Six Sigma Tool Navigator: The Master Guide for Teams

Tool description

A checklist is a useful tool for guiding a team's activities and progress, providing important steps and information in a procedure, collecting and organizing data, and helping in the idea generation process for product development and problem solving. Checklists can also be useful as work instructions and safety checks.

Typical application

• To prevent the omission of critical steps in a process or procedure.

• To question if certain items or ideas have been completed or considered.

• To collect and organize data for problem analysis.

Problem-solving phase

Typically used by

before

• Data Collection Strategy

• Observation

• Questionnaires

• Critical Incident

• Thematic Content Analysis

after

• SCAMPER

• What-If Analysis

• SWOT analysis

• Stimulus Analysis

• Problem Specifications

Notes and key points

• Some of the most common checklists cover the following areas:

  • New product development

  • Problem prevention

  • Idea generation for solutions

  • Start-up and progress

  • Selection or prioritization

  • Work instructions

  • Data collection and recording

Step-by-step procedure

• STEP 1 As a first step, the purpose and intended use of the checklist is determined.

• STEP 2 Research is then performed to ensure that the developed checklist covers all requirements, provides all options, or asks for specific data to be recorded. See example Checklists for Teaming.

• STEP 3 When constructing the checklist, provide space for checking off completed steps, ideas, or data items, as shown in the example.

• STEP 4 Ask subject matter experts to review the final draft of a checklist to ensure that nothing of importance has been overlooked or omitted.

• STEP 5 Perform final revisions and pilot the checklist.

Example of tool application

Checklists for Teaming