CONTINUOUS

IMPROVEMENT
By
Anthony Cappucci
David Silva

1
BENCHMARKING QUALITY FUNCTION
(CHAPTER 14) DEPLOYMENT
(CHAPTER 16)

CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT
(CHAPTER 15)

TOTAL QUALITY PROCESS

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BENCHMARKING

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 BENCHMARKING
Definition:

Benchmarking is the process of comparing and measuring an

organization’s operations or its internal processes against
those of a best-in-class performer from inside or outside its
industry.
Process benchmarking is a systematic and continuous
improvement process; a process of continually MEASURING
and COMPARING an organization’s BUSINESS
PROCESSES against business pro LEADERS anywhere in
the world to gain INFORMATION which will help the
organization take ACTION to IMPROVE its
PERFORMANCE. 4
 Key Points
• Benchmarking is an increasingly popular improvement
tool.
• Benchmarking concerns processes and practices.
• Benchmarking is a respected means of identifying
processes that require major change.
• Benchmarking is done between consenting companies that
may or may not be competitors.
• Benchmarking compares your process or practice with the
target company’s best-in-class process or practice.
• The goal of benchmarking is to find “secrets of success”
and then adapt and improve for your own application.

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 Benchmarking as it Relates to
Continuous Improvement
• Today’s competitive world does not allow time for gradual
improvement in areas in which a company lags way
behind.
• Benchmarking can tell a firm where it stands relative to
best-in-class practices and processes, and which processes
must be changed.
• Benchmarking provides a best-in-class model to be
adopted, or even improved upon.
• Modern customers are better informed and demand the
highest quality and lowest prices. Companies have a
choice to either perform or go out of business.
• Benchmarking supports total quality by providing the best
means for rapid, significant process/practice improvement.
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 Benchmarking Approach and Process
1. Obtain management commitment.
2. Baseline your own processes.
3. Identify your strong and weak process and document
them.
4. Select processes to be benchmarked.
5. Form benchmarking teams.
6. Research best-in-class.
7. Select candidate best-in-class benchmarking partners.
8. Form agreements with benchmarking partners.
9. Collect data.
10. Analyze data and establish the gap.
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 Continued

11. Plan action to close the gap/surpass.

12. Implement change.
13. Monitor.
14. Update benchmarks; continue the cycle.

8
 e ment Your
mprov Process
us I Benchmark
nt i nuo Process
Co

GAP

Time of
Benchmark Gap
(Negative Gap) Eliminated
Time
Implemented New Benchmark Surpassed
Process (Positive Gap)

Effect of Benchmarking Process Change Followed by Continuous Improvement 9

 Benchmarking Versus
Re-Engineering
Process re-engineering should only be
considered when it is impossible to use
benchmarking.

• No known process available for benchmarking (rare).

• Best-in-class not willing to partner.
• Best-in-class inaccessible due to geography or expense.

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 Role of Management in
Benchmarking
• For benchmarking to be productive, management
must be committed to change.
• Management must provide the necessary funding.
• Management must allocate the appropriate
personal.
• Information to be disclosed to benchmarking
partners can only be cleared by management.
• Top level managers must themselves be directly
involved in benchmarking activities.
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 Processes Documented
• All people associated with the process should have a
common understanding of it, and that can come only from
documentation.
• A documented starting point is needed against which to
measure performance improvement after benchmarking
changes have been implemented.
• The organization will be dealing with people (the partners)
who are not familiar with its processes. With an
understanding of where the benchmarking organization is,
the partner will be better able to help.

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 Settling for “OK-in-Class”
Reasons organizations too often choose
benchmarking partners who are not best-in-class.

• The best-in-class is not interested in partnering.

• Research identified the wrong partner.
• The benchmarking company got lazy and picked a handy
partner.

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 Obstacles to Successful Benchmarking
• If a company is too internally focused it may not be aware
that their processes are less efficient than best-in-class.
• An overly broad benchmarking objective can guarantee
failure.
• Unrealistic timetables.
• Poor team composition--the people who use the process
day in and day out, must be involved.
• Improper emphasis--A frequent cause of failure in
benchmarking is that teams get bogged down in collecting
endless data and put too much emphasis on the numbers.
• Insensitivity to partners--If you fail to observe protocol
and common courtesy in all transactions, your organization
runs the risk of being cut off.
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 BENCHMARKING CASE STUDY:
XEROX (MANUFACTURING)
• Xerox’s success is the first one in the history of
benchmarking.
• From a critical situation in 1972, Xerox became what we
call today a “top benchmarking partner”.
• In 1979, Xerox starts benchmarking.
• In 1989, Xerox wins the Malcolm Baldrige National
Quality Award.
The Next Slide Illustrates Xerox’s Results

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 Productivity

• Product performance during the first 30 days of

installation has increased 40%
• Manufacturing lead times have been reduced 50%.
• Manufacturing labor and material over-head rates
have been improved by 31% and 46%
respectively.
• Customer retention rate is 20% better than U.S.
industry average.

