Lean Six Sigma Green Belt – Six Sigma Improve Phase Part 3

5. Evaluate the Generated Solutions – Pugh Matrix

Pew matrix can be used to evaluate alternate solutions. Pew matrix gives the team a structured way to make decisions. Then we move on to discuss about Delphi technique. Delphi technique is another way of obtaining group input for ideas and problem solving. It is unlike the nominal group technique. The Delphi does not require face to face participation.

It uses a series of carefully designed questionnaires interspersed with information, summaries and feedback from preceding responses. The next thing is multivoting. multivoting narrows a large list of possibilities to a smaller list of the top priorities or to a final selection. Multi voting is preferable to straight voting because it allows an item that is favored by all but not the top choice of all. It is immensely helpful in building the consensus. Multi voting. It is extremely helpful in arriving at a consensus.

Then we move on to discuss about nominal group technique. Nominal group technique gathers information by asking individuals to respond to questions posed by the moderator and then asking participants to prioritize the ideas or suggestions of all group members. The process prevents the domination of the discussion by a single person. It encourages all group members to participate and results in a set of prioritized solutions or recommendations that represent the group’s preferences. Then we move on with FME failure modes and FX analysis.

This may also be used to analyze risks which new solutions which you have generated might carry with them. Generated solutions are not free of risks always, right? And it is prudent to analyze and proactively attempt to reduce or eliminate risks that these solutions carry with them. And the last thing is model or simulate model or simulate solution and carry out trial implementations. Right? You carry on a lot of experiments kind of trial implementations. All right, so let us do a deep dive on Pew matrix and understand what Pew matrix is all about. Here we go with the Pew matrix. Pew matrix was introduced by Stewart Pew. This is also called as a decision matrix method or Pew method.

The Pew concept selection is a quantitative technique which is used to rank the multi dimensional options of an option set. It is frequently used in engineering for making design decisions but it can be used to rank the investment options, vendor options, product options or any other set of multi dimensional entities. This is a normal table of the Pew matrix expectation importance data, more status quo. These are the alternatives. And here you have the criterion. A few other stuff listed here. Let us understand this.

The basic steps of the Pew concept selection process are brainstorming alternatives. First thing is you try to brainstorm what are the various alternatives. Here we have alternative 1234 and five, right? Make one alternative the default. Often it’s the denim or status quo, the choice. This choice is rated as zero or S or C. S stands for same. You just put down for this for all the various criteria that you have identified primarily, brainstorm these criteria also. How are you going to evaluate what are you going to evaluate your alternative solutions against? Right, so the criteria and characteristics are important to the customer.

List them down in rows of this particular sheet. Begin filling in one or less. That means if there is an alternative which is better than your status quo, for sake. Criteria one put a plus one put one or a plus, all will work, right? If you feel that criteria one for the status quo and alternative two is the same, then probably you need to put a zero here or an S. That means it’s the same as the DataMore status quo. If say alternative three is worse in comparison to the deadem or status quo with respect to criteria one, then you’re going to put a minus sign or a minus one here, right?

So based on whether the alternative 12345 against the weight of criteria, based on whether they are better than the status quo or equivalent or worse, you accordingly put some numbers. If some criteria are more important than others are just the weights. If the criteria one is more important than criteria two, three, four and five, put some weights against that which says that criteria one is more important for me in evaluating the solution. If some criteria are more important than we are going to adjust the weight. If some products are much better than others, adjust the rating weights in the main sheet. Also, don’t go abroad with it. Not required. Look at what the spreadsheet tells you.

Is the best solution or the best choice among the five alternatives and the status quo? Do you and your group feel good about the decision that they have taken? If so, you’re done with the job. If no, redo this entire exercise. Also find out whether you have all the sets of criteria which you have selected. Is that sufficient or do you need to bring some further and come up with more criteria? Right? Other weights you have assigned close enough, right? You need to check that as well. Maybe the weights that you have selected is not correct so you accordingly make the changes.

