Measure phase - six sigma

Measure phase
• MEASURE the current process or performance.
• Identify what data is available and from what source.
• Develop a plan to gather it.
• Gather the data and summarize it, telling a story to describe the
problem. This usually involves utilization of graphical tools.
• Measurement is critical throughout the life of the project and
as the team focuses on data collection initially they have two
focuses:
• Determining the start point or baseline of the process.
• Looking for clues to understand the root cause of the problem.

What Measurements are Important and
What Tools Should be Used?
1. Select Customer Critical to Quality (CTQ)
Characteristics;
a- Define Defect, Opportunity, Unit and Metrics.
b- Detailed Process Map of Appropriate Areas)
2. Define Performance Standards (Numbers & Units);
3. Establish the Data Collection Plan,
4. Validate the Measurement System,
5. Collect the Necessary Data.

Measure phase tools
• SIPOC Diagram (Supplier, inputs, process, output,
customer)
• VOC (voice of customer)
• KANO analysis (classifying customer needs)
• Quality function deployment QFD (house of quality)
• Flow diagram (process mapping)
• Pareto chart (vital few needs)

SIPOC diagram
• SIPOC diagram is a tool used by a team to identify all relevant
elements of a process improvement project before work
begins.
• A SIPOC Process Definition helps the Process Owner and those
working on the process to agree the boundaries of what they
will work on.
• It is similar and related to process mapping and ‘in/out of
scope’ tools, but provides additional detail.

SIPOC Diagram
• Suppliers: The individuals, departments, or organizations
that provide the materials, information, or resources that
are worked on in the process being analyzed
• Inputs: The information or materials provided by the
suppliers, transformed, consumed, or otherwise used by the
process .
• Process: The macro steps or tasks that transform the inputs
into outputs: the final products or services
• Outputs: The products or services that result from the
process.
• Customers: The individuals, departments, or organizations
that receive the outputs, the products or services, generated
by the process

Questions must be asked to perform
SIPOC diagram
1. For which stakeholder does this process primarily
exist?
2. What value does it create? What output is produced?
3. Who is the owner of this process?
4. Who provides inputs to this process?
5. What are the inputs?
6. What resources does this process use?
7. What steps create the value?
8. Are there subprocesses with natural start and end
points?

Create the SIPOC diagram as following:
1. Create a simple, high-level process map of the process.
- Perform the steps below using brainstorming rules.
2. Identify the outputs of this process.
3. Identify the customers who will receive the outputs.
4. Identify the inputs needed for the process to create the
outputs.
5. Identify the suppliers of the inputs.
6. Clean up the lists by analyzing, rephrasing, combining, moving,
etc.
7. Create a SIPOC diagram.
8. Review the SIPOC with the project sponsor and process owner.
Modify as necessary.

Who is customer?
• A customer is any person or organization that receives a
product or service (output) from our work activities (process).
• Internal customers are colleagues or departments who
receive products, services, support or information from your
process.
• External customers are individuals or organizations outside of
your business who are usually associated with paying money
for your products and services.
• Regulatory: Any government agency that has standards the
process or product must conform to – i.e. ACCC, EPA, FDA,

Customers Define “Quality”
Ease
of Use
Aesthetics
Timeliness Accuracy
Flexibility
& Options
Price
& Cost
Customer
You must understand
what the customers of
your process care about!

Performance Need Categories
The challenge is to understand how your customers, stakeholders,
process owner, etc. define and prioritize the various needs and
expectations they have of your products and services, or constraints
they may inject.
Product or Service Features, Attributes, Dimensions, Characteristics Relating to the
Function of the Product or Service, Reliability, Availability, Effectiveness, Recovery,
Customer Returns, Defects, Rework or Scrap (Derived Primarily from the Customer -
VOC)
Process Cost Efficiency, Prices to Consumer (Initial Plus Life Cycle), Repair Costs,
Purchase Price, Financing Terms, Depreciation, Residual Value, Raw Material, Energy
Efficiency (Derived Primarily from the Business - VOB)
Lead Times, Delivery Times, Turnaround Times, Setup Times, Delays, Up Time,
Equipment Availability, Rolling Speed, Flexibility (Derived from the Customer or the
Business – VOC/VOB)
Health, Safety and Environment Policy, Service Requirements, After-Purchase
Reliability, Parts Availability, Service, Warranties, Maintainability, Customer-Required
Maintenance, Product Liability, Product/Service Safety, Recordable Injuries, Lost Time,
Environmental Incidents
Quality
Cost
Speed
Service
and Safety
Corporate
Responsibility Ethical Business Conduct, Business Risk Management, Health Safety and Environment
Policy, Code of Conduct

