One of the first and most crucial steps in any Six Sigma project is chalking out a Six Sigma project charter. The document offers a project overview and acts as a contract between management and the Six Sigma team outlining the anticipated project results. It contains a detailed explanation of accountability as well as the roles and obligations of the team. The charter also lays out a strategy for financial control over the project's duration by including predicted expenses and financial gains.
In this article, we will discuss the crucial areas of the project charter, following a brief description of each, a six sigma project charter template, and much more.
What is a Project Charter in Six Sigma?
Six Sigma's project charter may be a document of two to fifty-pages long, although it is often less than five pages. It describes a project to enhance a process. The project's need is explained through data-driven information in the charter. The paper becomes the main resource for the Six Sigma team once it has been authorized.
Similar to conventional project charters, a Six Sigma project charter is the first document that outlines the objectives of a project. It is also a dynamic document that can be revised and updated as the project progresses.
These fundamental components are present in both conventional project charters and Six Sigma project charters:
- Contract: It is an agreement between the project crew and the management department.
- Alignment: It outlines project objectives with corporate objectives.
- Business Case: It describes the project's business case.
- Overview: It outlines the project's goals, resources, and schedule.
- Project Expectations: It determines the project's scope and expectations for the future.
- Reference/Inspiration: It is a reference point for the project's duration.
A Six Sigma charter must be created and carried out by a team certified in the Six Sigma technique, unlike a regular project charter. Along with meeting the objectives mentioned above, the Six Sigma project charter will include the following -
- Methodology: Identify the Six Sigma tools and techniques you intend to employ to improve the business processes.
- Certifications and Roles: The team members allocated to the project should be identified with their Six Sigma certifications and project roles.
- Statements: It describes any potential implementation problems and the process improvements the project will make.
What is the Lean Six Sigma Project Charter?
A lean six sigma project charter serves as a road map for your project, outlining important facts, objectives, and many other crucial elements. Additionally, it serves as a contract between the project's implementation team and its sponsor, who provides financial support. To keep everyone on track and informed, including shareholders and team members, this project charter helps spell out expectations, including milestones and deliverables.
Who Drafts a Six Sigma Project Charter?
The Six Sigma project charter is created by a project champion, who could sometimes be a project head. This team member leads a group of certified Six Sigma Green and Black Belts and takes ownership of the process. Additionally, they depend on subject matter experts to deliver pertinent project information.
Each organization will have a different team structure. The general roles that should be included are -
- Project Champion: The project head serves as the process owner and a point of contact for the project team and management. The charter's creation is the appointed head's top priority.
- Green Belt/Black Belt: The team leader for the project is chosen by the project head. A Green Belt manages projects part-time, whereas a Black Belt oversees projects full-time.
- Team Members: These are recruited as subject matter experts and are responsible for completing the majority of project work.
- Master Black Belt: Guides the company regarding Six Sigma procedures.
All team members working on the charter, except for the Subject Matter Experts, must have good knowledge of Six Sigma practices and elements of the project charter in Six Sigma. For learning and revising the concepts of the Six Sigma project charter in-depth, you can take up the online six sigma courses.
How to Create a Six Sigma Project Charter?
Drafting a Six Sigma project charter is similar to writing previous project charters. Six Sigma project charters will include roles and duties following the Six Sigma methodology is a significant distinction.
1. Collect Data
Green Belts or Black Belts are responsible for data collection by the project champion. For a few weeks, this team tried to collect any data that would help the project. The champion then enters the data into a charter template and collaborates with the group to edit it.
2. Weigh Competing Priorities
All project tasks are identified, evaluated, and prioritized by the team. This task aids in managing scope creep and making the most of the team's time.
3. Six Sigma Pick Chart
Teams adopt a quadrant chart, also known as a payout matrix or a PICK chart (possible, implement, challenge, and kill), to identify the actions that will yield the largest payoff with the fewest resources.
4. Possible
Items with minimal difficulty and little reward that are doable will be listed under this section. These tasks would be done after acquiring the challenges.
5. Implement
Items essential to the project yet are also low-stakes and high-paying will be included in this part.
6. Challenge
Mark down the high-risk, high-reward products that will be challenging but might be worth the effort. Achieving these must be a goal first.
7. Kill
Mar down the high-difficulty, low-reward tasks that are unnecessary to attempt and ought to be killed. You can avoid these tasks during the initial phase of the solution.
8. Review
The project champion revises and edits the charter and solicits any additional supporting information from stakeholders before submitting the document to management.
9. Submit for Approval
The project sponsor receives the completed charter from the champion. Before approving the project, the sponsor seeks agreement from all parties.
10. Schedule Formal and Informal Updates
Timely updates and changes are important for the charter. Therefore, after the final verdict of management, the project head must regularly review the charter.
6 Major Elements of a Six Sigma Project Charter
There are six elements of a project charter in six sigma, namely: a business case, a problem statement, a goal statement, a scope, a timeframe and milestones, and team members.
1. Business Case
The business case explains why the corporation values this initiative. Why should the company back this project?
2. Problem Statement
The problem statement gives a brief account of the "pain" that the organization is going through. It needs to be connected to the customer's voice. The phrase "voice of the customer" (VOC) describes the thorough procedure (whether internal or external).
