Many Six Sigma professionals advocate the use of a Balanced Scorecard type of
approach for the selection of project metrics as a method for ensuring that the
project meets both customer and business needs. The Balanced Scorecard approach
includes both financial and non-financial metrics, as well as lagging and
leading measures across the four areas or perspectives: Financial, Customer,
Internal Processes, and Employee Learning and Growth. Lagging measures are those
that are measured at the end of an event, while leading measures are measures
that help as achieve the objectives and are measured upstream of the event.
Most Balanced Scorecard metrics are based on brainstorming, however the
approach of brainstorming can have limited success in establishing sound metrics
that have a good balance between lagging and leading measures.
Typical brainstormed Balanced Scorecard metrics utilized in Six Sigma
projects can be summarized in the below. The primary issue in utilizing a
scorecard is that it might not reflect the actual strategies applied by the team
for achieving breakthrough in their project.
