VOC: An Important Source of Customer Information & Improvement Projects
VOC or voice of the customer is a set of tools, method, and techniques that allow an improvement team to methodically collect and analyze customer needs and how customers value those needs. Some basic needs are unspoken and expected. If those needs are not met, the result will be extreme customer dissatisfaction. An example might be buying a new car and finding it won’t...
Read MoreMaking Sense of Process Capability
Process capability is the inherent variability that a process exhibits due to the variability in the process’ inputs. To better understand what this means, let’s take a look at a simple IPO (Input, Process, Output) diagram for making a morning pot of coffee. Our output for this process is a strong, bold cup of coffee. We designate the output of our process as the Y and it can be...
Read MoreAffinity Diagrams – A Process For Organizing Your Thoughts For Improvement
Affinity diagrams are a useful in that they can help you organize your thoughts and develop action plans when you are overwhelmed with many problems and not sure where to start. They are also useful when issues seem too large and complex to grasp or when group consensus is needed to take action. They can also be used when you need to analyze verbal data such as survey results and can help to...
Read MoreMake Sense of The Improvement Data You Collect
Most organizations can honestly say they have an abundance of data, but many flounder when it comes to having the right information to lead their companies to improvement. We collect data on all kinds of things but we rarely take the time to analyze it properly to learn what it tells us. Some Basics Regarding Data First of all, data is all around us! Everything we do produces data, every...
Read MoreStandardize Work Process To Provide Customers Better Products & Services
Much of the work we do consists of repetitive tasks: changing a die in a stamping press, closing the books every month or running a weekly or monthly meeting. These repetitive tasks can be studied and improved to make them more efficient, reliable, easier, safer, and more productive. We then document the best method and teach it to everyone associated with the task. This will make...
Read MoreDoes Your Organization Have A Learning Disability?
Organizations fail at alarming rates and in most companies that do there is an abundance of evidence in advance that the firm is in trouble. Organizations fail to recognize these impending threats and understand their implications even when some individual managers are aware of it. It is no accident that most organizations are poor learners. The way they are designed and managed, the way...
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