01 · Purpose
Why and when to use it
Why?
It lets a team pursue a useful first step without losing sight of a broader need, while keeping future ambitions outside the current scope.
When?
Use it when the desired change is too large for one DMAIC project or when later steps depend on evidence from an initial project.
Who takes part? The sponsor and process owner agree the direction; the project team assesses feasibility and dependencies with affected functions.
02 · Application
How to apply it
Start with: A long-term performance need, current scope, capability gaps, constraints and proposed review criteria.
- Describe the longer-term outcome and the customer or business need behind it.
- Define a first generation that provides independent value within current constraints.
- Describe later generations as provisional outcomes, not fixed solutions.
- Identify dependencies, resources and learning required before each stage.
- Specify evidence and approval needed to proceed.
- Review the roadmap after the first generation produces results.
03 · Example
A warehouse dispatch project
Original illustrative example. All quantities, targets, roles and timings below are fictional teaching assumptions, not findings from a real project.
| Generation | Intended outcome | Decision before proceeding |
|---|---|---|
| 1: one warehouse | Understand and reduce late dispatch for stocked items. | Validate improvement and confirm it is sustained. |
| 2: regional depot | Assess whether the improved approach transfers to another site. | Check local workflow, data and resource differences. |
| 3: wider order flow | Investigate upstream order release and downstream handover interfaces. | Confirm cross-functional ownership and a new charter. |
04 · Interpretation
What the result tells you
Generation 2 is conditional on learning from Generation 1. A successful local pilot is evidence to examine transferability, not automatic justification for copying the solution everywhere.
Completion check: A staged roadmap with current scope, provisional future outcomes, dependencies and review gates.
05 · Judgement
Mistakes and limitations
Common mistakes
- Treating later stages as approved scope.
- Choosing technology for every stage before causes are investigated.
- Planning a first stage that offers no useful outcome on its own.
Limits of the tool
A roadmap can become outdated as constraints and requirements change. This guide uses the term for staged improvement planning; other organisations may use it for product or technology development.
07 · Reading
Sources and further reading
Toolset backbone: Six Sigma+Lean Toolset: Mindset for Successful Implementation of Improvement Projects, second edition, edited by Stephan Lunau, with Renata Meran, Alexander John, Olin Roenpage and Christian Staudter (Springer, 2013). This reference identifies the toolset; the book text was not available for a chapter-level comparison in this development pass. The explanations, application sequence and fictional examples here are original LeanTrainingLab teaching material. Linked readings provide background; they do not prescribe every example or target.