Q 377. Is it necessary to have both a sponsor and a champion for a successful lean six sigma program? Explain with examples in support of your response.

 

 

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Sponsor: Is a senior business leader or executive who sponsors the Six Sigma engagement. Responsible for signing of objectives of the project and approver of business case in the project charter. Sponsors and promotes the initiatives throughout his span of control for implementation. He is responsible for ensuring resources are available for projects and required funding is arranged.

 

Champion: is a functional head of a team in whose area the Six Sigma project is getting implemented. He is responsible to ensure availability of resources required for the project.  Responsible for driving actions or working with upstream or downstream processes to get their commitment if required in the project.  Generally, approver who will approve the different critical tollgates.  Doesn’t get involved in day to day activity of the project.

Champion is the liaison between the project team and senior management including Sponsor and thus responsible for securing subject matter experts and non-Six Sigma resources critical to the success of the project. Black Belts go to person for any troubleshooting.  Responsible to communicates the plan for business success

In a typical Lean Six Sigma Project both sponsors and champions are critical to drive actions for successful completion of a project.  At times Sponsor and Champions can be the same person.  Sponsor and Champions get mapped as per ARMI tool to drive change on the process where both are at approver level.  Only Variation is the severity of decision where they are required to approve.

 

It is very important to have both Sponsor and Champion for a project to ensure project closure on time.  Lets take an example- A Manufacturing company has Finance Shared Service Centre. A project is to be driven to improve the First Pass Yield(FPY) of the invoice processing.  Improving the FPY there are different parties involved from Procurement teams, vendors, Requisitioner, Business Users, IT teams(SAP, Workflow, Scanning Solution) and Accounts Payable Team.  While the Invoice Processing happens at Accounts Payable team but will require the other functions to improve the process.

 

To undertake this process Black Belt will need funding and resource alignment.  To even this project to start, this must be approved by Sponsor so the required funds can be made available.  In this example head of Shared Service Centre is the Sponsor who will provide all the resources, alignment from different functions is made and funding required for the project is provided.  Sponsor will approve the project charter and approve the DMAIC tollgates. In the above example head of Procure to Pay(P2P) team is the champion under him the project will be executed.  Will provide and align resources (Sponsors, Black Belts / Green Belts) and ensures cross functional collaboration. Will ensure accountability for results is there.  Will be responsible to ensure change is accepted well.  Will be approver as per ARMI.

Lean Six Sigma Sponsor vs. Lean Six Sigma Champion

 

Sponsor and Champion are key roles in any Lean Six Sigma organization for successful completion of the project. However, in some organizations and projects these roles are played by the same individual, yet delivering successful projects. 

It is good to have a Sponsor and a Champion, but not a must depending upon the size, impact of the project , type of organization structure and roles. 

Below is the common definition of these roles are some of the key roles and responsibilities of Champion and Sponsor.

 

Lean Six Sigma Champion is the initiative leader in an organization. Sometimes, Champion is the CEO of the company or his/ her direct reports.

Key responsibilities of Champion-

-announcing and initiating Six sigma projects in the company;

-sets and communicates the overall objectives of the Six Sigma program;

-sets target for business units in terms of business measures like financial savings, customer defects etc.;

-Provides resources for Six Sigma Training;

-monitors progress with respect to plans and targets;

-resolved issues in organization;

-sets up steering committee structure involving functional heads

 

Lean Six Sigma Sponsor is Sr. Business manger who owns the projects. He/she is the key stakeholder in the success if the project and are accountable for the outcome. Sponsors support belts in terms of making resources available to them, motivating and challenging them and the team members. Sponsors support also includes budgetary approvals, team member's time and availability, getting support from cross-departmental functions etc. Sponsors should also report progress and status of the projects they have sponsored in top management reviews. 

Apart from ones already mentioned, the Sponsors are also responsible for-

-identifying project opportunities which are linked to Strategic goals and objectives;

-conducting periodic project reviews to ensure that the belts get necessary support; 

-recognize and reward the belt and team members on successful project completion

 

Example: There could be a flat organization in one of the functions where funding is done by Sr. Business manager who can also play role of both Champion and Sponsor.

