Six Sigma Process Maturity Model Insights
Six Sigma Process Maturity Model Insights
Peter Cronemyr and Mikael Danielsson, Process Management 1-2-3: a maturity model and
diagnostics tool, 2013, Total Quality Management and Business Excellence, (24), 7-8, 933-
944.
Total Quality Management and Business Excellence is available online at informaworldTM:
[Link]
Peter Cronemyr
Linköping University
S-581 83 Linköping,
Sweden
[Link]@[Link]
Mikael Danielsson
Propia AB
Repslagaregatan 12
S-603 32 Norrköping
Sweden
[Link]@[Link]
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Cronemyr and Danielsson (2012): Process Management 1-2-3
Abstract
In this paper we provide a insight into process management that offers a hands-on
modern’ management concept sometimes fail or do not achieve the expected results.
Process Management sometimes start off on a ‘too advanced’ level without having
fulfilled the necessary prerequisites. For that purpose, in this paper, we present a
academic cooperation. In addition to the model we present a diagnostics tool that has
their current level of process maturity. By using this it is the purpose that
organizations could reduce their risk of starting off ‘too high’ and thus failing in their
efforts.
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Cronemyr and Danielsson (2012): Process Management 1-2-3
Introduction
do not achieve the expected results. According to Beer and Nohria (2000) as many as
two thirds of all change initiatives have been reported to end in failure, seemingly
regardless of the content of the change (Beer and Nohria, 2000; Sveningsson and
Hellström (2007). Dahlgaard [Link]. (2011) argue that the fundamental principles of
TQM need to be in place for any organisational change effort to be successful. Beer
initiatives based on ‘hard’ economic focus and ‘soft’ organizational focus. Dahlgaard-
Park (2011) classify this ‘hard’ focus as a typical Western attitude towards quality
‘soft’ focus as a typical Japanese attitude in terms of being long-termed and process-
the two. From our own industrial experiences, we found that organizations
without having fulfilled the necessary prerequisites. For that purpose, in this paper,
tool that has been developed together with several companies to be used by
organizations to assess their current level of process maturity. By using this it is the
purpose that organizations could reduce their risk of starting off ‘too high’ and thus
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Cronemyr and Danielsson (2012): Process Management 1-2-3
Methodology
1998), which seeks to integrate the social sciences with organizational knowledge to
generate actionable scientific knowledge. The development work was carried out at a
major gas turbine company, where the first author was employed during thirteen
years, and several other companies in Swedish industry, where the two authors have
carried out assignments and interventions. The basic ideas for the process maturity
model were described in the first author’s Ph.D. thesis (Cronemyr, 2007). The model
was then further developed and completed with the diagnostics tool in the second
Process Management
quality and satisfied customers. There are many definitions but most used within the
quality context are similar to the one given by Bergman and Klefsjö, which is the one
we choose to use:
create value to external or internal customers.” (Bergman & Klefsjö, 2010, s. 456)
A process map shows activities as well as relations with suppliers and customers,
something that is not equally obvious by looking at a traditional organization chart for
an organization without defined processes. One could argue that an organization chart
shows ‘what you can do’ while the process maps show ‘what you do’ (Cronemyr,
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Cronemyr and Danielsson (2012): Process Management 1-2-3
2007). The first has a tendency to fulfil internal goals, e.g. keeping the budget, while
the latter focuses more on external goals like fulfilling customer satisfaction (Melan,
The ISO 9001 standard requires an organization to apply a process approach to three
types of actions: management, product and/or service realisation, and support. Process
include process objectives, process map/flow chart, procedures and work instructions,
quality plans, measurements and audit results, and information on on-going and
often gathered and presented in a Balanced Scorecard (Kaplan and Norton, 1992).
The importance of adopting a process view and continuously improving processes has
led to the creation of the Process Management philosophy. Bergman and Klefsjö
(2010) trace the origins of Process Management back to TQM authorities Shewhart
and Juran. Harrington (1991) described the Process Management methodology used at
3. Streamlining
5. Continuous Improvement
Process Management has been a popular topic in the management literature for at
least two decades (Hellström, 2006). In 2002, Michael Hammer – the creator of the
‘BPR manifesto’ (as in Business Process Re-engineering, see Hammer and Champy,
1993) – argued that “Six Sigma should be a part of Process Management, not the
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Cronemyr and Danielsson (2012): Process Management 1-2-3
other way around” (Hammer, 2002, p. 32). The question of how to integrate Six
Often there is confusion about processes and Process Management. Several failed
understanding of the basic ideas behind the words, e.g. systems thinking, customer
focus and theory of variation, as well as the consequences for management activities
(Bergman & Klefsjö, 2010). It may be difficult to break the organizational thinking
patterns when the core processes are to be defined, even for persons with ‘process
full participation in the change process and a way of establishing current and future
performance levels” (Oakland and Tanner, 2007). Oakland and Tanner (2007)
programme”.
