Continuous Improvement Fundamentals Flashcards
What are the three major components of LSS?
- organizational culture
- improvement tools
- support system for the tools
What are the three main benefits of using LSS?
- improve quality and productivity
- increase profits
- it is more than a quality initiative - its a business initiative
What is the positive impact of LSS on organizations?
- reduce errors
- identifies and corrects flaws in the process
- contributes to success of the whole organization
What are the attributes of key business drivers?
- independent of performance of other metrics or how team members react to contextual conditions
- customer-centered
- measure performance over time
- developed collaboratively by those who collect and use data
linked with organizational goals - provide direct information
- drive organizational success for the long run
- maximize what the company can control
What are the five most common key business drivers?
1) Profit
2) Market Share
3) Customer Satisfaction
4) Efficiency
5) Product Differentiation
What is profit?
positive financial gain by making more money than is spent
= total revenue - total cost
What is gross profit margin?
= (total sales - COGS)/total sales
What is operating profit margin?
= earnings before tax and interest / total sales
What is net profit margin?
= net profits after taxes / sales
What is market share?
= percentage of the overall industry controlled by a business
What is customer satisfaction?
exceeding or meeting a customer’s expectations and requirements as quickly as possible while keeping cost to the customer low, needs may be spoken or unspoken
What is efficiency?
measurement of something that:
1) customers desire
2) works in a quick and organized way
3) is accomplished with little waste
What is product differentiation?
the way in which an organization markets and presents its product and services to be different and better than its competitors and/or other products their own company offers
key question: “how does the product add value to customers?”
What is a business case?
financial justification for an improvement project
What are some types of financial costs to consider?
- personnel costs
- customer service costs
- raw material costs
- administrative costs
- opportunity costs
- failure costs
- inspection costs
What is nonconformance?
when a specification requirements is not met
What is a defect?
any nonconformance of quality
How should a GB respond to nonconformance?
1) identify the nonconformance(s)
2) establish a corrective action system
What is the cost of nonconformance?
the cost of not doing things right the first time, includes internal failures and external failures
What are some examples of internal failures?
scrap, excess/obsolete inventory, rework
What are some examples of external failures?
warranty costs, liability costs, loss of business
How do you calculate the cost of nonconformance?
1) list all cost elements
2) identify if internal or external failures (or N/A)
3) add up the total costs in each category
4) external failure total + internal failure total = cost of nonconformance
What is a cost-benefit analysis?
financial analysis tool used to determine the benefits provided by a project against its costs
What are the steps of a cost-benefit analysis?
1) define project(s)
2) analyze comprehensively all involved (stakeholders)
3) analyze costs
4) predict benefits
5) predict any subsequent costs
6) quantify in terms of capital (money)
7) use Net Present Value (NPV), Internal Rate of Return (IRR), or payback
8) verify robustness of model by modifying numbers (sensitivity analysis)
9) select most robust project with highest rate of return
When/why is cost-benefit analysis used?
- compare the benefits, costs, and risks of competing projects
- justify expenditures
- assist in performance of what-if analysis
- allocate resources among multiple projects