Project Submission Guidelines

The project portion of the program $($whether submitting a hypothetical or real project$)$ is designed to be straightforward and a chance for you to demonstrate knowledge of DMAIC and DMADV practices. Students are provided with a sample project to use as a guide through the submission process.

Choose a project that you would consider to be worthwhile. Then guide the project through each step of the Six Sigma Process.

See the attached Project Submission Guidelines and Sample Project for more detailed information about what is required in your project submission.SAMPLE

Six Sigma Project Report$\mathrm{.}1$

SAMPLE

Six Sigma Project Report

$2$

Executive Summary

As a new subsidiary of an established company moving into a new business, establishing a reputation for

solid customer service at a low price is paramount for the Security Department$$s new serivce. Along the

way, the business manager discovered that the idea of a solid customer service reputation was in jeopardy,

but felt the personal service could not be beat. Under that presumption, he solicited help to use Six Sigma

processes to $1)$ validate the perception, $2)$ propose a recommendation for solutions and $3)$ put processes in

place to ensure control in the long run.

The Problem

After research and survey, we found that site managers were pleased to be moving to the new video

surveillance technology, but they were disappointed in the number of outages they were seeing in the

equipment. After measuring the process, we found there were several reasons for outages:

$1)$ Network service issues

$2)$ Software update issues

$3)$ User training issues

$4)$ Equipment failure

Of these, the latter proved to be the most costly and unexplainable. According to information from the

manufacturer, we should not see the kinds of problems we were having. The estimated cost for these

repairs exceeds $$70,000$ annually and has an untold impact on Operations.

The Process

Using the Six Sigma process of Define$-$Measure$-$Analyze$-$Improve$-$Control, we determined what the

priority is for the Security technical group. We then chartered a project and proceeded to understand and

define the problem. Through customer surveys, site visits and data gathering began to focus on the real

issues at hand. To help clarify the situation, we mapped the installation and support processes for the

security equipment finding and correcting issues as we went.

Eventually, the measurement and analysis processes pointed to the fact that we had a real issue that was

out of the ordinary for the equipment in service. Fortunately, we had clear concise records and good

support from the manufacturer to help research and resolve the problem.

Findings

As the old adage goes from a well$-$known Houston media personality, we had $$slime in the ice machine!$$

More importantly we had significant amounts of dirt in the machines. A by$-$product of the process$/$project

was that we discovered the Information Technology team was having the same issue, just not quite to the

same extreme.

With some research, the team did find a low cost solution to protect the machines. While it is early in the

post$-$solution phase, we are seeing improvements.

Conclusion

By using a systematic approach, we identified several areas in the process that needed modification. The

net result is a longer machine life with an expected savings of more than $$70,000$ annually as well as

improved customer service. Based on the proactive response to their issues, the Operations Management

teams of both the internal and external customers are beyond satisfied and are serving as excellent

references for the Security Department.

$3$

Definition Phase

Project Opportunities

As a new subsidiary business within a well established, large company, the Security Department

has several competing projects for a small staff. They find themselves needing to balance ongoing

operations, roll out of more services to the parent company and new sales opportunities for

external customers. For internal customers, the goal is to provide excellent security service $-$

burglar, fire and equipment monitoring $-$ as well as video coverage $($with historical recordings$)$ of

the operations area. For external customers, their strategy is to utilize their existing staff to

provide low cost services for monitoring alarms. Their goal continues to be low price and

excellent customer service. Excellent customer service is defined as reduci