Online Courses : Process Improvement

Some Good Starting Points

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Everything everyone does within an organization is part of a process. So invariably if you want to improve whatorganization does, then you have to focus on improving the process. By putting your emphasis on the process, you avoidtypical trap that so many business leaders seem to fall prey to - looking to cut costs, they focus on trimming payrolls or pushing people to do more with less. This short-sided approach may get a brief bump in performance. However, inlong-run you end up increasing costs, reducing value to the customer, and making it harder forcompany to compete.

Process improvement is a long-term approach to improving organizational performance with substantially less risks of destroying value when compared to short-term approaches. This short course will outline many ofconcepts and tools people use to improve processes. word "quality" will be used a lot since we will learn that variations are opposite of quality and by reducing variation (improving quality), we can embark onroad to continuously improving a process.

Two Important Pioneers

Process efficiency, especially inname of quality, has been around for a long time. For example, back in 1950 W. Edwards Deming spoke before Japanese business leaders, outlining a roadmap for total quality management. Deming’s roadmap consisted of fourteen key points:

1. Create a constancy of purpose so that you are continuously improving your processes. This requires defining both short term and long term problems, allocating resources appropriately, and working to improve product and service design.
2. Adopt a new philosophy of quality management, constant learning, embracing change and focus oncustomer.
3. Cease dependence on inspection as a means for ensuring quality. Instead, place much more reliance on statistical tools for assessing quality.
4. Don’t award simply on lowest price. Change your focus from lowest initial costs to lowest overall costs inlong run, incorporating quality, sole source, relationships, and other factors.
5. Search continuously to improve processes. Become innovative and look atoverall process flow or system in terms of design, inputs, materials, maintenance, supervision, automation, training, teams, waste, and other areas that generate innovation.
6. Invest in great training to keep your people productive and innovative. New skills bring about improvements. Therefore, you must fuel this process by empowering your people to do their best.
7. Institute leadership that goes beyondnumbers and instead, puts an emphasis on supporting and making sure people can execute. Leadership must be able to discern what’s important and what’s not to optimize how resources are applied.
8. Drive out fear and encourage people to participate and openly pursue needed improvements and change.
9. Break downbarriers with workers, suppliers, and everyone involved inprocess. Promote communication across all players.
10. Eliminate slogans, exhortations, and targets that tend to be divisive and counterproductive to one group of players withinprocess.
11. Avoid numerical quotas since they impede quality, increase waste, and discourage productivity.
12. Allow pride of workmanship and do away withtraditional approaches of annual performance appraisals and management by objectives. Evaluate and reward performance in relation to quality.
13. Institute educational programs and self-improvement for life long learning and team building.
14. Make sure Senior Management is committed to improving quality and productivity. This may require changingorganizational structure and putting an Action Plan in place for 13 other points.

Needless to sayJapanese took Deming very seriously, producing high quality products and capturing global markets for their products. So it is very clear that Deming was well ahead of his time and many of his principles are now widely practiced throughoutworld.

A second pioneer behind quality management movement is Joseph M. Juran. Juran, like Deming, advocated strong participation by everyone touched byprocess. However, Juran took this concept one step further by includingcustomer. Juran argued that quality must be linked tocustomer. Juran documented his principles in a landmark book, Quality Control Handbook, in which he put heavy emphasis on understanding and measuring customer. Here is a list of Juran’s ten step process:

1. Identify your customers
2. Seek out and define their needs
3. Translate customer needs into your business language and requirements
4. Establish units of measure
5. Define appropriate performance measurements
6. Develop products and services
7. Optimize product and service design
8. Develop production processes
9. Optimize processes / fully capable
10. Transfer into operations

For those wanting to learn how to improve a process,W. Edwards Deming and Joseph M. Duran are two ofbest sources.

"Production technique is pretty much a level playing field. Anyone can purchase identical equipment and facilities, hire and train qualified people, and purchase raw materials required to make a product. There are certain steps required to make a particular product and everyone does themsame way. difference appears to be inmanufacturing technique - how we manage and balance people, materials, and machines." - Lean Manufacturing that Works by Bill Carreira

Breaking it Down

A process is a series of activities, often repeated over and over withbasic flow of transforming inputs into outputs. basic premise can be depicted as follows:

activities that make upprocess are notsame. Some activities add value to a process and other activities fail to add value. Therefore, one way to think "process improvement" is to think in terms of reducing non-value added activities.

concept of value-added is not easy to pin down. We can borrow from lean thinking (which we will discuss later) to help define value added. Under lean, activity needs to contribute in some way to adding value tocustomer. So in order to understand if an activity is value-added, you must understand what adds tocustomer experience. Maybe it’s something that gets product tocustomer sooner or perhaps it’s an aftersale phone call that makesproduct or service more complete. We need to distinguish between value added vs. non value added in relation tocustomer. This often boils down to getting process to do onlyright things inright sequence at right times and everything else is subject tonon-value added test.

concept of Lean tends to "flag" non value added activities into seven categories:

1. Overproduction - application of work that is not really needed.
2. Waiting - Time spent where resources are idle, not used for anything.
3. Transportation - Having to move resources from one location to another which introduces delay and inefficiency.
4. Nonessential activity - Performing an activity that makes no contribution to putting value into hands ofcustomer.
5. Inventory - Holding resources until they can be used or sold.
6. Variation - Changes or deviations fromexpected outcome ofprocess.
7. Defects - Errors or nonconformities produced duringprocess.

You can also flag a non value added activity by asking ifactivity is a "Re" type activity; such as Rework, Reschedule, Resubmit, and so forth. Regardless of how you go about it, you need to squeeze non value activities out of a process. A few non value activities may be required, such as regulatory requirements within a process; but we want our processes to be lean and this will require very few, if any, non-value added activities.

Compress the Handoffs

One of more common practices for improving a process is to reducehandoffs or transfers that take place. This is usually accomplished by first understanding and mapping out process using a flowchart. Onceprocess is mapped out,trick is to compress handoffs out offlowchart, streamlining and makingprocess more efficient.

For example, large bureaucratic organizations transfer information, products, and other outputs between functions, departments, divisions, and other hierarchies that inject handoffs alongway. With each handoff, there is delay involved, not to mention introduction of errors. Consolidating these activities aroundprocess flow can help reduce cycle times and lower resources consumed (costs). following example highlights difference between organizing around functions vs. organizing aroundprocesses:

Fundamental Principles

Many organizations recognize certain practices as part of improving a process. Here are some examples:

- Technology - use of technology is often an enabler for improving a process. This is particularly important when it comes to innovation or rapid transformation of a process, commonly referred to as Business Process Redesign (BPR). For example, use of Radio Frequency Identification or RFID’s to track inventory items is transforming how company’s manage high value items moving throughsupply chain. Technology can often help improve efficiency or effectiveness of a process by introducing innovative approaches for doing things differently.