In research papers (see e.g. Henderson and Evans, 2000; Goldstein, 2001; Pande et.
al., 2000; Antony and Banuelas, 2002; Sandholm and Sörqvist, 2002; Schön, 2006;
mentioned success criteria for implementing new management ideas like Process
Management and Six Sigma. However there are few papers mentioning how to
Management successfully (Cronemyr, 2007). Beer (2003) argues that there is often a
gap between the management rhetoric about their intentions for TQM and the reality
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Cronemyr and Danielsson (2012): Process Management 1-2-3
Process Maturity
different maturity levels, as given e.g. by the Capability Maturity Model (CMM)
developed by the Software Engineering Institute, from the original ideas by Philip
development, but there are other maturity models with a business process focus.
process maturity model. However it does not describe any specific guidelines how to
improve from one qualification level to the next one. The first qualification level can
also be considered to be fairly high, which would leave several of our studied
processes and organizations outside of the scale. The qualification levels are
numbered from 6 to 1 where 1 is the highest qualification level. The levels are
(Harrington, 1991):
6. Unknown. This level is assigned to all processes which are not yet assessed.
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Cronemyr and Danielsson (2012): Process Management 1-2-3
The stages solely focus on the balance between functions and processes in the
organization, and do not describe concrete criteria for when a stage is fulfilled or not.
• Defined. The basic processes are defined and mapped. A process aspect is
• Linked. Process management is now a strategic issue. Goals are set for
Structures and jobs are based on processes and processes are considered equal
to traditional functions.
Wheeler (1997) describes a model with different process states, which is similar to a
process dimension) and whether the results meet the customer’s expectations or not
The first state, where the process is not in control and does not meet the customer’s
this state and the process is constantly changing. Due to this it is very difficult to
improve the process, attempts of doing so often distorts the process even more.
The second state, where the process is not in control but meets the customer’s
expectations, is called the brink of chaos. The customer’s expectations are in this state
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Cronemyr and Danielsson (2012): Process Management 1-2-3
met by special efforts and modifications, not by following the process. However, it
The third stage, where the process is in control but does not meet the customer’s
expectations, is called the threshold state. By removing all special cause variation, i.e.
focusing on the process instead of the product, the process will become in control. If
the customer’s expectations are still not met, the process can be improved or
redesigned.
The fourth and last stage, where the process is in control and the customer’s
expectations are met, is called the ideal state. By keep focusing on the process and
eliminating special cause variation as it emerges the process will remain in the ideal
state. If not, changing conditions will erode the process and the state is lost.
Diagnostics Tools
There is very limited information on existing assessment and diagnostics tools. The
maturity models described above provides either very complex or very simple
methods to assess which level in the model a certain process or organization belongs
to. CMM (Paulk [Link]., 1993) requires a full scale audit by an assessment team to
owners who apply for an upgrade of his or her process along with proof of meeting all
survey among 20-30 key-informants, and compiling the results to a score between 1
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Cronemyr and Danielsson (2012): Process Management 1-2-3
Proposed Model
From on our own industrial experiences at several companies, and based on previous
model and a diagnostics tool. We found that implementation failures were often
caused, not by the implemented method being poor, but the organization trying to
implement the method taking on a method ‘too high up on the maturity scale’, i.e. the
organization not being mature enough. By applying the newly developed model and
The basis for the Process Management model was developed at Siemens Industrial
Turbines in Finspång, Sweden and was first presented in Cronemyr (2007). The
company – first under the owners ALSTOM and later Siemens – had implemented
Six Sigma as process improvement methodology. The first author was one of the first
Black Belts and one of very few who participated in the company’s Six Sigma
introduction twice, under two different company names. The first author who also had
previous background in Quality and Process Management activities at Saab, ABB and
university, realized that the rather advanced process improvement method of Six
most departments and divisions where processes had not been established but a few
divisions started all-over, established processes and then introduced Six Sigma once
more. It was a success (Cronemyr, 2007). When the success was a fact the company
tried to share the best practice and use the same strategy at other departments. It was
then realized that a pre-requisite for establishing processes was missing; process
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Cronemyr and Danielsson (2012): Process Management 1-2-3
After that they could start establishing processes. By that time Lean had been
introduced at some divisions and was integrated in the process work in a qualitative
approach. Some divisions stayed on the more advanced quantitative approach and
introduced Six Sigma successfully. One division later continued with the next step of
basing decisions on facts and utilizing control variables identified in Six Sigma
The model that had been developed mainly at one company – during several years –
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Cronemyr and Danielsson (2012): Process Management 1-2-3
The model is a framework for implementing and utilizing Process Management in the
By taking these steps, you reach more advanced maturity levels, see below.
