Q 394. SQDC Board is a simple yet effective visual management tool. Explain SQDC board and how it can be used for process management?

 

 

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SQDC is acronym for Safety, Quality, Delivery and Cost. SQDC board is a daily process management tool used to provide insights swiftly and visually on how the process is operating based on the 4 vital criteria: Safety, Quality, Delivery and Cost. It is a great tool that facilitates management walk-around reviews (Gemba) at the workplace. The concept was originally developed by the British automobile sector.

Generical workplace communication board will have too many charts and information for anyone visiting the place to review and understand the performance against key metrics. The SQDC board with colour coding of actual performance against the targets (Red / Green) gives a quick insight instantaneously.

Implementing SQDC board:

1.       Define key metrics for each criterion:

2.       Display blank SQDC template at the beginning of the defined period:

3. At the end of the day / week / month (as defined), colour the respective template with GREEN (achieved target) or RED (did not achieve target)

At the end of the period, the team leader can quickly assess the frequency of problems, and develop actions plans to resolve those issues. In case if the entire template is found to be GREEN consistently, then the metric must be modified to raise the benchmark. Alternatively, if the template is all RED, then it may be possible that the target for that metric is extremely challenging or there could be other issues that need to be addressed.

 

Acronym for SDQC is Safety, Delivery, Quality & Customer.

It provides a visual assessment of how processes are operating in organization. e.g. Safety index will monitor whether we are achieving safety objectives on each day or not.

Safety Metrix can include:

1) Near Misses

2) Major or Minor Accidents

3) PPE Usage adherence % etc.

 

 

Same way daily metrics can be made for each facet and can be monitored visually on daily basis or a predefined frequency as per the need of organization.

 

Some companies add other criteria as well i.e. inventory, productivity etc.

 

Its a fast and easy visual representation of goals met or not for specific criteria. You only need color coding to represent whether target hit or not. 

 

 

It can be used in Process Management very often and can improve efficiency as management can see at a glance which areas are achieving and which areas need support. Counteractions can be presented and discussed in real time.

It is also a good tool to improve accountability. 

SDQC board is known to be a process management tool providing assessment (visually) of how each process is working within the factory. SQDC Boards are reviewed every day by leaders and they usually cover a minimum of 4 tracking areas - Safety, Quality, Delivery, and Cost. There can be other areas as well like - Inventory, Productivity or Environment.
SQDC can do the visual indication of success and failure in no time - associated with specific criteria (daily targets). Once goals are clear for each tracking area, we only need two colors - green and red. Green depicts goals met, and red shows the opposite. Therefore, some errors could have occurred and we need to pay attention.
Each tracking area features a letter with 31 numbers inside, representing every day of the month. Each number is colored in green or red depending on whether the criteria were met or not. If necessary, the standards are often explored in additional detail to the proper of the world letter. This can provide more of an understanding of which sort of error cause a red day.
Example Criteria:

• Safety
• No Safety Incidents
• No Missed Work due to Injury
• No Near Misses
• No Unsafe Work Practices Observed
• No Safety Glasses violations
• Customer/Cost:
• No Complaints
• No Pipe Faults/Defects

 

Two benefits of managing processes using SQDC -
 

Improves Efficiency:
At a look , management (and the entire workforce) can see which areas are succeeding, and which require support. Countermeasures can be discussed in real-time, on the spot and specific changes can be implemented quickly. Processes are tracked daily with a helpful bird-eye, visual approach, which suggests errors are identified and eliminated rapidly and therefore the work is more accurate and efficient overall. Not to mention, a praised work team (in areas with all green days) also can cause a team that feels appreciated, who can then exerting to realize green for all areas. The criteria can sometimes be too easy as well. In the spirit of continuous improvement, you'll then alter the daily goal to make sure it's slightly tougher to urge all green days, then the team is always pushing to get better. This helps improving work productivity also.

Improves Accountability:
With a daily guide to where errors are occurring and standards aren't being met, accountability is definitely assigned to at least one area. If a team says changes are made, but the red continues, further action are often taken. If the SQDC Board is during a public space, then this will be incentive enough for a team to figure smarter and begin achieving goals/targets.

SQDC stands for Safety, Quality, Delivery, and Cost. The SQDC board is located in the process area. The board measures how the processes are doing in regard to the areas of safety, quality, delivery, and cost. SQDC boards need to be checked on a daily basis by the management/leadership in the company.

