Accendo Reliability

Your Reliability Engineering Professional Development Site

  • Home
  • About
    • Contributors
  • Reliability.fm
    • Speaking Of Reliability
    • Rooted in Reliability: The Plant Performance Podcast
    • Quality during Design
    • Critical Talks
    • Dare to Know
    • Maintenance Disrupted
    • Metal Conversations
    • The Leadership Connection
    • Practical Reliability Podcast
    • Reliability Matters
    • Reliability it Matters
    • Maintenance Mavericks Podcast
    • Women in Maintenance
    • Accendo Reliability Webinar Series
    • Asset Reliability @ Work
  • Articles
    • CRE Preparation Notes
    • on Leadership & Career
      • Advanced Engineering Culture
      • Engineering Leadership
      • Managing in the 2000s
      • Product Development and Process Improvement
    • on Maintenance Reliability
      • Aasan Asset Management
      • CMMS and Reliability
      • Conscious Asset
      • EAM & CMMS
      • Everyday RCM
      • History of Maintenance Management
      • Life Cycle Asset Management
      • Maintenance and Reliability
      • Maintenance Management
      • Plant Maintenance
      • Process Plant Reliability Engineering
      • ReliabilityXperience
      • RCM Blitz®
      • Rob’s Reliability Project
      • The Intelligent Transformer Blog
    • on Product Reliability
      • Accelerated Reliability
      • Achieving the Benefits of Reliability
      • Apex Ridge
      • Metals Engineering and Product Reliability
      • Musings on Reliability and Maintenance Topics
      • Product Validation
      • Reliability Engineering Insights
      • Reliability in Emerging Technology
    • on Risk & Safety
      • CERM® Risk Insights
      • Equipment Risk and Reliability in Downhole Applications
      • Operational Risk Process Safety
    • on Systems Thinking
      • Communicating with FINESSE
      • The RCA
    • on Tools & Techniques
      • Big Data & Analytics
      • Experimental Design for NPD
      • Innovative Thinking in Reliability and Durability
      • Inside and Beyond HALT
      • Inside FMEA
      • Integral Concepts
      • Learning from Failures
      • Progress in Field Reliability?
      • Reliability Engineering Using Python
      • Reliability Reflections
      • Testing 1 2 3
      • The Manufacturing Academy
  • eBooks
  • Resources
    • Accendo Authors
    • FMEA Resources
    • Feed Forward Publications
    • Openings
    • Books
    • Webinars
    • Journals
    • Higher Education
    • Podcasts
  • Courses
    • 14 Ways to Acquire Reliability Engineering Knowledge
    • Reliability Analysis Methods online course
    • Measurement System Assessment
    • SPC-Process Capability Course
    • Design of Experiments
    • Foundations of RCM online course
    • Quality during Design Journey
    • Reliability Engineering Statistics
    • Quality Engineering Statistics
    • An Introduction to Reliability Engineering
    • An Introduction to Quality Engineering
    • Process Capability Analysis course
    • Root Cause Analysis and the 8D Corrective Action Process course
    • Return on Investment online course
    • CRE Preparation Online Course
    • Quondam Courses
  • Webinars
    • Upcoming Live Events
  • Calendar
    • Call for Papers Listing
    • Upcoming Webinars
    • Webinar Calendar
  • Login
    • Member Home

by Dianna Deeney Leave a Comment

QDD 048 Using SIPOC to Get Started

Using SIPOC to Get Started

SIPOC diagrams can be used at the beginning of improvement projects, to help teams gauge the scope of a change or to help the team get on the same page. These diagrams can also help a team understand a complex system with many people involved or lots of information exchanges.

SIPOC is short for Suppliers-Inputs-Process-Outputs-Customers.

In creating one with our team, we usually don’t fill it out left to right. We talk about how to build one in this episode.

We also step through an example. Look below for the results.

 

 

View the Episode Transcript

 

The order of the columns that we’re going to work through is this: process, outputs, customers, inputs, suppliers.