Let me give you a few real time examples of pew matrix. Hey, this is my dream car. Most of your websites which sell cars or mobile phones have this pew matrix option. What do you do? I’m going to select the various variants of this vehicle. Scarpio all the variants. S two is a variant. The starting segment s four. S four plus the mid segments and the top segment. Right, so these are the various alternative options which are available for me, right? Based on what am I going to evaluate? Led eyebrows. This is one criteria chrome and friend grill. This is second criteria. Led tail lamps. This is the third criteria. Bonnet scoop, which is the fourth criteria. Front and rail bumper. This is another criteria.

Side cladding or wheels and door handles. Another criteria. Wheels is another criteria. Say I prefer wheels more than anything else. Then I’m going to give a high weight is to wheel and say this is the benchmark for me. S four plus. I’ve selected that or in the brain somewhere. I feel that this is the right option for me. So I’ll make this the status quo. And I’ll name this as alternate one, alternate two, alternate three, alternate four, and alternate five.

And then I PROCEED with the same process. Most of the smartphone websites, right? This is BlackBerry has an option. You can just click on whatever you want to compare, right? These are like the various alternatives which I have. And I’m going to evaluate it based on the display, battery life, based on the size and weight and things like that. And I’m going to select the one which best suits me. This is pure matrix. And these are the list of the steps which we have discussed earlier, right? So you can go through this at your own leisure. The same things that we have discussed is listed down here for your reference based.

6. Evaluate the Generated Solutions – Delphi Technique

Who developed the Delphi technique. It was developed by Dalkian Helmer at the Rand Corporation in the 1950s. It is a widely used and accepted method for achieving convergence of opinion concerning railroad knowledge solicited from experts within certain topic areas. Delphi technique is widely used and accepted method for gathering data from respondents right? You gather data from the respondents with the domain of expertise now it is used for achieving convergence of opinion. The technique is designed as a group communication process which aims to achieve a convergence of opinion on a specific real world issue.

The Delphi process has been used in various fields. It has been used in program planning, needs assessment, policy determination, resource utilization to develop a full range of alternatives, explore or expose underlying assumptions as well as correlate the judgments on topic spanning a wide range of disciplines. The Delphi technique is well suited as a method for consensus building by using a series of questionnaires delay were using multiple iterations to collect data from a panel of selected subjects subject selection, time frame for connecting and completing a study, the possibility of low response rates and unintentionally giving feedback right?

These are few things which are a word of caution for us select the subjects properly choose a time frame right beware of the low responses beware of unintentional feedback guiding you should be aware of all that false in 1978 he has described ten step process for the Delphi method. Basically, first thing is formation formation of a Delphi team to undertake adelphi on a subject selection of the expert panels, you need to select the experts assume all for our experts here, development of the first round questionnaire should be done. You need to test the questionnaire for proper wording transmit these questionnaires to the panelists or the experts. Once you receive responses from them, analyze those responses. Once you analyze the first responses, prepare for the second round. Right transmission of second round questionnaires to the panelists should be done. Now analyze the second round preparation or responses. These steps preparation, transmission and analysis may be repeated multiple times to achieve the consensus US. And the last thing is preparation and presentation of reput organizations. Customize these steps to meet their requirements as they may have time construct.

7. Multivoting & NGT

What is multivoting all about? Brainstorming the list of options, right? That’s the first thing that we do. What does that mean? Can we understand a little more about this? Oh yes. First, let us understand what multivoting means. Right. By design, brainstorming generally generates a long list of ideas, right? Long list of ideas, long read list of ideas. However, also by design, many of these ideas which were generated using brainstorming may not be realistic or feasible, right? Now, the multivoting activity allows a group to narrow the list or options into a manageable size. It may not help the group make a single decision, but it can help the group narrow down a long list of ideas into something which is manageable. It allows all members of the group to be involved in the process and ultimately saves the group a lot of time by allowing them to focus energy on the ideas with the greatest potential.

