Driving Strategic Issues as Champion Projects for Six Sigma

The projects identified by the top down project selection process from the strategic goals are usually wider in scope and larger in size than the typical Six Sigma project. Each of these strategic projects may be further divided into a set of more narrowly scoped projects fit for black belts. But the total achievements of the small projects may not always have a significant business impact as a whole if they are executed separately. We suggest a model for such situation, where the small projects are executed as sub-projects of the strategic project pursuing total optimality. A champion is recommended to be the leader of a strategic project for effective control and coordination of sub-projects. Each sub-project follows the disciplined Six Sigma approach for improvement, and is evaluated by its contribution to the champion project. The champion project is performed by supervising and controlling the sub-projects as an integrated whole. The achievements of a champion project are evaluated by meaningful business metrics. Even when projects are identified by a bottom up process, a cluster of highly correlated projects may be more effectively executed by integrating them into a champion project. An example of a Korean company taking a similar approach is also provided.