Chapter 13 Improvement

Figure 13.1 Improvement is the activity of closing the gap between the current and the desired performance of an operation or process

Figure 13.2 Performance measures can involve different levels of aggregation

Figure 13.3 The measures used in the balanced scorecard

Figure 13.4 Different standards of comparison give different messages

Figure 13.5 Priority zones in the importance–performance matrix

Figure 13.6 Rating ‘importance’ and ‘current performance’ for EXL Laboratories

Figure 13.7 The importance–performance matrix for EXL Laboratories

Figure 13.8 The sandcone model of improvement: cost reduction relies on a cumulative foundation of improvement in the other performance objectives

Figure 13.9 ‘Breakthrough’ improvement may not provide the dramatic leaps in performance hoped for

Figure 13.10 Business process re-engineering (BPR) advocates reorganising (re-engineering) processes to reflect the natural processes that fulfil customer needs

Figure 13.11 (a) The plan–do–check–act, or ‘Deming’ improvement cycle, and (b) the define–measure–analyse–improve–control, or DMAIC Six Sigma improvement cycle

Figure 13.12 Scatter diagrams for customer satisfaction versus (a) number of preventive maintenance calls and (b) number of emergency service calls

Figure 13.13 Cause–effect diagram of unscheduled returns at KPS

Figure 13.14 Pareto diagram for causes of unscheduled returns

Figure 13.15 Why–why analysis for ‘failure wrongly predicted’