Project Sponsor is leader who sponsors a selected Lean Six Sigma project and comprehends the benefits of Lean Six Sigma.

The sponsor has the facility to allocate resources for training and completing projects, and to get rid of roadblocks which will arise throughout the course of the Lean Six Sigma project.

 

Champion: champions are senior managers initiate and support a project within their scope of responsibility. They determine the broad goals and the scope of projects resolves any cross-functional team issues that may occur. Champions are trained in the basics of six sigma. Sometimes filled by former Black Belt or Master Black belt.

The Champion is someone who attends Tollgates and can resolve the cross functional issues. Sponsor is that the person who will brag about your results to other Executives within the organization and typically only sees the results of the project.

Responsibility of Project Sponsors:

To identify the new project or Identify the existing project: the project would benefit the organization and ensure that it aligned with the company’s business goals and strategies.

Select right Team Members: Ensure to select right team members for the project. The sponsors has to work with project leader and the stakeholders to identify the right team members.

Track of Project status:  Make sure the project is on track and there is no hurdles. The sponsors should review the project plan and provide inputs for successful planning and progress of the project

Liaison between the project Members and the organization stakeholders: to get the necessary buy-in required smooth movement of the projects. He should be in the position to high influences on the stakeholders and high hold on the process owner

Financial Approval: Approving any financial that are required for completing the project. The project success mostly lies with sponsors as they work with all the financial loss/gain.

Project sponsors should ensure that the completed project is handed over to the process owners and show the continuous improvement.

Identifying & Finalizing a Project Sponsor

§  Process Stakeholder who has high impact in the Process and has the ability to approve any financials for Project completion.

§  Has adequate knowledge on the financials of the project and can review the growth of the Project without any struggle.

§  Contribute to the Project Initiation and during subsequent Project Reviews.

§  Should be good coach and mentor the Project Members during the growth of the Project with his knowledge and ability.

 

The success of the Project completely lies in the hands of the Project Stakeholder.

Project Champions:

Champions play an essential role in every successful Lean Six Sigma initiative. They assist as mentors to project teams. They are the bridge between six sigma black belts and organization management. Without champions, the teams will be struggled with internal obstacles and misaligned with core business objectives, team will lose the focus and lose the track of time which not yield the expected benefits. Champions are members of the leadership group who sponsor projects and mentor teams working on those projects. Champions must be trained in the necessities of the Six Sigma Approach. But do not need to be “expert” in Six Sigma tools and techniques but they do need to have high skills in facilitation, collaboration and conflict resolution.

Depends on the organizational structure occasionally the Champion may also Sponsor projects or programs.

But for better results it will be good to have both a sponsor and a champion for a successful lean six sigma program

 

 

Project Champion :

A project champion is a person who ensure supervision from initiation phase to execution phase. Their role deals with helping project members in completion. From creating a project charter to liaising between stakeholders to map efficacy & thereby help execution. They act as single point of contact between executives responsible executing the project including project managers & senior management .

Six Sigma champions set the direction for selecting and deploying projects. They ensure, at a high level, that projects succeed, add value, and fit within the organizational plan. They Translate the company’s vision, mission, goals and metrics to create an organizational deployment plan and identify individual projects.

 

The key responsibilities of Project Champion are :

1. Benchmarks & maps efficacy time to time

2.Modifies project on a need basis 

3.Monitors and proposes changes for successful implementation

4.Conducts Risk Management and helps eliminate any risk 

5.Does Priority decision making

6.Focuses on continuous improvement while executing a project

7.Reports to Senior Management from time to time

 

 

Project sponsor:

A project sponsor is the person who is ultimately responsible for the project. Among other tasks, the Project Sponsor is the person who: - Signs off on the resources that are needed for the project He is responsible for initiating, ensuring, approving and establishing series of important /key aspects that can sum up to the company's vision. mission, governance & value benefit realization. Project sponsor is also called the owner of the process who represents sponsoring the business unit 

 

The key responsibilities of Project Sponsor are :

1. Goal : The Project sponsor should ensure that the Business need is considered & has been prioritized

2.Funding & resources: Securing the funding & resources required for implementing the project 

3.Communication: Clearly communicate the aspect & mission of the project with the team & relevant stake holders 

4.Scedule: A project sponsor is supposed to have a key maintenance of adhering to the schedule

5.Resolve Issues : There may be situations of decisions in changes and conflicting objectives. The Sponsor takes control of these issues and ensures that they are solved efficiently and effectively 

6..Support: Project sponsors provide time to time support in terms of clarification, progress management & guidance

 

Sponsor Vs Champion : Do we need to have separate roles?