We have the software app developers as both supplier and a customer. On the supplier side, they’re providing a synchronization with our pedal. On the customer side, they’re dealing with the data our pedal is sending to calculate and store information about the ride that the cyclist is interested in seeing. I think listing the Software App developer twice like this is okay as long as we’re clear about what’s an input and what’s an output.

SIPOC Example

SIPOC diagrams are a great way to get clarity about anything we’re starting, whether it’s a new design or something we’re working on that could be considered continuous improvement. It’s another opportunity to gather your cross-functional team and talk about customers and what they need. And, creating a SIPOC diagram may highlight the direction and next steps that the team needs to take. So, if you’re at the start of something new and trying to wrap your head around what to do next, gather your team and create a SIPOC diagram. It will be a useful activity that will produce next steps.

Citations

 

Episode Transcript

We’re at the concept phases of our product design, trying to get our heads around the high-level steps that our users are going to take to use our product. We’re not so clear about the big picture who is doing what, when and who needs what, afterwards. To put it all together, we can help ourselves with a common quality tool, a SIPOC diagram. I’ll tell you what it is, its benefits, and how to create one after this brief introduction.

Hello, and welcome to Quality during Design the place to use quality thinking to create products others love for less. My name is Dianna. I’m a senior level quality professional and engineer with over 20 years of experience in manufacturing and design. Listen in and then join the conversation at qualityduringdesign.com.

SIPOC is an acronym that means suppliers, inputs, process, outputs, and customers. It is five columns of data. The high-level process flow is in the middle. Suppliers and inputs are on the left. Outputs and customers are on the right. Visit the podcast blog for this episode on qualityduringdesign.com and I’ll have a picture of it for you. For some quality folks, this is their go-to diagram to helping teams better understand a process. SIPOC diagrams are a great first step in helping us understand the key people who are involved and affected by our process. We also better understand the key elements of what goes into it and what can we expect to get out of it.

SIPOC diagrams can be used at the beginning of improvement projects to help teams gauge the scope of a change or to help the team get on the same page. These diagrams can also help a team understand a complex system with many people involved or lots of information exchanges. SIPOC diagrams are usually not the end of any project. The SIPOC diagram will identify where there are gaps or where there are more questions. Follow up activities include things like a more detailed flow chart from which any number of other analyses can be performed. For example, we can use a detailed flow chart for mistaking proofing, evaluating the cost of poor quality, performing a value added or critical to quality analysis. Other follow up activities from a SIPOC include interviewing customers to clarify the outputs or interviewing suppliers to clarify inputs. The team could decide to include other stakeholders in the project based on the results of the suppliers and customers’ columns. Teams could take the SIPOC results and begin to develop preliminary requirements or measures of quality.

Creating a SIPOC diagram is a team activity. So, assemble your team of people. If it’s for a design and how it’s used, we’ll likely want to include cross-functional people like marketing and field operations. We don’t fill in a SIPOC diagram from left to, right. It’s just not the, we think about things. We will generate each column of data thinking about it, and then writing down the information for each column, one at a time. We’ll make the columns visible at all times to the team as we move to the next column.

The order of the columns that we’re going to work through is this: process, outputs, customers, inputs, suppliers. First, we create a macro flow chart. A macro flow chart is a high-level flow chart that only shows the major steps of any process. Our product design is going to get used by someone or something. The way it’s used is a process. We can draw squares and list the major steps of how our product is going to get used. We organize the squares and sequence and connect them with arrows. We don’t need to be picky with the details with this macro flow chart. We do need to make sure that we have a start and endpoint defined.

Next, start with the process outputs, list them all out together under a heading titled “outputs”. This is the easiest to start with because our minds naturally think about what’s next. And we’re designing for outputs. Write them on a whiteboard, use a flip chart, use post-it notes, but just make sure it’s visible to everyone. Then take the next step and think about who is going to be using those outputs. Who are the customers going to be? We group them together on a worksheet or whiteboard section with a heading “customers”. We list our target customers, but we make sure not to forget about the internal customers, also. For example, there could be a warranty that gets filed. We’ll have internal customers for that information.

