Managing Six Sigma Projects*

Transcription

1 DMAIC ^^^ CHAPTER 15 Managing Six Sigma Projects* The dictionary de nes the word project as follows: 1. A plan or proposal; a scheme. See synonyms at plan. 2. An undertaking requiring concerted e ort. Under the synonym plan we find: 1. A scheme, program, or method worked out beforehand for the accomplishment of an objective: a plan of attack. 2. A proposed or tentative project or course of action. 3. A systematic arrangement of important parts. Although truly dramatic improvement in quality often requires transforming the management philosophy and organization culture, the fact is that, sooner or later, projects must be undertaken to make things happen. Projects are the means through which things are systematically changed, projects are the bridge between the planning and the doing. Frank Gryna makes the following observations about projects (Juran and Gryna, 1988, pp ^22.19):. An agreed-upon project is also a legitimate project. This legitimacy puts the project on the o cial priority list. It helps to secure the needed bud- *Some of the material in this chapter is from The Six Sigma Project Planner,byThomasPyzdek.# 2003 by McGraw-Hill.

2 Useful project management tools and techniques 535 gets, facilities, and personnel. It also helps those guiding the project to secure attendance at scheduled meetings, to acquire requested data, to secure permission to conduct experiments, etc.. The project provides a forum of converting an atmosphere of defensiveness or blame into one of constructive action.. Participation in a project increases the likelihood that the participant will act on the ndings.. All breakthrough is achieved project by project, andinnootherway. The last item represents both good news and bad news. The bad news is that few projects are truly successful; the good news is that companies can and do become proficient at implementing projects without the need for mystical powers. What is needed is effective project management. USEFUL PROJECT MANAGEMENT TOOLS AND TECHNIQUES Project management is a system for planning and implementing change that will produce the desired result most efficiently. There are a number of tools and techniques that have been found useful in project management. Brief descriptions of the major project management methods are provided here. Techniques specific to project management are covered in greater detail elsewhere in this chapter. Many of these tools are used in a wide variety of quality improvement and quality control situations in addition to project management; additional information on each of these more general techniques is found elsewhere in this book; consult the index for details. Project planöthe project plan shows the why and the how of a project. A good project plan will include a statement of the goal, a cost/ benefit analysis, a feasibility analysis, a listing of the major steps to be taken, a timetable for completion, and a description of the resources required (including human resources) to carry out the project. The plan will also identify objective measures of success that will be used to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed changes; these are sometimes called the deliverables of the project. Gantt chartöa Gantt chart shows the relationships among the project tasks, along with time constraints. See below for a discussion of Gantt charts. Milestone chartsöa Gantt chart modified to provide additional information on project status. See below for a discussion of milestone charts. Pareto analysisöpareto analysis is a technique that helps one to rank opportunities to determine which of many potential projects should be pursued first. It can also be used sequentially to determine which step to take next. The