Voice Of the Customer (VOC)
• The “voice of the customer” is a process used to
capture the requirements/feedback from the customer
(internal or external) to provide the customers with the
best in class service/product quality.
• The “voice of the customer” is the term used to
describe the stated and unstated needs or
requirements of the customer. The voice of the
customer can be captured in a variety of ways: Direct
discussion or interviews, surveys, focus groups,
customer specifications

Importance of Voice of the Customer (VOC)
• It ensures that the problem and goal are defined in terms that
truly relate to customer requirements.
• It avoids cost and time cutting solutions that actually hurt
service or relations with customers.
• It provides insight into possible output measures of the
process.
• It helps to create a climate of positive change; sometimes just
listening to customer feedback is a huge leap in customer
satisfaction – aka Hawthorne Effect.
• It enables you to translate the often vague customer
comments into measurable statements called Critical to Quality
(CTQ) metrics.

Determine what to measure: listen to
customers
• Effective process improvement means that the measure we
use in our business is directly linked to our customers.
• Step 1: Develop a customer–Focused business strategy
• Step 2: Listening to the VOC
• Step 3: Translating voice of the customer (VOC) into critical
customer requirements (CCRs).
• Step 4:Developing measures and indicators

Develop customer focused strategy
customer-focused strategy as a view on business that puts
customers at the center of business decisions.
Customer-focused strategies –place the spotlight on the people
that keep your business afloat - your customers.
These types of strategies are designed to help you know who
your key customers are and understand what entices them to
stay loyal while singing your business's praises.
Customer value is the outcome of a process that begins with a
business strategy anchored in a deep understanding of customer
needs.
Customer value is The difference between what a customer gets
from a product, and what he or she has to give in order to get it

• Not all customers create equal value. In order to discover
growth opportunities, gain a competitive advantage, it is
helpful to segment customers. Customer segmentation will
also play a role in step 2, listening to the VOC.
• Typically, various customer segments deliver disproportionate
value: i.e., the greatest value can from a small potion of your
customer base.
Customer value

Customer segmentation
• Market/ customer Segmentation: Process of dividing the
market into subsets of consumers with common needs or
characteristics. It can be a powerful means to identify unmet
customer needs.
• It is most effective when a company tailors offerings to
segments that are the most profitable and serves them with
distinct competitive advantages. This prioritization can help
companies develop marketing campaigns and pricing
strategies to extract maximum value from both high- and low
profit customers.

How does a person begin to listen to the VOC
and collect customer information?

How to Collect VOC
1. Brainstorm a list of stakeholders; they could be customers,
suppliers, process owners, regulators, sponsors, groups that are
somehow affected, groups that somehow affect the process.
2. Prioritize the results into three categories;
“A” category for those groups that benefit most or are affected
“B” category ,the most negatively from the process and
“C” category for those groups that are affected the least.
3. As a team, first hypothesize what you think the VOC is for
each customer group and person involved in the process.

How to Collect VOC
4. From your hypothesis, build interview questions. See
separate templates and online resources for possible non-
leading questions.
5. Go out and ask individual customers and customer groups,
as well as track what they show they want when they vote
with their wallets or feet.
6. Interview key internal process owners to understand each
of their perspectives.
7. After data has been collected, sort through responses and
de-duplicate.

How to Collect VOC
8. Optionally, categorize responses by performing some sort of
affinity diagramming or clustering activity.
9. Identify solutions that customers have stated and place this
information in a separate “Possible Solutions” document that the
team will explore later in the Improve phase.
10. Include in your plans some traceability of VOC responses. To
be able to go back to the customer group that made an
interesting comment.
11. Your final list will then be used to convert the vague VOC into
measurable CTQ’s.

