Key Points

• ARMI is a means of understanding the personnel on hand and their expertise in LSS.
• Understanding the acronym and how it applies to your production is a useful tool.
• Further, it allows practitioners to quickly identify stakeholders in a project.

Lean Six Sigma has many definitions and many methods, and it’s important to understand these methods before they can be transitioned to true conceptual knowledge. The best place to start is with ARMI: Approver, Resource, Member, and Interested Party (IP). These are classifications of expertise in LSS.

The acronym is used in management to categorize personnel assets throughout a project management process. This tool is useful in LSS to develop a risk assessment of your project and make sure you have the resources needed to complete the project successfully.

Overview: What Is ARMI?

These designations are a tool that helps categorize all the persons and their skills who can contribute to the success of a project. Categories are used for assignment and communication. It identifies personnel assets throughout a project and ensures the correct DMAIC resources are identified to help get the job done.

The one who approves is the sponsor or business leader whose approval is required. Resources are experts whose skills are needed for a given period. The “M” indicates those who are full-time team members. Interested Parties are people who want to be informed about the status of your project.

This model, an update of the CPAR tool, is a powerful, cross-functional tool that helps teams identify and consider the concerns of all those impacted by a change initiative. The four categories in this model help define who might be affected by a project and how their concerns should be addressed.

3 Benefits of ARMI

There are many tools that a LSS project team member can use to help define the scope and direction of the project. There are three key benefits to using this tool.

1. The Tool Enables a Lean Six Sigma Practitioner to Quickly Identify an IP

It enables an LSS practitioner to quickly identify an IP. This means that the practitioner can readily define the stakeholders and create a plan for engagement. The result is a smoother project and better results.

2. It Also Provides an Opportunity for a Practitioner to Develop a Relationship with Those Who Will Champion the Project or Process

Not only will they have a role in the project, but they can be used as a resource for information and to help disseminate the findings of the study.

3. It Allows a Practitioner to Leverage Different Skill Sets and Resources Early in the Project

This means the team does not have to reinvent the wheel in approaching problems. Rather, it is a chance for the project to benefit from lessons learned and past accomplishments.

Why Is ARMI Important to Understand?

It is the four types of stakeholders (or shareholders) in LSS. These stakeholders can have a positive or negative effect on the success of a project, and LSS project managers need to be aware of each type of stakeholder and their corresponding impact.

Additionally, it gives a clear indicator of others involved in your project that you can rely upon. While the acronym itself is most useful in identifying stakeholders knowing who is also a skilled practitioner allows for more expertise to be pooled together early in a project’s life cycle.

Furthermore, a clearly defined and documented project charter is essential to building a solid foundation for the entire project. It will ensure that all the necessary information is collected and that all people working on a project have common goals and understand what to expect. It is also the key to obtaining any needed consensus.

An Industry Example of ARMI

The financial industry is a good example of the concept.

At the IP level would be someone working in the banking industry but not directly involved in Six Sigma. Someone who only has a casual interest in the process and is not expected to have full knowledge of all process steps.

At the “M” level would be an employee of a bank who is one degree removed from the actual processes taking place, but still has some knowledge of it. They are not directly involved in the approval process but could be based on their specific function at the bank.

At the “R” level would be someone who works for a bank and has very specific and extensive knowledge about a process or procedure involved with Six Sigma approval.

The one who approves would be a banking manager or someone with the authority to approve initiatives or courses of action.

3 Best Practices When Thinking About ARMI

This concept is a great way of thinking when addressing Lean Six Sigma issues. There are three best practices for this tool.

1. Use Customer Centricity

Think about the customer and their feelings. Lean Six Sigma professionals should always make the customer their most important focus by requiring that the voice of the customer be heard.

2. Address Key Non-Value-Added Activities as Part of the Problem-Solving Process

This means narrowing the scope by asking Who, What, Where, When, and Why to understand the issue at hand. This will increase your understanding of the total requirements and allow you to make more informed allocation decisions.

3. Gain Buy-In From All Parties Involved in Implementing Solutions

This means engaging and including them in the process. It is equally important to make those people accountable for ensuring that the project solution gets implemented and remains in place. This allows the solution’s success to be sustained over time.

Other Useful Tools and Concepts

Looking for some extra tools to get things rolling? You might want to take a closer look at the likes of using flowcharts in the context of your Six Sigma projects. These visualization tools allow you to clearly define the scope of a project.

Additionally, knowing how to utilizing AHP is a great way of making decisions throughout your projects. While it won’t always result in the right decision, it uses actionable data to make informed decisions as you go.

In Conclusion

This model is a great way to help you identify individuals who need to be included in a team charter and even in a project team. The first step of any improvement project is coming up with the right group of people, but there are other steps to consider as well. At this point, you should be ready to plan your DMAIC project approach. Think about all the phases of DMAIC and the types of deliverables that need to be created for each phase. These steps will help ensure a high-quality project charter.