Lean and Six Sigma Approaches for Eliminating Time Wasting

You have two options

A. Quick Set-Up
You are to identify a situation that occurs regularly in your professional or everyday life where you have to switch/change over from one activity to another activity. This “change-over” should require you to perform multiple tasks that require time (i.e., the change-over creates a delay in moving to the next activity). “Observe” and record how you typically perform this change-over, including how long it takes to do each task and how long it takes to complete the change-over. Record and present these data in the form of a table or chart that is easy to read and understand. Then analyze your current change-over process and develop a new and improved change-over process that reduces the overall time to do the change-over. Show the new process in the form of a table or chart that is easily comparable to the one you constructed for the current process, and explain in detail what changes you are making, why you are making them, and why they should save time.

Your grade will be based on how interesting the change-over is, how clearly you explain the current and proposed change-over process, and the creativity of your improvement. The example you use should be a real example from your life (any team member), not an example from a book or other source that has already been accomplished.

B. Mistake-proofing
You are to identify a situation/activity that occurs regularly in your professional or everyday life where it is easy to make a mistake. Describe the situation clearly and explain how or why a mistake can occur (and the likely consequences of a mistake). Then analyze the situation/activity and devise a mistake-proofing procedure or mechanism that would prevent that mistake from occurring and/or would help you identify a mistake and correct it quickly without any harm occurring. Clearly explain the mistake-proofing idea, especially why you believe it would prevent future mistakes.

Your grade will be based on how interesting and important the mistake-proofing situation is, how clearly you explain and defend proposed mistake-proofing solution, and the creativity of your improvement. The example you use should be a real example from your life (or any team member), not an example from a book or other source that has already been accomplished. It should NOT be an existing, known mistake-proofing mechanism, such as a tether on a fuel cap or standard error correction methods on a computer.