KANO analysis
The Kano model is useful in gaining a thorough understanding
of a customer’s needs. You can translate and transform the
resulting verbatim using the VOC of customer table that,
subsequently, becomes an excellent input as the what’s in a QFD
house of quality.
The model involves two dimensions:
• Achievement (the horizontal axis) which runs from the
supplier didn’t do it at all to the supplier did it very well.
• Satisfaction (the vertical axis) that goes from total
dissatisfaction with the product or service to total satisfaction
with the product or service.

The three levels of need/ KANO analysis
• Threshold Attributes/ Expected Needs/ Must needs The
entry level or must level expectation that fully satisfying the
customer at this level simply gets a supplier into the market
and they are also dissatisfiers because by themselves they
cannot fully satisfy a customer. However, failure to provide
these basic expectations will cause dissatisfaction.
• Performance Attributes/ Normal Needs These are the
qualities, attributes, and characteristics that keep a supplier in
the market. These next higher level expectations are known as
the wants (VOC) or the satisfiers because they are the ones
that customers will specify as though from a list. They can
either satisfy or dissatisfy the customer depending on their
presence or absence.

The three levels of need/ KANO analysis
• Excitement Attributes/ Exciting Needs These are features and
properties that make a supplier a leader in the market. The
highest level of customer expectations, as described by Kano,
is termed delighters or the wow level qualities, properties, or
attributes.
• KANO analysis in summary
• The Kano Analysis helps to identify unspoken needs before
prioritization.
• It is intended to help prioritize customer needs.

KANO analysis in summary
• It should be linked to a company’s multi-generational project
plan.
• Generation 1 has to cover the “must be’s.”
• The company must realize that customers’ expectations
and/or needs vary over time.
• The information obtained from the Kano Model Analysis,
specifically regarding performance and excitement attributes,
provides valuable input for the Quality Function Deployment
process.

Theme 1
Need 1 Need 2
Theme 2
Need 3 Need 4
Need 5
Theme 3
Need 7
Need 8
Affinity Diagrams
An affinity diagram is a good tool
for this purpose since it organizes
language data into related groups
– Gather ideas from interview
transcripts, surveys, etc.
– Generate customer need
statements on cards or sticky
notes
– Group the cards to find the
“affinity”
– Label the groups of cards

Moves team from high-level customer needs to greater detail
in order to define requirements
A tool for breaking broad process steps or product features
into greater detail
Helps organize needs by level of details.
Tree Diagrams
Affinity Diagrams
Tree Diagram

Tree Diagrams
Primary Need
Secondary Need
Tertiary Need Customer
Requirement
Product/Service
Customer
Requirement
Customer
Requirement
Customer
Requirement

Tree Diagram Example: Pizza
Customer wants
“healthy choices”
Crust
Toppings
Other ingredients
Whole wheat
Unbleached flour
Cheese
Sauce
Additives
Spices
Oil
No cheese
Low-fat mozzarella
Low-fat white cheddar
Meats
Vegetables

Quality Function Deployment (QFD)
• Quality Function Deployment (QFD) is a customer driven
product or service planning process. It is a methodology for
translating customer requirements into company
requirements at each stage from Concept Definition (R&D) to
Process Engineering and Production and into the marketplace.
• The QFD matrix is a tool to translate CCRs (Critical To
Customers) into CTQs (Critical to Quality).
• QFD is also termed as:
• Voice of the Customer
• House of Quality
• Customer-Driven Engineering
• Matrix Product Planning

Quality Function Deployment (QFD)
QFD is used to:
• Collect customer’s requirements/desires as specified by the
customers in their own words
• Prioritize these desires
• Translate them into engineering/process requirements
• Establish targets to meet the requirements.
• The QFD process establishes customer objectives and
measures and records them on a series of matrices.
• QFD matrix translates the CCRs into CTQs. The final score
helps prioritize the CTQs and helps you decide which CTQs
to tackle first.