3 536 MANAGING SIX SIGMA PROJECTS Pareto principle has been described by Juran as separating the vital few from the trivial many. It is the why and the benefit of the project plan. See Chapter 8 for additional discussion. BudgetöA budget is an itemized summary of estimated or intended expenditures for a given project along with proposals for financing them. Project budgets present management with a systematic plan for the expenditure of the organization s resources, such as money or time, during the course of the project. The resources spent include time of personnel, money, equipment utilization and so on. The budget is the cost portion of the project plan. Also see below. Process decision program chart (PDPC)öThe PDPC technique is used to develop contingency plans. It is modeled after reliability engineering methods such as failure mode, effects, and criticality analysis (FMECA) and fault tree analysis (FTA). The emphasis of PDPC is the impact of problems on project plans. PDPCs are accompanied by specific actions to be taken should the problems occur to mitigate the impact of the problems. PDPCs are useful in the planning of projects in developing a project plan with a minimum chance of encountering serious problems. Also see Chapter 8. Quality function deployment (QFD)öTraditionally, QFD is a system for design of a product or service based on customer demands, a system that moves methodically from customer requirements to requirements for the products or services. QFD provides the documentation for the decision-making process. QFD can also be used to show the whats and hows of a project. Used in this way QFD becomes a powerful project planning tool. Also see Chapter 3. Matrix chartöa matrix chart is a simplified application of QFD (or, perhaps, QFD is an elaborate application of matrix charts). This chart is constructed to systematically analyze the correlations between two groups of ideas. When applied to project management the two ideas might be, for example 1) what is to be done? 2) who is to do it? Also see Chapter 8. Arrow diagramsöarrow diagrams are simple network representations of project flows. They show which tasks must be completed in the project and the order in which the tasks must be completed. See Chapter 8. Arrow diagrams are a simplification of PERT-type systems (see below). PROJECT PLANNING There are several reasons why one should plan carefully before starting a project (Ruskin and Estes, 1995, p. 44): 1. The plan is a simulation of prospective project work, which allows aws to be identi ed in time to be corrected.

4 Project planning The plan is a vehicle for discussing each person s role and responsibilities, thereby helping direct and control the work of the project. 3. The plan shows how the parts t together, which is essential for coordinating related activities. 4. The plan is a point of reference for any changes of scope, thereby helping project managers deal with their customers. 5. The plan helps everyone know when the objectives have been reached and therefore when to stop. The project plan shows the why and the how of a project. A good project plan will include the following elements:. statement of the goal. cost/bene t analysis. feasibility analysis. listing of the major steps to be taken. timetable for completion. description of the resources required (including human resources) to carry out the project The plan will also identify objective measures of success that will be used to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed changes; these are sometimes called the deliverables of the project. PROJECT DECOMPOSITION Most projects important enough to have a significant impact on quality are too large to tackle all at once. Instead, large projects must be broken down into smaller projects and, in turn, into specific work elements and tasks. The process of going from project objectives to tasks is called decomposition. Project decomposition begins with the preparation of a preliminary plan. A preliminary project plan will identify, in broad high-level terms, the objectives of the project and constraints in terms of time and resources. The work to be performed should be described and precedence relationships should be sketched out. Preliminary budgets and schedules will be developed. Finally, subplans will be developed for each subproject for the following:. Control plans ^ Quality control plans ^ Cost control plans ^ Schedule control plans

5 538 MANAGING SIX SIGMA PROJECTS. Sta ng plans. Material plans. Reporting plans. Other plans as deemed necessary These subplans are developed in parallel for the various subprojects. INTEGRATED QUALITY INITIATIVES Also see cross-functional collaboration, below. Projects should be selected consistent with the organization s overall strategy and mission. Because of this global perspective most projects involve the efforts of several different functional areas. Not only do individual quality projects tend to cut across organizational boundaries, different projects are often related to one another. To effectively manage this complexity it is necessary to integrate the planning and execution of projects organization-wide. (For additional details on teams see Chapter 5.) Teams are chartered by senior leadership, generally the only group with the necessary authority to designate cross-functional responsibilities and allow access to interdepartmental resources. The team facilitator should ask senior leadership to put the problem statement in writing. The problem statement should be specific enough to help the team identify the scope of the project and the major stakeholders. Problems of gargantuan proportions should be subdivided into smaller projects. There are six steps in the chartering process: 1. Obtaining a problem statement 2. Identifying the principal stakeholders 3. Creating a macro ow chart of the process 4. Selecting the team members 5. Training the team 6. Selecting the team leader PROJECT CHARTER The official authorization for the project should be summarized in a document like that shown in the Six Sigma project charter below.