- Outsourcing - Non core processes where control byorganization is not critical are sometimes outsourced. Outsourcing relies on outside expertise to take control over some non-core function, especially functions that are redundant and generic in nature. Outsourcing can quickly eliminate unnecessary activities, lower overall costs, and introduce better ways of how things should get done. There are some downsides to outsourcing, such as loss of control, initial costs of changeover, and possible loss of jobs to those whose positions have been outsourced.

- Benchmarking and Best Practices - One offastest ways to gain insights into how to improve a process is to benchmark your performance in relation to best in class practices. You instantly see real world examples that highlight your strengths and weaknesses in relation to your peers. Many best practices cut across companies and industries, such as web enabled processes to service customers or procurement cards for consolidating payable processing. Additionally, best practices are often not overly complicated, such as forming teams for project based work or using an intranet web site for knowledge sharing.

- Supply Chains - For many organizations, supply chain is at core of major processes and since supply chains involve lots of movement and complexity, they invariably are ripe for process improvement. For example, most supply chains move things from one point to another and anytime you move something, it ends up sitting around waiting fornext activity to kick-in. Another problem is a fixation with lowest costs suppliers. There is much more to value equation than simply price. Consequently, many supply chains are very poorly managed.

"Supply chains are as old as commerce, butopportunities they now present are without precedent. Modern manufacturing has driven so much time and cost out ofproduction process that there is only one place left to turn for competitive advantage. As business engineering guru Michael Hammer recently put it in his new book, Agenda, supply chain islast untapped vein of business gold."
- Supply Chains: A Manager’s Guide byDavid A. Taylor, Ph.D.

Measurement and Control

One ofuniversal principles for a sustained approach to improving a process is to measure process. And once you measureprocess, you now have an opportunity to get control over process. Measurement and control is particularly important where organizations want to continuously pursue process improvement in a very rigorous way. Process measurement typically takes three forms:

1. Quality - Measuring a process in relation to qualitative characteristics (reliability, appearance, color, weight, length, etc). Examples include: # of Breakdowns, # Service Requests by Product, # of Power Failures, % of Orders Rejected, # of Invoices Disputed, Write Offs as a % of Sales, etc.

2. Time - Measuring a process in relation to speed, response, turnaround, cycles, etc. Examples include Wait Time in Minutes, Round Trip Hours, Cycle Time, etc.

3. Productivity - Measuring a process in relation to actual outputs vs. what you desire in terms of outputs. Examples include % of orders shipped within 3 days, % of invoices entered within 24 hours, # of customers serviced, # of claims processed, % requests sentsame day, etc.

You can also think in terms of efficiency and effectiveness when it comes to understanding what should get measured. Listed below is a rating scale regarding process efficiency and effectiveness:

Once you know what to measure, next step is control. Control often takesform of a control chart. If you took statistics, you should remember something called Normal Distribution curve:

Now flipcurve sideways and extend it out over measurable intervals. upper and lower control limits define variation frommean (average). This is basic structure of a control chart for monitoring variation, sometimes described as Statistical Process Control (SPC).

We can take this one step further by experimenting with our inputs whereby we carefully alter or changeinput variables to see how it changes process and final outputs. This is one ofmost common techniques for continuously improving a process - Design of Experiments (DOE).We will dig deeper into these statistical concepts (SPC and DOE) when we explore Six Sigma.

Formal Programs

Some organizations use formal programs for making process improvement happen. Two notable examples areMalcolm Baldrige National Quality Award and ISO (International Organization for Standardization) 9000 Registration. Malcolm Baldrige Program was established to promote quality management and performance excellence for businesses in United States. Malcolm Baldrige requires a business to focus onfollowing areas, totaling up to 1,000 points:

1 Leadership (125 points)
1.1 Organizational Leadership (85)
1.2 Public Responsibility & Citizenship (40)

2 Strategic Planning (85)
2.1 Strategy Development (40)
2.2 Strategy Deployment (45)

3 Customer and Market Focus (85)
3.1 Customer & Market Knowledge (40)
3.2 Customer Satisfaction & Relationships (45)

4 Information and Analysis (85)
4.1 Measurement of Organizational Performance (40)
4.2 Analysis of Organizational Performance (45)

5 Human Resource Focus (85)
5.1 Work Systems (35)
5.2 Employee Education, Training, and Development (25)
5.3 Employee well-being and Satisfaction (25)

6 Process Management (85)
6.1 Product and Service Processes (55)
6.2 Support Processes (15)
6.3 Supplier and Partnering Processes (15)

7 Results (450)
7.1 Customer Focused Results (115)
7.2 Financial and Market Results (115)
7.3 Human Resource Results (80)
7.4 Supplier and Partner Results (25)
7.5 Organizational Effectiveness Results (115)

International Organization for Standardization (ISO) in Geneva, Switzerland. These standards cover eight management principles:

1. Customer Focus - Organizations depend on their customers and therefore should understand current and future customer needs, striving to exceed customer expectations.

2. Leadership - Leaders establish unity of purpose and direction oforganization. They should create and maintain internal environment in which people can become fully involved in achievingorganization's objectives.

3. Involvement of People - People at all levels areessence of an organization and their full involvement enables their abilities to be used for organization's benefit.

4. Process Approach - A desired result is achieved more efficiently when activities and related resources are managed as a process.

5. System Approach in Management - Identifying, understanding and managing interrelated processes as a system contributes toorganization's effectiveness and efficiency in achieving its objectives.

6. Continual Improvement - Continual improvement of organization's overall performance should be a permanent objective oforganization.

7. Factual Approach to Decision Making - Effective decisions are based on analysis of data and information.

8. Mutually Beneficial Supplier Relationships - An organization and its suppliers are interdependent and a mutually beneficial relationship enhancesability of both to create value.

Most ISO standards are very specific to products and services, such as Shipbuilding, Packaging, Mining, and Metallurgy. ISO also has a generic set of standards, grouped by certain categories: ISO 9000:2000 (vocabulary and definitions), ISO 9001:2000 (registration requirements), ISO 9004:2000 (guidelines for improvingquality management system) and ISO 14000 (environmental management system). ISO Registration is often considered a pre-requisite for getting certain international business. Registration requires documentation of processes followed by a formal review conducted by auditors.

