COPs (Customer Oriented Processes), Turtle Diagrams and an Octopus or Two

[Roger Eastin]

Anyone heard of these yet? I haven't seen much discussion in this forum yet, but our registrar and others who have had the training are talking them up! The TS - 2nd edition training for registrars and internal auditors apparently stress these tools heavily. Has anyone developed your COPs yet with supporting turtle diagrams? Are you doing them for your registrar or letting your registrar do them themselves? I am just curious how this is being handled by our TS superstars out there!! (This TS stuff is starting to sound like the Animal Planet to me! Crocky!)

[Randy Stewart]

We have used the Turtle Diagrams to show people how different there understanding of desired inputs and required inputs are. It has helped.

I agree some of this sounds funny. If you have been around any kind of electrical troubleshooting you would recognize a bubble chart. Just another name for something developed a long long time ago. These charts would show you the desired a o'scope reading on the input side and the output side. As simple as it sounds if the input was good and output bad then there was an issue with the process or circuit.

Turtle diagrams are good when you want to show how 1 process affect the next downstream. Upstream has an idea of what the next op wants and puts it on the paper as their output. When compared to what the downstream op needs for input can be eye opening.

Once again, new name for old methods.

[Sam]

COP's, Turtle and octopus diagrams are methods used st the supplier auditor course as an aid in defining processes. They are not a requirement of TS2. However, some CB's are requiring the use of these methods, including some variations of their own.

COP's or customer oriented processes is nothing more than names of processes within your facility,1.e., market analysis, Design&development, Production.

The turtle diagram first developed by P. Crosby (1982) is used to identify the requirements of the process. For TS2 purposes it is used for gathering information about a process in order to perform an adequate audit. I have described this in depth in other posts.

The octopus was develped by Ford and is a circle with ten input and output loops around the perimeter. This helps in identifying COP's.

[db]

Here is how we often teach them. Each are methods of process mapping. The COPS and the turtle are one in the same, and I've added SIPOC.

[M Greenaway]

Excellent db, and there is a bonus point for those that can spot the similarity with IDEF0.

[Brian Dowsett]

We're struggling on COP's too. I got hold of a "Process Approach" audit worksheet, which apparently is taught in accreditation body training and is thought to be (once filled in) a good starter for sending info to the accreditors prior to the audit.

It has 8 columns and lists the COP, then the Support processes, then the management processes, then more columns for various stuff.

My question - has anyone got a completed one I could look at please, as even with the associated instructions I'm still not sure what info is needed.

Also, I tried to represent our processes and their associated linkages on paper and invented the "Four portions of spaghetti" diagram.

Cheers

Brian

[Sam]

Brian, Attached is a first cut of the form. This is specific to our process, however, I may still need to touch it up. Feedback is encouraged.

[Brian Dowsett]

Thanks very much Sam, you're a star.


Brian