 

While apparently we see both the roles are important in initiation of six sigma projects however as per my notion they requisites can be aligned and mapped to one role ie Project Champion. We need not require a separate bandwidth & cost for the role of a Sponsor . The Roles & responsibilities of a Sponsor can easily be aligned with Champion, as Champions are defining, measuring, implementing & executing the entire project & even liaising with stakeholders and senior management from time to time. 

In general, the need for a separate role is directly proportional to the size of the organization & the project.  Project Champion’s role ties well into that of the Project Sponsor, and hence it makes logical sense to have both  assumed by the same person in every project and every organization. Champions have in-depth knowledge & are certified MBBs and is well versed to take on responsibilities and map up with the Sponsor's role. Champions translate the company’s vision, mission, goals and metrics to create an organizational deployment plan and identify individual projects and they  are aligned till the end where they would have better visibility & understanding and demonstrating the same to Senior Management . Champions would also have the visibility on number of resources & funding required for the project. Rather, they would be in better situations to understand these dynamics and can easily take up this responsibility from Sponsors & execute them 

Hence I feel the roles can be merged as one .

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sponsor is usually a high-level or from senior leadership who sponsors the Six Sigma program. 

• They are responsible for setting up a vision for Six Sigma implementation, articulating the problem statement, defining the team’s objectives and validating the business case in the project charter.
• Looked up to for decisions at critical times at the project.

A champion takes responsibility for driving Six Sigma implementation across the organization in an integrated manner. 

• Is often a middle or senior executive who sponsor and promote continuous improvement initiatives through out their organization. 
• Promote training and act as mentor for Black Belt candidates and makes sure that resources are available for projects. Actively involved and resolves any cross-functional team issues that may occur. 

Role of Sponsor & Champion in a Six Sigma project is summarized in the below figure :

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Role of Sponsors & Champions in six sigma program:

In some organizations, Sponsors and champions are different with clearly defined roles. Where, Sponsors are Executive leaders, who set the overall organizational direction and set business priorities where Champions typically are top-level managers, who allocate project resources & promote process improvements. 

 

On the contrary, in many organizations, one role spills over another. Hence, the single top executive takes both the roles who oversees a Six Sigma project and is accountable to the Top Executives for the success of that project. 

 

However, considering the very thin line between these two roles, at times, organization create one role with combined responsibilities outlining the following key expectations:

 

• Participation in creating awareness & concept overview. Ensure employees participation in relevant Six Sigma training. 
• Define Project Scope
• Provide necessary resources in Six Sigma projects. Ensure complete support for six sigma team to meet project objectives.
• Lay out clear expectations for the project results & quality. Make sure that project goals are not sub-optimized. 
• Take decision based on facts by encourage bringing results based on facts and data.
• Engage themselves with project teams on regular basis to support them in problem-solving, decision making, and allocating resources.
• Change management and managing the negative attitude 

Question : Is it necessary to have both a sponsor and a champion for a successful lean six sigma program? Explain with examples in support of your response ?

 

Answer : Yes, Project Sponsor and Project Champion both are important for a Lean Six Sigma program. In some of the organizations these roles are played by one person only. These roles are important to keep our stakeholders up to date on the project status and to move the project towards success. There are lot of communication needed between the project team and stakeholders towards project success, roadblocks, project tracking, project mission and vision, project outcomes, business requirements and change management. All these responsibilities are very well managed by sponsor and champion.

 

Some of the core responsibilities are mentioned below which shows the importance of these roles :

 

Project Sponsor: sponsors a specific lean six sigma project and understands the lean six sigma advantages and is primarily supporting on financials of a project followed by the project objectives and goals.