The QFD Methodology
• Identify both internal and external customers. Create a list of
customer requirements/desires (Whats) by Asking the
customer, questions such as “What are the important features
of The Product”
• Capturing the customer’s own words or “Voice of the
Customer”
• Categorizing the Whats into groups/buckets if needed.
• Prioritize the above collected Whats on a scale of 1-5, with 5
being the most important. This ranking is based on the VOC
(Voice of Customer) data. The CCRs (Whats) are listed vertically
in the first column and all related CTQs (Hows) are listed
horizontally across the top . In the second column, assign 1 to 5
based on the importance of the CCRs, where 5 is the most
critical to the customer.

The QFD Methodology
• Score each CTQ (Hows) on how strongly it correlates to each
CCR. Remember we are looking at the absolution value of the
correlation. It could be either positively correlated or
negatively correlated. Use 5 for a strong correlation and 1 is a
weak one. Leave it blank if there is no correlation. Some CCRs
will have few CTQs that relate and rest unrelated.
• Compile list of CTQs (Hows) necessary to achieve the CCRs
(Whats.)
• Translate the CCRs from VOC (Whats) into CTQs (Hows)
Arrows show direction for improvement (up for increasing,
down for decreasing, etc.)

• For each What, find out the correlation with each How. If the
correlation is strong use 5. If its week use 1. If its in between,
use a number 2,3,4 based on how strong the correlation is.
• Next multiply the importance rating for the CCR by the
correlation score for each CTQ.
• Add up the scores vertically for each CTQ and place that value
in the bottom score row.
• Once the score is computed for all CTQs, the ones with the
highest scores are the highest priority Six Sigma project
objectives to work on.
The QFD Methodology

Quality function deployment QFD - House of
Quality

Determining “Critical Customer Requirements”
From Requirements to “Quality”
– A customer’s perception of value & performance represents
their view of the “quality” of a product or service
– Their basis for evaluation is how well their requirements have
been met
– Evaluations are also influenced by their “expectations”
– Quality = Actual Performance - Expectations
All requirements are not created equal …
– Customers weight their requirements differently
– The most important customer requirements become those
CTQs.

Translating VOC to CCRs
What is a critical customer requirement? (CCR)
• Important to the customer –“customer cares about it”
1- Specifies requirement –“must have” or “must be” attributes.
• Can be measured.
• Establishes a target.
- Customer specifications.
- Acceptable range of performance.
2- Translating VOCs to CCRs:
- Organize and verify customer needs data into CCRs.
- Determine CCR priorities.

Translating VOC to CCRs
3- Determine CCR Priorities
• Translate all key VOC data into CCRs.
• List all CCRs identified.
• Prioritize CCRs based on how well they will meet the
project objectives.
• Verify CCR priorities within the team and with the
sponsor.

Critical to Quality (CTQ)
Critical to Quality (CTQ) Analysis
VOC’s can be vague and difficult to define, that’s where CTQ’s
come in.
The customer may identify a requirement that is difficult to
measure directly so it will be necessary to break down what is
meant by the customer into identifiable and measurable terms.

Critical to Quality (CTQ)
Converting VOC to Critical-To-Quality (CTQs)
1. Identify customer and stakeholder groups, and prioritize
them.
2. Collect their qualitative VOC needs in their language, not
assuming you already know it.
3. Analyze data and blend it to generate VOC lists, prioritized
by segment.
4. Ask customers and stakeholders to translate their customer
language into measurable CTQs.
5. Set your specifications for CTQs that match customer
needs.

Converting CCR to Critical-To-Quality (CTQs)

Input, Output and Process Indicators
• Input, Output Process Indicators
• Y is an output performance measure
• – Output indicators or performance measures (Y’s) should
be
• derived from the Voice of the Business and the Voice of the
• Customer.
• – Remember that “what gets measured is what gets done.”
• Make sure that your Y’s will drive the desired behavior.
• X’s are key input and process measures.
• – Machine Settings
• – Training Hours
• – Process Variables

Output indicator
• Output indicators (Y's) are those key metrics that
measure the accuracy in meeting the Critical Customer
Requirements (CCRs).
• Generally, they are measured after the product or
service is complete.
• These indicators are not helpful in predicting, thus
making them reactive rather than proactive
• . Output indicators are necessary because they help us
to understand process performance from the
customer's perspective. The key output indicators
should be identified in or before the Define phase.

