The Shewhart Cycle -Part 2-

The Shewhart Cycle -Part 2-

 PDCA – Plan, Do, Check, Act

Also Presented  as  “The Deming Wheel” or “The Shewhart Cycle”

Continuous improvement

The PDCA is an example of continuous improvement, however there are other implementations of this idea. For example Kaizen is another approach adopted by Japanese manufacturers.

One of the significant aspects of continuous improvement systems is aiming higher next time so that at the review stage higher targets are set so that the business continues to improve.

This is an essential part of the standard ISO 14000 and it is what differentiates environmental management systems from quality systems.

Sources of information for continuous improvement

To realise continual improvements, a business should not only know what deficiencies exist, but understand why they exist.

This can be achieved is by analysing the root cause(s) of environmental management system deficiencies.

Some useful sources of information for continuous improvement could include:

·         experience gained from corrective and preventive actions

·         external benchmarking against best practices

·         intended or proposed changes applicable to legal requirements and other requirements to which the business subscribes

·         results of environmental management system and compliance audits

·         results of monitoring of key characteristics of operations

·         results of progress towards achieving objectives and targets, and

·         views of interested parties, including employees, customers and suppliers.

Examples of continuous improvement

Improvements can be made either within or outside the process of setting and reviewing environmental objectives and targets. Some examples of improvement include:

·         establishing a process for evaluating new materials to promote the use of less harmful materials

·         improving a business's process for identifying applicable legal requirements so that new compliance requirements are identified in a more timely fashion

·         introducing wastewater treatment processes to allow water reuse

·         redesigning delivery routes to reduce fossil fuel consumption by transportation companies

·         setting objectives and targets to implement fuel substitution in operations and reduce particulate emissions.

The PDCA cycle also helps to understand when one might wish to employee different quality tools.  The visual below is used with permission of Jerry Svendor of Westshore Community College, Michigan.

.

THE TACTICAL OBJECTIVES IN A SUPPLY CHAIN

The global objective of a Supply Chain is customers’ satisfaction.  At the same time, individual components of the Supply Chain aim at maximizing their shareholder value by maximizing the Return on Investment (ROI) of their investors. ROI is the ratio of profit to capital employed over one year. This strategic objective can be translated into several short- and medium-term objectives at the tactical level.

  The main tactical level objectives in a Supply Chain are:

•         Minimizing the time required for converting orders into cash.

•         Minimizing the total Work-In-Process (WIP) in the Supply Chain.

•         Improving pipeline visibility, that is the visibility of each one of the activities of the Supply Chain by each one of the partners.

•         Improving visibility of demand by each one of the partners.

•         Improving quality.

•         Reducing costs.

•         Improving services.

PERFORMANCE EVALUATION OF A SUPPLY CHAIN

Financial evaluation

Costs to take into account in the evaluation are the costs per unit (of product, or service). This cost per unit should be compared with the price paid by customers to enjoy the product or the service. 

Operational evaluation

Three main parameters should be measured to evaluate this aspect. These parameters are:

-          The availability.

-          The adequacy to customers’ expectations.

-          Customers’ service

Customers’ service

Adequacy to customers’ expectations

•         The question to be answered here is the following: are the products or services being provided closer to customers’ requirements than those of the competitors? The comparison of the "closeness" of products or services to customer expectation is more difficult to measure.

 The following measures should be made:

•         How many phone calls are necessary, on the average, to reach an employee? The result should be as close as possible to one.

•         How many employees should the customer get in touch with, in order to obtain the information he/she is looking for? The result should also be as close as possible to one.

•         How long does it take to obtain an appointment?

•         How long does it take to replace the product in case of breakdown, or to replace the provider of the service if necessary?

•         What is the average delivery delay? This aspect is important to gain new customers and keep them. As a consequence, this delay should be equal to zero.

•         What is the percentage of first time satisfied orders, i.e., orders that are correct in quantity and quality?

•         What is the percentage of invoices that are not accurate?

•         What is the time required, on average, to complete an incomplete delivery?

•         What is the time required, on average, to correct an invoice that is not accurate?

•         Do the Supply Chain offer training if necessary?

Check Our Team Public Service Blog...

...................................................................Only Out of the Box Ideas

WAMDA Team

                                                                                                       Walaa Maher ....Sep 12