• Project sponsor approve the project goals, objectives, project scope and project metrics as per the organizational strategies or should say the (Approves the project charter)
• Project Sponsor obtain the budgets to align the technical and non-technical resources LSS project
• Project sponsor to take critical decisions at times of project completion as needed
• Project sponsor is authorized to approve the project toll gates on each DMAIC phase.
• Project sponsor has sufficient knowledge on the financials of the project and can review the progress of the Project without any difficulty.

Project Champion: promotes the continuous improvement initiatives throughout their organization. Project champion secures training and mentorship for Black Belt candidates and makes sure the resource availability conflicts.

• Project champion resolves any cross-functional team issues that may occur.
• Project Champion plays a pivotal role to remove the roadblocks that may impact the project success.   
• Project Champion is responsible to track the project success and keep the Leadership informed
• Project Champion set the direction of process improvements in the organization. They link the benefits of the project to organizational priorities.
• Project Champion can create a portfolio of projects which could range from projects in Customer Satisfaction, Service, Cost and Quality. It provides the Champions the visibility in the process and also showcases his abilities to top-management to manage varied portfolio of projects.
• Project Champion is also authorized to approve the project toll gates on each DMAIC phase.

Thus, both the roles has crucial responsibilities to play for a LSS project success for an organization. 

Yes, its necessary to have a sponsor and a champion for a successful lean six sigma program or a project as per the key deliverables and expectation from both the roles. Lets 1^st understand these roles and sum it up at the last with an example.

What is a Six Sigma Champion ?

The Six Sigma Champion is an individual who translates the mission, vision, and values into a Six Sigma deployment strategy which supports the goals of the company.  They do the same by determining which projects to deploy and identifying resource needs and removal of roadblocks if there are any.

Six Sigma Project Champions drive the performance of project black belts and green belts and are responsible for the outcome of Six Sigma projects under their guidance.  They communicate the link between Six Sigma and the business strategy and identify the black belt and green belts for the projects based on skillsets and requirements of the project.

The Champion plays a significant role in the success of a Six Sigma project, typically approving, reviewing, or managing the project by providing the resources, eliminating bottlenecks, and diffusing the conflict.  The champion is not expected to do a project, but they are expected at a high level to have detailed understanding of the process and also the requirements of Six Sigma. The Champion is expected to have the process as well as Six Sigma knowledge at the level that they can explain a project to both Six Sigma belts and executive leaders.

The Champions play a very important role in a successful Lean Six Sigma initiative. They act as mentors to project teams and also a bridge between black belts and the organization top management. Without champions, efforts can become entangled with internal bottlenecks, become misaligned with core business objectives, lose focus and track of time, and may not yield expected benefits. Champions are typically members of the leadership group who sponsor projects and mentor teams working on those projects. To be effective in their roles, champions must be trained in the essentials of the Six Sigma Methodology.

 

 

Project Sponsor:

When you're doing a Six Sigma project, you must have a Project Sponsor. A Project Sponsor is, finally, the person responsible for the project and it usually is a senior manager / senior person in system. the Project Sponsor is the person who:

- Defines the goals and objectives of the Six Sigma project;

- Evaluates the results of the project at the time of closure

- Signs off the resources those are needed for the project.

 

Below Diagram in nutshell explains the coordination done by the Project Sponsor with Leadership as well as project teams.

 

Sponsor role in a Six Sigma project is to make sure that everything is on track in order to the project to be completed successfully. Sponsors are key stakeholders in any Project as they determine the success of the Project. This indicates that the roles and responsibilities of the Sponsors are equally important and challenging.

 

Key Responsibilities of a Project Sponsor:

·         To identify and review a project that would benefit the organization and ensures that it is aligned with the company’s business goals and strategies.

·         Ensure that right team members as per the project requirement are selected for the project. The Sponsor works with the Project Leader and other stakeholders to get the right Team Members.

·         Keep track of the Project and ensure that it progresses without any kind of bottlenecks. The Sponsor shall review the Project Plan and contribute towards successful planning and progression of the Project.

