1. Chapter 13
Improvement

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

3. Figure 13.2 Performance measures can involve different levels of aggregation

4. Figure 13.3 The measures used in the balanced scorecard

5. Figure 13.4 Different standards of comparison give different messages

6. Figure 13.5 Priority zones in the importance–performance matrix

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

8. Figure 13.7 The importance–performance matrix for EXL Laboratories

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

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

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

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

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

14. Figure 13.13 Cause–effect diagram of unscheduled returns at KPS

15. Figure 13.14 Pareto diagram for causes of unscheduled returns

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