Chapter 6

1. Chapter 6 Process Improvement

2. Principles of Process Improvement • Primary focus areas • Productivity • Cost • Quality

3. Flexibility and Cycle Time Reduction • Flexibility – the ability to adapt quickly and effectively to changing requirements • Cycle time - the time it takes to accomplish one cycle of a process • Reductions in cycle time speed up work processes so that customer response is improved but can be accomplished only by streamlining and simplifying processes to eliminate non-value-added steps such as rework.

4. Breakthrough Improvement • Breakthrough improvement refers to discontinuous change, as opposed to the philosophy of gradual, continuous improvement. • Often motivated by stretch goals or breakthrough objectives

5. Reengineering • Reengineering– “the fundamental rethinking and radical redesign of business processes to achieve dramatic improvements in critical, contemporary measures of performance, such as cost, quality, service, and speed.”

6. Systematic Improvement Methodologies • Redefining and Analyzing the Problem: Collect and organize information, analyze the data and underlying assumptions, and reexamine the problem for new perspectives, with the goal of achieving a workable problem definition. • Generating Ideas: “Brainstorm” to develop potential solutions.

7. Systematic Improvement Methodologies • Evaluating and Selecting Ideas: Determine whether the ideas have merit and will achieve the problem solver’s goal. • Implementing Ideas: Sell the solution and gain acceptance by those who must use them.

8. The Deming Cycle

9. Plan (1 of 2) • Define the process: its start, end, and what it does. • Describe the process: list the key tasks performed and sequence of steps, people involved, equipment used, environmental conditions, work methods, and materials used. • Describe the players: external and internal customers and suppliers, and process operators. • Define customer expectations: what the customer wants, when, and where, for both external and internal customers. • Determine what historical data are available on process performance, or what data need to be collected to better understand the process.

10. Plan (2 of 2) • Describe the perceived problems associated with the process; for instance, failure to meet customer expectations, excessive variation, long cycle times, and so on. • Identify the primary causes of the problems and their impacts on process performance. • Develop potential changes or solutions to the process, and evaluate how these changes or solutions will address the primary causes. • Select the most promising solution(s).

11. Do • Conduct a pilot study or experiment to test the impact of the potential solution(s). • Identify measures to understand how any changes or solutions are successful in addressing the perceived problems.

12. Study • Examine the results of the pilot study or experiment. • Determine whether process performance has improved. • Identify further experimentation that may be necessary.

13. Act • Select the best change or solution. • Develop an implementation plan: what needs to be done, who should be involved, and when the plan should be accomplished. • Standardize the solution, for example, by writing new standard operating procedures. • Establish a process to monitor and control process performance.

14. Analyzing Process Maps (1 of 2) • Are the steps in the process arranged in logical sequence? • Do all steps add value? Can some steps be eliminated and should others be added in order to improve quality or operational performance? Can some be combined? Should some be reordered? • Are capacities of each step in balance; that is, do bottlenecks exist for which customers will incur excessive waiting time? • What skills, equipment, and tools are required at each step of the process? Should some steps be automated?

15. Analyzing Process Maps (2 of 2) • Where are the critical points of customer contact? • At which points in the system might errors occur that would result in customer dissatisfaction, and how might these errors be corrected? • At which point or points should quality be measured? • Where interaction with the customer occurs, what procedures and guidelines should employees follow to present a positive image?

16. Kaizen Events • A kaizen event (kaizen blitz) is an intense and rapid improvement process in which a team or a department throws all its resources into an improvement project over a short time period, as opposed to traditional kaizen applications, which are performed on a part-time basis.

17. Poka-Yoke (Mistake-Proofing) • Poka-yoke – an approach for mistake-proofing processes using automatic devices or methods to avoid simple human or machine error, such as forgetfulness, misunderstanding, errors in identification, lack of experience, absentmindedness, delays, or malfunctions

18. Three Levels of Mistake-Proofing • Design potential errors out of the product or process – Eliminates any possibility that the error or defect might occur • Identify potential defects and stopping a process before the defect is produced – Requires time to stop a process and take corrective action. • Find defects that enter or leave a process – Eliminates wasted resources that would add value to nonconforming work, but clearly results in scrap or rework.

19. Poka-Yoke in Services • Task errors • Treatment errors • Tangible errors • Customer errors in preparation • Customer errors during an encounter

20. Creative Thinking • Brainstorming- a useful group problem-solving procedure for generating ideas, was proposed by Alex Osborn “for the sole purpose of producing checklists of ideas” that can be used in developing a solution to a problem • Checklists to stimulate ideas: Put to other uses? Adapt? Modify? Magnify? Minify? Substitute? Rearrange? Reverse? Combine?

21. Project Review – Improve (1 of 2) • Team members have received any necessary “just-in-time” training • Process maps have been studied and evaluated in detail • Ideas and suggestions from all the right people have been solicited and considered • All reasonable alternatives have been identified • Both incremental and breakthrough improvements have been considered • Criteria for evaluating alternatives have been developed

22. Project Review – Improve (2 of 2) • Alternatives have been thoroughly evaluated for feasibility and improvement potential • Improvements identified align with the project metrics (“vital few” independent variables) and goals • Mistake-proofing has been incorporated into improvement ideas • Impacts of proposed changes have been tested and verified through experimentation or a pilot project