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 Xerox Now Has:
• A company wide performance measurement
covering 240 key areas of product, service and
business performance.
• The targets of world leaders.
• Tremendous gains in quality (78% defect
reduction, increased reliability with 40% decrease
in unscheduled maintenance, increased copy
quality, 27% decrease in service response time).
• Significant reductions in labor and material over-
heads.
• First company to offer three year product
warranty. 17
Quality Function Deployment
(QFD)

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 Definition
QFD is a practice for designing your processes in
response to customer needs. QFD translates what
the customer wants into what the organization
produces. It enables an organization to prioritize
customer needs, an improve processes to
maximum effectiveness. QFD is a practice that
leads to process improvements that enable an
organization to exceed the expectations of the
customer.
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 Identify trade-offs
relating to the
6 manufacturing requirements

2
Manufacturer's current
requirements/specifications to suppliers

RELATIONSHIPS 3
1 4
PLANNING
What do the customer requirements mean to the MATRIX

CUSTOMER manufacturer?
·Importance
INPUT Rating.
(Requirements)
Where are the interactions between ·Competition
Rating.
relationships? ·Target Values.
·Scale-up
Needed.
·Sales Point.

Planning Weight
(Calculated)

Prioritized List of Manufacturer's Critical

Process Requirements
5
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QFD Matrix Structure

 QFD Process: One Complete Cycle
T e c h n ic a l F e a t u r e s
C u s t o m e r R e q u ir e m e n t s M A T R IX 1
A p p lie d T e c h n o lo g ie s
T e c h n ic a l F e a t u r e s M A T R IX 2
M a n u fa c t u r in g P r o c e s s e s
A p p lie d T e c h n o lo g ie s M A T R IX 3
Q u a lit y C o n t r o l P r o c e s s e s
M a n u fa c t u r in g P r o c e s s e s M A T R IX 4
S t a t is t ic a l P r o c e s s C o n t r o l
Q u a lit y C o n t r o l P r o c e s s e s M A T R IX 5
S p e c ific a t io n s fo r t h e F in is h e d P r o d u c t
S t a t is t ic a l P r o c e s s C o n t r o l M A T R IX 6
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 Benefits of QFD
• Customer-focused. A total-quality organization is a
customer-focused organization.
• Time-efficient. QFD can reduce development time because
it focuses on identified customer requirements.
• Teamwork -orientated. All decisions in the process are
based on consensus and involve in-depth discussion and
brainstorming.
• Documentation-orientated. One of the products of the
QFD processes a comprehensive document that pulls
together all pertinent data about all processes and how they
stack up against customer requirements.

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Characteristics of Customer Information

Solicited

Random Unsolicited

Characteristics
of Customer
Information

Structured Quantitative

Qualitative

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Basic QFD Tools
Matrix Diagram

Tree Diagram

Interrelationship
Digraph

Affinity
Diagram

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 Creating an Affinity Diagram:
Collecting Information on Why a Engineering
Textbook is Not Selling
1. A team of employees familiar with the issue is formed.
2. The issue to be discussed is stated without detail. “Why
does our engineering text book not sell better?”
3. Responses of participants are stated verbally and recorded
on 3 by 5 cards.
4. The cards are spread on a large table, and participants are
asked to group cards containing related ideas. Cards that
don’t fit any particular group can be grouped as
miscellaneous.
5. Participants try to find a heading that describes each
group.
6. The information on the cards is replicated on paper with
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boxes around each group of ideas.
Affinity Diagram Example: Poor Sales Figures on
an Engineering Textbook
ARTWORK PEDAGOGICAL PRODUCTION WRITING
ISSUES ISSUES ISSUES ISSUES
Drawings not Too limited in Poor registration Reading level too
produced on CAD scope of coverage. on drawings. high.
system.
Too simple. Not No chapter Screens too dark. Writing style
enough complex objectives. complex.
examples.
Drawings do not No chapter Page count too Writing style
comply with ANSI summaries. low. among co-authors
standards. inconsistent.
Not enough Key terms. Paperback cover. Too few sub-
variety. headings.
No color photos. Superficial review Sloppy production. Paragraphs too
questions. long.
Poor drawing No design projects. Poorly written.
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package.
 Interrelationship Digraph
1. Write the problem statement on a 3 by 5 card.
Continuing the example of poor sales figures, write this
on a card and designate it as the problem statement by
enclosing it in a double line.

