Powerpoint Presentations 18

18.
Chapter 18
Operations improvement
Pearson Education Ltd. Naki Kouyioumtzis
Slack, Chambers and Johnston, Operations Management, 6th Edition,

18.1
© Nigel Slack, Stuart Chambers, and Robert Johnston 2010
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Operations improvement
Operations Operations
strategy improvement
makes processes
better
Operations
Organizing for
Design management Improvement improvement
Risk
management
Planning stops processes
becoming worse
and control

18.2
18.3
Key operations questions
In Chapter 18 – Operations improvement – Slack et al.

identify the following key questions:
• Why is improvement so important in operations

management?
• What are the key elements of operations
improvement?
• What are the broad approaches to managing
improvement?
• What techniques can be used for improvement?

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The Red Queen effect
In ‘Alice’s adventures through the looking glass’, by

Lewis Carroll, Alice encounters living chess pieces and,
in particular, the ‘Red Queen’.
‘Well, in our country’, said Alice, still panting a little, ‘you’d

generally get to somewhere else – if you ran very fast for
a long time, as we’ve been doing’. ‘A slow sort of
country!’ said the Queen. ‘Now, here, you see, it takes all
the running you can do, to keep in the same place. If you
want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice
as fast as that!

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What are the key elements of operations improvement?

The ‘elements’ that are the building blocks of improvement include:
• Radical or breakthrough improvement

• Continuous improvement
• Improvement cycles
• A process perspective
• End-to-end processes
• Radical change
• Evidence-based problem-solving
• Customer-centricity
• Systems and procedures
• Reduce process variation
• Synchronized flow
• Emphasize education/training
• Perfection is the goal
• Waste identification
• Include everybody
• Develop internal customer–supplier relationships.
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Four broad approaches to managing improvement
Business process reengineering (BPR) – a radical approach to

improvement that attempts to redesign operations along customer-
focused processes rather than on the traditional functional basis.
Total quality management (TQM) – puts quality and improvement

at the heart of everything that is done by an operation.
Lean – an approach that emphasizes the smooth flow of items

synchronized to demand so as to identify waste.
Six Sigma – a disciplined methodology of improving every product,

process, and transaction.
All these improvement approaches share overlapping sets of

elements.

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18.7 BPR advocates reorganizing processes to reflect the natural
processes that fulfill customer needs
Functionally-based processes
Function 1 Function 2 Function 3 Function 4
End-to-end process 1
Customer needs fulfilled

Business processes
Customer needs

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Some of the elements of improvement approaches

Emphasis on Business process
rapid change reengineering (BPR)
Radical/
breakthrough
improvement
End-to-end
Six Sigma
processes
Process based Evidence-based

Emphasis on analysis decisions
Emphasis on
solutions – what Customer methods – how
Synchronized Reduce
to do centric Systems and to do it
flow variation
Waste Emphasis on procedures
identification education Perfection
is the goal Improvement
Customer Include all
relationships people Continuous cycles
Lean improvement Total quality
management
Emphasis on gradual (TQM)
change

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18.9 Innovation or ‘breakthrough’ improvement versus Kaizen or
continuous improvement
Innovation Kaizen
• Short-term, dramatic Effect • Long-term, undramatic

• Large steps Pace • Small steps
• Intermittent Timeframe • Continuous, incremental
• Abrupt, volatile Change • Gradual and consistent
• Few champions Involvement • Everyone
• Individual ideas and effort Approach • Group efforts, systematic
• Scrap and rebuild Mode • Protect and improve
• New inventions/theories Spark • Established know-how
• Large investment Capex • Low investment
• Low effort Maintenance • Large maintenance effort
• Technology Focus • People
• Profit Evaluation • Process

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Two improvement cycles
The plan–do–check–act, or ‘Deming’ improvement cycle, and

the define–measure–analyze–improve–control, or DMAIC
six sigma improvement cycle.
Define
Plan Do
Control Measure
Act Check Improve Analyze

