Prioritize. Determine Improvement.

Define goals and action plans. Commit resources to focused improvement projects in order to realize significant results.

You can’t fix everything at once...this phase puts rationality to the process...it is a key part of baseline.

Key Questions

Understand Value Delivery:

• What is our value proposition?
  
  
• What is the value stream?
  
  
• What process are you responsible for?
  
  
• Who are the process owners?
  
  
• How well do the processes work together?
  
  
• What are the strengths/ weaknesses as seen by the customer?

Perform Assessment:

• What's the scope? What is fair game? ...Boundaries?
  
  
• How receptive are the "scoped" areas for change? How do you know?
  
  
• Who will perform the assessment?
  
  
• What is your process for performing the assessment?

Identify Opportunities and High Leverage Points:

• What processes have the highest priority for improvement?
  
  
• What data supports your conclusion?
  
  
• What are the sources of waste and key leverage points and how did you determine them?

Estimate Expected Results and Prioritize Opportunities:

• What are the expected results?
  
  
• What's the expected ROI?
  
  
• What's the impact of each opportunity on customers (i.e., other segments or programs)?
  
  
• What's the rank order for attacking the improvement opportunities? Why?

Document Improvement Plan:

• What are the (rough estimate) project goals? (ex: WIP, C>T, Defects/Yields)
  
  
• What is the project schedule (first order milestones)?
  
  
• What are the early success indicators?
  
  
• What are the risks, countermeasures and payback?

Obtain Commitment to Support the Plan:

• Do we have an agreed contract for change?
  
  
• Do we have leadership alignment?
  
  
• How do we know?
  
  
• What human resources am I willing to assign?
  
  
• How much personal time am I going to commit?
  
  
• Have key resources been identified and assigned?
  
  
• What skills are required?

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