Next, we identify the inputs. We’re going to go back to our macro process flow chart and think about each step. What are the inputs to each step of the process? And finally, we identify the suppliers of the inputs that we’ve identified. These inputs and suppliers areas we are also going to group together on a new sheet or whiteboard section and keep them visible. Finally, our team checks to make that we’ve not missed anything.

Now we have the baseline information that we need to create a SIPOC diagram. Taking the next step and creating a SIIPOC diagram will help us see how it all fits together. We may start to see it as we’re developing the information for it, but we’re going to lay it out in a SIPOC diagram. Even though we filled it out the way we naturally think of things, we’re going to use the diagram to shift our perspectives of the whole process by laying it out as inputs, process, outputs. This reframing helps us to better understand our process and evaluate the next steps.

Let’s talk through an example. We’re designing a new bicycle pedal and there’s enough interest from our customer base for the new pedals to have a power meter integrated with them. This allows our customers to measure how much work they’re doing, which they track for health metrics and to calculate calories burned. We can start with SIPOC diagram. Let’s first create our macro process flow. Let’s start with our customers receiving the pedals as an upgrade in the mail and we’ll end our macro process when our customer finishes their first ride with the new pedals. Our high level process steps could be: step one, install the pedals on the bike; step two, set up the pedals to communicate with devices and apps; step three, ride the bike and collect and monitor data; step four, complete or stop the ride.

Now what are our outputs? The raw output data of our preliminary design is the angular velocity of the crank and the magnitude and direction of the applied force of the cyclist’s foot on the pedal. The outputs are the independent measurements of power for each of the cyclist legs. That’s what the cyclist monitors. This power measurement is calculated within the devices or apps. Next – our customers are the cyclists. Anyone else? How about the designers of the software and apps that the cyclist uses? They could be considered are customers of our raw data, because they’ll use the data from the pedals to calculate metrics that our cyclist is monitoring.

Nest, what are the inputs to our process? Remember our process is four steps. Install the pedals, set them up to communicate with devices and apps, ride the bike and collect and monitor data, and complete or stop the ride. Let’s think about inputs into each of our process steps. For step one, install the pedals, our input could be the crank because it interfaces with our pedal. For setting up the pedals to communicate with devices and apps, our inputs could be the devices that our cyclist uses. They’ll need to be able to communicate or link up with our pedals to retrieve information. The software for the devices or apps would be an input. The new pedals will need to get synced with their apps for our process. Step three, ride the bike and collect data. The input is the cyclist’s foot applying force on the pedal and the pedals continuously sending data to the devices or apps.

For our last process step, complete or stop the ride, the input is the data file that was collected during the ride. Now who are our suppliers of the inputs we just listed? The cyclist is a supplier of the force. We can list manufacturers of devices or apps that our pedal will be compatible with. And we can find the standard to which all bike cranks are likely made. We have the software app developers as both suppliers and a customer. On the supplier side, they’re providing a synchronization with our pedal on the customer side. They’re dealing with the data our pedals sending to calculate and store information about the ride that the cyclists is interest in seeing, I think listing the software app developer twice like this is okay, as long as we’re clear about what’s an input and what’s an output. I posted a completed SIPOC diagram for this example on the podcast blog.

When we started with this example, before we started the SIPOC diagram, where were you thinking the design team would need to start? I would’ve probably started thinking about how to design the pedal and what sensors to pick. After doing the SIPOC diagram, I would start with a software app and developers. They’re going to be an important partner in the success of our pedals and I’m sure or they have requirements and limitations about the data their software can use. If our design is new, they may have to develop another version of software to be able to interface with our new design. How is that going to work out? You can start to see how creating a SIPOC diagram can be a good starting point. It starts to open up questions and prompt further discovery about what we’re evaluating. It provides a pointer as far as what to do next.