Although Baldrige and ISO 9000 are solid frameworks for rapidly putting a quality program together, they sometimes can be more show than substance. For example, some companies spend most of their efforts filling up notebooks with paper, documenting everything and usingright buzz words to satisfy auditors. In reality, it can be more important to apply concepts associated with these programs as opposed to jumping throughhoops to win award. Also, many organizations seem to get more bang for their buck by pursuing process improvement methodologies such as Six Sigma. Therefore, you should not view programs such as Malcolm Baldrige or ISO 9000 as panaceas for process improvement, but instead look to them for concepts and principles that fit and work within your organization.

Fundamental Tools of the Trade

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Regardless of how you go about improving a process, you will most likely use one or more of following tools:

Therefore, a solid understanding of each of these tools can help almost any process improvement project. This chapter will highlight each of these tools. And some of these tools may get applied above or belowprocess level to get a better understanding of what takes place outside the process layer withinenterprise architecture:

" problems that afflict modern organizations are not task problems. They are process problems. reason we are slow to deliver results is not that our people are performing their individual tasks slowly and inefficiently -We are slow because some of our people are performing tasks that need not be done at all to achievedesired result and because we encounter agonizing delays in getting the work from person who does one task to the person who does the next one. In short, our problems lie not in performance of individual tasks and activities, the units of work, but in the processes, howunits fit together in whole." - Beyond Reengineering by Michael Hammer

SWOT Analysis

Where processes are impacted by both internal and external factors, it can be useful to apply SWOT - Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. SWOT Analysis is a standard tool used by all types of analyst for identifying major strategic issues. SWOT can be used at any organizational level - function, department, group, etc. SWOT is defined as:

- Strength: Any existing or potential resource or capability withinorganization that provides a competitive advantage inmarket.
- Weakness: Any existing or potential internal force that could serve as a barrier to maintaining or achieving a competitive advantage inmarket.
- Opportunity: Any existing or potential force inexternal environment that, if properly exploited, could provide a competitive advantage.
- Threat: Any existing or potential force inexternal environment that could inhibit maintenance or attainment of a competitive advantage.
You can also fast track assessment process by simply doing a simple T list ofpluses and minuses.

Root Cause Analysis

Root Cause Analysis is used to clearly understand what’s driving or causing a problem. key is to identify factors influencingeffect you are starting with. One way to jump startanalysis is to look at:

- 4 M’s: Methods, Manpower, Materials, Machinery
- 4 P’s: Policies, Procedures, People, Plant

Root Cause Analysis is often expressed inform of a fishbone diagram. steps for doing diagram are:

1. Specifyeffect to be analyzed. effect can be positive (objectives) or negative (problems). Place it in a box onright side of diagram.

2. List major categories of factors that influenceeffect being studied. Use "4 Ms" (methods, manpower, materials, machinery) or "4 Ps" (policies, procedures, people, plant) as a starting point.

3. Identify factors and sub factors. Use an idea-generating technique to identifyfactors and sub factors within each major category. An easy way to begin is to use major categories as a catalyst. For example, "What policies are causing�?"

4. Identify significant factors. Look for factors that appear repeatedly and list them. Also, list those factors that have a significant effect, based ondata available.

5. Prioritize your list of causes. Keep in mind thatlocation of a cause in your diagram is not an indicator of its importance. A sub factor may be root cause to all of your problems. You may also decide to collect more data on a factor that had not been previously identified.

A less formal approach to root cause analysis is to simply useFive Whys technique. With each reiteration of why (say five times), you pull out additional information that possibly helps you identifyroot cause of a problem.

Pareto Chart

In order to focus on significant problems, you can rankimportance in descending order of occurrence. This is typically done using Pareto Chart. In order to chart problems, you must:

1. Identifyproblems that need to be ranked.
2. Use a standard measurement for ranking, such as frequency, costs, etc.
3. Determinetime frame for evaluating problems.
4. Collectdata from existing reports or use new data.
5. Label units of measure on left vertical axis and labelproblem areas on horizontal axis.
6. Plot data, showingdescending order from left to right.

Process Mapping

Process Mapping is regularly used to depictflow of major activities within a process. Process maps range from simple block diagrams to more elaborate swim type diagrams showing "swimming" flows to and from major functional or organizational units that play a role withinprocess.

In order to flowchart or map a process, you will need to understandactivities, what triggersactivity (inputs), who is involved, sequential steps, and outputs associated with steps. This will require interviewing people assigned to doingactivities. You will also need to examine documents, such as desk procedures, work flow diagrams, and other documents that help describe howprocess works.

Process maps allow you to seebig picture, clarifying sub-processes, sequences, and activities. Process maps should be prepared showing critical information flows and different players involved. Where possible, it is useful to document cycle times in different steps; especially wait times. Once completed, you can useprocess map to answer certain critical questions:

1. Can we eliminate or reduce certain activities?
2. Can we complete process in less time by changingprocess?
3. Can we improve how we meet customer requirements by changing process?

Finally, if you are unsure what processes to map, start with those processes that have high impact in terms of costs, time, resources consumed or waste. Core processes are sometimes easier to map due to existing documentation and easy access tointernal players as opposed to external players.

Brainstorming

Brainstorming is used to generate ideas without any real regard formerit of ideas. You can evaluate ideas afterbrainstorming session is over. Here are some basic guidelines to follow:

1. Start with a clear definition of what it is you are trying to solve.
2. Make sure everyone understandsproblem or issue.
3. Write down all ideas and don’t judge anything submitted.
4. Give everyone a chance to participate and express opinions.
5. Try not to be too formal, but impose some structure to ensure brainstorming session is productive.
6. Don’t get discouraged if brainstorming session starts off slow - best ideas usually get generated at end of session.
7. Try to write down all ideas exactly as they are submitted by participants.
8. Make sure you have a broad mix of people inbrainstorming session - process owners, customers, vendors, subject matter experts, etc.

One ofbiggest misconceptions about brainstorming has to do with group brainstorming. Some of best ideas come out of individual brainstorming where each individual has time to think aboutproblem and submit comments separately. It’s also useful to have a "culture" that nourishes ideas. This provides a natural environment for highly productive brainstorming.

Storyboarding

Storyboarding is a visual approach to brainstorming. Like brainstorming, it attempts to organize multiple ideas and concepts. Unlike brainstorming, it tends to be less structured, allowing for more open participation by anyone who can help getgroup to a common idea. Storyboarding will also require that you group and categorize ideas since you want to visually show how things work. For example, you might show initial events or activities off toupper left on a large white board and then work your way down, visually showing how things flow downward.

