Hi All,

I am Currently working at Essar and planning on undertaking my six sigma green belt project. I have successfully completed my written exam in Jan 2010

Given below are the details about the project

Project Details:

•a. The project aims to reduce customer delivery lead time i.e. time taken from order placing to final customer delivery

•b. Delivery lead time is the sum of order placing time + vehicle arrangement time + vehicle loading time + documentation time + time taken by vehicle to reach customer

•c. Vehicle loading and documentation time is basically the turn around time of vehicle inside the plant

•d. As the vehicle turn around time is directly proportional to customer delivery lead time we are aiming to reduce vehicle turn around time inside the plant as the project

•e. This will involve various departments within the plant like Production, Logistics, Planning and Quality

•f. External parties involved in the process are Vehicle Vendors and Sales team

Vehicle TAT inside the plant is directly affected by various factors like Crane Availability, Material Tracing time, Correct status of material in SAP, Order of vehicle placing, Documentation time involved, Security checking and other procedures

I need your suggestion on the following things:

1. How should I develop the project plan i.e. timelines for completing the different phases in the project?

2. As per the details of the project given above and the nature of the cross functional teams involved does the project classify as a Green Belt?

Please also let me know any other things that I should be considering or might have missed out while planning the same

Best Regards,

Debashraya Padhy

Management Trainee

Essar Steel

If the causes are known and the solution is easy to find, the project does not classify as a Six Sigma project. If the project is all about listing average time taken in each task and reducing or eliminating non value adding time, you may take it as a Lean assignment.