What Should You Measure?

By Jay Arthur

Many people have a hard time figuring out what to measure and improve with Six Sigma. Here are some ideas:

 

Defects

Delay

Marketing

Typos, inaccuracies, wrong offer

Preparation-to-Placement
Placement to Response

Sales/Ordering

Incorrect or inaccurate:
Address 
Product/Service Number/description
Pricing/Discount 
Shipping or Handling
Taxes

Taken-to-input
Input-to-processed

Fulfillment

Defects in Manufacturing:

Auto: Scratched, deformed, scrap, etc.

Food: biological, chemical, or physical hazards

Defects in Service Delivery:
Late, incomplete, inaccurate, etc.

Hospital: falls, infections, deaths

Cell phones: “dead zones,” roaming

IT/MIS: Availability of systems

Hotel: reservation, unclean, etc.

Restaurant: wrong food, improperly prepared, food-borne illness

Banking: Inaccurate transactions

Delays in Manufacturing:
Processed-to-shipped
Shipped-to-received
Received-to-used

Delays in Service:
Prepared-to-delivered
Delivered-to-used

Service

Repair
Repeat repair

Failure-to-reported
Reported-to-fixed

Billing

Incorrect or inaccurate:
Address 
Product/Service Number/description
Pricing/Discount 
Shipping or Handling
Taxes

Ordered-to-bill created
Billed-to-mailed
Mailed-to-received
Received-to-paid

Purchasing

Incorrect or inaccurate:
Supplier
Product/Service Number/description
Pricing/Discount 
Shipping or Handling
Taxes

Need-to-request
Request-to-ordered
Ordered-to-received
Received-to-used

Payments

Incorrect or inaccurate:
Invoice
Payment entry
Allocation to budget accounts
Payment authorization
Delivery

Receipt-to-analysis
Analysis-to-approval
Approval-to-payment
Payment-to-received

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