problems that

Have a nancial impact to EBIT (Earnings Before Income Tax) or NPBIT (Net Pro t Before Income Tax) or have a signi cant strategic value

Produce results that signi cantly exceed the amount of e ort required to obtain the improvement

Aren’t easily or quickly solvable with traditional methods

Improve performance of a speci ed metric or Key Performance Indicator (KPI) by greater than 70 percent over existing performance levels

TRANSFORM THE PROBLEM

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TRANSFORM THE PROBLEM

After you’ve framed a particular problem to become a potential Six Sigma project, the problem goes through a critical metamorphosis — it
transforms from a practical business problem into a statistical problem. This way, you can identify a statistical solution, which you’ll later transform
back into a practical solution.

In de ning the project, you therefore state your problem in statistical language to ensure that you use data, and only data, to solve it. Using only
data forces you to abandon gut feelings, intuition, and best guesses as ways to address your problems.

You can’t solve real problems just by throwing time and money at them. You need practical solutions. Six Sigma projects provide practical
solutions that aren’t complex, aren’t too di cult to implement, and don’t require extensive resources to a ect the improvement.

KNOW YOUR GOALS AND NEEDS

To obtain the maximum bene t from your Six Sigma projects, you must be aware of the strategic needs, goals, and objectives of the business. You
should keep those key goals and objectives in mind when you decide which problems you need to solve as part of your Six Sigma projects.

You begin by nding areas of the business that need improvement to meet business goals (Recognize). This approach leads you to determine the
speci c problems you need to solve to improve performance. Then you determine a statistical solution to your problem, implement the solution,
and obtain the subsequent bene ts.

Where to begin? Start by assessing the higher level needs of your organization, using any knowledge obtained from the voice of the
customer (VOC) and the voice of the business (VOB). The VOC is all the needs and expectations your customers have for your products and
services. The VOB represents all the needs and expectations of the business.

The basic idea is to assess both the VOC and VOB to identify gaps — areas where the expectations of the business and expectations of the
customer are misaligned.

To help zero in on problem areas, look for themes, such as the following:

Accounts receivable and invoicing issues

Capacity constraints

Customer complaints

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Cycle time or responsiveness

Excessive inventory levels

Ine ective or defective services

Product returns or warranty costs

Yield and subsequent rework or scrap

DETERMINE PROJECT RESPONSIBILITIES

In addition to transforming the problem from the practical domain to the statistical domain, Six Sigma projects also transform the ownership
structure. Problems that begin in functional areas transform from line managers through Belts and nally on to process owner.

Project responsibilities, accountabilities, and deliverables are divided between managers and the various Belts who perform problem-solving
activities. Managers, including the process owner, are responsible for determining priorities and focus, while non-management personnel are
responsible for implementing the solution and realizing the bene ts. These project lifecycle relationships prevent Six Sigma deliverables from
falling into the cracks.

Six Sigma is a team e ort. Even in the De ne phase, where managers are responsible for project identi cation and launch, the Belts assist.
Generally speaking, Belts have only 20 percent of the responsibility for de ning and managing improvement, while the managers have 80
percent. Later, during implementation — the MAIC portion of the breakthrough strategy — these percentages are reversed.

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