6 Project charter 541 Several problems with projects appear repeatedly:. Projects have little or no impact on the organization s success, even if successful, no one will really care.. Missions overlap the missions of other teams. E.g., Team A s mission is to reduce solder rejects, Team B s mission is to reduce wave solder rejects, Team C s mission is to reduce circuit board assembly problems.. Projects improve processes that are scheduled for extensive redesign or discontinuation. For example, working on improving work ow for a production process that is to be relocated to another factory.. Studying a huge system ( patient admitting ), rather than a manageable process ( outpatient surgery preadmission ).. Studying symptoms ( touch-up of defective solder joints ) rather than root causes ( wave solder defects ). Project deliverables are unde ned. E.g., Study TQM rather than Reduce waiting time in Urgent Care. WORK BREAKDOWN STRUCTURES Ruskin and Estes (1995) define work breakdown structures (WBS) as a process for defining the final and intermediate products of a project and their relationships. Defining project tasks is typically complex and accomplished by a series of decompositions followed by a series of aggregations. For example, a software project to develop an SPC software application would disaggregate the customer requirements into very specific analytic requirements (e.g., the customer s requirement that the product create X-bar charts would be decomposed into analytic requirements such as subroutines for computing subgroup means and ranges, plotting data points, drawing lines, etc.). Aggregation would involve linking the various modules to produce an X-bar chart displayed on the screen. The WBS can be represented in a tree diagram, as shown in Figure Preliminary requirements WBSöis a statement of the overall requirements for the project as expressed by the customer (e.g., the deliverables or product ), and subsidiary requirements as expressed by management (e.g., billing, reports required). Detailed plan WBSöbreaks down the product into subproducts. Requirements are listed for each subproduct (e.g., tooling, staff). The subproducts are, in turn, broken down into their subproducts, etc., until a reasonable limit is reached. All work begins at the lowest level. Detailed plans for each subsystem include control plans for quality, cost and schedule, staffing plans, materials plans, reporting plans, contingency plans, and work authorization plans. In addition, the overall detailed plan covers objectives, con-

7 542 MANAGING SIX SIGMA PROJECTS Figure WBS of a spacecraft system. From Ruskin, A.M. and Estes, W.E. What Every Engineer Should Know About Project Management, Second Edition. Copyright # 1995 by Marcel Dekker, Inc. Reprinted with permission. straints, precedence relationships, timetables, budgets, and review and reporting criteria. Typical subsystem WBSöare created, i.e., the process just described is performed for each subsystem. Subsystems are then built. Integration WBSödetail how the various subsystems will be assembled into the product deliverables. This usually involves integrating into larger subsystems, then still larger subsystems, etc., to the highest level of integration. Validation WBSöplans explain how the various system integrations will be measured and tested to assure that the final requirements will be met.

8 Feedback loops 543 FEEDBACK LOOPS The project plan is itself an important feedback tool. It provides details on the tasks that are to be performed, when they are to be performed, and how much resource is to be consumed. The plan should also include explicit provisions for feedback. Typical forms of feedback are:. Status reportsöformal, periodic written reports, often with a standardized format, telling what the project is based on, and where it is supposed to be relative to the plan. Where project performance does not match planned performance, the reports include additional information as to the cause of the problem and what is being done to bring the project into alignment with the plan. Remedial action may, at times, involve revising the plan. When the project is not meeting the plan due to obstacles which the project team cannot overcome, the status report will request senior management intervention.. Management reviewsöthese are meetings, scheduled in advance, where the project leader will have the opportunity to interact with key members of the management team. The chief responsibility for these meetings is management s. The purpose is to brief management on the status of the project, review the project charter and project team mission, discuss those management activities likely to have an impact on the progress of the team, etc. This is the appropriate forum for addressing systems barriers encountered by the team: while the team must work within existing systems, management has the authority to change the systems. At times a minor system change can dramatically enhance the ability of the team to progress.. Budget reviewsöwhile budget reports are included in each status report, a budget review is a formal evaluation of actual resource utilization with respect to budgeted utilization. Budget review may also involve revising budgets, either upward or downward, based on developments since the original budget approval. Among those unschooled in the science of statistics there is an unfortunate tendency to react to every random tick in budget variances as if they were due to a special cause of variation. Six Sigma managers should coach nance and management personnel on the principles of variation to preclude tampering with the budgeting process (also see below).. Customer auditsöthe customer in this context means the principal stakeholder in the project. This person is the owner of the process being modi ed by the project. The project deliverables are designed to meet the objectives of this customer, and the customer should play an active role in keeping the project on track to the stated goals.