·         Be a link between the Project Members and organization’s other stakeholders and get the required buy-in required for smooth movement of the Project. The Sponsor should be at a level where he has high influence on the other stakeholders and good hold on the Process Owners.

·         Approving any financials that are required for completion of the Project. The Ownership of a Project success primarily lies with the Sponsor as they have to deal with all the financial loss/gain and therefore a financially sound stakeholder is suitable for this role.

·         Should ensure that the completed Project is handed over to the Process Owners back and shows sustained improvements over the period of time.

 

E.g. : A six sigma design project is taken up to improve the speed of an existing age old internal employee management portal built on an obsolete technology. So lets see here the role of the project sponsor and champion.

Here the project sponsor will approve the budget for new technology, infrastructure, people, consultancy etc. as required for building up of the new portal or upgradation and also communicate the advantages of the new system over the old system to the leadership team and once the new system is developed, handover / takeover process is smooth from the development team to operations team / end users. If during the development of new system, any bottlenecks are encountered say less time / budget available to team, then the sponsor will negotiate the same and get the required approvals from the top leadership.

 

Project Champion here will translate the vision / mission of the senior leadership which in this case may be to provide better user experience quickly into the six sigma project i.e. to improve the downloading speed of the existing employee portal. So accordingly the six sigma champions align the technical resources /six sigma belts for the project who will do the necessary analysis using the DMAIC / DMADV methodologies and champions / leaders will be responsible for the final outcome or end objective of the project is achieved  i.e. improve the downloading speed of the employee portal.

 

Hence, if we see here the sponsors if are responsible for removing the financial obstacles in a six sigma Programme and champions are responsible to communicate the six sigma language to top leadership in a language that others are able to comprehend and allocating the necessary resources for the project other than financial resources.

 

Parameter	Lean Six Sigma Sponsor	Lean Six Sigma Champion
Definition	Sponsor is a Leader who sponsors a Lean Six Sigma Project	Champion is a Team member who is Responsible for the Success of Project within the Timelines
Who can Act	Senior Business Leader	Middle or Senior Level Executive
Role	Overall Six Sigma Initiative within the Organization	Aligned For Specific Six Sigma Project
Responsibility	Allocate Resources for Training and Completing Projects	Mentoring Project Teams
	Remove Roadblocks that arises during Six Sigma Project	Resolving Cross Functional Issues
Example	Managing Director (MD) or CEO or CIO or COO in an Organization	Business Vertical Head in Service Sector or General Manager in Manufacturing Sector

 

Champions

• Monitoring and Analyzing the external and internal factors affecting the business
• Defining business strategy
• Communicating the project plan for business success
• Champions Lean Six Sigma vision
• Establishing improvement priorities and targets for the organization.
• Provides and arrange resources (Sponsors, Black Belts / Green Belts), ensures cross functional collaboration
• Establishing accountability for results
• Role modeling appropriate behaviors and change leader in the organization.
• Integrates Lean Six Sigma into business strategy & plan.

Project Sponsors

• Providing and Aligning resources (Black Belts / Green Belts, Team Members), ensures cross functional collaboration
• Establishing improvement priorities, targets and accountability for results
• Ensuring that the project is aligned with department and strategic objectives
• Approving all phases of Lean Six Sigma projects
• Ensures project deliverables are being maintained and project is on time and on budget in the organization.
• Approves changes in scope of the Lean Six Sigma project and removing barriers / road blocks.
   

 

A Champion role is as follows:

• Own and communicate LSS vision.

• Drive the change.

• Demand and review progress.

• Empower, review, participate, contribute.

• Provide resources, eliminate barriers.

• Reward and recognize achievers.

• Breakdown silos.

A Sponsors role is as follows:

A sponsor can be at two levels one at the Executive level and the other at the Process level.

During project Governance across all the DMAIC phases:

Person who reviews & approves the project.

Assure business relevance for metrics. Evaluate data collection plan. Review current state

Budget and provide resources. Reallocate work to allow team members to participate in projects. Assure multidisciplinary representation if need be. Establish empowerment guidelines.

Probe completeness of data. Assess analysis approach. Evaluate and address gaps.