Define Performance Standards:
Numbers & Units
• Measure – How are we doing?
• l Key Deliverables
• – Input, Output Process Indicators
• – Operational Definitions
• – Measurement System Analysis
• – Data measurement Plans
• – Data collection Forms
• – Baseline Performance

process indicators
• process indicators (x's). Preferably, the
selected process parameters will have a direct
affect on the output indicators (Y's).
• These are considered ideal process indicators
and may be predictive.
• The team should ensure they have identified
at least one process indicator for each CCR.
• These process indicators will be used in the
Analyze phase to help validate root causes.

Input indicator
• From the SIPOC map, we identify the process inputs and can
list input indicators. These may be less predictive than the
process indicators but are just as important.
• Because they are inputs, they generally relate to the suppliers'
performance.
Once the output, process, and input indicators have been
determined, the list can be examined for balance.
• It is important to confirm that the list is balanced from a
financial, quality, productivity and timeliness viewpoint.
• Once the indicators have been identified, we can proceed to
the next Measure steps: writing Operational Definitions and
performing Measurement System Analysis (MSA).

Input, Output and Process Indicators

Numbers & Units
• Operational Definitions
• – A precise definition of the specific Y to be measured
• Data measurement Plans
• – who, where, when the data will be collected and what will
be done with data collected.
• Measurement System Study
• – To ensure the quality of the measurements obtained before
using them in any analyses or decision-making.
• Data collection Forms
• – Forms to manually collect data.
• Baseline Performance
• – To document the “as-is” performance of the process. (Cp,
Cpk etc)

Numbers & Units
At this stage customer needs are translated into clearly defined
measurable traits.
OPERATIONAL DEFINITION: This is a precise description that
removes any ambiguity about a process and provides a clear way
to measure that process.
An operational definition is a key step towards getting a value for
the CTQ that is being measured.

Develop operational definitions.
Mission Statement Definition
Required for
Definition
required for
Additional definition
required for
Reduce the number
of late parts
shipment
late More than two
days after order
received
When is the order
consider received
It is important to ensure that all team members agree on the definitions of key terms.

Numbers & Units
TARGET PERFORMANCE: Where a process or product
characteristic is “aimed”
If there were no variation in the product / process then this is
the value that would always occur.
SPECIFICATION LIMIT: The amount of variation that the customer
is willing to tolerate in a process or product. This is usually shown
by the “upper” and “lower” boundary which, if exceeded, will
cause the customer to reject the process or product.

Analyze Symptoms
• A symptom is the outward, observable evidence of a problem.
• It is an output (Y)
• Examples:
• A Customer returns a defective product.
• A hotel guest waits a long time to check in.
• A customer must wait weeks for a replacement part.
• A customer closes an account because of dissatisfaction with
the service.
• Clients are not seen until long after their scheduled
appointment times.

Analyze symptoms
Examples
• Some electronic components from a supplier are
defective when tested.
• Billing errors are common.
To analyze symptoms, a project team must:
• Develop operational definitions.
• Measure the symptoms.
• Define boundaries.
• Concentrate on the vital few.

Measure symptoms
• Data Helps Us …….
• Separate what we think is happening from what is really
happening.
• Confirm or disprove preconceived ideas and theories.
• Establish a baseline of performance.
• See the history of the problem over time.
• Measure the impact of changes on a process.
• Identify and understand relationships that might help
explain variation.
• Control a process (monitor process performance)
• Avoid “solutions” that don’t solve the real problem.

Measure the Symptoms
• All business problems have symptoms that can be objectively
measured.
• If you need to develop a measure, asking these questions may
be helpful.
• How do customers evaluate the symptoms?
• Where is each symptom observed?
• What documentation exists?
• What method should be used to obtain the measure?
• What is the appropriate unit of measure?
• Time: years, months, weeks, days,…..
• Cost of Poor Quality: Dollars
• Defects: Number of defects, or percentage.

