Question

300 words on The control phase. Include examples of how do we prevent the process of going back to the way it was.

Answer 1

The control phase is the last part of the project team’s journey. The control phase ensures that the gains that was obtained is maintained for consistency and to avoid any deviations. Hence, a plan of action is required to monitor that the process improvements are maintained at all times or to solve any potential problems that might arise. It is also pertinent to standardize all the process improvements and these are documented for future references. The organization should ensure that all the employees are trained and communicated the project’s results to ensure that everyone are in the same phase. The control chart is important as it measures the stability of the process.

The main objective of the control phase is to implement the process improvements and to also ensure that these are sustained for long-term sustainability. There are specific deliverables to this control phase and they are- comparison of metrics after the process improvements are implemented, monitor the progress and take corrective actions when metrics deviates or degrades. On-going monitoring is also done to ensure that the project is monitored regularly and this is done through control charts.

Control phase plays a vital role in the project’s success. Without the control phase in DMAI (Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve and Control), the purpose of DMAIC cannot be achieved. DMAIC is used for optimizing or improving the business processes. Control phase plays a critical part in DMAIC application as it prevents any errors and avoids the system to go back to its original phase. Control phase is to embed the changes in the processes and have sustainability for improving its efficiency in the long-run. Feed forward is a control technique that identifies potential errors and helps the team to avoid such errors in future. Through this control technique, we can prevent the process of going back to the way it was. For example, if the temperature of the heating system goes beyond the defined level, then it creates an alert which helps the manufacturing team to modify the system to maintain the temperature. This helps to suppress the disturbance factor before any damage is done to the operations.

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