Assess practicality of proposed approach. Re-visit the cost benefit analysis. Oversee implementations and deployment plans.

Validate improvements. Evaluate financial impacts. Assure disciplined follow through of the proposed approach. Assess BB and GB performances.

During change management across DMAIC:

Budget and provide resources.

Reallocate work to allow team members to participate in projects.

Assure multidisciplinary representation if need be. Establish empowerment guidelines.

Build organizations consensus to support team’s approach. Influence decision makers to implement change.

Facilitate transfer of the implementations and sustenance to process owners.

Advocacy and Culture:

Retain alignment of Lean Six Sigma culture to strategic mission and vision. Conduct weekly project review meetings.

Identify right BB and GB projects. Assure an adequate number of MBB’s, BB’s and GB’s.

Make data driven decisions. Act quickly and decisively on issues and obstacles.

Model and communicate Lean Six Sigma culture across the board.

Take accountability for success and failures alike, lead from the front and demonstrate active involvement.

 

Depending on the organization structure, there can be an overlap on these roles.

However, it is important that for the successful deployments of the projects both Sponsors and Leaders/Champions pay a very important role.

 

One of the projects that I was leading would not have found its logical closure and success without the help of the leader/Champion and sponsors, yes there were 3 sponsors to this project.

There was a huge pressure being built to complete the project earlier but there were reasons why the deployment had to be pushed due the revised sprints rollouts, both the leader and sponsors heard my submissions, reviewed long with me and confirmed that they will all support the reason for delay with to ensure successful completion.

It was encouraging and the entire team took it up as a challenge and completed with the value that we had to deliver on the revised dates. 

The spirit of project team members was kept alive by being pragmatic to the dynamic situation was considered. Eventually, team members are formed to make the project successful, but it needs enormous understanding of the situations by the leaders and sponsors to support with appropriate decisions to make it work on ground.  I feel very honored and a sense of accomplishment for having been part of this project & would like to thank the entire to team to their commitment and consistent support.

There can be many more such success stories to quote when each one of us understand one another and play our roles well. 

Project Sponsor - Project Sponsor is a person who sponsors the Lean Six Sigma Project. '

Role of a Sponsor:

In addition to being the sponsor of the project.

- He/She is the one who makes arrangement or assignment of resources to the project.

- Ensures the training and development of the people deployed for the project.

- Helps in clearing the roadblock that the project may encounter, during the project life cycle.

- Has a very strong influence over to ensure the completion of the project.

 

Hence Project Sponsor is very essential/necessary for a successful Lean Six Sigma Program

 

Project Champion: Project Champion plays a very key and crucial role of a mentor to the project teams in a successful Lean Six Sigma Project.

Role of a Champion:

- They play the role of a mentor for entire life cycle of the project to the project teams.

- They act as a bridge between the organization's management and a team of Black & Green Belts. 

- They help in facilitating things, enables collaboration and helps in any kind of conflict resolution

 

Hence Project Champion is also very essential/necessary for the success of a Lean Six Sigma Project.

 

So, from the definition and role of Sponsor and Champion, we can infer that they both compliment each other and also are essential for the success of Lean Six Sigma Project

 

Below explanation will allow us to better understand the roles of a Sponsor and Champion

Project Champions –

Champions provide the leadership oversight for a lean six sigma project. When working on a project, every improvement idea should require enough support and a champion’s role requires him/her to devote time and support to the project team to overcome any roadblocks in the project journey.

Project champions is involved right from the early stage of the project selection, team selection and as the project progress providing support by

a)      Helping steer the team towards the strategic intent of the project

b)      Supports by critically reviewing the charter of the project to ensure the project scope is well defined and goals are SMART

c)       Conducts focused project reviews on each toll-gates and ensure project stays on track for timely completion

d)      Overseeing budget and resource requirements, and making sure these are available

e)      Ensuring the business benefits through the project are realized

f)        Ensuring the project team is appropriately rewarded for their involvement and success of the project

 

Sponsors –

The role of an executive sponsor for lean six sigma program should be with a senior executive in the organization, who is a strong advocate of Lean Six sigma and sees the tangible value the program brings to the organization. The role of the executive sponsor is providing the LSS program with strategic direction, ensure there is enough buy-in for the program across the organization. Jack Welch in his books have elaborately advocated to have a sponsor who is at the top of the company hierarchy and is committed to the success of the program.

