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I'm just completing a Six Sigma Green Belt project and the solution should never be considered at this early stage.
The DMAIC process starts with defining the problem.
My project is to "reduce the number of rejected drawings due to standard working practice not being followed". We would have guessed it was because they were all out of date and badly written, the Six Sigma DMAIC process actually proved the ones not being followed were in fact up to date !! We could have wasted an awdul lot of time there and improved nothing.
In our case, the solution has been consolidating all our documentation into a single source (RoboHelp X5) and has worked brilliantly.
I would suggest waiting until you are coming to the end of the Analysis phase and looking to find Improvements to the problem you're sure you have.
Six Sigma is a fantastic process, when properly applied.
If you have a solution why bother with Six Sigma? Just implement the improvement, but are you sure you know what the problem is?
My twopenneth
Best of luck with the project - talk to your MBB soon,
Julie
----- Original Message ----
From: John Posada <jposada01 -at- yahoo -dot- com>
To: "Evans, Diane L (Rosetta)" <diane_evans -at- merck -dot- com>; TECHWR-L <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
Sent: Wednesday, 24 May, 2006 3:58:00 PM
Subject: RE: Locating buried documents?
>> Kathleen Parrott's original question: <<Can any of you
>> kind folks tell me how you have resolved the problem of
>> users being unable to locate documents?
>> Our online system is huge and the options are endless,
>> but it seems no one can find what they're looking for...>>
> I recently wrote an article in the Intercom about document control.
> (If you would like a copy, just email me off-list.)
I'm not sure what Kathleen is looking for. She said her Six Sigma
greenbelt project was to fix the help...not COULD it be, but that it
was. If it is the project, then it needs to be done according to the
Six Sigma guidelines.
If she's looking for any old solution, then it isn't a Six Sigma
project and whether any of the proposed solutions will work or not is
a crapshoot.
John Posada
Senior Technical Writer
"So long and thanks for all the fish."
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