Role of Governments in International Businesses
The Need to Encourage Foreign Investment The previous articles have discussed how international businesses need supporting ecosystems and business friendly policies if they are to succeed in emerging markets. Of particular importance is the role of governments in deciding whether they would allow international businesses to setup their operations and encourage them to grow and […]
How a typical Business Continuity Program Works ?
In the last decade or so, the threats to the working environment of companies have multiplied ranging from 9-11 type attacks, earthquakes and the spread of diseases like SARS. Further, there is the very real threat of natural and manmade disasters like these disrupting the working patterns of organizations. Hence, there is a need to […]
Recording the Inputs (Xs) at Actionable Level
The 5 why method or the Root Cause analysis method that has been described in the Tools section plays an important role in determining that the X’s are recorded at actionable level. In this implementation of the 5 why tool, there is a slight variation from the standard methodology and hence it has been explained […]
Role of Project Managers – Should Project Managers behave like Prima Donnas?
This article addresses the question: Should Project Managers behave like Prima Donnas? The question posed is about the role of the project manager and the ways in which he or she steers the project towards successful completion. The thesis statement is about the point that covers a broad range of topics and deals with a […]
Material Handling – Principles, Operations and Equipment
Introduction Raw materials form a critical part of manufacturing as well as service organization. In any organization, a considerable amount of material handling is done in one form or the other. This movement is either done manually or through an automated process. Throughout material handling processes significant safety and health challenges are presented to workers […]
The next step in the Six Sigma journey is to have a clearly defined problem statement that will guide the team throughout the execution of the project. Here are a few tips which give us an insight into how a project problem statement must be developed.
As per a layman’s definition a problem is a difference between the expected state of affairs and the actual state of affairs. In organizations problems can come in many forms and can have many causes. In fact most of the times problems are hidden and what we think of as problems are only symptoms of the problem.
While it may sound fairly simple that there is a business problem that needs to be solved, in reality it is not so. This is because business problems have various dimensions and people tend to interpret some of these dimensions separately. The common problems that occur because the problem was not accurately understood in the first place are as follows:
To prevent this problem from happening, a regular problem must be converted to a Six Sigma Problem. The Six Sigma Problem, like the regular problem is a difference between the desired and actual state of affairs. However, it answers some questions explicitly and leaves no room for ambiguity. The questions that are normally answered are as follows:
This Six Sigma problem provides a concrete goal statement to the project execution team that can be worked upon. An example will make the contrast between a normal problem and a six sigma defined problem statement more clear.
Normal Problem: Employees usually turn in late to work causing loss in productivity.
Six Sigma Problem: At the New Jersey factory, 45% of the employees report to work within 15 minutes after the time that they were supposed to report to during the beginning of the shift causing a fall in daily productivity by 5%.
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