control-ES and Six Sigma Process Management

Why does Six Sigma need software tools?

The early gains at GE, Motorola and Allied Signal were without specific Six Sigma tools. This is not because they weren’t needed, but that the IT infrastructure in the late 1990’s was not mature enough, and cost-effective software didn’t exist. There are now Internet enabled software applications that allow real-time collaboration of process-related information that can supercharge any Six Sigma initiative.

But many tools claim to support Six Sigma, but nearly all of them are focused on the statistical data capture (SPC and Project Management) which is only a part of Six Sigma; measurement. control-ES does not replace these tools, but complements them. control-ES can support all the DMAIC phases of Six Sigma; crucially they can also support the overall leadership themes that make Six Sigma so effective overall.

Why control-ES?

Battle-hardened Six Sigma Black Belts are genuinely staggered by control-ES’ ability to improve the ROI and increase the effectiveness and speed of projects. Industry experts, who are bombarded with Six Sigma software packages, agree that control-ES is the only product which really delivers a mechanism for continuous improvement of processes and data.

control-ES has been designed and built to scale from an isolated ‘quick-win’ process redesign to an end-to-end, enterprise-wide process improvement project for a multi-national large corporation. It is delivering bottom-line benefits to household names around the world.

“I am presented with Six Sigma tools every day. control-ES is the first I have found that genuinely supports the most critical aspect of Six Sigma—that is, to clarify and drive end-to-end process management and improvement. It also helps ensure gains are locked-in, through ongoing measurement and monitoring support.” Pete Pande, President of Pivotal Resources and author of “The Six Sigma Way ”

How control-ES supports the Six Sigma Themes

The themes are the critical elements of a Six Sigma leadership system. They are how to make Six Sigma work for an organization, and deliver real benefits to the customer and the bottom line. This is how control-ES supports the six themes:

Genuine Focus on the Customer

Top-level process design can focus the business on how it meets the customer needs and how it is measured.
The customer interfaces can be mapped, measured and continually improved. This is all captured in live workshops with the senior management team
This is the company’s operational strategy and ensures all activity in the company is aligned.

Data and Fact-driven Management:

Capturing (and getting agreement) of what actually happens at the shop floor or in the offices is critical.
Detailed process and related data can be developed in live workshops with the relevant stakeholders, and presented unambiguously so there is agreement on the current position – the facts.

Process Focus, Management and Improvement

control-ES gives a process focus at every level of the organization.
It allows the processes to be managed through continuous improvement, measured in terms of cost.
Processes can be dynamically linked to Key Performance Indicators or other key measures generated by external systems.

Proactive Management:

Live mapping and collaborative working enabled by control-ES immediately highlights bottlenecks, duplication and potential ‘Quick Win’ projects.
The related measurement associated with the process steps allows management to identify on the critical areas for improvement, and how and what process to focus on.
control-ES delivers a business process improvement environment to all stakeholders on their desktop they take action where and when it makes most difference.

Boundaryless Collaboration:

End-to-end process definition, bringing individuals together in workshops breaks down ’silo’ thinking at every level in the organization.
Measures associated with processes that are cross-functional force collaborative working to deliver increased performance.
But processes are not confined within the company. control-ES allows suppliers and customers to have access and collaborate on shared processes and documentation.

Drive for Perfection, Tolerance for Failure

Continuous improvement requires constant course correction and testing.
control-ES allows process models to be duplicated and different costed what-if scenarios compared, and then merged into the main process model.
All changes are managed through the authorization cycle by email-driven workflow, and tracked in the audit logs.

How control-ES supports DMAIC

At a detailed level control-ES has been designed to support the DMAIC methodology – hence the name control-ES - as that is the ultimate aim!

Define:

Top down hierarchical mapping identifies the key priority projects and how they fit into the overall end-to-end business process, and the process owners/sponsors.
The scope of any process is “input – activity – output” which ensures that the processes and the handoffs between processes are clear and unambiguous.
Processes are delivered via the intranet to every stakeholder’s desktop, based on access permissions, in a managed environment.

Measure:

Before you can measure you need to be clear that the process is correct and agreed, and this is achieved in the Define phase.
This activity will enable you to identify the correct measures to be applying to processes. The processes at every level are tied to corporate objectives, Key Performance Indicators and specific metrics.
control-ES allows real time measures to be attached to a process, which are dynamically refreshed from a 3rd party system.

Analyze:

Resource costs, durations and volumes can be applied to the process model to analyze the true costs, and those costs rolled-up to higher levels.
Using what-if analysis, different process approaches can be analyzed and compared.
control-ES will perform Critical Path Analysis, and identify resource constraints.

Improve:

Live workshops kick-start the improvement process.
control-ES delivers a process improvement environment on everyone’s desktop with collaboration tools that engenders the culture of continuous improvement.
The managed authorization workflow enables rapid, but controlled sign-off to enable suggested changes to be put into practice as quickly as possible.

Control:

Measurement drives the priorities for continuous improvement, but control-ES ensures that it is controlled and managed.
Traffic light reporting enables upper and lower limits to be set for performance giving clearly visible areas for improvement.