An executive sponsor of the LSS program has the below roles –

a)      Provide strategic direction to the LSS program to be deployed across organization

b)      Have clear vision laid out on how the LSS program will play a critical part in organizations success

c)       Provide financial support/budget to run and promote the program, by clearly defining the success measures, scope etc.

d)      Include LSS program as part of the leadership agenda and reviews, to communicate status, success, challenges etc.

e)      Actively participate in “Showcase events” or Promotional events in the organization to lend support to the program

 

It is mostly recommended to have both Sponsors and Champions for a successful Lean six sigma deployment. However, the organization structure and hierarchy does play a role in this decision. A conventional organization with conventional hierarchy may best have a sponsor and champion both, however in a start-up where the senior executives might be also managing day to day operational activities, these roles might be quite diluted and we may often see the role of champion and sponsor being performed by the same leader.

 

For example, in a large organization with 1000+ employee spread across multiple regions, the role of the executive sponsor will be to advocate the program in board meetings, engage leaders to support the budget for the program and commit to the successful delivery. The sponsor will make sure that there are clear vision and objective defined for the program, which makes the outcomes from the program tangible for the organization. The sponsor’s role will be to ensure there is enough buy-in for the LSS deployment across the organizations, i.e. enough support/synergies displayed by department leaders/employee and there is a shared vision on how important the LSS initiative is for the organization

 

In case of the champion, his/her role will be limited to a particular project or a group of projects within a department. The champion will ensure there is clear strategic direction on the project, reviews and support is in place for the project to be successful and complete on-time. The champion will also actively engage with various stakeholders within the department to remove any bottlenecks or push-backs, impacting the timelines of the project.

Before we answer, lets clearly understand the role of Sponsor and Champion in six sigma programs

 

Sponsor: Is the leader or the senior executive who sponsor the overall initiative and understands the advantages of the six sigma program

 

He is the one who has the authority to allocate resources for training and completing projects with budget approvals and always the one to help removing roadblocks that may arise during the project execution

 

Champion: Is the leader who play important role in the sponsoring specific projects

 

He is the technical expert who mentors the project teams and act as a bridge in between Black Belts and business. They typically ensure everyone is on board and on track for successful project completion within time.

 

Do we need both?

Yes, Since project sponsor who is the key person to support the initiative by organizational/function wise and Champion brings in the expertise to mentor the specific projects teams

 

There is no need to have both a sponsor and a champion for a successful lean six sigma program.  Project champion can be a project sponsor.

Champion / Sponsor set the direction of process improvement in the organization.

 

Typical responsibilities are;

 

1. Select objective & scope

2.Organize team

3. Monitor Progress 

4. Arrange for resources needed by team

5. Provide visible support for the belts

6. Ensure project Result hit the bottom line of company 

 

 

Benchmark Six Sigma Expert View by Venugopal R

 

Six Sigma being a very structured methodology to bring improvements in an organization has defined specific roles, which are integral to the 'Six Sigma organization' within a company. The purpose of defining these roles is to ensure a 'successful change management' and we would agree that implementation of effective six sigma projects will involve change management. This is in line with one of the guiding steps explained by John Kotter, who is a renowned thought leader in change management. The step I am referring to is "Building a Guiding Team". 

 

Sponsor and Champion are roles that are essential as part of a project life cycle. The sponsor is a relatively senior person who has the vision and authority to select and approve projects. The sponsor validates the Business Case and ensures high level support for an approved projects. In other words, the sponsor is a leadership representative who seeks the business benefits from the project. The sponsor helps in supporting the project with necessary resources, approvals and high level decisions during the course of the project. His / Her approval is required at each of the DMAIC toll gates. 

