Last Updated on 16 September 2023
It’s likely that you’ll have already heard of a checklist, and use them in your everyday life, including at home. They are a very simple but effective way of performing a predictable action, in a way that will reduce variance and errors.
This makes them very valuable both during a Lean Six Sigma project, and for helping to control the system afterwards.
When do you use checklists?
Checklists make repetitive tasks a lot simpler, so you’ll run into them in many tasks. On any of the Six Sigma tools, you can create a checklist to make sure that you’ve covered all the steps correctly.
An example where it’s virtually always useful is in the tollgate review. At this point, you want to make sure that you’ve covered off all your goals and targets before you move onto the next phase of the project. If you create a checklist of all your steps and targets, you can simply tick them off as you achieve them. This will make your review very simple as you will know you’ve got there when you’ve ticked everything off!
Their other main use is during the control phase of DMAIC. This is where you actually use it as part of the procedure for the staff to use going forwards. If you make a checklist for them to follow, it will help them to quickly get used to the new procedure without them missing steps. There is always a danger when you implement change that sections are missed as the staff aren’t used to doing it that way. The checklist forces them not to miss any parts out, as any items not done will remain unchecked.
Trust me even with line by line instructions I’ve seen people who can’t get through the instrucations without missing a step. Making it so they have an unticked section if they haven’t completed it is a great way to get around this.
How do you make a checklist?
A checklist is simple to make, but here is a step by step guide for you:
Steps
Write out all the steps in order of the procedure you’re trying to control.
Outputs
Add in any milestones or outputs that need to be achieved
Make the list
Create a table using these, with a box next to each step or output that can be ‘checked’ or ‘ticked’ off when completed.
If possible (such as for electronic checklists), make it so that the next step can’t be ticked if all steps that need to be done first haven’t been checked off.
Resources management
Obviously if you’re doing the procedure a lot, this could end up using a lot of paper! So that you don’t waste precious resources, you can try creating an electronic checklist that they can check off on screen. Failing this, you can print a column of boxes for each time you need to do it with a day, week or even month’s worth of boxes on one page.
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