To make sure you can storyboard, you’ll need large white boards or butcher paper as well as markers, cards, and other supplies to help illustrate your concept. Use different colors to group and organize common elements. You can take a digital photo ofoutput and refer back to it for later development.

"A process cannot be changed unless allsupporting elements are changed as well. Therefore an essential early step of a reengineering effort is to clearly identify and quantify all ofresources in a corporation that are dedicated to each specific process." -

Force Field Analysis

Force field analysis is used to visually show relationships that help or hinder a solution to a problem. Force field analysis provides a quick list of factors that influence your objective. Here arebasic steps:

1. Defineproblem or objective that you are analyzing.
2. Listforces that impact or influence your problem. Use an idea generating technique like brainstorming.
3. Assign weights or priorities to each force on your list. Place heavier weights on those forces that havehighest impact.
4. Manage based onlist - try to reduce negative forces and maximize positive forces to solveproblem.
Focus your efforts on those forces that are easy to implement and yet atsame time, they produce high results. Listed below is an example of how force field analysis is used to help someone stop smoking:

Value Analysis

One ofmost important techniques for improving a process is to make a distinction between value added and non value added activities. Value analysis summarizes all activities between value added and non value added. This distinction is made as follows:

In order to organize your analysis, construct a table with three columns - listing your activities in column 1, denotingactivity as Value Added or Non-Value Added in column 2 and a description or comment on whyactivity was classified as Value Added or Non-Value Added in column 3. If possible, try to estimatecosts of each activity so you can prioritize your analysis for further action. goal is to optimize value-added activities so they are lean and reduce or eliminatenon-value added activities. Listed below is an example for a Receiving Department:

Issues Analysis

It is often useful to break a problem down into components. Issue analysis is used to define elements of a problem and show these elements in some logical way. This is often accomplished by using an issue tree:

You can useissue tree to show sub-processes at different levels with process or activity above flowing intolower one. Some key points to consider:

- UseIssue Tree to guide you into underlying root causes.
- Look for duplication betweenactivities within Issue Tree.
- Validate relationships between problem components by involving process owners and other stakeholders.

Solutions Rating Matrix

solution rating matrix is a process for weighing allpossible solutions against a predetermined set of criteria or rules. Examples of criteria or rules for weighting include: - Ease of implementation
- Effectiveness of solution
- Probability of success
- Resistance to solution
- Cost

Make sure your weights total up to 100%. Now organize your solutions into a matrix and rate each solution on a scale from 1 to 10. Finally, you can multiplyrating scores by weighting percentages to arrive attotal score. Listed below is a simple example of a solutions matrix for deciding which automobile you should purchase. Based on five criteria, Car "B" isselected choice:

Trend Analysis

One ofbasic tools in evaluating a process is to look at trends. Most trends are reported in a time series graph. This allows a comparison, prompting action on unfavorable trends and recognizingneed to adjust targets on constant favorable trends. basic steps for trend analysis are:

1. Select a specific process, sub-process or activity with outputs.
2. Collect measurement data onoutputs over consistent time intervals.
3. Monitor performance and see if you need to adjustprocess, sub-process, or activity to change performance.

A few tips to consider when doing trend analysis:

- best outputs or measurements are usually linked to customer needs.
- Collect your measurements at good time intervals that facilitateright degree of management control. Measurements that are too late are useless to managers. Constantly measuringsame things over and over with no corresponding action is also useless.

Simple Example of Trend Line Analysis

Project Management

Much of work that goes behind improving a process has to do with good project management practices. Larger type initiatives takeform of a formal project, especially Six Sigma type projects. Therefore, sound project management practices are extremely important for major process improvement projects. Here are some important concepts to consider:

- Define your scope for improving a project by breakingscope down into workable elements that you can manage. This is usually accomplished inform of aWork Breakdown Structure, allowing you to delegate activities and tasks to other team members. You need this structure for managing all of components that make up project.
- Develop a work schedule for major milestones throughoutexpected life cycle of project. This work schedule should include your expected costs as well as anticipated start and completion dates.
- Where stakes and costs are high, consider including a risk management plan as part of how you manage project. Risk Plan should address "what if" situations that may arise during course of project.
- Another useful plan to include is a quality assurance plan. You need to have control checks in place to make sure things are getting done right.
- Although it can be somewhat subjective, many executives will probably want some form of cost benefit analysis, showingReturn on Investment for project. It’s also useful to include a Net Present Value in your business case forproject.
- After you completeproject, you need to conduct a post implementation audit, determining if project met its original objective and goals. You also want to flush out lessons learned for executing future projects.

NOTE: Short Course 6 provides much more in-depth coverage on project management, including information on how to build a detail project plan and measure project performance.

Capability Maturity Model (CMM)

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For larger organizations, it might be useful to view all processes from a single organizational context. One ofbest frameworks for doing this is called the Capability Maturity Model or CMM.concept of CMM was developed through the Software Engineering Institute or SEI. SEI was created by Department of Defense to reduce failures with software application projects. Therefore, CMM is rooted in software development processes. However, concepts associated with CMM can be useful for all types of process improvement projects since CMM provides a framework regarding process maturity.

One of great advantages of using CMM approach is that it "positions" organization for process improvement on an enterprise-wide basis. This can be important since you ultimately want all parts of organization working together or at least progressing to same level of maturity. For example, an organization may not be ready for major change or transformation of its processes. By applying CMM, you superimpose an overall discipline across entire organization - similar to physical workouts for a sports team where everyone runs through same drills. This gets entire team in shape so that everyone can execute on field.

Five Levels of Maturity

CMM looks at maturity of your business processes in terms of five levels:

Level 1 - Initial: For organizations just starting out, processes are not well established and defined. There is deep fragmentation acrossorganization - one area does it one way and another unit is following a different process for gettingsame thing done. There is poor integration and alignment across functional areas by process. Things get done through individual effort as opposed to a standard process.

Level 2 - Repeatable: A basic level of process management where you can apply a process to various units withinorganization. You start to plan as opposed to react by using certain management controls.

Level 3 - Define: Now that you have processes that you can repeat acrossorganization, you can define them and apply them acrossorganization using standards of performance.

Level 4 - Manage: Given standard performance baselines, you can now measure, benchmark and evaluate your performance.

