Application of Six Sigma methodology became necessary when Club Acme was not able to perform as expected in the matches it played. The major defect was in the performance of Mike, the best batsman of the club.
The problem was that now Mike was able to score an average of 32.5 runs per inning, as opposed to 40 that he got earlier. Due to this, the club was able to win only 36% of the time.
Mike was able to score the lower specification limit (LSL) of 40 in 14 out of the 50 innings he played in 2011. The other 36 were therefore, considered as defects. The Lean Six Sigma case study thus targeted at an improvement of 50%. This meant that Mike’s performance could be considered a progress, if he could score 40 or more runs in half of the matches that he played.
Root cause analysis revealed that 83% of the times, Mike was dismissed before he could even get 20 runs in a match. The Pareto charts made it clear that Mike being caught by the keeper, and by the slip fielders, were the major reasons for his dismissal.
The next step was to analyze why. The shot data explained that 67% of the dismissals happened when Mike attempted an attacking stroke. It was also clear that the probability of Mike’s dismissal within the first 25 balls he played were higher than what he played after.
Thus, the root cause analysis now captured the fact that Mike had to cut down playing the high risk shots (hook, pulls and upper cuts) at the start of the innings.
Next came in the analysis of pitches, and batting order. It turned out that Mike could not perform well on green pitches when he was required to bat first. In fact there was a significant change when Mike batted on flat pitches chasing targets. Another fact that caught the eyes of the experts, were that Mike had a tendency to play risky shots when playing left-arm seam bowlers. He was advised to play these defects with an open stance and with a wider back-lift.
This Lean Six Sigma case study also proposed an improvement plan for the Club Acmes. The plan categorized the root causes along with an exclusive improvement strategy and who should be in charge.
The thorough study and the suggested tactics secured Club Acmes by an increased rate of 54%. Mike was also able to score an average of 49.32 runs thus reducing the defective inning from a 36 to a 12.
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