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Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Quality Improvement – Six Steps to Improving Quality

Step 1 - Reason for Improvement

Objective – Identify the Problem (Theme).

What key activities should be undertaken?

Research for Theme(s) (Problems)

- Review key processes and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

- Survey internal/external customers

- Identify what the team knows (brainstorming)

- Conduct interviews

Determine Process Ownership (related to problem/improvement)

- Document the “As Is” processes

- Determine customer needs

- Determine what improvement is needed using available data

- Show likely impacts of the solution/new process

- Get to work on the new solution/activities

Tools to Utilize

* Control Charts

* Brainstorming

* Process Maps

* Relationship Interaction Diagram

* Variance Analysis

Key Questions to Ask

* What do we produce? (Work products)

* Whom do we do it for?

* How well do we do it?

* How do we know we are doing it well?

*** Note: The other five steps will be posted in the coming days.

2 comments:

Chris Stadler said...

I notice you have no comments yet. That's a shame, because I'm a new project manager, and I'm thoroughly eating up the advice you're giving. I'm looking for clarity in what we do and why: this way, I can fine-tune things. Your advice is geared toward taking it from the top, getting a good overview and tackling problems, only when the problem has been clearly identified and well-defined.

Have you written an article yet on the process of delving into a complicated problem, only to get confused and need to resurface and reacquaint yourself with the specific problem again? This seems like a cycle for me - although each time I go through the cycle, I understand the problem better.

Chris Stadler said...

By the way, I saw your profile. Skillet is one of my faves. Is it unprofessional to say that the Bible is one of my faves, too? :)