Six Sigma project charters are designed to clearly and succinctly list all the critical elements of a project: the problem statement, team, scope, goals, impact, risks, and milestones. Effective Six Sigma project teams use charters to ensure stakeholders and project sponsors have a single document to provide managers and decision makers a quick view of the overall project, and to keep Six Sigma teams focused within the scope of the project.

Charters are “living documents.” This means these documents can be revised during projects if needed. Six Sigma project charters are reviewed frequently by the team, sponsors, and stakeholders. Developing an effective charter is one of the most critical tasks for Six Sigma project teams to ensure they can obtain “buy-in” and support to plan and conduct the project.

Before you start this assignment, review the Six Sigma Project Charter template to help you understand the charter points that should be included. You can also use this template to prepare your project charter.

Assume you are a quality analyst for a company, and your quality manager has identified a significant increase in defects and customer returns. You have been asked to lead a Six Sigma project team to determine what is causing the increased number of defects and customer returns. You first assignment is to develop a Six Sigma Project Charter for the project sponsor who is the company’s quality VP, to determine if he will fund the project.

Instructions:

Select a product with a defect that is causing increased customer returns for this assignment. Select a product that interests you or perhaps one you have used or owned. Use the Internet and current news articles that identify product failures. Examples of such product failures include: cell phone batteries, smart phones, blood pressure monitors, auto air bags, brake systems, appliances, toys, tools, etc.

Your Six Sigma Project Charter should include each of the following points/sections.

• Problem Statement
• Team Members
• Scope of Project
• Goals (Example: Reduce defects/return)
• Impact (Example: Improve customer relations by reducing number of complaints)
• Risks
• Milestones (High-level schedule)