How I Applied Six Sigma in my Recent Backpacking Trip
There are two things I am passionate about - six sigma and travel. As an engineer who thrives on data and number, I have come to love Six Sigma (which is a surprising turn because I abhorred statistics when I was in high school). It is a great thing that I love Six Sigma, after all it puts the food on my table.
Travel is what I mostly do when I am not working. Admittedly it’s where most of my bills go. I love travel so much that a sizeable portion of my wallet goes to it rather than the latest gadgets or gizmos.
I was therefore pleased when I had the opportunity to apply my work-related passion to a non-work related setting- my recent backpacking adventure. What better way to walk the talk than apply it in real life?
Ok let me clarify that I did not use the entire DMAIC phase of the Six Sigma methodology. It was just a tool in the Define Phase called VOC to CTQ, but hey it’s still an application nonetheless.
The aforementioned trip was the one I recently took, a backpacking adventure across Southeast Asia.
Before embarking on it, I had wanted it to be a great one. But then again, how would I determine its greatness? How would I classify or quantify great?
This was where I had to wear two hats. One as the customer and the other as the team champion, if you will. How should I as the six sigma practitioner design the trip to satisfy me as the customer?
Voila, I applied the VOC to CTQ tool. In Six Sigma parlance, VOC stands for the Voice of the Customer. These are simply the desires of the customer. In this case I was the customer and I desired my backpacking adventure to be great.
But great is subjective. As it is, it would be quite hard to quantify. My definition of greatness can be totally different from someone else’s. Someone’s idea of a great backpacking trip might be attending a pubcrawl every other night. (I’ve met a handful of backpackers whose actually main criterion is this. Hey different strokes for different folks.). Another one’s idea of awesome would be to get an IG photo of a popular landmark generating at least 1000 likes. And so on.
So the VOC needs to be translated to CTQs. CTQs (Critical to Quality) are the key measurable characteristics of a product or process that must be met in order to satisfy the customer. The operative word here is measurable.
So I had to translate the fuzzy term “great” into something measurable.
Among the salient characteristics of the trip I considered were cost, duration, convenience and quality of interaction.
After a careful deliberation I was able to translate the CTQs of my travel.
The duration should not be less than 3 weeks.
The entire cost of the trip should not exceed Php 30,000 (including the airfare)
The minimum number of SEA cities visited should at least be four.
The stuff I will bring should all fit in a 56*36*23 cm cabin bag and a laptop bag (and the total weight should not exceed 7 kg)
I should hang out at least a day with an Indonesian friend in Jakarta.
I should hang out at least a day with a Vietnamese friend in Ho Chi Minh.
I should gain 10 new contacts either through fb or whatsapp.
I should attend at least 3 meetups (CS, Toastmasters or Collab Space Visit)
So how did I assess my entire trip? Well I’d say I would give it a rating of 95.8%. I have met all the CTQs I have listed except the last one. I was only able to visit 2/3 of scheduled events because I got sick for a couple of days.
Now I can confirm to myself how great my trip was because I was able to make my requirements measurable. (Although in hindsight I felt the 2 last CTQs should have been more stretched).
I was quite pleased actually with the challenge of fitting all the things I would need in just a cabin backpack and a laptop bag. I’ve done a number of backpacking in the past but this was my first time I constrained myself not to have any check-in baggage
So hopefully the next time you make a trip, it might be handy to use the VOC to CTQ tool. Determine your desires and translate them into CTQs. I can’t assure you will be able to satisfy all your requirements. (After all that would also be dependent on how you will execute them). But mapping them is the first major step. It can tremendously help you eliminate some ambiguities.
Now if you’ll excuse me, while I plan my next trip.