To conclude, SIPOC diagrams are a great way to get clarity about anything we’re starting, whether it’s a new design or something we’re working on that could be considered continuous improvement. It’s another opportunity to gather your cross-functional team and talk about customers and what they need and creating a SIPOC diagram may highlight the direction and next steps the team needs to take.

So, what’s today’s insight to action? If you’re at the start of something new and trying to wrap your head around what to next, gather your team and create a SIPOC diagram. It will be a useful activity that will help your team produce next steps.

Please go to my website at qualityduringdesign.com. You can visit me there, and it also has a catalog of resources, including all the podcasts and their transcripts. Use the subscribe forms to join the weekly newsletter, where I share more insights and links in your podcast app. Make sure you subscribe or follow quality during design to get all the episodes and get notified when new ones are posted. This has been a production of Deeney Enterprises. Thanks for listening!

 

 

Filed Under: Quality during Design, The Reliability FM network

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Quality during Design podcast logo

Tips for using quality tools and methods to help you design products others love, for less.


by Dianna Deeney
Quality during Design,
Hosted on Buzzsprout.com
Subscribe and enjoy every episode
Google
Apple
Spotify

Recent Episodes

QDD 101 Quality Tools are Legos of Development (and Their 7 Uses)

QDD 100 Lessons Learned from Coffee Pod Stories

QDD 099 Crucial Conversations in Engineering, with Shere Tuckey (A Chat with Cross-Functional Experts)

QDD 098 Challenges Getting Team Input in Concept Development

QDD 097 Brainstorming within Design Sprints

QDD 096 After the ‘Storm: Compare and Prioritize Ideas

QDD 095 After the ‘Storm: Pareto Voting and Screening Methods

QDD 094 After the ‘Storm: Group and Explore Ideas

QDD 093 Product Design with Brainstorming, with Emily Haidemenos (A Chat with Cross Functional Experts)

QDD 092 Ways to Gather Ideas with a Team

QDD 091 The Spirits of Technical Writing Past, Present, and Future

QDD 090 The Gifts Others Bring

QDD 089 Next Steps after Surprising Test Results

QDD 088 Choose Reliability Goals for Modules

QDD 087 Start a System Architecture Diagram Early

QDD 086 Why Yield Quality in the Front-End of Product Development

QDD 085 Book Cast

QDD 084 Engineering in the Color Economy

QDD 083 Getting to Great Designs

QDD 082 Get Clarity on Goals with a Continuum

QDD 081 Variable Relationships: Correlation and Causation

QDD 080 Use Meetings to Add Productivity

QDD 079 Ways to Partner with Test Engineers

QDD 078 What do We do with FMEA Early in Design Concept?

QDD 077 A Severity Scale based on Quality Dimensions

QDD 076 Use Force Field Analysis to Understand Nuances

QDD 075 Getting Use Information without a Prototype

QDD 074 Finite Element Analysis (FEA) Supplements Test

QDD 073 2 Lessons about Remote Work for Design Engineers

QDD 072 Always Plot the Data

QDD 071 Supplier Control Plans and Design Specs

QDD 070 Use FMEA to Design for In-Process Testing

QDD 069 Use FMEA to Choose Critical Design Features

QDD 068 Get Unstuck: Expand and Contract Our Problem

QDD 067 Get Unstuck: Reframe our Problem

QDD 066 5 Options to Manage Risks during Product Engineering

QDD 065 Prioritizing Technical Requirements with a House of Quality

QDD 064 Gemba for Product Design Engineering

QDD 063 Product Design from a Data Professional Viewpoint, with Gabor Szabo (A Chat with Cross Functional Experts)

QDD 062 How Does Reliability Engineering Affect (Not Just Assess) Design?

