Problem solving is a never-ending wheel. We’ve all lived through it in many forms; be it fixing a leaky faucet in our basement, figuring out the best arrangement for our commuter parking, improving broken processes and flows at work, irrespective of being in a small business or a large corporation. It’s “fix time”!
An argument could be made that the “I” of the DMAIC cycle is the most important, because that is where you implement a fix and truly “improve” the process, which is the whole purpose of process improvement, right? True! But on its own the “fix” phase stands a chance no higher than a lottery. You may be lucky enough and nail it on your first try, or…
A more likely scenario is that you realize one day that you’ve collected a garage full of “improvements” that don’t actually improve anything. They may have caused excitement, may have generated a good amount of work activity, but did they really live up to your expectations?
A real-world example that actually helps
Remember that service business with the scheduling bottleneck from prior DMAIC articles? Your analysis revealed that 75% of delays happened before scheduling even started, with missing information being the biggest culprit (50% of delays).
Now let’s implement a fix.
Week 1-2: Pilot the simplest solution
Start with one service team and implement a pre-scheduling checklist:
• Required fields before scheduling can begin
• Auto-flag incomplete requests
• Daily tracking of what info is most often missing
• Quick morning huddle to review stuck orders
Initial results: 40% reduction in missing-info delays. Not bad for a checklist, eh?
Week 3-4: Address the approval bottleneck
Your second-biggest issue was approvals (20% of delays). Add to your pilot:
• 24-hour approval SLA
• Auto-escalation after 24 hours
• Approval authority matrix (who can approve what)
• Track approval times by person
Combined results: Total delays down 55%. Orders flowing to scheduling 2 days faster.
Week 5-8: Scale and refine
Roll out to all teams with improvements from pilot:
• Digital checklist integrated into order system
• Automated reminders for missing information
• Dashboard showing approval queue aging
• Weekly review of bottleneck patterns
You’ve implemented a fix which works, you are scaling it up to the whole business, you have data supporting its efficiency and this provides a great leading indicator of potential failures of the fix down the road.
What is the key insight here?
Methodology! You didn’t fix the scheduling system – it was never broken. You fixed what was feeding into it by ensuring clean and complete data was flowing in. And here is the magic: you did it incrementally, logically and effectively. The “pilot” trial set you up for success.
How?
In process improvement, when you do it long enough, you’re bound to eventually fail. It’s inevitable. Not every fix works. So, in expectation of a failure you must learn how to FAIL FAST! You try a fix, it’s not working, you learn why, you scrap it, you design a new one, you try again. That is what pilots are for. Small-scale tryouts.
Now, imagine, if you did a full-blown rollout with change management fanfare, bells and whistles, and it failed. You get my point, right?
The measurement continues
So, here’s an interesting phenomenon about the DMAIC methodology: not all parts have been created equal. Some are flashy and visible (improve/fix), some are painful and barely ever visible (define a process). And nearly all have their place in the cycle and clearly defined start and end point. Except the Measure stage. That one seeps into all other parts of the cycle. Why? You need to know what’s happening. You need to see truth. And truth requires data.
For this reason alone you have to keep tracking:
• Baseline – where you started
• Pilot Results – 2-4 week test
• Rollout Results – full implementation
• Sustained Results – 3-6 months later
Doing this methodically, using data, will tell you really fast whether you are improving, or if your implementation was flawed. The data (if good) never lies. Don’t just blindly trust it, but rather learn from it.
Common implementation mistakes
Entire books could be (and have been) written on this topic, but from my experience, there are three mistakes which truly stand out. And I’ve made them all myself. Repeatedly.
• Too many changes – muddy waters = don’t know what’s working
• Skipping the pilot – “It’ll work for sure”. Yeah. Famous last words…
• Forgetting change management – this needs an article on its own
Change Management, honestly, is not only a buzzword, but also one of the most underrated parts of running any business. I’ll write a dedicated post on it, but for a quick explainer on what Change Management is (in my opinion):
If you were a bus driver on a road trip, then Six Sigma would be your GPS navigation giving you the best and safest route, whereas Change Management would be you knowing to take great care in the twisty section of the trip, full of switchbacks – which always makes people carsick – where your goal is to reach your destination with happy passengers. People don’t like change. And a lot of it all at once can make them sick. I’ll leave the rest to your imagination, bucket, mop and all…
The Implementation checklist
Before you implement any improvement – be it a pilot or a full scale overhaul, always ask yourself these questions:
| ✅ | Is this solving our validated root cause? |
| ✅ | Have we designed a small pilot test? |
| ✅ | Do we have clear success metrics? |
| ✅ | Is someone accountable for results? |
| ✅ | Do we have a rollback plan? |
| ✅ | Have we communicated the why? |
| ✅ | Are we tracking the right data? |
| ✅ | Do we have a sustainment plan? |
What happens next?
Once you’ve successfully implemented your improved process and maybe even fully scaled it across the business here are the thankless, but crucial parts which will position you for actual and lasting success:
• Document – write down what worked + what didn’t and why
• Standardize – build this improvement method into your ops flow
• Control – do NOT skip this! Success doesn’t stay. It needs care
• Iterate – there are always problems to fix – you just need to find them
Wait! You’re not done yet
When you reach the Improve phase of DMAIC, remember you are not guessing anymore. You now have a firm grasp on your process (Define), you know the impact (Measure), you know what’s causing issues (Analyze). Now, you’ve found a fix (Improve), which you methodically test and scale up. In the next article we will dive into the Control phase where we will discuss why monitoring the quality and effectiveness of your fix is so important.
It’s boring. It’s not revolutionary. But it’s effective.
And in business? Effective beats exciting every time.
Need help?
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