What is a classic process improvement story?
Toothpaste.
What are the two reasons we chart the flows of customers, info and products?
Easier to understand, Helps identify improvement opportunities.
What does a square in a flow chart represent?
A step.
What doe a triangle represent in a flow chart?
A waiting period.
What does a diamond represent in a flow chart?
A decision point.
What are the three steps to process improvement?
Recognize need for change, Research “best practice” (benchmarking), determine how to change (tinker or tear down).
What are some leading and internal signs for need of change?
Excessive delays, high scrap, employee frustration, idle staff.
What are leading external warning signs for change.
Customer complaints, product returns, negative media
What are lagging internal sign for a need for change.
Excessive overtime, employee turnover, declining KPI performance.
What are lagging external signs for a need for change?
Declining market share, declining financial performance.
What is benchmarking?
Formal process of comparing an organization’s process and performance measures against top performers (how do they do it?).
What are the three methods of benchmarking?
Internal, Competitive, Functional.
What are the 2 good methods of benchmarking?
Internal (if you have multiple locations), functional (Looking at other industries, most common if you don’t have multiple stores).
Why does competitive benchmarking not really work?
Because competition isn’t willing to help.
What are the two process improvement approaches?
Continuous process improvement, Business Process reengineering.
What is continuous process improvement?
Constant tinkering. Employees prefer.
What is business process reengineering?
Short-term radical process improvement. Change or die, lay offs.
When should you do process reengineering?
Only when your going to die.
What causes a need for business process reengineering?
Combination of Technological advancements, drastic improvement at a competitor, changing customer desires.
What are some important parts of the continuous process improvement?
Collaborative, cross-functional teams, need for training, adequate time to be creative, company culture is key.
Why is a willingness to delegate decision-making so important to continuous process improvement?
Let them do it, then they want to help.
What is a just in time/lean production?
Coordinated approach that continuously reduces waste while also improving quality.
What is the pull system?
Manual, self-regulating system for controlling flow of material. workers only produce when bin ahead of them is empty.
What does the pull system minimize?
The amount of unnecessary inventory that would accumulate in push system.