Level 5 - Optimize: This isfinal phase where you get your processes lean and operating at peak performance. organization is now ready for applying Six Sigma sinceworkload data required to use Six Sigma has been established in Level 4.

As organizations move from a lower level to an upper level within CMM, process capabilities increase and this in turn improves process performance. initial observation by pioneers of CMM, such as Watts Humphrey of IBM, was thatquality of software products was very much related toquality of processes. Additionally, ability to predict results goes up with increased maturity and when you increase your predictability, you lower your risks.

Under CMM, all organizations default to Level 1 where there is inconsistent management of processes. For larger type organization, management approach tends to change with each successive level:

Level 2 - Managing projects to get things done
Level 3 - Managing processes to get things done
Level 4 - Managing capabilities to groworganization
Level 5 - Managing change to continuously improve

Key Process Areas - Improvement Domains for CMM

In order to move past Level 1 under CMM, you will need to define Key Process Areas. Key Process Areas (KPA) represent a cluster of activities that when grouped together share a common final outcome critical to organizational success. Once you define each KPA, you need to establish performance goals or objectives for each KPA. CMM typically assigns two to four goals per KPA. Understandingintent of a KPA is usually a good basis for defining a performance goal; i.e. isorganization effective (such as customer satisfaction) and efficient (such as cycle times) at meetinggoal of KPA?

Since each CMM Level has its own KPA’s, challenge is to meet two to four performance goals of each KPA in your current level. Therefore, you need to have well established KPA’s in one level before you get to next level. One best ways to build this KPA maturity structure is to think in terms of managing for defined outcomes along way. For example, suppose you just opened a pizza restaurant. To produce pizza’s, you need key process areas (KPA’s) that make pizza dough, add fresh ingredients, and bake pizza. These arebasic "repeatable" key process areas or issues you must have for level 2 of your pizza restaurant. Now let’s move up to level 3 - Clearly defined processes may involve more mature processes, such as gettingright kind of ingredients and mix to make good consistent dough. At level 3, we might have a KPA related to making sure our cooks follow a standard recipe each time they preparepizza dough. Our processes are now better defined after meeting certain KPA’s for Level 3. We can now "manage" processes at Level 4 - things like faster delivery of pizza’s or giving our customers more choices of how they want their pizzas. We now start to do a lot more measuring of final desired outcomes - customers like our pizza’s and our processes are now mature enough that we can expand opening another pizza restaurant. At level 4, our processes are highly predictable using best practices and we know exactly how to make great pizza’s every time. At level 5, we work to tweak and optimize how we make our pizzas. Perhaps each time a pizza is baked in oven, crust comes out slightly different. Level 5 looks for defects using very analytical tools and attempts to remove these defects from our processes. For example, maybe we can use a special texture probe to test our pizzas for inconsistent crust. Next we look at variables that create inconsistent crust. This might include baking times, oven conditions, andmix of ingredients. We need to analyze what’s causing inconsistent pizza crust. Once we identify cause, we will change this input variable and see how it impacts our pizza crust. Level 5 is continuous - analyzing defects, identifying sources and using this knowledge to prevent defects in all of our processes acrossentire organization.

The Baseline for Improvement Begins at Level 2

Since key process areas at Level 1 are not defined, getting to level 2 is oftenbig hurdle in moving through CMM. To get to Level 2, an organization needs to have processes that begin to experience repeatable success and likewise, you begin to remove your failures. Processes are not expected to be highly efficient and effective at Level 2, but you do want to have a series of processes to produce outputs (such as pizzas in our pizza restaurant). Level 2 representsbaseline of core processes and from this baseline we can begin to improve how we do things. It is at level 2 where organization becomes aware ofneed to improve and thus, level 2 is sometimes called "learning level" of CMM. This is where process improvement begins to kick-in and this is why getting to level 2 is so important.

According to Motorola, an organization that moves from CMM Level 2 to 5 will experience an eightfold reduction in defects, an eightfold improvement in cycle times, and a threefold increase in productivity.

CMMI

One offastest growing maturity models is Capability Maturity Model Integration or CMMI. issue of integration is a major hurdle in getting processes to work. Typically, processes are defined around functions or departments. big issue is getting processes to work across all functions and departments. CMMI takes a "systems" view of things; i.e. organize and build around a system to integrate your processes and this will producebest possible service or products for your customers.

five levels of CMMI are very similar tooriginal CMM:

- 1: Performed - Process is unpredictable, poorly controlled, and reactive.
- 2: Managed - Process characterized for projects, and is often reactive
- 3: Defined - Process is characterized fororganization, and is proactive
- 4: Quantitatively Managed - Process is measured and controlled
- 5: Optimizing - Focus is on continuous process improvement

In order to take a systems approach, CMMI tends to focus on process infrastructure and most KPA’s are focused on five areas: Goals, Commitment, Ability, Measurement, and Verification. Finally, CMMI follows a life cycle approach to process improvement, known as IDEAL:

I - Initiate: Establishgroundwork for enabling process improvement. This includes makingbusiness case for process improvement and securing key sponsorship to make process improvement happen.

D - Diagnose: Determine where you are relative to where you want to be. This sometimes takesform of a concept paper, outlining current organizational state, desired future organizational state and recommendations for moving forward.

E - Establish: Quantifyspecifics of how you will reach your destination, including a work plan for process improvement that includes which areas should gethighest priority.

A - Act: Doingwork per your process improvement plans, such as development of solutions, testing your solutions, and putting final solutions into production.

L - Learn: Improve your ability to managefuture based on what is taking place now and what was originally planned. This requires that you look back at your process improvement efforts and make adjustments going forward.

CMM Reality Check

Organizations often seek formal certification of CMM Levels, somewhat similar to how Malcolm Baldrige and ISO 9000 work. As a result, CMM may encounter same fallacy of Baldrige and ISO 9000 - organizations are too busy trying to satisfy"certification" requirements, but in realityorganization has not improved its processes.

Like Baldrige and ISO 9000, CMM should be more about producing real measurable results and not satisfying pre-conceived requirements that may or may not fitorganization. Consequently, all organizations should look to CMM as a broad framework to assist with process improvement and not lose sight of what you are really trying to accomplish - things like higher customer satisfaction, increased productivity from end users, less time and costs to perform activities that comprise a process, and expanded organizational capabilities.