3. Goal Statement
What is the project's mission statement? How much progress is envisioned? The project's objective must be clear, quantifiable, doable, relevant, and time bound. Also, the objective has to be connected to the issue you're attempting to resolve.
4. Scope Statement
The project's physical boundaries are precisely described in the scope statement. What is included and excluded in the project are specified in the scope. The scope may encompass product lines, regions, divisions, etc.
5. Timeline and Milestones
A timeline drafts the schedule and determines the team members working on a specific project. Going further, the timeline is split into phases and milestones. Each phase comprises a defined overview of resources and teammates influencing the work. Identify the major milestones within and at the termination of every phase.
6. Team Members
All the necessary components to work on this project are included in the team member's section. The project sponsor, significant stakeholders, teammates, and subject matter experts are typically highlighted in this section.
Additional Project Charter Components
The Six Sigma charter will include the same things as conventional charters -
- General Info: Note the project title, the start date, and the projected finish date. Include any clarifications the group might find helpful.
- Critical Success: Factors: Identify the critical success criteria that could prevent your project from being completed successfully, like financial/time/resource constraints, etc.
- Financial Benefits: Detail any financial gains your organization will receive from the project as well as any lost opportunities.
- Risks, Constraints, And Assumptions: Forecast possible occurrences or dependencies that could impact the project's execution, timetable, budget, or quality. Examine the team's suppositions.
There are various ways to format a Six Sigma project charter. Typically, the team gathers data in order and lists them under the defined section. Here is an example given below to follow.
| Sections | Points to include. |
|---|
| General Information | - Project's Goal
- Project title
- Sponsors
- Stakeholders
|
Business Case
| - The significance of the project
- Project alignment with the purpose and vision of the business
- Risks and repercussions of not putting the proposal into action.
|
Scope Statement
| - Focused on
- Deliverables
- Objectives
- high-quality tracking metrics
- Scope and Expectations
|
Timeline and Milestones
| - Objectives and milestone activities
|
Team Members
| |
| Monitoring Strategies | - What to do if the project is not finished as expected
- Comparison of project progress to the desired outcome
- Comparison of the planned and actual completion dates
|
Six Sigma Project Charter Industry Examples
Now that we have discussed the methodology and steps of a six sigma project charter let us take a look at a blank six sigma project charter template that you can use as a reference. Several six sigma project charter sample documents are also available below. Each charter provides -
- A sample business case.
- Problem statement.
- Scope statement.
- The goal statement for a Six Sigma process improvement project is particular to the industry.
1. Healthcare
This sample Six Sigma project charter for the healthcare industry discusses an endeavor to decrease the number of patients who wait too long to leave a hospital's cancer care unit.
2. Manufacturing
This sample manufacturing Six Sigma project charter outlines a project that intends to improve a general assembly line's defect-causing process.
3. Pharma
This Six Sigma project charter sample exemplifies how to apply Six Sigma techniques to enhance requisition forms and procurement procedures between distributors and businesses.
4. Retail
This sample retail Six Sigma project charter outlines a national retail chain's strategy for changing on-floor sales techniques and training procedures in order to increase local sales conversions.
5. IT
This sample IT Six Sigma project charter covers an endeavor to enhance the work order ticketing system for an internal IT department.
6. Aviation
The strategy to revamp and expand an airline's voucher program is laid out in this sample aviation Six Sigma project charter.
7. Nonprofit
This illustration of a nonprofit Six Sigma project charter demonstrates how a social impact organization might utilize Six Sigma to take advantage of a chance to grow its youth program.
8. Higher Education
This sample higher education Six Sigma project charter outlines an endeavor to improve the engagement and enrollment of potential students by streamlining the admissions funnel process at a small private college.
9. Restaurant
To enhance its disjointed and wasteful supply ordering procedure and boost profit margins, the local restaurant in this sample restaurant's Six Sigma project charter presents its improvement strategy.
10. Real Estate
11. Media
This sample media Six Sigma project charter offers a strategy to improve the effectiveness of a marketing campaign and the channel selection procedure for a developing media organization.
12. Construction
This sample construction Six Sigma project charter outlines a project that seeks to improve the productivity of a construction company's build team.
Six Sigma Project Charter Blank Template
With the help of this thorough Six Sigma project charter template, create a Six Sigma charter for your project. Include a statement of your business case, your problem, and goal statements, timetable, team, and scope. Download the template in Microsoft PowerPoint to make a visually engaging presentation of your Six Sigma project charter. You can also learn the concepts of six sigma project charter in depth by taking up Best Six Sigma Green Belt Training.
Download a Printable PDF of Six Sigma Project Charter
You can download a printable PDF of the Six Sigma Project Charter from here.
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Conclusion
Any Six Sigma project begins with the project charter, which is also one of its most crucial components. The document offers a project overview and acts as a contract between management and the Six Sigma team outlining the anticipated project results. The DMAIC methodology helps the project solve phase-wise, which brings an efficient solution to the problem. If you learn how to implement the Six Sigma Project charter to the project-solving strategy, you can check out our KnowledgeHut’s Six Sigma Certification Courses Online. They cover all the concepts and suggest how to effectively approach and implement the DMAIC technique.
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