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Choosing the right project in a program Lean Six Sigma for Managers It is the first and most important managerial decision: it determines whether the organization's energy will be transformed into concrete results or dissipated in unfinished initiatives. In this article, we will look at how to recognize a high-impact project, why the DMAIC method only works if applied in the correct order, and how the Project Charter—a cornerstone tool of the Define phase—protects focus, aligns people, and makes benefits measurable and defensible. We will also see what distinguishes a sponsor who “signs off” from one who “makes it possible,” and we will conclude with a 10-question pre-tollgate checklist you can start using in your company immediately to evaluate if a project is truly ready to go.
Choosing the “right project” is one of the key skills of Lean Six Sigma for managersa managerial decision, even before a technical one, that determines how much organizational energy is transformed into measurable results and how much is instead wasted on initiatives that fizzle out halfway. A high-impact project is born from a real, measurable problem with a solid business case, and grows thanks to a sponsor who removes obstacles, aligns priorities, and makes the change sustainable over time.
In many companies, improvement is a paradox: opportunities are abundant, but attention (and the time of key people) is limited. Lean Six Sigma was created precisely to manage “project-by-project” improvement, separating day-to-day operations from focused projects that drive results in processes and products.
A Six Sigma project for managers must have three ingredients from the start: a clear problem, a rigorous method, and governance. In the approach DMAIC, indeed, order matters: Define to clarify “what is the problem”, Measure to measure it, Analyze to trace the causes, Improve to intervene, Control to make the results structural.
On the contrary, projects that fail often start “with the solution in hand” or skip phases due to haste. Implementing a solution without understanding the causes is like treating the symptoms and not the disease: the effect can be temporary, and the problem may return, perhaps in another form.
If you have to select 3 projects out of 30 ideas, the question is not “which one do I like the most,” but rather “which really drives the KPIs that matter”A good starting point is to use the typical characteristics of a Six Sigma project as an initial filter:
If even one of these elements is missing, it's not a given that the’idea it was wrong; often it's just “immature"”In that case, the best managerial decision is not to reject it forever, but to postpone it until it becomes a “charterable” project (i.e., describable with rigor).
In many companies, improvement projects start off well but get lost along the way: their objectives change, their scope expands, they can't find reliable data, or they clash with differing expectations between sponsors, production, quality, and support functions. In Lean Six Sigma for Managers, the Define phase It is precisely designed to prevent such missteps by requiring an initial act of clarity: putting in writing exactly what we will do (and what we will not do), along with the metrics and economic rationale behind our decisions.
The Project Charter is the tool that makes that clarity operational.It is not a “bureaucratic” document, nor is it a presentation slide: it is a rigorous project charter that formalizes the initiative and should be maintained throughout all phases of DMAIC. When done well, the Project Charter—a key Lean Six Sigma tool for managers—performs three very concrete functions: it aligns people (everyone understands the same thing), protects focus (it prevents the project from becoming a catch-all for problems), and defends priorities (because it links the team's work to measurable benefits).
Starting from title, which must be clear and unequivocal. An effective title does not try to be brilliant: it states what will change and where, for example “reduction of defects...”, “reduction of errors in invoicing...”, “reduction of complaint response times...”. If the title is vague, the daily management of the project often becomes vague too: everyone interprets it in their own way and, in a short time, the risk of dispersion increases.
Immediately after comes the Problem Statement, This is the description of the problem to be addressed. Here, Lean Six Sigma proposes a simple and powerful rule, taken from Anglo-Saxon journalism: answer the “WHs,” meaning what happened, when it happened, where it occurs, how it presents itself, who noticed it, and why it is a problem. The goal is not to “tell a story” but to build a detailed and shared description that will not be misunderstood by sponsors, teams, and stakeholders.
Once the problem is clarified, the Project Charter asks to explain the Business CaseHere's why investing time and resources in this project is worthwhile, and what the cost of *not* doing it is. It essentially bridges the gap between operational data and the profit and loss statement: defects, consumption, delays, rework hours, or claim costs all become numbers that allow for rational prioritization, rather than just “gut feeling.”
The passage that most often saves projects from derailing is the Scope (the project “Ring”). The ring defines the boundaries: what is in scope and what is out of scope, i.e., what falls within the project's responsibilities and what does not. It is also useful for declaring constraints, such as “do not penalize production efficiency,” because it makes it explicit from the outset that the improvement must be compatible with operational needs.
At this point, we enter a more managerial dimension: goals, people, and governance. In Six Sigma, setting goals isn't just “picking a number”: it involves reasoning by distinguishing the baseline (current performance), the entitlement (optimal performance, the state of the art), and the goal (realistic target for the current project). This logic helps avoid two typical errors: overly conservative goals that don't create urgency, and overly challenging goals that risk negating the effort.
Finally, The Project Charter makes the benefits and costs visible and establishes a timeline. The benefits are distinguished into economic (accountable savings and avoided costs), tangible (quantifiable but not monetizable, such as capacity or delivery times), and intangible (image, internal morale, customer satisfaction). The schedule, on the other hand, outlines the DMAIC phases and includes review points (tollgates) to monitor progress and consistency: not “update meetings,” but decision points based on collected evidence.