Six Sigma

2008-09-22T10:16:00.000-07:00

Probably most popular approach to process improvement is Six Sigma. Since this short course is very limited in scope, we cannot address all of Six Sigma tools and techniques, but will highlight basic concepts behind Six Sigma. As we discussed earlier, we want to reduce variation (improve quality) to continuously improve our processes. Six Sigma provides a methodology for getting toroot cause of variation and reducing it. Despite what some might say, Six Sigma is not about forcing you to obtain perfection at any costs. It’s more about giving you a wide range of tools, applied in a discipline way for improving a process on a project by project basis. When applied toright kinds of projects, Six Sigma can yield significant results.

Project Selection

Six Sigma is executed through projects and since Six Sigma is very precise, it’s often better to start with smaller projects that have limited scope as opposed to large, organizational wide projects that are too difficult to manage. Additionally, projects need to have some justification behind being selected. So inworld of Six Sigma, it is very common to see a series of toll-gates or a formal business case to justifyproject. For example, projects will consume resources and time. There needs to be a clear payoff or return for doingproject. Additionally, it is useful to clearly defineexpected impact of projects and match these impacts against critical issues confrontingorganization. For example, a high level of customer complaints or product returns is a critical issue that might be ripe for a Six Sigma type project.

Five Phases - DMAIC

life cycle of six sigma work consists of five phases:

1. Define Opportunities: What must we do to meet VOC - Voice ofCustomer. In this phase, you must clearly identify your customers and analyze customer related information, translating this into Critical to Quality (CTQ). CTQ’s are requirements that your processes must perform up to if you expect to meet customer expectations. Once you understand this, then you can initiate six sigma projects to addressspecific performance issues.

2. Measure Performance: How much variation is taking place in our processes? In this phase, you will measure your variation in relation to an acceptable level of performance or specification limit. This is driven bycharacteristics of your CTQ. Certain statistical tools are used, such as sampling, frequency distribution, and control charts.

3. Analyze Opportunities: What areroot causes behind this variation? In this phase, you identifysources of variation. A good place to start is with a nonstatistical tool: Root Cause Analysis, includingFive Whys. Then you can begin to use certain statistical tools, such as Analysis of Variance, to better understandsources of process variation.

4. Improve Performance: What can we do to reduce this variation? vital few or root sources of variation are now identified. One ofmore popular tools used for improvement is called Design of Experiments (DOE).

5. Control Performance: How can we designprocess so that we never crossUpper or Lower Control Limits? This is where you sustain your desired performance levels and where practical, seek to improve it by removing more variation fromprocess.

The Basics

Sigma is a statistical measure of process capability in relation to how much deviation takes place inpopulation of data. It measuresvariability of data. For every opportunity, there is a chance we might have a defect. This is typically expressed as Defects per Million Opportunities or DPMO. Defects representfailure to meet customer requirements. higher sigma, more process outputs are able to meet customer requirements given fewer defects. following DPMO scale is used to expressdifferent sigma levels:

For various processes, we set targets which we will call "critical to" such as Critical to Quality (CTQ). This might be making pizzas in our pizza restaurant that are produced in 8 minutes. Each time we bake a pizza, there is some variation from this target of 8 minutes. If we plot each of these bake times, we can showdistribution on a graph. Additionally, our customers are willing to accept pizzas baked in 10 minutes, but likewise it takes us at least 6 minutes to put allingredients together for bakingpizza. These limits represent Upper Specification Limit (USL) and Lower Specification Limit (LSL) within our distribution. goal is to "control" what happens within this range and when we bakepizza at exactly 8 minutes, we have Six Sigma quality - zero deviation from standard. As we get better and better at our baking process, we start to narrowrange, USL and LSL, so thatnormal distribution curve becomes tighter. This is how we express continuous improvement in world of Six Sigma.

CTQ and VOC

Critical to Quality is customer driven and so we have to tap intocustomer to understand our requirements (CTQ). Six Sigma (as well as lean) requires that you are listening to Voice ofCustomer or VOC. Inworld of Six Sigma, you are "insync" with VOC when you:

1. Provide a 100% solution tocustomer’s problem.
2. Minimal effort involved - not wastingcustomer’s time and efforts.
3. Giving customer exactly what they need - no compromises.
4. Provide value wherecustomer wants it.
5. Provide value whencustomer wants it.
6. Compressdecision making process for customer - make it easy for customer to reachdecision.

This is perhaps one ofbiggest reasons why Six Sigma and Lean have become so popular - bar has been raised in terms of customer satisfaction. Additionally, any variation from target increases costs. So Six Sigma is not just about improving quality and lowering costs, but also about customer satisfaction. Finally, there are two dimensions to CTQ - Customer driven CTQ’s coming from our external customers and process driven CTQ’s coming from our internal customers.

"There is a parable of three blind men andelephant. Each is asked to identify what they are touching. first touches tusk of elephant and identifies he is touching a spear. second touchestorso and claims what he is touching is a wall. third touchestail and think it’s a snake. This parable parallels Six Sigma. As its popularity has grown, different experts have marketed Six Sigma to fit their needs, not necessarily that of their customers. Of course, Six Sigma includes significant amounts of statistical tools. But many see Six Sigma as only statistics. They are wrong. Touch part ofwork that constitutes Six Sigma and it will look eerily similar to other quality approaches. Touch another part of Six Sigma and it only vaguely resembles a quality approach at all." - Six Sigma Execution by George Eckes

The Six Sigma Equation

Six Sigma begins with a simple equation that says - All outcomes areresult of inputs and process that acts on these inputs may introduce errors. Errors create variation and in world of Six Sigma, variation is everything. This equation is expressed as:

Y = f (X) + E

Y: Desired outcome
f: Activities and Functions that convert inputs to outcomes
X: Inputs that are needed to producedesired outcome
E: Errors

If we go back to our pizza example, we bake pizzas with different outcomes or Y’s. Several different inputs are required before we can bakepizza - preparing pie crust (input material), having cooks put all of ingredients together (input labor) and using an oven (input equipment) to bakepizza. All of these inputs are X’s in our equation and we must measure these inputs (X’s) to get a profile of how our process performs in relation to our targeted performance.

Statistical Concepts

One ofattractions behind Six Sigma has to do with statistics. Statistics removes much of subjectivity that often plagues other forms of analysis. Opinions and speculation are replaced by applying statistical concepts to data. Some of these statistical concepts include:

1. Mean and Standard Deviation: Expressing process performance begins with Mean and Standard Deviation. Mean representsaverage of your sample values; sum of all values divided by number of observations in your sample. Standard Deviation isspread of data aroundmean. Standard Deviation is calculated by going through following steps:

a. Calculatedifference from mean for each observation.
b. Take square of each difference.
c. Sum all of your square values and divide by number of observations less 1. NOTE: When calculatingstandard deviation for a sample (as opposed to entire population), number of observations is reduced by 1. This tends to improvecalculation so that standard deviation of sample is as close to entire population as possible. It is rare that we will be measuringentire population.
d. Takesquare root of your value from step c (variance). This gives you standard deviation.

