Aim: To define a process and appropriate measures to use in tracking improvement. Refers to Units 2 and 3 of the study guide.
Part 1: Defining the process and measures:
Select a process that you are familiar with. It may be a work-related process or one from another area of your life. Ideally, it will be the process that you will subsequently attempt to improve over the duration of this course.
a) Develop a SIPOC (Suppliers, Inputs, Process, Outputs, Customers) diagram (e.g. figure 2.1) indicating clearly the various elements associated with the process, namely: suppliers, inputs, controls, resources, outputs, suppliers. No process flow chart is needed at this stage.
b) For this process, identify one (currently used or possible) measure that is Critical to Quality (CTQ), AND one measure that is Critical To Process (CTP). For each of these two measures, explain what category of data is produced (see section 3.1), and how the data are used for monitoring or improvement?
Part 2: Baselining the process
Read carefully through (at least) the first three readings of unit 3. Then read the following case scenario and answer the questions that follow.
Case scenario:
A multinational organization has an annual funding round for its internal departments, where departments can apply for central funding for significant new appointments, equipment or other resources. The funding approval process involves three stages of verification (departmental, regional and corporate), where paperwork is checked for accuracy and completeness. Each stage results in three possible outcomes for the applicant department: (1) acceptance to the next level, (2) return for revision and resubmission, or (3) outright rejection. Revised applications can be resubmitted following minor amendments, but rejected applications cannot be resubmitted to that year's funding process. The application form contains 10 fields, where each field represents an opportunity for a non-conformance (defect) to occur. We can assume that any field is either correctly filled out or not. An incorrectly completed field constitutes a defect for this situation, while a form that is rejected or returned for revision can be considered defective.
In view of the time and resource invested by departments in making funding applications, a DMAIC project has been launched to improve the acceptance rate for funding applications (by trying to reduce the number of rejected applications). It is estimated that (on average) each initial application costs a department $5000, and each revision costs another $1000 in time spent.
As an initial base lining exercise to determine the extent of the problem, an audit of 130 applications (made over the previous year) is conducted, in which it is found that:
- Following stage 1, 8 applications were returned to the applicant for resubmission, and 14 applications were rejected outright. The returned applications were all successfully resubmitted and passed through stage 1. The total number of incorrectly completed fields found at this stage was 34.
- Following stage 2, 5 forms were returned to the applicant for resubmission, and 7 were rejected outright. The returned applications were all successfully resubmitted and passed through stage 2. The total number incorrectly completed fields found at this stage were 15.
- Following stage 3, 3 forms were returned to the applicant for resubmission and 4 were rejected outright. The returned applications were all successfully resubmitted and passed through stage 3. The total number incorrectly completed fields found at this stage were 9.
As part of the baselining stage of the project, and making any assumptions you think appropriate (please state these), calculate for the above case:
a) The percentage defective
b) The Defects Per Unit (DPU)
c) The Defects Per Million opportunities (DPMO)
d) The rolled throughput yield (RTY)
(Drawing a flow diagram might help you with this).
e) The (current) cost of poor quality (COPQ)
f) The approximate sigma level (use table 1 on page 3 of unit 3 reading 1 by T.M. Kubiak. Do not include the standard '1.5 sigma shift' shown in the table and discussed on page 4 of the reading). You can round your answer up of down to the nearest table value (no need to interpolate).
g) Give your view of the current state of the process, and whether a 6 sigma improvement process is justified.
Attachment:- Measures to use in tracking improvement.rar