9 544 MANAGING SIX SIGMA PROJECTS. Updating plans and timetablesöthe purpose of feedback is to provide information to form a basis for modifying future behavior. Since that behavior is documented in the project plans and schedules, these documents must be modi ed to ensure that the appropriate action is taken. Remember, in the PDCA cycle, plans change rst.. Resource redirectionöthe modi cations made to the plans and timetables will result in increasing or decreasing resource allocation to the project, or accelerating or decelerating the timetable for resource utilization. The impact of these resource redirections on other projects should be evaluated by management in view of the organization s overall objectives. PERFORMANCE MEASURES There are a wide variety of tools and techniques available to help the project manager develop a realistic project timetable, to use the timetable to time the allocation of resources, and to track progress during the implementation of the project plan. We will review two of the most common here: Gantt charts and PERT-type systems. Gantt charts Gantt chartöa Gantt chart shows the relationships among the project tasks, along with time constraints. The horizontal axis of a Gantt chart shows the units of time (days, weeks, months, etc.). The vertical axis shows the activities to be completed. Bars show the estimated start time and duration of the various activities. Figure 15.2 illustrates a simple Gantt chart. Figure Gantt chart.

10 Performance measures 545 Milestone chartsögantt charts are often modified in a variety of ways to provide additional information. One common variation is shown in Figure The milestone symbol represents an event rather than an activity; it does not consume time or resources. When Gantt charts are modified in this way they are sometimes called milestone charts. Figure Enhanced Gantt chart (milestone chart). Gantt charts and milestone charts can be modified to show additional information, such as who is responsible for a task, why a task is behind schedule, remedial action planned or already taken, etc. Typical DMAIC project tasks and responsibilities Although every project is unique, most Six Sigma projects which use the DMAIC framework have many tasks in common, at least at a general level. Many people find it helpful if they have a generic template they can use to plan their project activities. This is especially true when the Black Belt or Green Belt is new and has limited project management experience. Table 15.1 can be used as a planning tool by Six Sigma teams. It shows typical tasks, responsibilities and tools for each major phase of a typical Six Sigma project. PERT-CPM-type project management systems While useful, Gantt charts and their derivatives provide limited project schedule analysis capabilities. The successful management of large-scale projects requires more rigorous planning, scheduling and coordinating of numerous interrelated activities. To aid in these tasks, formal procedures based on the

11 546 MANAGING SIX SIGMA PROJECTS Table Typical DMAIC project tasks and responsibilities. TASK Charter Project & Identify opportunity for improvement & Identify sponsor & Estimate savings & Draft project charter & Sponsor project review (weekly) RESPONSIBILITY Black Belt Black Belt Black Belt Black Belt, sponsor Sponsor, Black Belt De ne & Team selection & Complete project charter & Team training & Review existing process documentation & De ne project objectives and plan & Present objectives and plan to management & De ne and map as-is process & Review and re-de ne problem, if necessary & Sponsor Sponsor, Black Belt Black Belt Black Belt, Green Belt Team member, process expert Team Green Belt Team, process expert Team Measure & Identify CTQs & Collect data on subtasks and cycle time & Validate measurement system Green Belt, Black Belt Team Black Belt, process operator Analyze & Prepare baseline graphs on subtasks/cycle time & Analyze impacts, e.g., subtasks, Pareto... & Use subteams to analyze time and value, risk management & Benchmark other companies Black Belt, Green Belt Black Belt, Green Belt Team Continued next page... Team member