Let’s go back to our pizza example. Suppose we made 6 observations of how long it takes to bake pizza. Our upper control limit is 8 minutes; i.e. we don’t want to take more than 8 minutes to bake pizzas. results of our six observations are:

2. Sigma Value: After calculatingMean and Standard Deviation, you need to express this performance related to CTQ - customer requirements. This is done by calculating Sigma Value (sometimes called Z-Score) which represents number of standard deviations frommean. However, in order for this to work we need a normal distribution of data. So it’s useful to do a histogram and plot your data, observing curve or frequency distribution of your observations.

3. t test: Since we use samples to represent populations, we will most likely not know standard deviation ofpopulation. And when our sample size is small (less than 30 observations), we can use t test to help us with a hypothesis test about characteristics associated withpopulation.

4. F test: We may want to take samples from different segments ofpopulation, such as sampling only cheese pizzas, then sampling deluxe pizzas to see if this yields different results. You can use F test to help understand differences in standard deviations between samples taken from different populations.

5. ANOVA: Used to conduct hypothesis testing when you have two or more groups of data. Like t-test,purpose of ANOVA is to test equality of means betweendata groups. When you test and analyze only one variable (such as oven temperature in baking our pizzas), this is a One-Way ANOVA. If we tested two factors (such as oven temperature and dough texture of pizzas), this would be Two-Way ANOVA. testing of a combination of factors simultaneously in one test is referred to as a factorial experiment.

Design of Experiments (DOE)

number of inputs can be numerous (people, materials, equipment, technology, practices, methods, applications, etc.), making our six sigma equation look like:

Y = f (X1, X2, X3, X4, X5, X6, X7, X8, X9, X10, X11, X12, X13, X14, X15, X16, X17, X18, X19, X20)
What we really need to do is find out which of these inputs (X) is havingmost influence on our outcome (Y). By focusing on "vital few" input variables, we gain control over process. A series of different controlled experiments will get us tovital few. Experiments are managed based on:

1. Factors: possible X’s in our equation
2. Levels: range of values for each factor
3. Main Effects: change in Y from our experiment as we change our factor (X) from lowest level tohighest level.
Factors areindependent variable and we want to quantify impact on Y (response variable). In our pizza example, we might include these factors to help us understand variation in baking pizzas:

Each combination is an equation, contained within a matrix for all factors in our experiment. In order to getmost information, a full matrix is needed which contains all possible combinations of factors and levels. If this creates too many experimental runs, fractions ofmatrix can be taken.

"Probably few people know exactly what is meant by quality. Quality actually has different dimensions, which are all considered by consumers purchasing products. Although we as consumers may not know precisely what we mean by quality, we all recognize quality when we see it." - Myths of Japanese Quality by Ray and Cindelyn Eberts

Design for Six Sigma

"DMAIC" approach to Six Sigma seeks to improve existing processes. However, this is only half of six sigma management process. other half is to design and develop new processes to improve how we meet customer expectations. This is called Design for Six Sigma (DFSS). DFSS is used under two circumstances: Existing processes cannot be improved or a process to meet CTQ does not exist. Some oftools used in DFSS type projects include:

1. Quality Function Deployment (QFD): A methodology for identifying and categorizing customer requirements into a matrix. matrix prioritizes customer expectations on a scale from 1 (least important) to 5 (most important). Causeeffect requirements are also ranked; i.e. what is correlation between a customer requirement and customer satisfaction. This is "roof" matrix that sits on top ofmain house matrix. Depending upon your approach, QFD may include several matrixes for capturing important relationships:

2. Failure Mode Effects Analysis (FMEA): Analytical approach directed toward problem prevention through which every possible failure mode is identified and risk rated. basic steps for FMEA are:

a. Identify various failure modes (spoiled materials, labor input mistakes, flawed method, equipment failure, etc.)
b. Identifyeffects
c. Determine impact
d. Identify causes
e. Determine probability of occurrence
f. Assess current control processes in place
g. Evaluateability to detect failure mode
h. Assign a risk rating (A x B x C) relative to:

A: Severity of Impact - On a scale of 1 to 10, rateseriousness of effect from failure mode with 10 as catastrophic and 1 no impact.
B: Probability of Occurrence - likelihood that a cause and failure mode will occur with 10 as failure is certain and 1 is highly unlikely.
C: Ability to Detect - Rating your ability to detectfailure mode before putting product into production or delivering it tocustomer. A rating of 10 indicates that you cannot detect failure and 1 is where you have good controls in place to pickup failure.

i. Take corrective actions on those failure modes with high risk ratings. results of your FMEA can be summarized on a worksheet.

3. Poka Yoke: Mistake proofing a product or service. Errors lead to defects and if you can catch errors earlier, then you reducedefects. Certain work conditions tend to introduce errors: Adjustments, Infrequent Activities, Rapid Repetition Involved, and High Volume Loads with Compressed Time Frames. Once you’ve identified error prone conditions, drill down toroot causes and see if you can design an error proof way of doingwork.

"A very few American companies are counted amongworld-class leaders in quality management. But thousands upon thousands of other companies have yet to take that all important first step to ensure their products and services deliver to each customer a dependable high level of quality. American economy will either fully integrate itself into new and evolving global markets, or large parts of it are likely to be left behind as foreign competitors absorb greater and greater shares ofonly market that really matters anymore: global market."
- Quality in America: How to Implement a Competitive Quality Program by V. Daniel Hunt

Lean Thinking

2008-09-22T10:15:00.000-07:00

Six Sigma is to variation what Lean is to waste. By removing waste, we make our processes lean - very value added in terms of customer. Unlike Six Sigma which is driven by highly focused projects, Lean takes a broader view, looking at entire value stream - all steps required to produce goods and services that end user wants, when and whereend user wants it. In past, we simply thought of process as stopping once we shipped product to customer. Under lean, you have to manage entire value stream. This value stream is baseline from which we will apply our lean tools. And some of tools used in lean are same as Six Sigma. Thus, Lean and Six Sigma tend to be complimentary of one another.

