Are Lean Six Sigma Tools usefull to project work industries??

I will specifically deny that these techniques are "six sigma magick," but the first tool that I would do for your "project Job order function" is to create a spaghetti diagram and process flow chart of all the stops thatsuch a Job order project goes through, and also mark dwell times at each step. The following link will acquaint you with the idea, I am not trying to sell you their software. personally I prefer to draw in pencil to gain knowledge from the exercise. http://systems2win.com/solutions/z1.htm

Then I would determine for each step, whether or not value is added, and i would eliminate all such steps and transportation where no value addition takes place.

Ultimately, Eliminating non value added waste is what todays "lean" Yesterday's "industrial engineering" is/was all about.

Then at each step, I would create job aids, references and work instructions to standardize work STANDARDIZED_WORK and eliminate opportunities for errors. Standardizing the work and training to use the tools is how you will sustain your improvements.

Please read the following post about applying standardized work to software development.

http://www.infoq.com/news/2009/04/lean-standard-work

"Six sigma" is originally a statistical insight, which has been hijacked, misapplied, abused, and become smokescreen for much management malpractice. MAny of us on this board look at this term as a pejorative at best.

The techniques described above should give you a great start.

Final tip: When I ran an inside sales operation that had folders flying around between departments, and people with in thse departments, I had my team draw up the process flow chart for the process. We then printed these off and stapled them to the front of each folder, and they colored in the box as they completed it. It was a visual 'pokayoke' that showed at a glance what the state of work was (status) for each folder. This is what gives Lean its power. This alone cut down 60% of the time to get the orders routed through our system.

milo