12 Performance measures 547 Table 15.1öContinued. & Discuss subteams preliminary ndings & Consolidate subteams analyses/ ndings Team Team Improve & Present recommendations to process owners and operators & Review recommendations/formulate pilot & Prepare for improved process pilot & Test improved process (run pilot) & Analyze pilot and results & Develop implementation plan & Prepare nal presentation & Present nal recommendations to management team Sponsor, team Team, Black Belt Team, process owner Process operator Black Belt, Green Belt Team, process owner Team Green Belt Control & De ne control metrics & Develop metrics collection tool & Roll-out improved process & Roll-out control metrics & Monitor process monthly using control metrics Black Belt, Green Belt, process expert Black Belt Process owner Process owner Process owner, Black Belt use of networks and network techniques were developed beginning in the late 1950s. The most prominent of these procedures have been PERT (Program Evaluation and Review Technique) and CPM (Critical Path Method). The two approaches are usually referred to as PERT-type project management systems. The most important difference between PERT and CPM is that originally the time estimates for the activities were assumed deterministic in CPM and were probabilistic in PERT. Today, PERT and CPM actually comprise one technique and the differences are mainly historical. Project scheduling by PERT-CPM consists of four basic phases: planning, scheduling, improvement, and controlling The planning phase involves break-

13 548 MANAGING SIX SIGMA PROJECTS ing the project into distinct activities. The time estimates for these activities are then determined and a network (or arrow) diagram is constructed with each activity being represented by an arrow. PERT-type systems are used to:. Aid in planning and control of projects. Determine the feasibility of meeting speci ed deadlines. Identify the most likely bottlenecks in a project. Evaluate the e ects of changes in the project requirements or schedule. Evaluate the e ects of deviating from schedule. Evaluate the e ect of diverting resources from the project, or redirecting additional resources to the project. The ultimate objective of the scheduling phase is to construct a time chart showing the start and finish times for each activity as well as its relationship to other activities in the project. The schedule must identify activities that are critical in the sense that they must be completed on time to keep the project on schedule. It is vital not to merely accept the schedule as a given. The information obtained in preparing the schedule can be used to improve the project schedule. Activities that the analysis indicates to be critical are candidates for improvement. Pareto analysis can be used to identify those critical elements that are most likely to lead to significant improvement in overall project completion time. Cost data can be used to supplement the time data, and the combined time/cost information analyzed using Pareto analysis. The final phase in PERT-CPM project management is project control. This includes the use of the network diagram and Gantt chart for making periodic progress assessments EXAMPLE OF PERT The following is based on an example from Hillier and Lieberman (1980). Let s say that we wish to use PERT on a project for constructing a house. The activities involved, and their estimated completion times, are presented in Table Now, it is important that certain of these activities be done in a particular order. For example, one cannot put on the roof until the walls are built. This is called a precedence relationship, i.e.,thewallsmustprecede the roof. The network diagram graphically displays the precedence relationships involved in constructing a house. A PERT network for constructing a house is shown in Figure 15.4 (incidentally, the figure is also an arrow diagram).

14 Table Activities involved in constructing a house. Performance measures 549 ACTIVITY TIME TO COMPLETE (DAYS) Excavate 2 Foundation 4 Rough wall 10 Rough electrical work 7 Rough exterior plumbing 4 Rough interior plumbing 5 Wall board 5 Flooring 4 Interior painting 5 Interior xtures 6 Roof 6 Exterior siding 7 Exterior painting 9 Exterior xtures 2 FINDING THE CRITICAL PATH There are two time-values of interest for each event: its earliest time of completion and its latest time of completion. The earliest time for a given event is the estimated time at which the event will occur if the preceding activities are started as early as possible. The latest time for an event is the estimated time the event can occur without delaying the completion of the project beyond its earliest time. Earliest times of events are found by starting at the initial event and working forward, successively calculating the time at which each event will occur if each immediately preceding event occurs at its earliest time and each intervening activity uses only its estimated time. Slack time for an event is the difference between the latest and earliest times for a given event. Thus, assuming everything else remains on schedule, the slack for an event indicates how much delay in reaching the event can be tolerated without delaying the project completion. Events and activities with slack times of zero are said to lie on the critical path for the project. A critical path for a project is defined as a path through the network such that the activities on this path have zero slack. All activities and events having zero slack must lie on a critical path, but no others can. Figure 15.5 shows the activities on the critical path for the housing construction project as thick lines.