When do you need to use this multiwar thing? When the group has a long list of possibilities and when they want to narrow it down to a few possibilities for analysis and discussion. Or when a selection process needs to be made up for brainstorming. So first conduct the brainstorming activity to generate a list of ideas or options. Review the list from the brainstorming activity once the green belt or the black belt they have completed the list, clarify ideas, merge the similar ideas and make sure everyone understands the options. Please note that at this time the group is not to discuss the merits of any idea. Pros and cons of ideas should not be discussed. Now just clarify and make sure everyone understands the meaning of each option available and then you move on. Wherein the participants work for ideas worthy for further discussion.

Each participant may vote for as many ideas as a wish to. Voting may be by show of hands or physically going to the board whiteboard and marking your choices. Or you might also place dots against your choices if they so desire. Participants may vote for every item. That’s their choice. And the next step is identify the items for the next round of voting. Count the votes for each item. Any item receiving votes from half the people who are voting is identified for the next round of voting. For example, if there are twelve people voting, any item receiving at least six votes is included in the second round of this kitchen, right? So you vote again. Participants vote again. However, this time they may only cast votes for half the items remaining on the list. In other words, if there are 20 items from the last round that are being voted on, a participant only would for ten items, not more than that. You are going to repeat these things. Participants vote for worthy items.

Second round again you’re going to repeat these steps, right? And participants continue voting and narrowing the options as outlined in step four. And five until there is an appropriate number of ideas for the group to analyze as part of the decision making or problem solving process. Generally, groups need to have three to five options for further analysis, and then you start discussing the remaining ideas. At this time, the group engages in discussing the pros and cons of the remaining ideas. Here is where you are going to discuss above the advantages and disadvantages of the ideas. This may be done in small group or a group as a whole. Then you proceed with appropriate actions. At this point, the group goes to the next steps. This might be making a choice of the best option or identifying the top priorities. This is all about your multivolting now.

How about NGT? NGT stands for nominal group technique. This is a structured variation of a small group discussion to reach the consensus. NGD gathers information by asking individuals to respond to questions which are posed by moderator and then asking participants to prioritize the ideas suggestions of all group members. The process prevents the domination of the discussion by a single person, encourages all group members to participate, and results in a set of prioritized solutions or recommendations that represent the group’s preferences. When should you use this NGT? When should you use that? NGT or Nominal Group Technique is a good method to use to gain group consensus. For example, when various people your program staff, your stakeholders, community residents, et cetera. When various people are involved in constructing a logical model, that is when you use NGT Nominal Group technique. Here are the four steps which are used in NGT.

Step one is generate ideas. The moderator presents the question or problem to the group in written form and reads the question to the group. The moderator directs everyone to write ideas in brief phrases or statements and to work silently and independently. Each person silently generates ideas and writes them down. Then we move on to recording the ideas. Group members engage in a round robin feedback session to concisely record each idea and they are not going to debate at this point of time. The moderator writes an idea from a group member on a flip chart that is visible to the entire group and proceeds to ask for another idea from the next group member, and so on and so forth. There is no need to repeat the ideas here. However, if group members believe that an idea provides a different emphasis or variation, feel free to include it. Proceed recording ideas until all members ideas have been documented.

The idea here is to record all ideas, then you discuss the ideas. Each recorded idea is then discussed to determine clarity and importance. For each idea, the moderator asks are there any questions or comments group members would like to make about the item? This step provides an opportunity for the members to express their understanding of the logic and the relative importance of the item. The creator of the idea need not feel obliged to clarify or explain the item. And the next thing is wording on the ideas. Individuals work privately to prioritize the ideas. They don’t do it publicly. Right. Why so? Because if I’m going to work an idea and if it is made public, other people might be diverted or I might be diverting the attention of the other participants and they might end up voting for the idea, which I’m trying to vote for. The votes are tallied to identify the ideas that are rated highest by the group as a whole. The moderator establishes what criteria are used to prioritize the ideas and this is how we’re going to end this. There are a lot of pros and cons with respect to this.

What are the disadvantages for injury? It requires a lot of preparation. Right. What are the advantages? It generates a greater number of ideas than traditional group distance. It allows the group to prioritize ideas democratically. These are few of the advantages of NGT nominal group technique.