Structural Factors Even though Six Sigma significantly influences and effects primarily contingency factors of an organization, these sectors in turn influence the structural factors of a company. While Six Sigma can be applied to many industries and a variety of organizational structures, certain aspects of Six Sigma operate more efficiently when specific structural aspects are applied. Primarily, implementing Six Sigma influences the hierarchy of authority and the centralization of an organization. Hierarchy of authority. The chain of command is another way to define the hierarchy of authority as these terms describe the structure of authority within an organization (Daft, 2016, p.144). Specifically, the hierarchy of authority concerns …show more content…
A fundamental aspect of the implementation of the Six Sigma theory is the project manager. The existence of a project manager significantly increases the financial returns and project success of Six Sigma projects (Marzagão & Carvalho, 2016, p.1516). Thus, the project manager helps implement and enforce cost cutting measures, in addition ensuring the projects meet the organization’s goals. Marzagão and Carvalho also note that in addition to a strong understanding of Six Sigma, a project manager also needs important leadership qualities, specifically teambuilding and interpersonal skills (2016, p, 1516). Consequentially, Six Sigma influences the hiring process of an organization since the human resource department should seek out employees that possess these …show more content…
In order for any type of organization to function efficiently and effectively, individual departments and teams must be successful. Therefore, a project manager must be able to build a cohesive and functional team, then properly manage the team to reach specified goals. Likewise, the organization must be structured so as to provide the project manager with the correct span of control for the team to be effective. In relation to baseball, if the head coach was only in control of seven players, but not the pitcher and catcher, it would be difficult to effectively get a team to follow specific guidance and reach goals set by the head coach. Likewise, for Six Sigma to effectively operate, the project manager must be provided the ability to build his or her team and the appropriate span of control. Interpersonal skills. Project Managers also serve as mentors to employees on how to appropriately implement Six Sigma procedures (Knapp, 2015, p. 856). The “role modeling, teaching, and coaching” performed by the project managers “helps facilitate others who are internalizing the desired values” (Knapp, 2015, p. 856). Therefore, in addition to guiding projects, project managers build the culture that is vital to the success of an organization. This additional function of a project manager emphasizes the importance of including the project manager into the hierarchy with the appropriate span of
The chain of command is the line of authority that extends from the highest to the lowest levels of the organization.
There are many people that benefit from Lean Six Sigma which include mainly customers, suppliers, employees, and also stockholders. Lean Six Sigma is a way for businesses to improve, to reduce waste and to become more successful. In the future, more and more organizations will adopt or practice some of the Lean, Six Sigma, or both in order to stay competitive in today’s market. In some cases, blending both Lean and Six Sigma can be costly and difficult; however the end result can create an organization that focuses on quality, accuracy, and speed to meet the goal which is profitability.
Even though I have no real experience in software development I know that dealing with software is not easy and can be very frustrating. Six sigma incorporates many tools that help organizations determine their customer requirements. Before reading this article I thought six sigma was just about statistics and improving processes. It is so much more than that. It’s also about managing all given information or data quantitative or not. Six sigma can help with customer requirements and also with understanding processes capability.
Barnard, W., De Feo, J. (2004). Juran Institute’s Six Sigma Breakthrough and Beyond. New York, NY: The McGraw-Hill Companies
Six Sigma as a strategic tool for companies. Young Economists Journal / Revista Tinerilor Economisti, 94-102. Townsend, L. A. & Co. a. The adage of the adage of the adage of the adage of the adage of the adage of the adage A schedule-performance approach for level-of-effort tasks. Engineering Management Journal, 21-30.
Creating a process is not always the answer to every organization. Organizations attempting to reduce waste may find themselves stuck trying to understand precisely where vital financial cuts need to take place. Variability can actually prevent Lean Six Sigma from working in a business environment and can sometimes impact flow in a negative way (Locher, 2007, p. 54). As demand in many organizations can be unpredictable, many employees will find the need to multitask in order to get the job done. Multitasking itself creates highly skilled employees that are required in a lean environment. Companies that employ individuals who are capable of multitasking benefit from these employees as the organization see’s a high degree of flexibility and responsiveness with a reduction in operational costs. Companies looking to cut waste in an environment where employees are already stretched thin by performing multiple duties and tasks beyond their job description could find its employees becoming even more overworked and see a larger degradation of performance due to understaffing in an effort to cut costs. These cost-cutting measures could actually do more harm than good to an organization.
The Six Sigma approach was designed by Motorola in 1986. The primary objective of the concept was to develop a tool for tallying the process defects and, as the result, improving business operations. The foundations of the approach are the customer needs, statistical analysis of data and facts, and timely execution. The method promises numerous benefits such as increasing performance and profitability of an organization, improving product or service quality and employee morale, decreasing costs, the growth of market share, the higher level of satisfying customer needs, etc. (Meredith & Shafer, 2013). The primary advantage
The project manager leads the project and provides vision, direction and encouragement. The project manager takes lead in project planning to determine the schedule and budgets neces-sary to meet the project objectives and is responsible for delivering the project once the pro-ject has been approved by senior management. The project manager is also responsible for the project support team.
Chain of Command – This establishes the level of authority from the bottom to the top within the organization and the level of authority each managerial position will hold. Additionally, the chain of command will outline the reporting process.
A project manager should be aware of the key challenges and threats an organization would face as well as he/she should have the skills to tackle the crises effectively and efficiently. In addition to that, a project manager should also be able to convey the thoughts and ideas in a convenient manner who is responsible to make a framework for an effective communication to ensure clear communication between the team members even though the style of communication would be different based on the situation.
In the globalized economy, Successful project managers are in much demand across many industries. Organizations strongly need experienced project managers to lead their staff to accomplish their business goals and deliver successful projects. In an increasingly complex environment, project managers need to turn into many roles and have all kinds of responsibilities at each level of management within an organization. Good project managers are not born. They need to be trained. They develop their skills through study, practise and experience. They become better project managers after they finish a successful project each time. They learn new techniques and apply them on their projects. They learn their lessons from failed projects and then improve to be better project managers in the future.
Over the course of my professional life, I have become increasingly involved in project management roles. Doing so has made me aware of the many varied challenges that can face projects and the project managers who are charged with bringing them through to completion. The success or failure of projects, in whatever economic, political or social field, rests not just on the quality of the project’s goals, but also on the abilities of those involved in the project – and above all those who are managing it – to bring it to successful completion. To do this, project managers need to be equipped with a very wide range of skills, many of which are unrelated to the type of project itself. So, for example, a project manager of an engineering project must not only have engineering
Project management is known as the discipline of planning, organizing, motivating, and controlling resources to achieve specific goals. In the diagram to the left in the picture you can see that as a project manager you are the center of either a great accomplishment or a major failure. Some of the major factors to being a successful project manager would be a person that is a great manage several projects or responsibilities and scope issues on an every day basis. If you have a pr...
The importance of project management cannot be overstated. For starters it is important that project management provides a flexibility and structure. Project management creates flexible and well-structured business organizations by combining two organization needs perfectly. The organizational needs are determined by making the organization adaptable due to constant changes in the business, secondly organization is extremely important for creating structure. What is most important is that
Project management involves all activities that encompass scheduling, planning, and controlling projects. A successful project manager ensure that an organization’s resources are being used both efficiently and effectively. Most projects need to be uniquely developed require a sense of customization and the ability to adapt to any posed challenges. The scope of effective project management includes defining what the project is and what is being expected to be accomplished. Projects are imposed to fulfill a certain need and project managers must have the ability to create the proper definition. Goals and the means used to attain those goals have to be clearly stated. Project Managers must also have the ability to plan