Process Improvement Teams

Pande P.S., Neuman R.P., Cavanagh R.R. 2001. The Six Sigma Way Team Fieldbook. An Implementation Guidefor Process Improvement Teams. McGraw-Hill. 

Train the Departmental Process Improvement Team identify observers within each team or group (the same process as for the safety improvement model)... 

Value-Added Analysis With this activity, a process improvement team strips the process down to its essential elements. The team isolates the activities that in the eyes of the customer actually add value to the product or service. The remaining non-value-adding activities ( waste ) are targeted for extinction. Value Chain Activities outside of your organization that add value to your final product, such as the value-adding activities of your suppliers. 

A well-conducted incident investigation has content-based validity. However, it is difficult to assess the other two types of validity. For criterion-based validity, we are not aware of what might be used as a criterion. We might look at the correlation between system causes of quality problems, as discovered by process-improvement teams, and the system causes of incidents. We would expect to find considerable overlap. If we failed to find this overlap, we might question the validity of either or both classes of investigations. 

Seven of the tools of quahty have been summarized (43). The first tool is a flow chart, used to help understand the organizational flow of a procedure or process. A flow chart should be constmcted with the fiiU participation of the people who do the work. Its principal benefit is to enable teams, such as problem-solving or productivity improvement teams, to reach a common vision of the work flow. Its use enables the improvement effort to begin with this common understanding. Figure 3 contains an example for manufacture of a polymeric material. 

Teams such as quality improvement teams (QIT), may be used for implementation of all Quality Management projects. These teams are usually established for specific improvement projects and consist of staff involved in the management processes under review. For this project, PSM and ESH specialists, operations, maintenance, and engineering representatives would be members of the team. 

This checklist may be used to stimulate the thinking of inherent safety review and process hazard analysis teams, and any other individuals or groups working on process improvements. It is intended to promote "blue-sky" or "out-of the-box" thinking, and to generate ideas that might be usable in an existing facility or a "plant of the future" concept. 

When teamed together, the process owner and the quality assurance counterpart for a process will make a favorable impression upon regulators, be able to explain all operations involving the process, supporting documentation, and any ongoing projects or process improvements. This pair is the best to evaluate and consider any deviations to the process or recommendations for continuous improvement. 

The bottom line is that most process validation teams should include or have access to a statistics expert. Because SPC offers many opportunities to improve costs and quality through trend analyses and control, SPC is recommended as a measure to be considered in any process validation program. 

In this step, a core team is selected which consists of four to six people who are best able to lead the program, perform the waste assessments, and implement the recommended process improvements. At smaller and medium-sized facilities a single individual may undertake the bulk of the pollution prevention tasks, or consultants can be used. 

The identification of the fall off in plant output uses the same statistical process control methods as for product quality [D-4]. Usually, and certainly in the larger manufacturing units, these issues will be handled by the local plant support teams. However, sometimes output issues arise which are outside the more routine evolutionary techniques employed by the process control teams. A typical example is when the output from a process is constrained by a particular plant item. An improved piece of equipment needs to be identified and evaluated. The introduction of this equipment will usually necessitate process changes for maximum efficiency. This and similar packages of work are best done by an R D project team. 

Given a set or range of levels for each of the individual experimental factors, there is still the question of exactly what combinations of levels actually will be used to produce experimental data. For example, in the process improvement study, standard process operating conditions were x, = 1.5, x2=1.15, x3 = 1.75, and x4 = 3.5, and the project team decided on the ranges... 

Facilitate system/process design and improvement teams. 

Corporate responsibility auditing can also identify how capital has been allocated across departments and business units of the company and the level and types of risks to which the capital is exposed. An experienced audit team will advise on whether risks in one part of the company may exacerbate or ameliorate those in another and, in consultation with employees and managers, recommend process improvements, which the audit will undoubtedly yield, where risks are too high. This information can provide management with a clearer understanding of acceptable tolerance levels for key value drivers, and reliable data with which to respond proactively to shifts in the work environment, key markets, and in society. 

For these reasons, Activity-Based Costing (ABC), the most accurate method of cost analysis, is particularly helpful in identifying all of the individual costs of an operating practice or an event, such as a chemical spill. In analyzing a spill, for example, the audit team can attach a dollar value to waste of materials and labor, system changes, unused capacity, and the spill s myriad overhead costs, as well as corporate legal, PR, and other administrative support costs, all of which need to be carefully understood in considering process improvements. 

Validation maintenance, an ongoing activity for manufacturing processes [11], continues through the life cycle of the process with a changing focus as the process matures [20]. There is a need to address the process life cycle as a whole and not to suspend process validation after three production scale runs are completed [14]. To support this life-cycle approach, process expert teams are created to rapidly resolve process deviations, determine trends toward loss of control, comply with regulatory requirements, assess process change impact, and identify areas for process improvement [11]. 

Example 4. Within your facility, part accuracy is a consistent problem. You have established a cross-functional team to investigate the causes of this problem in an effort to identify opportunities of process improvement. The resulting cause-and-effect diagram is as follows ... 

Quality Improvement Tools Used for Quality Improvement Quality Performance Indicators Teams Process Improvement Model Summary References... 

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