15 550 MANAGING SIX SIGMA PROJECTS Figure Project network for constructing a house. Source: Based on Introduction to Operations Research, 3rd Edition, Hillier and Lieberman. Copyright # 1980 by Holden-Day, Inc., San Francisco, California. CONTROL AND PREVENTION OF SCHEDULE SLIPPAGE Project managers can use the network and the information obtained from the network analysis in a variety of ways to help them manage their projects. One way is, of course, to pay close attention to the activities that lie on the critical path. Any delay in these activities will result in a delay for the project. However, the manager should also consider assembling a team to review the network with an eye towards modifying the project plan to reduce the total

16 Performance measures 551 Figure Critical path for house construction example. time needed to complete the project. The manager should also be aware that the network times are based on estimates. In fact, it is likely that the completion times will vary. When this occurs it often happens that a new critical path appears. Thus, the network should be viewed as a dynamic entity which should be revised as conditions change. Primary causes of slippage include poor planning and poor management of the project. Outside forces beyond the control of the project manager will often play a role. However, it isn t enough to be able to simply identify outside forces as the cause and beg forgiveness. Astute project managers will anticipate as many such possibilities as possible and prepare contingency plans to deal with them. The PDPC technique is useful in this endeavor. Schedule slippage should also be addressed rigorously in the schedule control plan, which was mentioned earlier as a primary deliverable from the project planning process.

17 552 MANAGING SIX SIGMA PROJECTS The control plan should make provision for reviews conducted at intervals frequent enough to assure that any unanticipated problems are identified before schedule slippage becomes a problem. Resources Resources are those assets of the firm, including the time of employees, that are used to accomplish the objectives of the project. The project manager should define, negotiate, and secure resource commitments for the personnel, equipment, facilities, and services needed for the project. Resource commitments should be as specific as possible. Generally, resource utilization is specified in the project budget (see below). The following items should be defined and negotiated:. What will be furnished?. By whom?. When?. How will it be delivered?. How much will it cost? ^ Who will pay? ^ When will payment be made? Resource conflicts Of course, there are always other opportunities for utilizing resources. On large projects, conflicts over resource allocation are inevitable. It is best if resource conflicts can be resolved between those managers directly involved. However, in some cases, resource conflicts must be addressed by higher levels of management. Senior managers should view resource conflicts as potential indications that the management system for allocating resources must be modified or redesigned. Often, such conflicts create ill will among managers and lead to lack of support, or even active resistance to the project. Too many such conflicts can lead to resentment towards quality improvement efforts in general. Methodology COST CONSIDERATIONS IN PROJECT SCHEDULING Most project schedules can be compressed, if one is willing to pay the additional costs. For the analysis here, costs are defined to include direct elements only. Indirect costs (administration, overhead, etc.) will be considered in the final analysis. Assume that a straight-line relationship exists between the cost