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The DMAIC cycle

Define–identify
The DMAIC problem, define
cycle requirements and set
the goal
Control–establish Measure–gather data,

performance refine problem and
standards and deal measure inputs and
with any problems outputs
Improve–develop Analyze–develop
improvement problem hypotheses,
ideas, test, identify ‘root causes’
establish solution and validate
and measure hypotheses
results

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Breakthrough improvement
‘Breakthrough’ improvement, does not always deliver

hoped-for improvements.
Planned ‘breakthrough’
improvements
Performance
Actual improvement
pattern
Time

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Continuous improvement
Performance
Standardize and maintain
Improvement
Time

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Continuous improvement (Continued)
PDCA cycle repeated to create continuous improvement
Performance
Plan
Do
Act
Check
Time

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Combined improvement
Combined improvement
Performance
Combined
‘breakthrough’ and
continuous improvement
Time

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What techniques can be used for improvement?

Many techniques described throughout Slack et al. could be considered
improvement techniques. Specific ‘improvement techniques’ include:
• Scatter diagrams, which attempt to identify relationships and influences

within processes;
• Flow charts, which attempt to describe the nature of information flow and
decision-making within operations;
• Cause–effect diagrams, which structure the brainstorming that can help
to reveal the root causes of problems;
• Pareto diagrams, which attempt to sort out the ‘important few’ causes
from the ‘trivial many’ causes;
• Why–why analysis that pursues a formal questioning to find root causes
of problems.
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Some common techniques for process improvement
Input/output analysis Flow charts Scatter diagrams

x x
Input Output x x
x
x
x x
x
x x
Cause–effect diagrams Pareto diagrams Why–why analysis
Why?
Why?
Why?

18.17

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18.

Pearson Education Ltd. Naki Kouyioumtzis

Slack, Chambers and Johnston, Operations Management, 6th Edition,

Slack, Chambers and Johnston, Operations Management, 6th Edition,

Key operations questions

In Chapter 18 – Operations improvement – Slack et al.

• Why is improvement so important in operations

Slack, Chambers and Johnston, Operations Management, 6th Edition,

The Red Queen effect

In ‘Alice’s adventures through the looking glass’, by

‘Well, in our country’, said Alice, still panting a little, ‘you’d

Slack, Chambers and Johnston, Operations Management, 6th Edition,

What are the key elements of operations improvement?

• Radical or breakthrough improvement

Four broad approaches to managing improvement

Business process reengineering (BPR) – a radical approach to

Total quality management (TQM) – puts quality and improvement

Lean – an approach that emphasizes the smooth flow of items

Six Sigma – a disciplined methodology of improving every product,

All these improvement approaches share overlapping sets of

Slack, Chambers and Johnston, Operations Management, 6th Edition,

Function 1 Function 2 Function 3 Function 4

Customer needs fulfilled

Slack, Chambers and Johnston, Operations Management, 6th Edition,

Some of the elements of improvement approaches

Process based Evidence-based

Slack, Chambers and Johnston, Operations Management, 6th Edition,

• Short-term, dramatic Effect • Long-term, undramatic

Slack, Chambers and Johnston, Operations Management, 6th Edition,

Two improvement cycles

The plan–do–check–act, or ‘Deming’ improvement cycle, and

Act Check Improve Analyze

Slack, Chambers and Johnston, Operations Management, 6th Edition,

The DMAIC cycle

Control–establish Measure–gather data,

Slack, Chambers and Johnston, Operations Management, 6th Edition,

‘Breakthrough’ improvement, does not always deliver

Slack, Chambers and Johnston, Operations Management, 6th Edition,

Standardize and maintain

Slack, Chambers and Johnston, Operations Management, 6th Edition,

Continuous improvement (Continued)

Slack, Chambers and Johnston, Operations Management, 6th Edition,

Slack, Chambers and Johnston, Operations Management, 6th Edition,

What techniques can be used for improvement?

• Scatter diagrams, which attempt to identify relationships and influences

Some common techniques for process improvement

Input/output analysis Flow charts Scatter diagrams

Cause–effect diagrams Pareto diagrams Why–why analysis

Slack, Chambers and Johnston, Operations Management, 6th Edition,

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