Supplier-input-process-output-customer

Another way to consider the customer-supplier relationship is in terms of those who have input into a process (suppliers) and those who use its output (customers). As this sample team suggests, very often a single group (in this case Maintenance) functions as both a customer and a supplier, having input into the process as well as need for its output. 

Who/what are the process suppliers, inputs, outputs, and customers ... 

Create a SIPOC and/or Process Map (see Techniques 45 and 46) to document the current solution s inputs, outputs, customers, and suppliers, and any associated processes. Use this information to make a list of the process steps, systems, subsystems, or components that are linked to the focus topic. For example, part of the process of using a credit card is carrying a physical card, which can be lost or stolen and subsequently used by identity thieves. 

The P in SIPOC designates the process—the set of activities or tasks that transform inputs into outputs. To begin, identify the first and last tasks in the process, where it starts and stops. Specifying these steps helps to scope the project and clarify boundaries between the organization and its suppliers and customers. Next, identify the sequential steps between the first and last steps. Specify an action and an object in each box. 

The connections between the supplier and buyer form the so-called relationship. More broadly, this should be defined as business collaboration, which comes down chiefly to pmchase and sales transactions. The relationship comprises widely understood dependencies between the resources, actions and entities of the participants. We call it the content of a relationship (Figure 1.2). The supplier-buyer relationship may be analysed in the context of three aspects connections, the impact of relationship on the collaborators results, and the impact made by the supplier-buyer relationship on the network and vice-versa (Fonfara 2009, p. 28). Each change on the supplier s side or in the network may have a positive or negative impact on the buyer or the supplier-buyer relationship. The resources and measures undertaken by individual companies are related to one another due to the input and output of processes carried out by the supplier or customer, and as such, determine the effectiveness and efficiency of product and information flows. 

An important point here is that the supply network should he viewed as a system. All processes within the network need to be understood in terms of how they interact with other processes. No organisation is an island its inputs and outputs are affected by the behaviour of other players in the network. One powerful, dis-mptive player can make life very difficult for everyone else. For example, several auto assemblers optimise their own processes, but dismpt those of upstream suppliers and downstream distributors. The effect is to increase total system costs and reduce responsiveness to end-customer demand. 

The laboratory shall identify the inputs that affect the design and development of the laboratory processes and facihtate their effective and efficient performance. Inputs are defined from external as well as internal needs and expectations. External inputs are drawn from customers, suppliers, users of the laboratory output, statutory and regulatory requirements, international or national standards, industry codes of practice etc. Internal inputs are drawn from policies and objectives, needs and expectations of people, technological development, past experience etc. 

A business process is a logical, related, sequential—connected—set of activities that takes an input from a supplier, adds value to it, and produces an output to a customer. 

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