Quality Beyond Six Sigma
Providing a practical implementation of the issues of Six Sigma, Lean Enterprise and Total Quality, this stimulating guide aligns the 'hard' sigma message with the softer sustainable 'strategic issues'.
TABLE OF CONTENTS Quality Beyond Six Sigma
Systems Structure
In considering how service operations function it is useful to consider the system structure. System structure is best shown in diagrammatic form using the following symbols:
| | The process of combining resources to add value |
| | Store of resources, or queue of customers waiting to enter the system |
| | The flow of resources through the system |
| | The customer |
Note that the customer does not have to be external to the organization but may be an internal customer. The internal customer can be defined as the next person, or department, in the process.
Overall there are three basic service structures, but often organizations will consist of a combination of systems. The structures and the form of notation have been adapted from Wild (2002), who shows seven basic structures.
Manufacturing Structures
Four of Wild's structures relate to manufacturing operations, where the customer is seen as pulling from the system. With a basic manufacturing system there will be an input stock of materials; the operation will be to transform the inputs into finished good (outputs), and the customer will be supplied from the stock of finished goods. Wild shows this as:
If finished good are not stocked and the finished product is delivered direct to the customer, then the structure will be:
With a just-in-time manufacturing system (see Chapter 5) and Lean Sigma the aim is not to hold input stocks, and finished goods are delivered direct to the customer. The structure for this is shown as:
The fourth manufacturing structure shown by Wild...
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