Q. What can the office potluck teach us about applying Six Sigma principles?
A. Not all Six Sigma tools (or team members) will contribute equally to the project. Focusing on the essential few can make the project more successful.
If you’ve ever worked in an office environment, you’re probably familiar with the ritual of the office potluck. On formal holidays and other festive occasions, employees will bring food and drink items to the workplace and everyone shares what they brought.
To ensure that most food choices are included (and none are duplicated), one organizationally-minded person provides a sign-up sheet for the team so that everyone gets a chance to share something without duplicating the efforts of a co-worker.
The Problem with Potlucks
While sign-up sheets help get everyone on board, their drawbacks are immediately clear. Not all items require the same investment of time and money. Individuals who volunteer to make a complicated shrimp ceviche dish or homemade beignets contribute far more time and effort to the event than those who stop on their way to work to pick up a two-liter bottle of diet soda or a jumbo bag of potato chips.
Even though there are several categories of food items on the list, the most important ones are the one or two entrees that require the most time and effort. These few items determine the success of the potluck by giving the team food that will be talked about, making the event memorable. No one is going to remember the potluck because of the bargain diet soda.
The Six Sigma Connection
What’s true for an office potluck is true for the tools used in a Six Sigma project. Some tools contribute more than others, and some require more time and effort.
So how do you choose the most effective tools for your project from the dozens available?
Call on a Cast of Favorites — Six Sigma veterans know that there is a group of indispensable tools that can be applied to every project. These include control charts, Pareto diagrams, histograms, fishbone diagrams, check sheets, and scatter diagrams. These popular tools can shed a great deal of light on your project.
Use Benchmarking — Reviewing similar projects can also give you an idea of what tools will work well for your team on a particular project. If you are assigned to optimize a complex process that has many steps, and flowcharts were helpful on similar projects, flowcharts are likely to play a part in this one as well.
Look Downstream — Completing several Six Sigma projects will give you a feel for which tools will serve your project the best. Experience helps you size up a new project and make an educated guess about which Six Sigma tools will be critical for its completion. Reviewing the project requirements and objectives also gives you an idea of what tools will benefit your team the most.
There are dozens of food categories available on a potluck signup sheet. Knowing which ones will have the biggest impact on the legacy of the potluck will help make it a success.
Likewise, there are dozens of Six Sigma tools available to you. Knowing which ones will have the biggest impact on the project helps you make the best use of your time, people and resources.
