PROCESS FOCUS

BY: DR. JESTITA F. GURREA

OBJECTIVES
 To determine the importance of understanding & managing
processes for quality.
PROCESS FOCUS
 Process is a sequence of linked activities that is intended to
achieve some results such as producing a good or service for
a customer within or outside the organization.
 It involves combinations of people, machines, tools, techniques,
materials & improvements in a defined series of steps or
actions.
 Production: the collection of activities & operations involved in
transforming inputs to outputs.
PROCESS MANAGEMENT
 It is planning & administering the activities necessary to
achieve a high level of performance in key organizational
process and identifying opportunities for improving quality
and operational performance and ultimately customer
satisfaction.
 3 major activities
 Design
 Control
 improvement
 Design-focuses on ensuring that the inputs to the process
such as materials, technology, work methods & trained
workforce are adequate & that the process can achieve its
requirements
 Control-focuses on maintaining consistency in output by
assessing performance & taking corrective action when
necessary.
 Improvement-focuses on continually seeking to achieve
higher level of performance such as fewer defects & errors &
smaller cycle times
 Cycle time-refers to the time it takes to accomplish one cycle
of a process (e.g. The time from when the customer order the
product to the time it is delivered.
 Thus, cycle time is one of the most important metrics in
process management.
 Process owner-individual or group which are accountable for
process performance & have the authority to control &
improve the process
PRINCIPLES TO GUIDE PROCESS
MANAGEMENT ACTIVITIES
 Process improvement focuses on the end-to-end process
 The mind-set quality is one of prevention & continuous
improvement
 Everyone manage a process at same level & simultaneously a
customer & a supplier
 Customer needs drive process improvement
 Corrective action focuses on removing the root cause of the
problem rather than treating its symptoms
 Process simplification reduces opportunities for errors & rework
 Process improvement results from a disciplined & structured
application of quality management principles.
IDENTIFYING PROCESS &
REQUIREMENTS
 Categories: Value creation and support processes
1. Value creation process (core processes) –the most important to
“running the business” & maintaining or achieving sustainable
competitive advantage.
Why? Because it includes product design & production delivery
process
Product design process involve all activities that are performed to
incorporate customer requirements, new technology &
organizational knowledge into functional specifications of
manufactured good & services
Production process-create or deliver the actual product. Eg.
manufacturing., assembly, dispensing a medication, teaching a
claa.
1. Other organization, the value creation process take the form
of projects.Thus, project are the chief means of value
creation.
1. Project management-involves all activities associated with
planning, scheduling & controlling projects
2. Support process-provide infrastructure for value creation
process but do not add value directly to the product . It also
includes process for finance & accounting, facilities
management, legal services, human resource services,
public relations & other administrative services. E.g. Direct
mail distributor
PROCESS REQUIREMENTS
 What are the customer’s expected outcomes from the
process?
 HOW TO ANSWER THE CUSTOMER’S EXPECTED
OUTCOMES?
 Reviewing customers feedback data, conducting specialized
surveys or focus groups & customers on design teams
 PROCESS DESIGN
GOAL
Develop an efficient process that satisfies both internal &
external customer requirements & capable of achieving the
requisite level of quality & requirements.
OTHER FACTORS
Safety, Cost, Variability, Productivity, Environmental Impact,
Measurement capability, maintainability of equipment.
.
 Process designs begins with understanding its purpose &
requirements, who the customer is and what outputs are
produced?
 WHEN PROCESS DESIGN STARTS?
 It starts with a detailed technical analysis of characteristics of
the product, technological capabilities of machines &
equipments, required operation, sequences, assembly methods
and others.
 PURPOSE OF ORDER TAKING PROCESS
 To accurately identify in friendly fashion what a customer wants. Thus,
process design start by identifying ways that customers prefer to place
orders & how long they are willing to wait
 TECHNOLOGY is an integral process design that makes
today’s service & mftg. process operate productively & meet
customer needs.
 Example: fast-food restaurants design their food preparation
& delivery process for a high degree of accuracy & fast
response.
PROCESS MAPPING
 Designing process requires systematic approach that includes
defining the sequence of steps that need to be performed
along with formal documentation of procedures &
requirements.
