TABLE OF CONTENTS Ranking methods are used to take a list of issues, items, or solutions and then rank them in some order based on a set of ranking criteria. Ranking tools are used by teams to help make decisions about what to do next. Two different ranking methods will be discussed here:
Forced ranking
Weighted ranking charts
Ranking methods are used whenever a list of items must be ranked in some order based on criteria such as best to worst, fastest to slowest, expensive to cheap. In the process management methodology, ranking methods are most often used:
In Step 3, "Select Issue and Process," to rank customer issues in order of importance to the team.
In Step 8, "Set Improvement Objectives and Schedule," to choose which performance gap to correct next.
In Step 11, "Select Root Cause to Eliminate / Investigate," to summarize the importance to customers of certain issues.
In Step 13, "Evaluate and Select Best Solution," to choose the best solution.
The methods described here assume that more than one ranking criteria have already been agreed to. These criteria could include such things as:
Importance to the customer
Importance to the process
Time to resolve it calendar time and people time
Cost to resolve it
Likelihood of success
Ease of resolution
Forced ranking is best used when there are only two or three ranking criteria. Forced ranking works because it is difficult to slot 12 items into...
