Define Phase

ASSIGNMENT
Your team is tasked with executing a process improvement project to identify
and address the issues resulting in increased customer complaints and decreased
revenue. The leadership team would like to see demonstrated improvements within
2 months.Miller, Hill, and Miller 399
Project Status Reporting
Regular status reports (updated timeline, progress, next steps, and issues) should be
submitted in accordance with the published schedule (see course syllabus), using
the provided MS Excel format.
Data Set Availability
Data sets specific to each phase are provided as follows:
1. Business baseline data (Define Phase) upon team selection.
2. Process baseline data (Measure Phase) upon completion of Define Phase.
3. Test data (Analyze Phase) upon completion of Measure Phase.
4. Process postimprovement data (Improve Phase) upon completion of
Analyze Phase.
5. Business postimprovement data (Control Phase) upon completion of
Improve Phase.
Graduate teams may provide their own business problem and data, providing
at least one team member can serve as a process subject matter expert. Any data
or other information used must be cleared by appropriate business authorities for
public sharing.
Project Deliverables
1. Status reports: Submitted in accordance with Course Syllabus due
dates (one per phase, mid-way to tollgate due date).
2. Process improvement tools: Suggested LSS tools are listed in the table
below. Each team member must complete, at a minimum, one required
tool from each phase, and all tools listed as required must be completed
by the team. Optional tools for large teams must be approved by the
professor in advance, so account for this requirement in your project
planning. You may help each other with tools, but each member is
responsible for completing their own tool for each phase.
3. Project tollgates (phase-based reports): PowerPoint format (provided
in class), including (1) executive summary slide, (2) detailed tool output
with key points on slides, (3) additional details (including purpose for
choosing tool, and name of responsible student) in speaker notes, and (4)
table indicating team member contributions. Each tollgate must contain
the previous tollgate(s) with all instructor feedback addressed. The final
(Control) report will contain all five project phases in order, Define first
and Control last.
4. Group presentation: 15-minute class presentation depicting the progression of the team’s project work from Define through Control. Each
team member must participate in the group presentation.