What is the Difference Between 8D and DMAIC?

One of the most frequent questions we get from people new to Quality Improvement: What in the heck is the difference between 8-D and DMAIC problem-solving methods?

First let's talk about what the similarities are between 8D and DMAIC. Both are step-by-step problem-solving methods. The 8-D Problem-Solving approach has...you guessed it...8 steps! DMAIC has just five phases, but they happen to make up the acronym DMAIC - Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, and Control.

OK, so what are the differences between 8D and DMAIC? There are probably people who would argue that there are LOTS of differences between the two. But, as we see it, the biggest difference is in Step 3 of the 8D process: Implement and Verify Interim Containment. There is not a comparable explicit step in the DMAIC process. One downside to Interim Containment is that it can give you a false sense that the problem is solved and that you can move onto the next problem. Interim Containment is typically a quick and dirty band aid approach to addressing the symptoms of a problem and not the root cause. But, the reality is that if a business problem is serious enough, it merits a band aid to "stop the bleeding." Then it is up to the team to complete the rest of the 8-D process including removing the "band-aid" once the root cause is found and addressed.

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Six Sigma Interview with Jack Welch

Business Analysis 101

The primary reason for the failure of the application to meet the needs of the business is the failure to take into account the existing process issues. Therefore, to be truly effective, Business Analysts and Project Managers must concentrate a portion of their efforts on activities associated with traditional process improvement. Lean Six Sigma for Services and DMAIC is an ideal method to use for these types of activities.

When performing business analysis, specification development, and project planning there are several fundamentals that I always take into consideration:
1. The business process must be fit for the purpose it is intended:

• Fundamentally it is free from quality defects and steps that add no value to the process
• Its processing steps are well defined and as straight through as possible
• It manages exceptions and hand-offs with minimal motion
• It follows industry best practices and meets regulatory and compliance requirements

2. The application design and particularly the underlying data models:

• Must support continuous process improvement
• Must support actionable business intelligence and data driven decision making based.
• Must support regulatory and compliance requirements without burdening the process or the people working within the process
• Must facilitate a regulatory or compliance audit

3. Business Processes are difficult to analyze and automate because:

• They are typically slow because there is too much work in process, too much time spent on non-value-add work (e.g. over-lapping internal controls and re-keying of data), and they are rife with exception handling
• They are less visible in nature, and have a tradition of individuality and freedom, that makes problems harder to identify and fix.
• They are characterized by a lack of meaningful and actionable data for decision making. The computer applications supporting the business process does not capture the necessary metrics to support a root cause analysis and continuous process improvement.
• They seldom follow a best practice model
• They often fail to ensure customer privacy or facilitate segregation of duties (e.g. SOX compliance)

4. Business process owners and their staff cannot articulate their needs to the level of detail needed to complete a specification:

• They seldom have sufficient knowledge of the process objectives
• They fail to remember the exception processing which is a real killer
• They do not thoroughly understand the elements of risk mitigation in a project

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Lean Six Sigma for Services

Most executives intuitively know that some (if not many) of their service processes are inefficient. Yet, service process improvements are a barely touched frontier in the relentless corporate drive to lower costs and improve quality. One reason for this is the lack of objective process controls such as those developed for manufacturing over the last 50 years.

This paper helps decision makers seeking a methodology best suited for service process improvement. It is a compendium of experience, personal notes and the readings of noted authors (described in the reference section). Inside you will find a description of Lean Six Sigma for Services, in general terms, along with a survey of the benefits, characteristics, approach, and tools.

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Implementing a Business Intelligence Program

MedQuist is a publicly traded world leader in medical transcription services with revenues of $350 million, the largest user of speech recognition software in the world, and a virtual workforce of approximately 8,500. The company performed over 700,000 transcriptions annually. My responsibilities included IT Operations/Services, Business Process Engineering, Business Intelligence, Enterprise Project Management, and Six Sigma Process Improvement teams. My IT budget was approximately $10 million.

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Departmental Re-engineering

The Central Policy department at a major Pharmaceutical company was not meeting management expectations relative to service levels and quality of service. Policy development was taking too long. Analysis was substandard, and the end product was poorly written. Clients were generally unsatisfied with Central Policy services and frequently complained to management.

Jim Pickens was engaged as a business process consultant to perform a current state assessment, identify needed improvements, and quickly turn the situation around (90 days).

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