The basic idea for the process maturity model, see Figure 2, was mainly developed
organizations and CMM (Paulk [Link]., 1993), ideas about a maturity model to describe
the progress. It was then further developed by several practical studies and by
including the work of other authors e.g. Harrington (1991), Wheeler (1997), and
McCormack (2007). The main contribution with our maturity model is that it provides
a natural development path that organization can follow by its close link to ‘Process
Management 1-2-3’ and its focus on success factors for achieving sustainable process
work. This approach is not the same as McCormack’s (2007), since it does not focus
on the balance between functions and processes. Our approach rather sees functions
and processes as two necessary but separate dimensions of an organization. The levels
in our model are also adapted to include the whole range from a complete lack of
process thinking to fully adapted and controlled processes. This to make it useful in a
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Cronemyr and Danielsson (2012): Process Management 1-2-3
3
Level 4 - Adapted
2
Level 3 - Improved
1
Level 2 - Established
0
Level 1 - Awareness
Business Need
When a process has reached maturity level N, you need to take step N, in order to
reach maturity level N+1. Hence there are three steps and four levels
In order to make the concept of process maturity possible to use by organizations who
want to improve their processes, the model focuses on separate processes instead of
whole organizations. The organizational focus used by McCormack (2007) can only
show an average oversight of all of the organizations processes and hence not any
process within the organization, and for the lower maturity levels where there are no
established processes these factors are dominant. This is similar to Wheeler’s (1997)
approach, where the focus shifts from the product perspective to the process
The model consists of four maturity levels and one ‘pre-level’, which describes the
state when none of the maturity levels are reached. One level acts as the foundation
for the next one, and the model thereby describes natural steps for implementing
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Cronemyr and Danielsson (2012): Process Management 1-2-3
This level is not considered to be a part of the maturity scale, since it is not a
foundation for the other levels. The pre-level is rather considered to symbolize a lack
of maturity, when none of the maturity levels are fulfilled. There exist no processes,
management. The organization does not have the necessary pre-requisites to establish
processes.
Level 1 – Awareness
At this level the organization has gained an awareness of the usefulness of working
this level, but there might be some process influences in the way of working. The
processes.
Level 2 – Established
At this level the process is fully established in the organization. There may be one or
more processes established but this maturity level and levels above deal with the
maturity of one process at a time. The process is defined with all required
sustainable it is also required that management is active and actually gives the process
attention and demands results from the process. Furthermore there need to be
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Cronemyr and Danielsson (2012): Process Management 1-2-3
Level 3 – Improved
At this level the focus switches from the process map to process data. The process
which require developed and customer focused measurements and structured methods
Level 4 – Adapted
For a process to be adapted it needs to work in closer collaboration with the customer,
control it is possible to react to changes much sooner and to tune the process in a
better way. The process should also be able to adapt to specific customer requirements
by working closer to the customer or even including the customer in the process. This
requires high commitment and understanding by everyone who uses the process.
Diagnostics Tool
In order to make the process maturity model more useful in practice, a diagnostics
tool was developed. The purpose of the tool is to determine which level in the
maturity model a certain process fulfills. To know the current status of the process is
the basis for future improvements. Focus is hence not to get the most accurate
of the process maturity in a quick and resource efficient way. This differs from the
methods used in CMM (Paulk [Link]., 1993) and by Harrington (1991) which have a
higher focus on accuracy, but also require a lot more work than the suggested method.
It is also much richer in information than McCormack’s (2007) method, which makes
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Cronemyr and Danielsson (2012): Process Management 1-2-3
the results from the diagnosis more useful for the examined process. The first step
toward creating our diagnostics tool was to develop the model further and break down
From the practical studies, basic process theory and Process Management models, e.g.
