DMAIC and DMADV Provide Strategic and Systemic Tools for Addressing Sustainability Challenges in Business
The Six Sigma framework assists leaders in defining a problem and then positions them with powerful strategies for setting forth on a systemic plan to achieve project goals. Overall this plan involves collecting data, implementing a change or new design and then monitoring success or failure. Each problem will result in potential solutions and frequently reveal additional problems.
Seasoned Six Sigma leaders typically look at the entire product landscape and analyze the theoretical trajectories of implementing one project over the other, weighing the timing of projects and prioritize accordingly. They may make it look easy, but in reality such project orchestration is the result of many years of trial and errors rooted in the methodologies that any leader can learn to implement over time.
Part of a successful project-planning strategy is to think holistically about long-term organizational triple bottom line goals and choose projects that can address inter-related goals.
DMAIC and DMADV and Sustainability Projects
DMAIC
For projects involving product improvement or re-aligning an existing product or business process to more intricately address customer specification, DMAIC is the methodology belt-level leaders will utilize.
An example of this type of application would occur, for instance, when a customer requires a more sustainable material to be used in a product. The design team will need to improve the product per the specifications, keeping in mind variables like cost, effectiveness and other customer/stakeholder parameters.
The process may look something like this:
Define – Leaders will gain a clear understanding of the customer’s needs and develop a project that can test the efficacy of the incorporation of the new more sustainable material.
Measure – Team leaders will set effective metrics in place to document how the current product is performing. This will provide a benchmark for comparison later. When a product needs improving and a material is being substituted in the production of that product, metrics will also need to monitor the quality of the end product, performance rating and value. In addition, it must still meet the customer’s continually evolving needs.
Analyze – Assuming the new material is being brought in not only to contribute to sustainability goals, but also to address an issue of under-performance, the data should reveal where the inadequacies originate. Specific aspects of the design or processes governing the design will be amended through analysis of the data.
Improve – The project will address the improvement needed and the improvements will be monitored throughout the process.
Control – Metrics will be put in place for ongoing review of the product. As new materials and competition reveal themselves in the marketplace, leaders can make additional suggestions for ongoing change and improvement.
The above example is just one way a sustainability project can be formulated using Six Sigma strategies. In the process of designing a DMAIC project, a team might realize that re-designing the product with the new material in the mix is really not cost-effective or sustainable in the marketplace. In such a case, belt-level leaders may elect to apply resources for a new product altogether and that is where DMADV comes into play.
DMADV
If an organization is going to design a new product to meet current user needs or to address a possible niche in the marketplace, then Six Sigma’s DMADV methodology will be of most use.
The process may look something like this:
Define – Leaders will conduct market research that will reveal the parameters the new product will address. Stakeholder needs and other market/product requirements will also be taken into account.
Measure – Metrics will be deployed to add measurable parameters to the needs and specifications revealed in the project definition phase.
Analyze – In Six Sigma, the data drives the process, so it is vital that the metrics accurately reflect the intent of the project. Options are weighted and compared through analysis of specific data.
Design – This stage involves the actual creation of the product or process that is going to best address all parameters of stakeholder requirements. At the same time, the team will produce the highest quality product at the best value possible. Continuous metrics will guide improvements throughout the design process.
Verify – Testing the design with regard to performance will verify if the product or service truly meets the customer needs in a way that gives it the competitive edge the team is looking for throughout the project. Adjustments can be made at any time along the process.
Six Sigma methodologies offer business leaders a wide variety of ways to address sustainability when either improving an existing product or creating one fresh from the drawing board.
Understanding DMAIC and DMADV strategies can help streamline and improve problem-solving projects across industry. While the situations in which one methodology is used over another are distinct, there are also times where the methodologies will overlap, especially when addressing business sustainability challenges in rapidly evolving industries such as technology, health and energy.
