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Q 39 - Is there anything called a mature process? When do you say that a process has good maturity? If a process is supposed to be improved or redesigned periodically, does an assessment for the maturity of a process carry any significance? Note for website visitors - Two questions are asked every week on this platform. One on Tuesday and the other on Friday. All questions so far can be seen here - https://www.benchmarksixsigma.com/forum/lean-six-sigma-business-excellence-questions/ Please visit the forum home page at https://www.benchmarksixsigma.com/forum/ to respond to the latest question open till the next Tuesday/ Friday evening 5 PM as per Indian Standard Time. The best answer is always shown at the top among responses and the author finds honorable mention in our Business Excellence dictionary at https://www.benchmarksixsigma.com/forum/business-excellence-dictionary-glossary/ along with the related term.

To identify impactful continuous process improvement activities , the team should listen to four “voices”. These are: Voice of Business (VOB) It denotes the needs, wants, expectations and preferences of the business itself ( or the shareholders, owners, investors of the business) It is obtained from analysis of Financial, competitive and market data. It helps to identify and prioritize future projects and services for revenue growth area, economic value added and market value in line with the strategic goals and objectives of the business. Example KPIs / Metrics are: ROI, shareholder equity, stock prices. Voice of Customers (VOC) It denotes the wants and expectations of business customers (internal and external). It indicates those aspects of the product/service that the customer perceives as “value” and is willing to pay for. It is obtained by observing customer behavior, taking customer satisfaction feedback and analyzing customer complaints. It helps to identify and differentiate between Value add and non-Value add process steps, strategize products and value-added services, modify or discontinue ongoing projects/processes. Example KPIs / Metrics are: release evaluations, customer satisfaction scores, product delivery times, help desk support calls. Voice of Process (VOP) Based on VOB and VOC analysis processes are classified and categorized. It improves the efficiency of processes that drive daily business and helps in categorizing them as high-value (priority) and low-value (non-priority) processes. Customer input provides insights into those processes that are most closely related to providing the products and services that they need, and it helps create the basis for project selection. VOP denotes the performance of a process over a period. The VOP should be within limits defined by VOB and VOC. Voice of Employee (VOE) VOE is critical for the sustainability of the business. It shows the synchronization and coordination between management and workforce in aligning the daily task and activities to the final goal and objectives of the organization. VOE is linked to VOP in that problem areas and improvement opportunities can be identified. VOE can provide valuable information related to resources, costs, talent, processes and solutions that could provide strategic direction. Amongst these, VOB and VOC are mostly independent, while VOP and VOE may have linkages and depend on VOB and VOC. Since VOB and VOC are voices at opposing ends viz. producer and consumer, many times there can be conflicts between them. Possible Causes of Conflicts between VOC and VOB can be understood looking at few conflict scenarios: 1. Cost: VOC would require maximum/best services and products at minimum/cheapest cost. VOB would dictate that the business to sustain and provide share holder value has to make profits from its products and services. The business must find innovative ways to create the balance i.e. satisfy its customers while maintaining its profitability and not becoming bankrupt. 2. Product/Service Features and functionalities: For any product/service VOC would indicate the Needs, Wants and Desires (Kano Model) of the customer. VOB would help decide what features/functionalities can be provided in a product/service in a profitable way. Example: In hotels, customer’s might have an expectation regarding the variety and quality of the complimentary breakfast, but VOB would dictate what the hotel can afford as complimentary which could be either less or more than the customer’s expectation. This gap between VOC and VOB could cause a conflict (dissatisfied customer) or leave the customer in a WOW state. 3. Complaint resolution: VOC might indicate that the time taken for resolution was too long and the time committed for resolution was not adhered to. Also, there was no proper communication regarding the resolution. VOB may indicate that customer’s impatience, and lack of clarity or wrong header/sub-headers in the complaint was the cause of delays. Moreover, non-availability of the customers at the provided contact info lead to communication gap and further delays. 4. Defects and Bugs (especially software services): VOC calls for additional staff count because of increase in defect back log and defects getting pushed to future release compromising some features that were also pushed to future release. VOB calls for Defect back log to be cleared without additional staff count as it would increase the cost. 5. Repairing Services: VOC might call for a manufacturer to provide repairing services of components (like a circuit board) that get damaged in their product when not in warranty, as it would be cheaper. VOB, on the other hand, would recommend replacement of the failed components as it might be a cost intensive for it to maintain a workforce with the skillset to repair components, and ensure proper repair. It would be more economical for it to send service people who just replace the failed component.

By and large, we come across situations where we favor the mean value of the outcome of a process (central tendency) to be focused around a specified targeted value with as less variation as possible (dispersion). There are situations where the variation assumes relatively higher importance than the central tendency; mostly because higher variations are more intolerable than some shifts in central tendency. Interestingly, there may be certain situations where variation or controlled variation is advantageous as well. Study of Process Potential: The process potential index Cp is used to study the variation, or spread of a process with respect to specified limits. While we study process potential, we are interested in the variation and not in the central tendency. The underlying idea is that if the process is able to maintain the variation within specified limits, it is considered to possess the required potential. The centering of mean can always be achieved by setting adjustments. Or in other words, if Cp is not satisfactory, Cpk (process capability) can never be achieved, since Cpk can never exceed Cp; it can at best equal Cp. Many examples where the variation is generally considered unfavorable to the outcome: 1. Analysis of Variance While evaluating whether there is a significant difference between means (central tendency) for multiple sets of trials as in ANOVA, the variation between sets and within sets are compared using F tests. Thus in such situations, the variation comparison assumes high importance. 2. Relative grading systems For many competitive examinations, the concept of ‘percentile’ is used, which is actually a relative grading system. Here, more than the absolute mark by a student, the relative variation from the highest mark is more important, thus the relative variability becomes key decisive factor. 3. Control chart analysis While studying a process variation using a control chart, first the instability and variation are given the importance. Only if we have control on these parameters we will be able to meaningfully study the ‘Off-target’ i.e. the central tendency. 4. Temperature variation in a mold While performing certain compression molding process, temperature variation across different points on the surface of the mold does more harm than the mean temperature. Here the mean temperature is permitted to have a wider tolerance, but the variation across mold does more warping of the product. 5. Voltage fluctuations Many electrical appliances get damaged due to high variation (fluctuation) in the voltage, although the mean voltage (central tendency) is maintained. Controlled variation is favorable: 1. Load distribution in a ship While loading a ship the mean value of the load can vary, but the distribution of the load is more important to maintain the balance of the ship on water. 2. Science of music Those who understand the science of music would agree that more than the base note, the appropriate variation of the other notes with respect to the base note is extremely important to produce good music. Some examples where variation is favorable: Systematic Investment plans (SIPs) take advantage of the variation in the NAVs to accumulate wealth. Here even an adverse shift of the central tendency is compensated by the variation! Law of physics states that Force = Mass x Acceleration (F = ma). Thus, if we consider speed as the variable, it is the variation of speed that decides the force and the mean speed (central tendency) appears to have little relevance.