Each category in the SQDC board is tracked by two colors, Green and red. Green indicates success or goals being met while red indicates failure or errors which require the attention of the leadership. Each criterion is in the form of the corresponding letter (S for Safety), with 31 numbers pertaining to each day of the month. If the day has an issue, it is colored red, while if the day has no issues, it is colored green.

As we can see SQDC board is an effective visual method for process management.

Source:

https://www.leansixsigmadefinition.com/glossary/sqdc-2/

https://theleanwarehouse.wordpress.com/2020/04/08/striving-for-continuous-improvement-with-sqdc-boards/

What is SQDC Board?

 

This is simple and most used visual management tool in manufacturing industries. Safety, Quality, Delivery and Cost are monitored on a daily basis which will help to know how the manufacturing unit is performing on these key areas.

 

 

 

Safety – is an important metric which reviews the safety of the employee at work. always this is vital hence comes first and could help us to get to know the mere misses, safety violations, accidental injuries at workplace, and unsafe work practices observed. Audits done on availability of Fire extinguisher, Seating chairs safety, Machinery safety.

Quality – this metrics reviews the number of product defects found in a day or any returns due to poor quality of goods produced.

Delivery – metric measures the goods delivered status as planned and actuals. Especially emphasis on On-time deliveries to customers or the number of shipments made per day versus the goal.

Cost – is a metric that deals with expense which mostly related to non-value activity or waste, rejection waste, penalty due to non-conformance, late charges, spoiled leftover raw materials, and overtime costs to employees due to improper plan.

 

When is SQDC Performance Metrics measured? 

 

We can set Daily, weekly, or monthly goals for each category in the SQDC Board and can be measured accordingly and update the results on the visual board kept on the workshop area.  If the teams meet their target set on each category, it is marked in green color for that period. If not, it is marked red in color. Team updates the status on a daily basis and tries to meet the targets and so on.

 

How SQDC Board can be used for process management?

 

This SQDC board helps to assess the process and track the results based on the goals of the company. This kind of visual board helps to understand visually what the target is and where we stand based on the results. It is very easy to bring in new changes in the process based on SQDC board as it instantly shows the status either problems or solutions to some prone issues. This board also helps to know the progress of any new initiative on a daily basis, hence any changes can be done instantly. This SQDC board serves as a tool to help the team to constantly strive to achieve and improve the process

The management also arranges to observe the actual work process, engage with employees, gain knowledge about the work process, and explore opportunities for continuous improvement. Thus, does a Gemba Walk, so that they can promptly know where the unit stands by understanding and looking at the board. Month on Month trend will help to get an idea that what has happened in the past and also can predict what will happen in the future.

 

SQDC board is a visual management used at the production floors in manufacturing. It stands for Safety, Quality, Delivery and Cost. This board depicts the metrics and the performance of the process against each of the elements of SQDC for each day.

Implementation steps:

1.      Define Metrics

Metrics used for each SQDC elements are defined , few examples as below :

Safety	Quality	Delivery	Cost
No near misses	RTY > 90%	100% on time customer delivery	Warranty claims < 5% of sales in last 3 months
No safety violations	Defects < 5 per day	Complete units per day >10	Rework < 5% of sales
No absentee due to injuries	DPMO < 50		Scrap < 3% of the total cost

 

2.      A blank SQDC board is displayed at the beginning of the month.

3.      Daily performance is measured against the metrics baseline and the day is marked Green for goal achieved and Red for goal not achieved.

4.      Leader or the manager visits the SQDC board, after each production day, to check on the latest markings on the board.

5.      Discussion is held and “genchi gembutsu : Go and see for yourself” is prioritized and performed for improvement, basis markings on the board.

 

Following are amongst the many benefits of using SQDC board :

 

1.      Quick and easy understanding of the performance status.
Red and Green markings on the board on the daily performance leads to quick and easy understanding of information at a glance.

2.      Ensure process running as per the designed flow.
The board leads to identify any deviations from the designed process flow. The deviations can be in the form of defects, breakdowns, non – compliance to steps etc. and can be depicted using tools like Pareto, bar chart, histogram.

3.      Reduced miscommunication.
SQDC board enables to reach common level of understanding on the focused areas for improvements. It reduces miscommunications among managers and leaders on the gaps and priorities.

4.      Increased attention to gaps and their closures
Deviations are identified and recorded as Red marks on the SQDC board. This pushes for immediate discovery of the causes and the action plans for their closure.

