4 Ways to Decrease Variation

The iconic chocolate wrapping episode from the television show, I Love Lucy, serves as a fun example of process variation. Have you ever noticed how people, on the same team, provide different responses? When you find yourself receiving inconsistent answers and results, it is a clear indication of process variation.

PROCESS VARIATION occurs when a process fails to deliver uniform and consistent outcomes, both across different team members and over time.

To elevate your team's peformance where everyone works to the best known method, here are four effective strategies to decrease process variation:

1. Implement standardized work instructions to ensure consistency and uniformity.

 Providing team members clear and concise instructions to follow will eliminate guess work and having-to-make-up-something frustrations. Standard work instructions include process maps, standard operating procedures, forms, templates, and completed examples. See this picture of 5 team member's performance before and after the implementation of standardized work.  Learn more @ standardized work

2. Integrate Mistake Proofing into processes and systems, also known as Poka Yoke, to minimize errors.

 Utilize the advanced improvement method of Mistake Proofing to eliminate human error. Successful mistake proofing devices reduce the frequency of errors and can even make it impossible to do a task wrong. Devices include drop down boxes, visual coloring, forms with restricted data entry, templates, and floor/wall markings. Learn more @ Mistake Proofing