18 Performance measures 553 of performing an activity on a normal schedule, and the cost of performing the activity on a crash schedule. Also assume that there is a crash time beyond which no further time saving is possible, regardless of cost. Figure 15.6 illustrates these concepts. Figure 15.6 Cost-time relationship for an activity. For a given activity the cost-per-unit-of-time saved is found as crash cost normal cost normal time crash time ð15:1þ When deciding which activity on the critical path to improve, one should begin with the activity that has the smallest cost-per-unit-of-time saved. The project manager should be aware that once an activity time has been reduced there may be a new critical path. If so, the analysis should proceed using the updated information, i.e., activities on the new critical path should be analyzed. The data for the house construction example are shown in Table 15.3, with additional data for costs and crash schedule times for each activity. Activities shown in bold are on the critical path; only critical path activities are being considered since only they can produce an improvement in overall project duration. Thus, the first activity to consider improving would be foundation work, which costs $800 per day saved on the schedule (identified with

19 554 MANAGING SIX SIGMA PROJECTS Table Schedule costs for activities involved in constructing a house. Normal Schedule Crash Schedule ACTIVITY Time (days) Cost Time (days) Cost Slope Excavate Foundation * Rough wall Rough electrical work Rough exterior plumbing Rough interior plumbing Wall board Flooring Interior painting Interior xtures Roof Exterior siding Exterior painting Exterior xtures an asterisk [*] in Table 15.3). If additional resources could be directed towards this activity it would produce the best bang for the buck in terms of reducing the total time of the project. Next, assuming the critical path doesn t change, would be excavation, then exterior painting, etc. As activities are addressed one by one, the time it takes to complete the project will decline, while the direct costs of completing the project will increase. Figure 15.7 illustrates the cost-duration relationship graphically. Conversely, indirect costs such as overhead, etc., are expected to increase as projects take longer to complete. When the indirect costs are added to the direct costs, total costs will generally follow a pattern similar to that shown in Figure To optimize resource utilization, the project manager will seek to develop a project plan that produces the minimum cost schedule. Of course, the organization will likely have multiple projects being conducted simultaneously, which places additional constraints on resource allocation.

20 Performance measures 555 Figure Direct costs as a function of project duration. Figure Total costs as a function of project duration. OTHER PERFORMANCE MEASUREMENT METHODOLOGY Project information should be collected on an ongoing basis as the project progresses. Information obtained should be communicated in a timely fashion to interested parties and decision-makers. The people who receive the information can often help the project manager to maintain or recover the schedule. There are two types of communication involved: feedback and

21 558 MANAGING SIX SIGMA PROJECTS Budgeting In this section we will provide an overview of budgeting as it applies to project management. The project manager must know where he stands in terms of expenditures. Once he is informed that a given amount of future expense is allocated to him for a particular project, it is his job to run the project so that this allowance is not exceeded. The process of allocating resources to be expended in the future is called budgeting. Budgets should be viewed as forecasts of future events, in this case the events are expenditures. A listing of these expenditures, broken out into specific categories, is called the budget. TYPES OF PROJECT BUDGETS Ruskin and Estes (1995) list the following types of project-related budgets: Direct labor budgets are usually prepared for each work element in the project plan, then aggregated for the project as a whole. Control is usually maintained at the work element level to assure the aggregate budget allowance is not exceeded. Budgets may be in terms of dollars or some other measure of value, such as direct labor hours expended. Support services budgets need to be prepared because, without budgets, support services tend to charge based on actual costs, without allowances for errors, rework, etc. The discipline imposed by making budget estimates and being held to them often leads to improved efficiency and higher quality. Purchased items budgets cover purchased materials, equipment, and services. The budgets can be based on negotiated or market prices. The issues mentioned for support services also apply here. TYPES OF BUDGET REPORTS Budgets allocate resources to be used in the future. No one can predict the future with certainty. Thus, an important element in the budgeting process is tracking actual expenditures after the budgets have been prepared. The following techniques are useful in monitoring actual expenditures versus budgeted expenditures. Expenditure reports which compare actual expenditures to budgeted expenditures are periodically submitted to the budget authority, e.g., finance, sponsor. Expenditure audits are conducted to verify that charges to the project are legitimate and that the work charged was actually performed. In most large organizations with multiple projects in work at any given time it is possible to