In summary, the Project Charter is the simplest way to improve the managerial quality of projects: it reduces ambiguity, accelerates alignment, and makes results defensible because they are measurable. It is often the deciding factor between a project that “makes noise” and a project that leaves stable results.
To understand how these criteria operate in practice, We report a real-life experience from a company in the life science sector, focusing on measurable results and repeatable choices.
After years of investing in equipment and technology to maintain its competitiveness, the company has chosen an alternative path to growth: improving processes without immediately resorting to new investments. The first Lean project in the production sector led to a 50% increase in volumes for one of its main products, without requiring costly technological investments.
There is already a lesson here for those who select projects: impact is not born solely from large investments, but from the ability to focus on “attackable” losses and work methodically. Riding the wave of this success, the company has extended this approach to other areas and initiated a cultural change, supported by Green Belt and Black Belt training paths.
The interesting data is not just “how many people in the room”, but also the organizational choice: over 60 resources, of different levels and functions (operators, technicians, managers, staff), participated in the courses. Green Belt; 4 have also completed the course Black Belt. The stated goal was to develop agents of change motivated and capable, provide innovative tools to tackle old and new problems, and offer people the opportunity to contribute personally to company goals.
On the operational benefits level, the company has linked the improvement to reliability indicators: further improvement in OTIF and ATS is cited, along with the consolidation of its reputation within the group. Economically, the implementation of Lean projects is reported, which led to “significant savings.” On the organizational level, the described effects are empowerment, increased engagement, and a focus on innovation.
This type of journey is useful to remember when a manager wonders, “Should I invest in training or start immediately with projects?” In the described case, the project and skills were built together: the project created credibility; the training made the improvement scalable.
in practice, an effective sponsor No is“who signs ”ma" “which makes possible”. In the Project Charter format, the roles include the Champion, who supports and strengthens the team, as well as roles such as the Master Black Belt and the project leader (Black Belt).
If you want high-impact projects to go beyond the presentation stage, the sponsor must oversee at least three key areas:
In DMAIC projects, motivation is not an extra: it is the condition for getting the data collection, analysis, and implementation work done. Training modules emphasize that the company's motivational system guides behavior towards goals consistent with strategy and that people react based on their sensitivities and personal history.
Furthermore, it emerges that motivation should not depend solely on economic factors: acting on non-monetary factors is more challenging, but produces more lasting effects compared to levers that are exhausted in the short term. Operationally, a sponsor (and a project leader) should be able to read signs of demotivation: complaints about workload, lateness to meetings, denial of opportunities for improvement, blame dynamics.
A simple but often overlooked gesture is celebrating the end of a project: to communicate operational and economic results and, even when objectives are not fully met, to capitalize on learnings (what did we do wrong, how to improve the management of future projects).
Lean Six Sigma really starts to become useful—especially for those leading it from the top—when it stops being a set of tools and becomes a concrete way of managing improvement “project-by-project,” with clear objectives, metrics, and responsibilities. Within this logic, the Lean Six Sigma for Managers it is presented as a structured path with three escalating levels of competence, specialization, and certification
If you are considering starting Lean Six Sigma (or relaunching it), the most useful step is not to “start with many projects,” but Choose 1-2 high-impact projects, create a solid Project Charter and appoint sponsors capable of steering the project.
Before approving an improvement project, the key question is not “can we do it?”, but “are we going to invest time and people in a well-designed initiative?”. In Lean Six Sigma, this point is crucial, because the project It's not an idea: It's a commitment that needs to be formally documented rigorously (Project Charter) and then guided by periodic reviews that enable concrete decisions on whether to continue, discontinue, or revise the approach.
That’s why, in this article, we’re providing you with a useful tool that you can start using right away in your company: a ready-to-use “pre-tollgate” checklist, designed to help you validate problems, numbers, goals, boundaries, roles, and sponsors in minutes, even before you schedule the initiative.
Do you want to move from theory to results and learn how to select, characterize, and manage DMAIC projects with effective sponsors? Enroll in the Lean Six Sigma Master's program at Lean Factory School® by Bonfiglioli Consulting: certification paths can be taken at the Bologna location, via streaming, or at your company.
A project is launched to solve a real, measurable problem with economic implications, for which the solution is not known in advance; it typically lasts between 2 and 6 months and requires a team with complementary skills.
It is the document that formalizes the project in DMAIC and, in the context of Lean Six Sigma for Managers, clarify the problem, business case, scope, team, objectives, benefits/costs, and schedule, avoiding ambiguity and unrealistic expectations.
Pretending that the process is characterized and the causes are identified first, and then implementing a solution without knowing the causes, leads to fragile or random results.
Oversee governance (scope and priorities), pace (tollgates), and people (motivation, feedback, obstacle removal); the motivational leverage is not only financial but also recognition and growth.
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