The Six Sigma Handbook, Revised and Expanded, 2nd Edition

5.2. PROCESS IMPROVEMENT TEAMS

Management of cross-functional projects is discussed in Chapter 15. In this section we will focus on the team aspect of process improvement activity.

Process improvement teams focus on improving one or more important characteristics of a process, e.g., quality, cost, cycle time, etc. The focus is on an entire process, rather than on a particular aspect of the process. A process is an integrated chain of activities that add value. A process can be identified by its beginning and ending states, e.g., manufacturing's beginning state is procurement, its ending state is shipment. Methods of analyzing and characterizing process are discussed throughout this book. Usually several departments are involved in any given ...