Safety Quality Delivery Customer/Cost Boards

 

SQDC boards help visually track at a glance Safety, Quality, Delivery, and Customer/Cost on a daily basis. In addition to these, Inventory, Productivity, Environment, or Morale may also be included on the SQDC board.  The Board thus tracks things important to the employee such as safety and morale, to the customer such as quality, cost, to the business such as inventory, productivity and important to the society such as the environment. The Board thus helps in all-round tracking of the product with respect to the internal, external customers, and the environment.

The tracking is done by the Supervisor or Manager most likely during the Gemba walk. Each Area has 30/31 Numbers representing each day of the month. A Green color would indicate that the goal has been met, whereas a red color would indicate an area falling short of the target. The boards could also include additional details such as the current progress updated on a near real-time basis. SQDC boards could also be custom-made. SQDC boards help a firm in Continuous Improvement. Some IT Organizations that use the SQDC board also track the Predictive Analysis, Management Issues, and KPIs.

 

Criteria. The criteria under Safety could include accidents, near misses, safety incidents, safety talk, under Quality the criteria could include complaints, number of test fails, rework, non-conformance items, defects, under Delivery the criteria could include number of late deliveries and under Customer criteria could include the number of customer complaints, returns.

 

Benefits of SQDC.

Improves Efficiency. Since the board is visual not only to the management but to all the staff, action can be taken well in time before it becomes critical thereby improving efficiency.

Improves Productivity. Since the board is used as a tool for continuous improvement, productivity is the natural result.

Improves Accountability. Since the board is visual to everyone, accountability and responsibility can be easily fixed and corrected.

Resource Levelling. Since the board, gives the details of areas doing well and areas needing support, resources can be allocated to ensure a smooth flow.

Training Opportunities. Training opportunities for improvement in the skills or multi-skilling can be identified.

Other Opportunities. Besides this, the Board helps in improving focus, teamwork, and building morale.

 

References

https://myvisualmanagement.co.uk/visual-management-products/sqdc-boards/

https://theleanwarehouse.wordpress.com/2020/04/08/striving-for-continuous-improvement-with-sqdc-boards/

https://www.toolbox.com/tech/operating-systems/blogs/making-an-sqdc-board-meaningful-091315/

SQDC board stands for Safety, Quality, Delivery and Cost

• It is used as a Visual control tool to take care of the key performance indicators like Safety, Quality, Delivery and Cost for a specific team or business unit.
• This board shows at any point of time how the process/operations is performing on all the 4 parameters.
• This is also sometimes called as Gemba Board as it is consumed by floor leaders during Gemba walks
• This board is generally kept at a location which is easily visible to all the team members and appeals to them. Some companies even create a special area within the production bay to capture this.

Here is quick glimpse of an SQDC board.

 

 

How is this board used?

• This visual control tool is updated multiple times in a day to reflect the team's real time performance on all 4 key parameters.
• Therefore, the supervisor or manager while doing the Gemba walk, can understand how their team is performing and can take corrective actions (in case the team is lagging behind on certain parameters) or appreciate & motivate the team in case the team is performance very well.
• This tool also helps the team members understand how their contribution is helping the entire team on Quality, On time Delivery, Cost and the Safety and thus helps in bringing team's alignment with company goals/targets.

Here are some of the examples of how this is used differently, especially in service sector

• This visual control tool is also used to create a competitive environment between multiple teams which cater to different regions/offices for a client. In this case, there will be a scoreboard for each team which will be kept side by side and it shows a clear comparison on how each team is performing on all the 4 parameters. 
• This way each team members strive to make their team perform best and give better results than other teams. A simple example is shown below

       

 

• Sometimes some key parameters are also used to track the performance of every individual to create the competitive environment within the team. Example is shown below.    

 

• Sometimes in addition to the 4 parameters (Safety, Quality, Cost and Delivery), Morale is another parameter which is tracked for the team, as shown in the image below.

          

• Sometimes not just these 4 parameters, but some other key parameters like Cycle Time, Average Call Handling Time, Turn Around Time etc.. are also tracked on a daily basis and this visual control board is made visually appealing to ensure that the team understands their performance just looking at the charts shown below

 

 

• Here is another example how it used in manufacturing industry. Below is an example of Coil Manufacturing company where instead of Cost, they are trying to break it down further in Inventory, Productivity and Maintenance as shown in the image below.

      

How it is used in strategy deployment?

