Define

My name is Amy Wiktorski and I am a 2nd year student on the BSc in Manufacturing Management  program.
My project involves the standardization of the assembly/dis-assembly procedure and the storage of parts and equipment within a process suite in a production area.

Project Charter

A Project charter was developed to define the problem statement and objectives of the project.  I found this to be one of the most useful parts of the define phase, as I had to learn more about the process and gather some initial data to outline the problem statement/objectives, business justification, stakeholders and metrics.
As part of the initial data gathering the process was observed and timed.  The process showed huge variance around standard operating times.  This was investigated further using spaghetti diagrams to identify waste in the process.


Project Schedule/Plan

Screen shot of Project plan 

The project plan was developed using Microsoft project.  I believe outlining the plan was extremely beneficial, as I was able to map out every step within the project and consider how long each phase would take.
The project plan was also critical when requesting project resources as it enabled me to present the exact resource requirement to each of the Managers involved.

                                                                                 


Stakeholder Analysis
Stakeholder Analysis was carried out to determine the key stakeholders of the project.  I identified all  stakeholders and then ranked them in relation to power, influence and interest.  I used the following template to record this,

Stakeholder Analysis template

I found this tool really useful as it allowed me, as project manager to understand who the key stakeholders are and who I need to spend more time consulting with during the project.

Project Team
The project team is critical to the success of the project.  When choosing team members with key stakeholders we had to consider the following;

• Process Knowledge
• Knowledge or previous use of lean/six sigma tools
• Needed a representative from each of the production shifts so they could train their crew on completion of the project
• Management representation required to ensure support of the change following implementation
• Engineering & Quality SME (Subject Matter Expert) required 

Team Building
Once the team was formed I scheduled weekly project meetings.  At our team kick off meeting we used a tool called the Enneagram as a team building exercise.  The Enneagram is a  personality test which after a number of questions outlines an individuals personality type.  Although this is not a lean/six sigma tool the team really enjoyed it, as it helped us to bond and understand each other more. I believe this is really important as we will be working together closely over the coming months. More information on the Enneagram can be found at the following link, http://www.enneagraminstitute.com/intro.asp#.URlVKh1g8oM


Project Communication Plan
A project communication plan was developed to ensure that the team would communicate effectively with stakeholders.  We developed the plan under the following headings,

• Communication - Communication type
• Who - Who would be targeted
• Purpose - Purpose of the communication
• Frequency - How often the Project manager or team would communicate with the stakeholder
• Method - Method of communication that would be used, e.g. meeting, e-mail, workshop

This seems to be working well so far and the team are sticking to the agreed schedule for communication.

VOC (Voice of the Customer)
VOC was carried out by GEMBA (go and see) to the process area.  A workshop was also carried out with each production crew to gather their information and feedback.  At the workshops the team gathered a huge amount of information that can be used during the project.  The workshops were also challenging for the team as we were faced with resistance from some of the staff within the area.  This has forced us to consider all of their opinions and helped us try to understand why they were resistant so we can strive to change this.

High Level Process Mapping
The processes the team are improving were mapped from a high level.  These will be outlined further during the measure phase of the project.

The team found this very useful as it helped us to understand the flow of the process and think about each step that is involved.

So far the project is on schedule and the team have built up strong momentum which I hope continues for the duration of the project.