A Good Data Collection Plan:
a. Provides clearly documented strategy for collecting reliable
data;
b. Gives all team members a common reference;
c. Helps to ensure that resources are used effectively to collect
only critical data. The cost of obtaining new data should be
weighed vs. its benefit.
There may be viable historical data available.

A Good Data Collection Plan:
We refer to “actual process variation” and measure “actual
output”:
a. what is the measurement process used?
b. describe that procedure
c. what is the precision of the system?
d. how was precision determined
e. what does the gage supplier state about:
f. Do we have results of either a:
* Accuracy * Precision * Resolution
* Test-Retest Study?
* Gage R&R Study?

Flow diagram
• Shows where a process begins and ends, and also plots the
major steps.
• With a flow diagram, we can:
 Walk through a process without leaving the room.
 Better understanding of the process.
 Define the scope.
 Reflects the process as it actually operates.
 Identify waste in the process: value added versus non value
added steps

Flowchart: Six Sigma Uses
Define
Measure
AnalyzeImprove
Control

Symbols used in flow diagramming
Activity
Data-base
connector
Decision
Document
Start/Finish
Direction

Which Flowcharting Technique Should You Use?
High level flow chart Detailed flow chart Matrix flow chart
To identify the major
steps of the process
and where it begins
and ends.
To display the
complexity and
decision points of a
process.
To help highlight
handoff areas in
processes between
people or functions.
To illustrate where in the
process you will collect
data
To identify rework loops
and bottlenecks
To clarify roles and
indicate dependencies

Creating flowchart perspective
• Flowcharts can map three different
perspectives on a process:
1. What you think the process is.
2. What the process really is.
3. What the process should be.

Steps to create a process flowchart:
1. Discuss how you intend to use the flow diagram
2. Decide on the desired outcome of the session High level or
detailed
3. Always construct a high level flow diagram before
constructing a detailed one
4. Define the boundaries of the process
5. Document each step in sequence (flow should be from left to
right or from top to bottom) .
6. When you encounter a decision or branch, choose one branch
and continue flow diagramming

Steps to create a process flowchart:
7. If you encounter a segment in the process that is unfamiliar to
everyone in the room, make a note and continue flow
diagramming
8. Go back and flow other branches from the decision symbols
9. Review the completed chart to see if you missed anything
10. Discuss on how the team will fill in the unfamiliar steps of the
process and verify the accuracy of the flow diagram
11. When you are sure that the flow diagram is accurate and
complete you can analyze it.

Analyzing a detailed flow diagram
1. Examine each decision symbol.
• Is this a checking activity?
• Is this a complete check, or do some types of errors go
undetected?
• Is this a redundant check?
2. Examine each rework loop.
• Would we need to perform these activities if we had no
failures?
• How “long” is this rework loop (steps, time lost, resources
consumed, etc.)
• Does this rework loop prevent the problem from reoccurring ?

Analyzing a detailed flow diagram
3. Examine each activity symbol.
• Is this a redundant activity?
• What is the value of this activity relative to its cost?
• How have we prevented errors in this activity?
4. Examine each document or data base symbol:
• Is this necessary?
• How is this kept up to date?
• How can we use this information to monitor and
improve the?

Potential pitfalls and problems in
Interpretation
• Failure to document the actual process is an important pitfall
that is caused by:
• The designers of the original process are drawing the flow
diagram to process they designed “should be” not “as is.”
• Managers on the team are reluctant to draw parts of the
actual process that are obviously illogical, for fear that they
will be called to explain why they allowed it to be that way.
• Rework is assumed to be little and inevitable, so rework loops
are either not seen or not documented by the team.
• Team members truly do not know how the process operates
(in many cases, only the workers know)

Value-Added & Non Value-Added Steps
 Value –Added Step:
• Customer are willing to pay for it.
• It Physically changes the product.
• It’s done right the first time.
 Non-value –Added Step:
• Is not essential to produce output.
• Does not add value to the output.
• includes:
Defects, errors, omissions.
Preparation/Setup, control/ inspection.
Over-production & inventory.
Transporting, motion, waiting, delays.

Measure phase - six sigma

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