• In some companies it is also used in strategy deployment. In this case the SQDC board is modified to suit the identified company goals and is deployed at all levels from Top to bottom across all the functions and not necessarily for just operations team.
• It is done by defining goals at each level and then breaking them down further to each level and then tracked at each level using tools like Hoshin Kanri and A3 matrix   

  

SQDC boards are used to manage daily performance of a process based on four criteria, Safety, Quality Deliver and Cost. Set daily metrics based on these four criteria and present them on a board available for all the supervisors to look at during Gemba walks - 

 

1.       S (Safety) - Safety would measure whether the safety measures or metrics were achieved each day and marked on the board. Safety metrics might include: (https://www.leansixsigmadefinition.com/glossary/sqdc-2/)

·         No near misses

·         No safety violations

·         No missed work due to injuries

·         No unsafe work practices observed

 

2.       Q (Quality) – Quality would measure certain quality metrics achieved each day and marked on the board. Quality metrics might include:

·         Daily error count

·         DPMO

·         Peculiar variations observed through SPC

 

3.       D (Delivery) – Delivery would measure certain delivery metrics achieved each day and marked on the board. Delivery metrics might include:

·         Daily TAT

·         Count of deliveries that missed deadline

·         Rework

·         Downtime

4.       C (Cost) or (Customer) – C could either mean Cost or Customer. Let’s take a look at some Customer related metrics:

·         Count of Customer Complaints

·         Count of rejected items etc.

 

This is how a typical SQDC board looks like –

 

 

Some additional KPIs can be added to the chart as well, the most common addition is Morale. Morale is one area which is often ignored while calculating Productivity and Efficiency numbers. Whereas if one gauges Morale of employees on a daily basis it might result in some unexpected efficiency gains.

 

All the metrics have to be set mindfully as these are to be gauged on a daily basis and color coding can be used making it easier to identify the performance of each KPI. These boards are typically prepared for 31/30 days and then re-written.

SQDC is a simple and yet effective daily visual management process as it provides instantaneous visual assessment by constantly tracking process performance against the categories of Safety standards, Quality standards, Delivery and Cost.

The SQDP boards display very significant facts about the process performance just at a glimpse. It is very simple and straightforward hence very quick and easy to update every day and maintain it.

SQDP boards exceptionally produces effective way of recording and evaluating day-to-day progress. It helps in determining action plan for each process where required.

Daily metrics can be agreed and accepted for each of the SQDC category and what has been achieved for the day could be updated on the board.

For e.g., S for Safety would indicate whether the safety measures or metrics were achieved for the day, and marked on the board. Safety metrics might include:

•             No near misses

•             No safety violations

•             No missed work due to injuries

•             No unsafe work practices observed

•             No safety glasses violations

 

If the business unit or the functional team meets the defined targets/metrics, the corresponding category can be highlighted as green for the day, or red if not meet.

For ‘C’, some businesses use it as Customer.

Some organisations include M (Morale) as well and maintain the versions as SQDCM instead, where M stands for Morale.

Few sectors especially the health care modify S to be a “+” sign and few also include ‘E’ Environment.

Below each of the SQDC category there could be 4 or more rows providing details like;

o   1st row – Performance

o   2nd row – Insights on critical items or identified gaps

o   3rd row – Pareto Analysis

o   4th row – Kaizen

 

In a production environment, it’s always advisable to adopt and adapt this tracking mechanism by starting at the point closest to customer. This would help business to consistently strive for high quality process performance.

Evaluate how the process is performing in direct relation to the product requirement for the end customer. Then put the boards in place moving backward. That might be other departments like warehouse, assembling, packing etc. any respective process that delivers to shipping.

Later move the boards in purchasing, maintenance and any other appropriate departments also like the HR, finance, sales, customer service, R&D etc.

 

It is essential to determine the right metrics for the boards. Safety is always top priority. The metrics to be showcased in order of priority i.e. safety, quality, delivery, cost [sometimes inventory and/or productivity], morale etc.

 

Floor-Specific Goals

Boards that have the same metric calculation or labour/hour metric across departments aren’t scaled to reflect the specific areas.

 

Customer-driven

It is important to note that not only do these goals need to be floor-specific (as opposed to company-specific), but they also need to be customer-driven. Also, bearing in mind that each department’s customer is the next department in line.

 

Strategic Deployment

Once the SQDC boards and tracking model is streamlined it is of utmost of importance to align it with the Strategic Deployment and connect it with the wider organisational goals.

 

Sample SQDC Board;

SQDC is just one name for this visual management tool. It has a lot of synonyms like QDIP, SQDPG (Safety, Quality, Delivery, Productivity, Growth), which is used at Dr Pepper Snapple Group and QCDSM (Quality, Customer, Delivery, Safety, and Morale) at Toyota.

 

Darryl Collins has provided the best answer to this question. Shrikant's answer is also a must read for the variations of SQDC.