 Process maps refers to the specific steps in a process & their
sequence.
 Example: Hire candidate, training with operator checklist,
safety quality & procedures testing ---------YES OR NO?
 IF YES?
 FOUR-WEEK EVALUATION, SOLO WITH LEAD OPERATOR
SUPPORT, 90 EVALUATION------If fail? Reevaluate employee
PROCESS DESIGN FOR SERVICES
 DIFFERENCE BETWEEN SERVICE PROCESS & MANUFACTURED
PRODUCTS
 1.Output of service process are not well defined compared to manufactured
products.
 Example: banks offer tangible goods such as checking loans, automated tellers and
others but the real differentiating factor among banks is the service they provide.
 2. Service process involve greater interaction with the customer & easier to
identify the needs and expectations.
 3. Customers cannot define their need for services until they have some
point of reference & comparison.
 4. Service process involve both internal & external activities that complicate
design for quality. Example: Poor service may result from the way that
tellers treat customers & poor quality of information systems.
 Internal concerned with efficiency (quality of conformance)
 External-with direct customer interaction-require attention to effectiveness
(quality of design
COMPONENTS OF SERVICES
 1. PHYSICAL FACILITIES, PROCESS & PROCEDURES
 2. EMPLOYEE BEHAVIOR
 3. EMPLOYEE PROFESSIONAL JUDGEMENT
 DESIGNING A SERVICE INVOLVES AN EFFECTIVE
BALANCE
 Reliability, assurance, tangibles, empathy & responsiveness for
designing quality in into three service components.
 Useful approach in designing services is to recognize that
services differ in 3 dimensions:
 1. customer contact & interaction
 2. Labor intensity
 3. Customization
DESIGN FOR AGILITY
 Agility is a term commonly used to characterize flexibility &
short cycle times.
 Flexibility refers to ability to adapt quickly & effectively to
changing requirements. Example: rapid change over from one
product to another, rapid response to changing demand, ability
to produce wide range of customize service.
 Example: H & M can rush items into stores as 3 weeks.
Designs are sent electronically to factories in Europe & Asia
that can handle the job quickly.
 Therefore these kind of processes shall incorporate flexible
manufacturing technologies, just-in-time systems,
information technology & emphasize cycle time reduction.
MISTAKE-PROOFING PROCESS
 Causes of Errors
 1. Forgetfulness due to lack of reinforcement or guidance
 2. Misunderstanding or incorrect identification because of
the lack of familiarity with a process or procedures.
 3. Lack of experience
 4. Absentmindedness & lack of attention especially when a
process is automated
 However, blaming workers not only discourages them and
lower morale, but usually does not address the source of the
problems which according to Deming & Juran the errors is
usually in the system.
PREVENTING MISTAKES
 1. Designing potential defects & errors out of the process.
This approach is the best because it eliminates the possibility
that the error or defect will occur & will not result in rework,
scrap or wasted time.
 2. Identifying potential defects & errors & stopping a process
before thy occur.
 Although it prevent errors , it does not result in some non-value-added time.
 3. Identifying defects & errors soon after they occur & quickly
correcting the process.
 This can avoid large amounts of costly defects in the future but does
not result in some scrap, rework & wasted resources.
 Moreover, good design can eliminate many defects but still cannot
account for the human factor.
 Poka-yoke is an approach for mistake-proofing process using
automatic deices to avoid human error.
 Two aspects
 1. prediction or recognizing that a defect is about to occur &
providing a warning.
 2. detection or recognizing that a defect has occurred &
stopping the process.
PROCESS CONTROL
 It is the activity of ensuring conformance to the requirements
& taking corrective action when necessary to correct
problems & maintain stable performance.
 ELEMENTS OF CONTROL
 1. standard or goal
 2. means of measuring accomplishment
 3. comparison of results with the standard to provide
feedback
 4. ability to make correction as appropriate
PROCESS CONTROL IN
MANUFACTURING
 In manufacturing, control is usually applied to incoming
materials, key processes and final products & services.
 Thus, if incoming materials are of poor quality, the final product
is not also good.
 In TQM environment, customers should not rely in heavy
inspection of purchased items.
 Moreover, unwanted variation can arise during production
 Final inspection represent last point in manufacturing