There’s excitement in the Improve Phase—the urge to jump to solution is always there —but the Control Phase holds the key to success. The process has been improved, but how do you sustain it? Now that the problem is fixed and solutions are in place, it’s critical to hold on to the gains.
In the Control Phase the team develops a Monitoring Plan to keep an eye on the continued success of the updated process. They also develop a Response Plan in case there is a dip in performance. Who do you call? What should you do if things go south?
Once they’ve got a plan that answers these critical questions, the team hands it off to the Process Owner for ongoing maintenance. The Process Owner is responsible for the continued health and welfare of the process. The team is busy moving on to tackle the next improvement effort, so it’s key to leave the process in good hands.
Ensure the New Process Is Managed and Monitored
In order to maintain focus, the team must narrow down the vital few measurements they need for ongoing monitoring of the process performance. There may have been dozens of measures that helped the team dig to root cause, but the goal at this point is to establish a balance of “leading” and “lagging” indicators. Leading measures alert the Process Owner of issues coming down the pike, whereas lagging measures answer the question, “how did we do last month?” We need both.
This Monitoring Plan is accompanied by a Response Plan which dictates the expected performance of the newly improved process. It also outlines the “Trigger Levels”—if the process goes beyond these points then it’s not operating as it should and it’s time to react. The Response Plan details what to do if and when the process performance starts to decline. The plan is for continued process refinement—the pursuit of perfection!
Tools: Control Plan, Control Chart and Monitoring & Response Plan
Monitoring Plan Map
What is a Monitoring Plan Map?
The Monitoring Plan Map is a guide to continued monitoring of the process, and the response plan for each of the measures being monitored. These three elements have been initiated earlier in the process, but in the Control phase, the monitoring is reduced to key input, process and output measures that will provide critical leading and lagging indicators during the project tracking period after implementation.
Control Chart
Control Charts are time charts designed to display signals or warnings of special cause variation. Special cause variation, as distinct from common cause variation, refers to changes in process performance due to sporadic or rare events indicating that a process is not “in control.” The advantage of Control Charts is that they enhance the understanding of process variation making it easier to take action to reduce special cause variation and improve ongoing process performance.
Graphically, they feature points that represent project mean or variation, and upper and lower Control Limits. The location of these points determines if a project is “out of control” and under the influence of common or special causes.
Monitoring & Response Plan
What is a Monitoring & Response Plan?
A Monitoring Plan is a data collection plan for checking the ongoing health of the improved process. It lists the measure, the targets for each measure, how each measure will be checked, how and who will check the measures. It sets the stage for the Response Plan.
The Response Plan establishes a threshold or trigger level for each measure in the Monitoring Plan. When the process performance goes beyond a trigger level, the Response Plan details immediate and long-term actions that will help the process return to and maintain the desired performance.
Document the Improved Process
Throughout the life of the project the team has been creating documentation—Standard Work, Process maps, Checklists and so on. It should be painless to finalize the documentation so others can use it. This smooths the way for training new employees and it also makes it simple for existing process participants to adopt the new way of doing things. Adoption and adaptation are critical to ongoing success.
One of the most powerful methods of ensuring that others follow the new process is to create a visual workspace—labels, outlines, color-coding, and standards. This means anyone can see at a glance exactly how a process flows and where to find what they need. The more intuitive the updated process becomes, the less training anyone needs to understand it.
Standard Work
Visual Management Checklist
What is Visual Management?
Visual Management is the practice of making the workplace visually easy to work in. This includes making it easy to identify units and materials, updating people on the process status, showing how the process works and providing a visible process plan for future steps.
Transfer Improvements—Spread the Wealth!
One of the best ways to increase the power and “bang for the buck” of any Lean Six Sigma effort is to apply the discoveries from the project into other areas within the organization. Even if it’s not feasible to transfer the entire project, there may be parts of it that could be adapted and shared.
Before they hand off their project, the team takes inventory of all the Quick Wins, Visual Boards, and other value-adding techniques they used and considers what might work for another team. The idea is to spread innovation quickly. This transfer of improvement ideas can come from large and small efforts but quickly multiplies the impact for the business.
Tools: Innovation Transfer Opportunities
Innovation Transfer Opportunities
What are Innovation Transfer Opportunities?
The Innovation Transfer Opportunities worksheet provides a structure for detailing which changes to the process could be of benefit in other work areas, departments or business units. Being able to transfer solutions to other process areas is one of the best ways to leverage process improvement work.
Share and Celebrate Your Success
Although the temptation is to race off to the next big effort, it’s important to stop and reflect on what the team accomplished. It’s key to share the news of project success since it accelerates change momentum. When colleagues and other business units see results, they immediately want in.
The team is in charge of marketing and publicizing each innovation. One great format for sharing results is the project displays like “Gallery Walks.” These are formal gatherings to educate colleagues and leadership and help to build the problem-solving culture. The cycle of improvement builds and continues. That’s worth celebrating!
Continuously Improve the Process
The Control Phase is not the end of improvement, it is simply a milestone in the journey. With each success, the problem-solving culture grows. The “C” in DMAIC stands for both “Control” and “Continue.” The journey continues but it’s smart to take the opportunity to pause.
As each project comes to a close, it helps to reflect on the four Lean principles—Value, Flow, Pull and Perfection. As Continuous Improvement teams celebrate their results, they double down on their efforts going forward. Now is the time to remind fellow employees of the foundations of their success. Every process—even one recently improved–can always be better. These principles guide the way:
- Value: Determine what steps are required (are of “Value”) to the customer
- Flow: Remove Waste in the system to optimize the process to achieve a smoother pace
- Pull: Ensure the process responds to customer demand (“Pull” = want)
- Perfection: Continuously pursue “Perfection” within the process
Building an army of problem-solvers happens slowly and strengthens each time an employee succeeds in reducing bureaucracy, improving profits, making work life easier and customers happier. Time for a new challenge!
Lean Six Sigma: DMAIC In-Depth
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