Lean Six Sigma For Leaders

6Control for Leaders

Implement and Control?

The Control phase ensures that the selected actions or solutions are implemented as planned, that they improve the process, and can be sustained.

For those not used to Lean Six Sigma DMAIC projects, you may be surprised that this phase is called ‘Control’ and not ‘Implement’. Remember that the Improve phase took us through evaluating different potential options, selecting the most appropriate solution, and then pilot testing that solution on a small scale. The implementation of the selected solution is not included in the Improve phase. Sounds strange but there is a good reason for this.

Once we get to the end of the Improve phase we know what the solution is going to be! We can therefore now do a sensible and realistic cost/benefit analysis. The crossover between the Improve and Control phases is therefore an excellent opportunity to review the DMAIC project before implementing the solution. This is the moment when you can calculate the gains which will result from the improved process. For many projects you can now translate those into financial benefits, and because you know what changes you are going to make you can calculate the cost of implementation.

For some organisations, for example in the public sector, this review is particularly important. For major changes in these organisations, it is likely that a senior management team will want to review the proposed solution and associated cost/benefit analysis before giving the ...