Listening to Voices The voice of the process measurement over time

What are the voices? Work Areas The Staff Staff Surveys Work Areas The Staff Staff Surveys Media Attention Customer/Citizen Surveys Complaints Media Attention Customer/Citizen Surveys Complaints Waste Efficiency Outcome & Process Measures Waste Efficiency Outcome & Process Measures

Wasting valuable management time How much time do you spend trying to achieve targets? Trying to achieve everything Writing reports Holding meetings to sort perceived performance issues

Performance Reports?

How often do you report? Month on month This quarter compared to last quarter This quarter compared to this quarter last year The average for the: Month Quarter Year

Average Late Starts

How can we compare, quantify or record changes if we cannot capture our data in some numerical form? Without measurable data we are at the mercy of anecdote. If you make an assumption based on anecdote rather than data, it will nearly always be wrong because we remember the unusual, not the mundane. Why collect data?

What are we measuring ? What data is currently being collected? How do you interpret/use these? Is this info fed back to those who collect the data?

Chasing Tails!!!

Chasing Tails– learning points Any process contains variation Reacting incorrectly to variation is futile

What is variation? Nick Tyson

“I drive to work every day. When asked, I say it takes 55 minutes. In fact, it takes about 55 minutes, but every day it is slightly different” What is variation?

Histogram

The importance of time Time is often the most important variable, but it is often lost in the aggregation of data

Average Late Starts

Run charts How to draw a run chart Y axis The value (measure) X axis Time period (e.g. days, weeks)

Run Chart Exercise The raw data for the three departments are attached Roughly plot each directorate separately on the graph paper provided

Three graphs

Future gazing Can you predict how your process is likely to perform? How can you measure the context of YOUR variation?

SPC Chart Range of the process Upper control limit Lower control limit

All processes contain variation The key in managing variation is to distinguish between - variation caused by the process (common cause) - variation that is caused by special events (special cause) What is variation?

Every day I drive to work. It takes between 48 minutes and 62 minutes, if there are no unusual occurrences The variation between 55 minutes and one hour is common cause Common vs special

Today when I drove to work it took 94 minutes. It turns out there was an accident on the motorway This is special cause There is no point in changing the process in response to this variation Common vs special (A)

Today it took 75 minutes to get to work. There are road works on the motorway This is special cause, but may be a long term change, meaning a new process is in place Intervention may be necessary Common vs special (B)

Common cause One-off special cause Special cause leading to new process

Match action to type of variation TYPE OF ACTION TYPE OF VARIATION Common CauseSpecial Cause Common Cause Special Cause     Changing the process to deal with one-off events is only likely to increase variation and make things worse Investigate the occurrence and determine what factor external to the process has caused the variation Investigating and correcting each incidence of common cause variation will be time consuming & won’t address the system factors causing variation Understand the process so that changes introduced will change the process

Reduce the variation e.g. by avoiding rush hour Move the centre line e.g. by changing route Dealing with common cause variation

Trends What is a change? What is a trend? “Last month our waiting list was 453. This month it is 441. We’re getting better!”

Point Outside Control Limits Average UCL LCL Indicates there is something different about this point

A change in the process 8+ points in a row above or below the centreline indicates a process change Centreline Process average

Trends Upward Trend Downward Trend 6+ points in a row increasing or decreasing indicates a trend in the process

Example

Dealing with rare events

PARETO CHART: EXAMPLE Cumulative Percentage CEBDA Other Count Reasons Action taken on the key causes Focus on the most important (Pareto Principle)