 

The Champion is relatively more 'hands-on' in the business and is responsible for the overall Six Sigma program across the organization. In large organizations, we will have multiple champions, each of whom will be responsible for a specified spread of the business. The champion's role is to promote continuous improvement and change acceleration. The champion will decide on the companywide Six Sigma training requirements and will act as a direct mentor for the Blackbelt project leaders. Champions need to undergo specific training to be fully aware of various Six Sigma tools and methodologies. Sometimes, senior members who are already certified as Blackbelts / Master Blackbelts would play the Champion role after undergoing the requisite training. Champions provide support to Blackbelts in overcoming stakeholder resistance and in obtaining their buy-in during project launch and solution implementations.

 

Coming to the question being discussed "Whether the roles of Sponsor and Champion be performed by the same individual?" It may work in smaller organizations, where the resources may be limited. However, if the Sponsor has plays champion's role as well, he / she must have undergone the requisite training. It could also induce more responsibility on the Blackbelts, since they may not have an 'exclusive' mentor, since the availability of  "Sponsor cum champion" would be lesser, compared to a situation where the two roles are performed by different individuals. It should be remembered that the Sponsor's role is more strategic, whereas the Champions role involves substantial tactical dealings as well.

 

In larger organizations, it will be important to have these roles performed by separate individuals, otherwise the Blackbelt will be forced to look up at the Sponsor for various project related assistance and mentorship, for which the Sponsor would be too pre-occupied / may not be practically possible to concentrate on various project specific challenges. Eventually, this would leave the Blackbelts with a wide gap and seriously impact the effectiveness of the projects.

 

To sum up, Sponsor and Champion roles are essential - if they have to be integrated, we need to have good clarity of the roles and will also involve an upgraded responsibility for the Blackbelt.

Lean Six Sigma Sponsor:- They are usually high-level or senior business leader or executive who sponsors the Six Sigma engagement. 

• Provides required resources and align resources
• Ensures Cross functional collaboration
• Establishes improvement priorities , target and accountabilities
• Play role model appropriate behaviours and change leaders
• Ensure project is align towards strategic objective
• Provide approval for all phase of Lean six sigma projects
• Ensure project is in budget and on time
• Approves all change in scope of projects and removed barriers
• Does the marketing of project results in the organization

 

Lean Six Sigma Champion :- They are middle or senior executive who sponsor & promote continuous improvement initiatives throughout their organization. 

• Monitors external and internal factors effecting the projects
• Defines business strategy and objectives
• Does the communication of business plan for success
• Defines vision of project
• integrate lean six sigma project in business direction and plan
• Does the marketing of project results in the organization

 

Yes it is important to have sponsor and champion as part of a successful six sigma program.

 

Sponsor - In all the projects we need decision making it will be done by senior management. A person from leadership or from the senior management is always identified as the sponsor as he need to play the role of approving budget, resources and matters which are sensitive . Sponsor should give clarity to the problem by defining goals the team need to achieve and validating the charter and provide sign off at each DMAIC toll gates. Its very critical for the sponsors to be liaison with the team for the success of the project. 

 

eg: For a project if we need to identify the best fit solution for digitization , we will have 3 options ( Bot, workflow and desktop bot) Based on the benefits the sponsor can approve the budget for the digitization and it will be a major milestone in improvement phase of DMAIC.

 

Champion:  A person who is driving the continuous improvement initiatives throughout their organization is the champion of  that project.  Champion will drive the project based on each year vision and goals and  provide metrics and plan to the leadership. Identify resources and remove roadblocks. He will provide training and mentoring to the black belt candidates and ensure the resources availability throughout the project. He will ensure that the project is going according to the six sigma standards and all the tools and processes are followed. he will mentor the team on how to use the six sigma tools and resolves the cross functional teams. 

 

eg: A team has a target of 4000 hours and champion will create pipeline after talking to the business and identifying the projects from each portfolio that this target by the organization is met. He/she will ensure that the projects are done rightly and the benefits are calculated without any manipulation. 

 

The jury is still out on the question

 

However, there are 2 definitive themes that emerge

1. Overlap between the responsibilities of a sponsor and champion.

2. Size and structure of the organization impact the decision to have these as separate roles

 

There are only a few who have supported their answers with examples. Ajit Pathania is one of them and his answer has been selected as the winner!