🎯 Quick Answer

What: A pilot, sometimes called a pilot test, is a small trial of a process change. It runs on one line, one shift or one area before the change goes everywhere.

Why it matters: Most teams run a pilot to prove their fix works. A better goal is to find what breaks while the change is still small and easy to adjust.

How to run a pilot: Decide what you will watch, including side effects. Pick an ordinary place to try it, not your best line. Run it on every shift, long enough to meet normal conditions. Set a stop rule and keep the old way ready. Ask everyone to report anything odd. Expect to change the fix, and keep a record of each change.

The payoff: Problems found at one station instead of twelve, a fix that has already been adjusted to real work, and a team that knows how to put it in place.

Once a team has chosen a fix, the next step is to try it. Most teams call this a pilot. And most teams run it for the wrong reason.

The usual goal is to prove the fix works. The team picks its best line, runs the change for a week and reports good news. Then the change goes everywhere, and the problems start.

A pilot has a different job. It is there to find what breaks while the change is still small.

This article covers what a pilot is for, how to run a pilot step by step, and what leaders can do when a pilot finds a problem. It includes an example from a shipping department and a field story about a problem nobody planned for.

What a pilot is for

A pilot answers practical questions that no meeting can answer:

Notice what is missing from that list: "Was our idea good?" If the team chose the fix with care, that question has already had a fair answer. The pilot is the first time the fix is used in real work.

So a pilot that finds three problems is not a failed pilot. It is a useful one. A pilot that finds nothing may mean the fix is ready. It may also mean nobody was looking.

How to run a pilot

Here is how to run a pilot in seven steps. Most pilots need a one-page plan that covers the first five before anything changes.

Step 1: Decide what you will watch

Start with the main result the fix should change. Then add the side effects. What else could this change affect? Think about effort, speed, errors, other departments and the next step in the process. A short FMEA on the changed process is a good way to find them.

Decide how each one will be counted and who will count it. A simple data collection plan is enough.

Then add one more item: anything that looks different. Ask everyone in the pilot to report anything odd, even if it is not on the list. Many of the most useful findings come from this one line.

Step 2: Pick where to try it

Choose one line, one shift or one area. It should be small enough that a problem stays small, and large enough to be real work.

Choose an ordinary place, not your best one. The best line has the best crew and the newest machines, and problems are hard to see there. An experienced crew works around a problem without saying anything. A new machine handles a setting that an older one will not. If the change works on an ordinary line, it will likely work on most lines.

Step 3: Decide how long it will run

Run the pilot long enough to meet the normal range of conditions. That usually means every shift the change will run on, and the usual mix of products and materials. If humidity, a supplier change or a change of season affects the work, the pilot should include it.

Two to four weeks is common. A short pilot may only cover good days.

Step 4: Set a stop rule and keep the old way ready

Decide what would make you stop the pilot and go back to the old way. For example: if the line stops twice in one shift because of the change, it goes back to the old way for the rest of that shift.

Name who can make that call, and let them make it without asking anyone. The person closest to the work usually sees the problem first.

Keep the old way ready to use for the whole pilot. Leave the old instructions, tools and materials in place. When going back takes minutes, a problem in the pilot costs minutes.

Step 5: Tell everyone what to report, and to whom

Everyone working in the pilot area should know three things: what is changing, what to report and who to tell. Make reporting easy. A sheet at the station, a short daily check-in or a message to one named person all work.

Step 6: Expect to change the fix

Most pilots change the fix at least once. Keep a simple change log: version 1, what the pilot found, version 2, and so on. The version that goes everywhere should be the last one, not the first.

Step 7: Decide what comes next

At the end of the pilot, make one of three decisions:

When you compare the results to how things were before, check them against the process's normal ups and downs, so one good week is not mistaken for a real change.

If you expand, do it in steps: the next line, then the next. Each step is a smaller pilot of its own.

An example: the packing stations

A shipping department had twelve packing stations. Tape, labels and boxes sat in different places at each one, and packers walked and reached more than they needed to. The team designed one standard layout, with everything within reach.

Before changing anything, they wrote a short pilot plan:

Here is how the layout changed during those two weeks:

The layout that went to the other eleven stations was version 4. It went in one or two stations at a time over the next month.

Version 1 would have caused the same three problems at twelve stations at once. Finding them at one station is what the pilot was for.

The problem nobody planned for

Here is a field story about the most important line in any pilot plan: report anything odd.

One metal parts plant wanted to switch to a new paint. It cured at a lower oven temperature, so the ovens would use less energy.

The team planned a pilot on one paint line for three weeks. They planned to watch two things: paint thickness and finish. Both looked good from the first day.

In the second week, a packer noticed something nobody was watching. On humid days, freshly painted parts stuck to each other in the shipping crates. Some came apart with marks where they had touched.

The paint passed the oven's cure test. But for a few hours after the oven, it was still slightly soft. On dry days, that did not matter. On humid days, it did.

Nobody had planned to watch the crates. The packer reported it because everyone on the line had been asked to report anything that looked different, not only the planned measures.

The fix was simple: thin spacers between parts, and a longer cool-down before packing.

If the new paint had gone to all four lines at once, the first sign would have been parts returned by customers.

Two choices in the pilot plan found this problem early. The pilot ran long enough to include humid days. And everyone was asked to report anything odd.

What leaders can do

When a pilot finds a problem, it worked. That is easy to say and hard to show, because a problem in a pilot can feel like bad news.

What the leader does next matters. If the leader sounds disappointed, the team notices. Next time, it reports only what went well. The problems are still there. They show up later, on every line, when they are much harder to fix.

A better first response is simple: "Good. That is what the pilot is for. What did it find?"

A few habits help:

After the pilot

A pilot ends with a fix that has been adjusted to real work, a short list of what changed and why, and a team that knows how to put it in place. Use all three when the change goes to the next line.

In DMAIC, the step-by-step method used in Lean Six Sigma, the pilot is part of the Improve phase. Control comes after Improve: making the new way the standard way of working, so the gain holds after the project team moves on.

I write one of these every week, based on what actually happens on projects rather than what the textbook says should happen. You can join the newsletter here.

FAQ

What is a pilot in Lean Six Sigma?

A pilot is a small trial of a process change before it goes everywhere. It runs on one line, one shift or one area, with a short plan that says what to watch, how long to run and when to stop. Its main job is to find what breaks while the change is still small.

How long should a pilot run?

Long enough to meet the normal range of conditions: every shift the change will run on, the usual mix of products and materials, and anything else that affects the work, such as humidity or a supplier change. Two to four weeks is common.

Where should you run a pilot?

On an ordinary line, not your best one. Problems are hard to see on the best line, because an experienced crew works around them and new machines handle settings that older ones will not. If the change works on an ordinary line, it will likely work on most lines.

What is a stop rule in a pilot?

A stop rule says what would make the team stop the pilot and go back to the old way. For example, two line stops in one shift because of the change. A good stop rule also names who can make the call, and the old way is kept ready to use for the whole pilot.

What if the pilot finds problems?

That is what the pilot is for. Fix each problem, record the change in the change log, and keep running. If the problems are large, change the fix and run a second pilot, or go back to the list of possible fixes. Expand only the last version of the fix, not the first.