Harrington’s model used at IBM (Harrington, 1991), eight process maturity categories
were derived.
• Way of working treats how the processes and the process ‘thinking’ actually
• Layout of the process deals with the basic constituents that defines a process,
• Documentation deals with how the process is described and how this
• Users of the process deals with the understanding and commitment from the
• Measurements describe how the process is controlled and how the results are
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Cronemyr and Danielsson (2012): Process Management 1-2-3
These eight categories were then used to describe the maturity model in a new and
more detailed way. Each maturity level was divided according to the categories and
the state of the category was described for each level. These descriptions can also be
seen as the criteria to determine whether a maturity level is achieved or not. For some
of the maturity level-category combinations there are no criteria defined. When that is
the case, the same criteria as for the previous level apply. If there is no previous level,
as is the case for level 1, there are no criteria to be met within the category to achieve
Improved Controling
Measurements Some Measurements
Measurements Measurements
Figure 3. The detailed process maturity model, used as a basis for the diagnostics
To determine if a process fulfills the criteria for each level, two separate
questionnaires were developed. One aimed at persons who manage the process, e.g.
process owners, and one aimed at process users. This to get more than one perspective
of the process and to be able to cover all necessary aspects needed to describe the
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Cronemyr and Danielsson (2012): Process Management 1-2-3
process. The questionnaires have about 40 questions each and cover several aspects
within each of the different categories. The questions have pre-determined answering
alternatives to make sure that the interpretation of the answers can be made in an un-
biased way. The detailed questionnaires are not further presented in this paper.
The interpretation of the questionnaires is made with a template that indicates which
answers are required or not accepted for each category and maturity level. Since the
results of this type of questionnaire are discrete variables, it would not be correct to
found it suitable to hand out the questionnaires to a small number of persons and then
compile the separate results in a combined overview. The total process maturity is
determined by the category which is considered to be the weakest link. With this
approach, the overview will contribute with necessary information to plan and
Process overall x
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Cronemyr and Danielsson (2012): Process Management 1-2-3
The example shows an overview of the results from three respondents for a surveyed
requirements for level 2 for the different categories. However, there are some
organization, which do not seem to reach as high as the other categories. Since the
total process maturity is determined by the weakest link, the process overall is
considered to reach level 1. These areas are hence where future improvements should
focus in order to increase the total process maturity. It can also be interesting to
display the spread of the answers within the categories. In the category Users of the
process all three respondents indicate different maturity level. This shows that there
probably are very different levels of understanding and commitment among the users
of the process.
The model and diagnostics tool was used in practice with five different processes at
(2012). The surveyed organizations considered the results to be very accurate and
Discussion
will work in other cultures and if so how to organize the work in that type of setting
remains to investigate. Furthermore, given that this study was conducted as action
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Cronemyr and Danielsson (2012): Process Management 1-2-3
not the main purpose of action research, the outcome of the applications were
successful for the participating organizations in this particular project. Given these
generalizable results.
Still, it is our opinion that this paper fills a gap in management research literature
between ‘success criteria’ and ‘practical tools and results’ for implementing Process
Management. More research is needed on how to assess process maturity and where
different QM tools fit and where they do not in a Process Management context.
Managerial implications
advanced’ level with some of the more advanced tools and techniques without having
that there are necessary prerequisites and what these are. The Process Management
maturity model and the diagnostics tool presented in this paper will help organizations
to reduce their risk of starting off ‘too high’ and thus failing in their efforts.
This model and tool have been developed together with several companies which
benefitted from their use. One reason it is appreciated by users is that the diagnostics
tool is considered ‘objective’ by the users, because the organizations perform the
assessment themselves, without any direct influence from consultants. Consultants are
often considered ‘subjective’ when they suggest appropriate actions for the company.
Of course no one is objective but this tool gives a hint on where to start and what
actions could be the logical next step for a company, wanting to implement Process
Management. The outcome is used to plan and prioritize actions. Some companies
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Cronemyr and Danielsson (2012): Process Management 1-2-3
It should be emphasized though that this is not a ‘certification’ or ‘award’ tool, like
e.g. Malcolm Baldridge National Quality Award (see e.g. Bergman and Klefsjö,
2010). The main purpose of this tool is not to certify organizations, but to improve
processes.
customer satisfaction and reduce internal costs, and thus improve the company profit.
It is our opinion that the presented model will help in that effort, by providing
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