"Value is a moving finish line and any satisfaction felt at delivering very best value should be tempered by knowledge thatrace is unending and those who do not improve are losing ground. Getting managers and employees to buy intoconcept of high value, long haul management is critical to establish a well-spring of value-driven ideas and actions. Value is a cause that unites and strengthens any organization, supplier or customer, small venture or large, high growth or no growth industry."
- Value Directed Management by Bernard Arogyaswamy and Ron P. Simmons

Map the Value Stream

A good place to start is to map outvalue stream. In order to prepare a value map, you must first identify all entities that are directly involved invalue stream. If you have several entities or domains within your value map, you might want to assign weights to each in relation to their influence or impact acrossentire value stream. Value Map should define overall flows or exchanges betweenvarious entities or domain owners that comprisevalue stream. This involves movement of materials and information across value stream - from resource inputs that go into making products and services to final consumption of product or service. Once you understand these relationships, you begin to identify problems and challenges that take place inexchanges throughout value map.

Most value maps are constructed by following some simple rules:

1. Use ovals for each entity. Try to keepnumber of entities to ten or less. You can vary size of oval to indicate influence or impact in value chain.
2. Connector lines between entities should be labeled as toinput or outputs involved. Here are some simple examples:

Five Lean Principles

Lean is often characterized by 5 S Principles:

1. Sort - Put things in proper order and remove those things not required for process to work.

2. Straighten - Arrange things in such a way that minimal effort is needed between each part of process.

3. Shine - Keep all parts of process clean and in good working order to prevent any break downs.

4. Standardize - Maintain all lean principles with any design changes related to process.

5. Sustain - Make a commitment to followinglean principles in how we manage our processes.

Depending upon nature of process, there are "usual" suspects when it comes to waste:

Process Modeling

Many of tools in lean aresame as Design for Six Sigma - things like mistake proofing (poka yoke) and Quality Function Deployment. Lean also uses many of "fundamental" type tools, such as root cause analysis and brainstorming - not to mention main-stay tool of value mapping. One ofmore serious tools used in lean is process modeling. Process models provide a simulation of how a process works, allowing user to trigger events and identify possible bottlenecks and inefficiencies withinprocess. Process models are not easy to build; requiring a computer model of interdependencies between entities, resources, drivers, and other components.
Process models should start with a high level map or diagram of your core process. SIPOC Method can be used to create a high level diagram of your core process:

Suppliers - All entities involved in providing resources consumed byprocess.
Inputs - actual resources (labor, materials, information, equipment, etc.).
Process - activities that convert inputs into outputs.
Outputs - Products or services produced and distributed to customers
Customers - All entities, groups, and individuals who are recipients ofoutputs.

" concept of quality management, developed since World War II, does not involve technology, it involves thought. You have to stop thinking about quantity and start thinking about quality. What makes that more difficult is that quality isn’t a convenient list you can consult or even anything you can look at. If people operated on a factual basis, everyone would have adopted a quality method by now. fact is that quality methods provide better results. Another fact is that people who work in quality companies are happier, better trained, and more dedicated employees. An even bigger fact is that quality isstandard of competition in global market."
- Thinking About Quality by Lloyd Dobyns and Clare Crawford-Mason

Lean Life Cycle Methods

Depending uponorganization, there are different life cycle approaches for doing lean. For example, Japanese organizations typically useKaizen approach:

1. Identify and clarifyobjective
2. Grasp current situation
3. Visualize ideal situation
4. Develop targets
5. Create a strategy for kaizen implementation
6. Make a plan - who, what, when
7. Implement
8. Check Effectiveness
9. Document your activity
10. Confirm results

Another approach is 8D (eight disciplines):

1. Use Team Approach
2. DescribeProblem
3. Implement and Verify Interim Actions
4. Identify Potential Causes
5. Choose / Verify Corrective Actions
6. Implement Permanent Corrective Actions
7. Prevent Recurrence
8. Congratulate Your Team

Another basic way of looking at lean is to view it as a continuous program cutting across entire value stream, following a repetitive method of: Plan (Analyzeprocess) ? Do (Test your improvement ideas) ? Check (Evaluate test results) ? Act (Adjust and go back to Plan). When coupled with various tools, such as Root Cause Analysis, Poka Yoke, and Quality Function Deployment, lean becomes integrated into all ofwork that goes into value stream. ultimate goal of managingvalue stream is to have a single piece flow where products move from one operational point to another only when needed withlowest increment in resources consumed.

"key point to remember is that customers care about and react toend product that is sum of all functional products. For example, customers visiting Disney World care little about what goes on behindscenes to createmagic. A hotel guest should not be concerned withprocess that getsright room clean and ready for a stay. A frequent flyer remembers on-time arrivals, not fuel load or pilot schedules. Consumers instinctively focus onultimate outcome they desire."
- Focused Quality: Managing for Results byHarvey K. Brelin, Kimberly S. Davenport, Lyell P. Jennings and Paul F. Murphy

Course Summary

Improving performance is not about cutting people. It’s about cutting waste and inefficiency fromprocess so people can do their jobs better. tools for process improvement have exploded in recent years thanks to Six Sigma. But even if you don’t have a team of Six Sigma Black Belts, you can still apply many fundamental concepts for improving a process. This can include things like reducing handoffs within a process, eliminating "Re" type activities, and organizing around process flows as opposed to functional silos. Additionally, many of fundamental tools for improving a process are not overly complicated - things like root cause analysis, affinity diagrams, and brainstorming.

You can also embark on broad approaches to process improvement by using Capability Maturity Models and Lean. Several programs are available for making quality a part of company’s culture. Examples includeMalcolm Baldridge National Quality Award and ISO 9000. Givenwealth of resources now available, there’s no excuse for any company not to improve its processes.

Quality is now a given forcustomer. When people buy products and services, they expect high quality. Voice ofCustomer recognizes that customers have silent expectations that you can no longer ignore. Therefore, understandingvoice of customer is paramount for addressing quality and improving your processes. road to process improvement must pass through customer. And as customer expectations rise,need to improve organizational processes will grow. Process improvement is now a fundamental part of managing any organization and if you fail to improve your processes, then sooner or later you will be forced to do so in order to survive.

"Astute managers at all levels - in all industries - realize thatsuccess of their organizations in today’s world depends upon flexibility and responsiveness in meeting customer needs, achieving ever higher quality levels, a high degree of internal efficiency, and cost effectiveness. key to success is to maximize value tocustomer and successfully implement changes that make maximum customer value a reality for any organization in any industry." - Breakthrough Process Redesign: New Pathways to Customer Value by Charlene B. Adair and Bruce A. Murray