Elsmar Cove Forums Index - System Planning & Process Control

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System Planning & Process Control
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Posted by: ccochran

Hello, folks:

Hope everyone had a nice weekend. Here's a little something I wrote in the last week or so entitled, "System Planning and Process Control." The intent was to provide a roadmap for people to understand what their processes are and how to demonstrate control. Besides the article itself, there is an example process matrix that goes along with it. I'd enjoy hearing everyone's thoughts on this subject.

And by the way, where are everyone else's articles?!?!?

Craig

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Craig Cochran
Center for International Standards and Quality
Georgia Institute of Technology

Posted by: Greg B

Craig,

Once again you have made what could possibly be construed, and often is, as a difficult process seem simple. You have broken it down to basics and I think a great many readers will be happy that Marc has started this new forum of partcipation. Works like yours and Steve Previtts will keep the fires burning and hopefully 'we mere mortals' will be tempted to put pen to paper and submit some of our own originals.

I have been working on Behaviour Based Safety (BBS) for the last few weeks and implementing a 5S program (a lot of work to go). I hope at the end to write a project for work that BBS can be used across the board in Quality, Environement and General Business practises. Dare I say watch this space (forum) as I may submit an article for everyone to review before I take it to work.

Greg B

Posted by: ccochran

Greg,

Thanks for your very kind comments. I'm looking forward to seeing some of your work on Behaviour Based Safety and 5S. I know it will be impressive.

By the way, if anyone finds the 'example process matrix' helpful, they're free to use it. Of course, it will need to be edited to fit the circumstances.

Craig

Posted by: Rob Nix

Excellent, Craig. The clarity of your writing makes it clear you have a strong grasp of the subject matter. One of the most important points you make, IMHO, is that smart organizations, once understanding their processes, redraw their organizational charts around natural processes. Too many organizations atrophy because of what has been called "paradigm paralysis".

Posted by: Govind

Craig C,
I think this article is very well written and can be used as a guidelines for Process Approach by any organization. Most of the points are not new to us. But the way this article is written provides clarity, indepth understanding and appreciation to Process approach.
I was very impressed particularly with the point
"When departmental boundaries and process boundaries don’t coincide, problems begin to happen. Every department attempts to maximize its own performance on the micro level, without really understanding how their activities affect the overall process. Since departments are essentially competing with one another, there’s no incentive to share resources. Departments tend to horde what they need and operate on a semi-autonomous basis, almost like a company within the company. This kind of mentality rarely helps the organization as a whole."

How true this is ! This is simply an extract of Wisdom !!

You may want to send this article to Quality Progress or Quality Digest to share with the rest of the Quality community.Once again I thank Mr.Cochran for an excellent article.

Regards,
Govind.

Posted by: ccochran

Govind,

Thanks a bunch for your gracious words about the article. I think "process orientation" is one of the most difficult aspects of improving an organization. There's just so much history and experience that goes against it. People know that their functional departments are often inefficient and cumbersome, but they're uncomfortable doing anything different. We'll just keep beating the drum and hope someone hears us, right?

Thanks again,
Craig

Posted by: ben

Just finished a meeting with upper management using the process matrix. They loved it and I got some buy-in I was unable to get before. Wow! I am feeling so good I may take the rest of the day off.

Thanks for a nifty tool.

Ben

Posted by: qualitygoddess

Another topic that causes confusion for the "management types" that Craig has successfully simplified and turned into something that any non-quality person could understand.

One quick comment: Did I note a discrepancy in the # of processes a typical company has? I spotted 30 in one place and 20 in another.

Thanks, Craig for writing another fine article.

--Jodi

Posted by: ccochran

Ben--

I'm very gratified that your upper management was able to get some mileage out of the process matrix. You definitely should take the rest of the day off. Convincing upper management of anything is worth a day or two of vacation.

Jodi--

Yes, you discovered a discrepancy. Good catch! Thanks for identifying it for me. By the way, I can't wait to see your upcoming customer satisfaction article in October.

Thanks both of you for your support and gracious feedback.

Craig

Posted by: ralphsulser

Craig, Just wanted to add my thanks for the process matrix. I too actually got a response from one of our senior managers to add to the process owners shown. (although no response from 4 others)
Thanks again, good work

Posted by: ccochran

Ralph,

That's great to hear. I guess you need to do some arm twisting on those other 4 managers. Good luck!

Craig

Posted by: sushant_kulkarni

Thanks for the wonderful article.

Myself sushant from india.

Have u help me to do process approch kind of a thing.

Bcoz what happened our company want TS certification.

And as an Quality engg. I want Auditing & process improving kind of a thing.

Regards,

sushant kulkarni

Posted by: ccochran

Sushant,

Good to hear from you. Thanks for the kind words on the article. Starting with a process matrix is a good to build any kind of management system, especially TS 16949. Good luck with your project!

Best regards,
Craig

Posted by: Yarik

Quote:

Originally Posted by ccochran

Here's a little something I wrote in the last week or so entitled, "System Planning and Process Control." The intent was to provide a roadmap for people to understand what their processes are and how to demonstrate control. Besides the article itself, there is an example process matrix that goes along with it. I'd enjoy hearing everyone's thoughts on this subject.

This article provides one of the best (if not The Best) explanations of the reasons behind the process approach (at least among what I've seen so far

). Great job!! Thank you for that very, very much!!

I wish this great educational piece was a part of your recent "ISO 9001 In Plain English" book (although, I think I do understand some reasons why it wasn't). (BTW, I would like to thank you for that book, too!)

I also wish this article provided more guidance on documenting interactions between processes. I am a neophyte in the "Quality World", and I still may be missing a lot, but... in my very humble opinion, the version of "process matrix" described in the article does not serve this purpose very well: it is very difficult to see how exactly do the processes interact with each other. By any chance, do you have any other articles, books, whatsoever that would cover this subject - interactions between processes? I reviewed tons of discussions and documents at Cove (and in other Internet corners) in search for practical guidance on this subject, but... let's say, I'm still looking.

Sincerely,
Yarik.

Posted by: ccochran

Yarik,

Hello! Thanks for checking out the article. Yes, you definitely found the shortcoming: interactions of processes. The process matrix does a decent job of definig the processes in isolation, but it's less good at describing how they fit together. That's the beauty of a high-level flow chart--It can really tell the story of how things fit together. Of course, a flow chart has its limitations, too. I guess the best process description would be a combination of a matrix and a flow chart. That would give you everything.

Thanks also for getting my book. If only a few thousand more people will buy it, I might have a best seller... HA!

Warm regards,
Craig