QDD 061 How to use FMEA for Complaint Investigation

QDD 060 3 Tips for Planning Design Reviews

QDD 059 Product Design from a Marketing Viewpoint, with Laura Krick (A Chat with Cross Functional Experts)

QDD 058 UFMEA vs. DFMEA

QDD 057 Design Input & Specs vs. Test & Measure Capability

QDD 056 ALT vs. HALT

QDD 055 Quality as a Strategic Asset vs. Quality as a Control

QDD 054 Design Specs vs. Process Control, Capability, and SPC

QDD 053 Internal Customers vs. External Customers

QDD 052 Discrete Data vs. Continuous Data

QDD 051 Prevention Controls vs. Detection Controls

QDD 050 Try this Method to Help with Complex Decisions (DMRCS)

QDD 049 Overlapping Ideas: Quality, Reliability, and Safety

QDD 048 Using SIPOC to Get Started

QDD 047 Risk Barriers as Swiss Cheese?

QDD 046 Environmental Stress Testing for Robust Designs

QDD 045 Choosing a Confidence Level for Test using FMEA

QDD 044 Getting Started with FMEA – It All Begins with a Plan

QDD 043 How can 8D help Solve my Recurring Problem?

QDD 042 Mistake-Proofing – The Poka-Yoke of Usability

QDD 041 Getting Comfortable with using Reliability Results

QDD 040 How to Self-Advocate for More Customer Face Time (and why it’s important)

QDD 039 Choosing Quality Tools (Mind Map vs. Flowchart vs. Spaghetti Diagram)

QDD 038 The DFE Part of DFX (Design For Environment and eXcellence)

QDD 037 Results-Driven Decisions, Faster: Accelerated Stress Testing as a Reliability Life Test

QDD 036 When to use DOE (Design of Experiments)?

QDD 035 Design for User Tasks using an Urgent/Important Matrix

QDD 034 Statistical vs. Practical Significance

QDD 033 How Many Do We Need To Test?

QDD 032 Life Cycle Costing for Product Design Choices

QDD 031 5 Aspects of Good Reliability Goals and Requirements

QDD 030 Using Failure Rate Functions to Drive Early Design Decisions

QDD 029 Types of Design Analyses possible with User Process Flowcharts

QDD 028 Design Tolerances Based on Economics (Using the Taguchi Loss Function)

QDD 027 How Many Controls do we Need to Reduce Risk?

QDD 026 Solving Symptoms Instead of Causes?

QDD 025 Do you have SMART ACORN objectives?

QDD 024 Why Look to Standards

QDD 023 Getting the Voice of the Customer

QDD 022 The Way We Test Matters

QDD 021 Designing Specs for QA

QDD 020 Every Failure is a Gift

QDD 019 Understanding the Purposes behind Kaizen

QDD 018 Fishbone Diagram: A Supertool to Understand Problems, Potential Solutions, and Goals

QDD 017 What is ‘Production Equivalent’ and Why Does it Matter?

QDD 016 About Visual Quality Standards

QDD 015 Using the Pareto Principle and Avoiding Common Pitfalls

QDD 014 The Who’s Who of your Quality Team

QDD 013 When it’s Not Normal: How to Choose from a Library of Distributions

QDD 012 What are TQM, QFD, Six Sigma, and Lean?

QDD 011 The Designer’s Important Influence on Monitoring After Launch

QDD 010 How to Handle Competing Failure Modes

QDD 009 About Using Slide Decks for Technical Design Reviews

QDD 008 Remaking Risk-Based Decisions: Allowing Ourselves to Change our Minds.

QDD 007 Need to innovate? Stop brainstorming and try a systematic approach.

QDD 006 HALT! Watch out for that weakest link

QDD 005 The Designer’s Risk Analysis affects Business, Projects, and Suppliers

QDD 004 A big failure and too many causes? Try this analysis.

QDD 003 Why Your Design Inputs Need to Include Quality & Reliability

QDD 002 My product works. Why don’t they want it?

QDD 001 How to Choose the Right Improvement Model

© 2023 FMS Reliability · Privacy Policy · Terms of Service · Cookies Policy

This site uses cookies to give you a better experience, analyze site traffic, and gain insight to products or offers that may interest you. By continuing, you consent to the use of cookies. Learn how we use cookies, how they work, and how to set your browser preferences by reading our Cookies Policy.