22 Performance measures 559 find projects being charged for work done on other projects, for work not yet done, etc. While these charges are often inadvertent, they must still be identified. Variance reporting compares actual expenditures directly to budgeted expenditures. The term variance is used here in the accounting sense, not the statistical sense. In accounting, a variance is simply a comparison of a planned amount with an actual amount. An accounting variance may or may not indicate a special cause of variation; statistical techniques are required to make this determination. The timing of variance reporting varies depending on the need for control. The timing of variance reports should be determined in advance and written into the project plan. Variance tables: Variance reports can appear in a variety of formats. Most common are simple tables that show the actual/budgeted/variances by budget item, overall for the current period, and cumulatively for the project. Since it is unlikely that variances will be zero, an allowance is usually made, e.g., 5% over or under is allowed without the need for explanations. For longer projects, historical data can be plotted on control charts and used to set allowances. Variance graphs: When only tables are used it is difficult to spot patterns. To remedy this tables are often supplemented with graphs. Graphs generally show the budget variances in a time-ordered sequence on a line chart. The allowance lines can be drawn on the graph to provide a visual guide to the eye. ANALYSIS OF BUDGET REPORTS The project manager should review the variance data for patterns which contain useful information. Ideally, the pattern will be a mixture of positive and negative but minor variances. Assuming that this pattern is accompanied by an on-schedule project, this indicates a reasonably good budget, i.e., an accurate forecasting of expenditures. Variances should be evaluated separately for each type of budget (direct labor, materials, etc.). However, the variance report for the entire project is the primary source of information concerning the status of the project in terms of resource utilization. Reports are received and analyzed periodically. For most quality improvement projects, monthly or weekly reports are adequate. Budget variance analysis* should include the following: Trends: Occasional departures from budget are to be expected. Of greater concern is a pattern that indicates a fundamental problem with the budget. Trends are easier to detect from graphic reports. *This is not to be confused with the statistical technique Analysis of Variance (ANOVA).

23 560 MANAGING SIX SIGMA PROJECTS Overspending: Since budgeted resources are generally scarce, overspending represents a serious threat to the project and, perhaps, to the organization itself. When a project overspends its budget, it depletes the resources available for other activities and projects. The project team and team leader and sponsors should design monitoring systems to detect and correct overspending before it threatens the project or the organization. Overspending is often a symptom of other problems with the project, e.g., paying extra in an attempt to catch up after falling behind schedule, additional expenses for rework, etc. Underspending is potentially as serious as overspending. If the project budget was prepared properly then the expenses reflect a given schedule and quality level. Underspending may reflect cutting corners or allowing suppliers an allowance for slower delivery. The reasons for any significant departure from the plan should be explained. PROJECT MANAGEMENT IMPLEMENTATION Management support and organizational roadblocks INTERNAL ROADBLOCKS Most organizations still have a hierarchical, command-and-control organizational structure, sometimes called smoke stacks or silos. The functional specialists in charge of each smoke stack tend to focus on optimizing their own functional area, often to the detriment of the organization as a whole. In addition, the hierarchy gives these managers a monopoly on the authority to act on matters related to their functional specialty. The combined effect is both a desire to resist change and the authority to resist change, which often creates insurmountable roadblocks to quality improvement projects. It is important to realize that organizational rules are, by their nature, a barrier to change. The formal rules take the form of written standard operating procedures (SOPs). The very purpose of SOPs is to standardize behavior. The quality profession has (in this author s opinion) historically overemphasized formal documentation, and it continues to do so by advocating such approaches as ISO 9000 and ISO Formal rules are often responses to past problems and they often continue to exist long after the reason for their existence has passed. In an organization that is serious about its written rules even senior leaders find themselves helpless to act without submitting to a burdensome rule-changing process. The true power in such an organization is the bureaucracy that controls the procedures. If the organization falls into the trap of creating written rules for too many things, it can find itself moribund in a fastchanging external environment. This is a recipe for disaster.