Reference no: EM133663099

Assignment: The Analyze Phase and Its Tools for Success in DMAIC

First, read Chapter 6 in The Essential Workplace Conflict Handbook as well as Determine the Root Cause: 5 Whys. Additionally, be sure to refer to the ANALYZE Supplementary Document.

Next, in your initial paper, address the following:

1. How has your analysis of Define and Measure informed your ability to analyze?

2. In what ways do you feel you need additional information to analyze appropriately?

3. What is essential about clarity of expectations in an organization, and what happens if that clarity of expectations is not present?

4. What are "Five Whys" that you would recommend asking your organization's stakeholders (or to the stakeholders of the Garden Depot) to determine some solutions to the conflict?

ANALYZE Supplementary Document

Because of the complexity of conflict, particularly conflict in a systems setting, you must be sure that you move to analyze the presenting situation accurately. As the SMART goals example of Organization A shows, while the root cause of the conflicts appear to emerge from the organizational structure, the chairman is highly unlikely to support a recommendation to restructure the entire organization. You should be able to see how this conflict situation moves back and forth among the DMAIC phases. Accuracy in the Define phase and rechecking the problem definition in the Measure and Analyze phases are accompanied by considering the Improve recommendations and how you might control your recommended improvements. As what you might wish to recommend to improve Organization A cannot be implemented, you may find that you need to return to the Define and Measure phases, to redefine the problem, measure, and then analyze, while also looking ahead to recommend a viable improvement that can be subjected to genuine control.

Deconstruction using the SMART goal table can help you understand what the problem is and what can actually be done to create changes.

When you reach the Measure phase, you may make use of the statistics shown in the Six Sigma text. You can also interview key individuals in the organization (e.g., leadership, employees, and other internal stakeholders), as well as external stakeholders (e.g., customers), to obtain verbal data information. All data, whether statistical results or interview findings, is then subjected to the Measure phase, so that the information has actual value.

In the Analyze phase of DMAIC, the researcher moves from the problem to the solution to the problem. As was shown in the SMART goals table concerning Organization A, solutions must be informed by the actual problem, and must be viable for genuine implementation. However, many people tend to resist change; Kanter presented the top ten reasons that cause individuals to resist change. Part of your job as an analyst in the Analyze phase is to recognize that the changes you are going to recommend in the Improve phase may be difficult for people to adopt, even if the need for change has been established.