3x5
Poor Sales Card
Figures

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 Interrelationship Digraph Continued
2. Place the problem statement card in the upper left corner
of a table. Take out all the cards used to develop the
Affinity diagram and lay them on the table. Place the card
most closely associated with the problem closest to the
problem card. Continue on with the next closest until cards
are used up.
3. When the cards are all laid out, recreate them on paper.
Distribute copies of the paper to the group for discussion.
The group then makes a final arrangement.
4. Distribute the final version to participants and ask them to
draw arrows showing what contributes to what. This is the
step in which relationships between and among causes are
established.
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 Interrelationship Digraph (Partial)

Poor Drawings Do Drawings Not

Drawing Not Comply Produced on
Package with ANSI CAD System

Poor Sales Insufficient

Figures Variety of
Drawings

Poor Screens on
Sloppy
Registration Drawings
Production
on Drawings Too Dark

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 Tree Diagram
1. Clearly identify the problem to be solved. It can be taken
from the affinity diagram or from the interrelationship
digraph.. Write it on a card and place it on the left side of
a table.
2. Conduct a brainstorming session in which participants
record on 3 by 5 cards all possible tasks, methods, and
activities relating to the problem. Repeat the question “In
order for this to happen, what must happen first?”
Continue until all ideas are exhausted.
3. Lay all cards on table to the right of the problem card. Put
them in order based on what must happen first.
4. Duplicate the cards on paper and distribute copies to all
participates. All participates are to revise and correct the
document.
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 Tree Diagram (Partial)
Produces
Contract with
drawings on a Identify CAD
a CAD
modem CAD Contractor
company
system

Contract with
Require ANSI
Authors to Specialist to
Comply with
Submit Check
Latest ANSI
Create a Sketches that Sketches
Quality Comply
Artwork
Package Require Identify 50
Increase
Authors to Complex
Number of
Submit Drawings
Complex
Sketches that Available From
Drawings
Comply Industry
Poor Sales
Figures
Increase Require Authors to Submit
Variety of Sketches According to a
Drawings prescribed Variety Formula

Add
Rewrite
Revise Objectives,
Review
Standard Summaries,
Questions to
Chapter Key Terms,
Give Them
Format and Design
More Depth
Projects

Improve Broaden
Pedagogical Scope of Add Chapters on Automated
Features Coverage Manufacturing, Visualization for Solid
Modeling, and Descriptive Geometry

Improve
Support Add a Comprehensive Glossary
Material
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 Matrix Diagram
• It is a helpful tool for identifying and
graphically displaying connections (seen as
intersections on the diagram) among
responsibilities, tasks, functions, and so
forth.

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 L-Shaped Matrix: Improving Sales Figures
Department/ Editorial Art Production
Tasks Units

Produce New Drawings - 1 2

On a CAD System
Bring Drawings into 1 2 -
ANSI Compliance
Add Color Photos 3 1 2
Add Chapter Objectives
1 - 2
Summaries, Key Terms
Correct Registration on - 2 1
Drawings
Lighten Screens on - 2 1
Drawings
1 = Primary Responsibility
LEGEND
2 = Secondary Responsibility
3 = Tertiary Responsibility 33
 Implementing QFD Develop
the
Matrices
Train the
Team

Conduct a
“Kick Off”
Meeting

Select a
Project

Establish
Monitoring
Procedures

Form the
Project
Team
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 Implementing QFD
• Form the Project Team. The nature of the project will
dictate the makeup of the project team. Will the team
Improve a product or develop a new one? The team
should consist of personal from marketing, engineering
quality, and manufacturing. If a new product is being
developed market research and development personal
should be there.
• Establish Monitoring Procedures. Three questions must be
answered:
What will be monitored?
How will it be monitored?
How often will it be monitored?

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• Select a Project. It is a good idea to begin with an
improvement project. Team members who are not familiar
with QFD are at least familiar with the product.
• Conduct a “Kick-Off” Meeting.
1. Make sure all participants understand the mission of the
project team.
2. Make sure all participates understand their role on the the
team.
3. Establish parameters - (length, time, and frequency of
meeting).
• Train the Team. Team members should learn how to use
QFD tools and how the QFD process works.
• Develop the Matrices.

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Continuous Improvement

Several different approaches

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Management’s role in Continuous Improvement
Joseph Juran

Establish an organization-wide quality council

Establish specific quality improvement goals with timetables and target dates

Provide support

Schedule periodic reviews

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Structure for Quality Improvements
Establish a quality Council

Develop a statement of responsibilities

Establishing the necessary infrastructure

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Essential Improvement Activities

Communicate
Correction Obvious Problems
Find causes
Documentation
Monitor changes

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The Scientific Approach
Collect meaningful data
Identify root causes of problems
Develop appropriate solutions
Plan and make changes

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Identification of Improvement needs

Apply multi voting

Identify customer needs

Study the use of time

Localize problems

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Development of Improvement Plans

Understand the process

Eliminate errors
Remove slack
Reduce variation
Plan for continuous improvement

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 Common Improvement Strategies

Eliminate
Variation

Streamline
the Process

Eliminate
Errors in
the Process

Improve the
Standardize Design
the Process
Get the
process in
Describe statistical
the Process control

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