Page 309 - Lean six sigma demystified

Chapter 9 La S er-Fo C u S ed Pr o C e SS i nnovation 287

FIgurE 9-5 • SIPOC diagram.

SIPOC

Another tool to define your current process is the SIPOC diagram (Fig. 9-5). It

shows your suppliers, inputs, main process steps, outputs, and customers (direct
and indirect). Identify your main supplier, customer, the product or service
used, and the process that creates it. Begin identifying your requirements of the
supplier. Then, identify your customers’ requirements for the product or ser-
vice. What do they want in terms of good, fast, and inexpensive? Then, on the
basis of your customers’ needs, identify how you can measure them with
defects, time, or cost. Finally, identify how often you will measure by minute,
hour, day, week, or month.
Here are examples from three different environments to demonstrate how
to identify the indicators on the basis of requirements. For a restaurant, soft-
ware developer, or telephone company, who are your main customers, products,
services, processes, and customer requirements?