I'm a Swedish-based Lean consultant, and the owner of the free World-Class-Manufacturing.com web site.
In short, I teach key descision makers how to get a cost-effective and robust production.
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Six Sigma: SIPOC Diagrams
What does ‘SIPOC’ mean?
SIPOC is a Six Sigma acronym for:
- Suppliers: Internal or external suppliers of the inputs
- Inputs: Significant raw materials (or computer data, or personnel)
- Process: The process transforms inputs from the suppliers and creates outputs for the customers
- Outputs: Significant products which go to customers
- Customers: Direct internal or external recipients of the outputs
- If the “customer” receives an output from a third party (other than your business), then the “third party” is your customer – not the person you considered a customer. For example: You manufacture and sell ball bearings to bicycle manufacturers. You do not sell packages of ball bearings to retail customers. Cyclists are not your customers; they are the bicycle manufacturers’ customers.
A SIPOC diagram is a high-level “map” of a manufacturing or business process.
Why make a SIPOC Diagram?
The SIPOC diagram is useful in analysing a business or manufacturing process. It forces the participants to focus on the value stream:
- What is needed or supplied?
- Who supplies or needs it?
The SIPOC diagram is required early in any process-improvement project. Participants use the SIPOC diagram to ensure they have a clear concept of the process and the flow from suppliers to customers.
How to make a SIPOC Diagram?
Initially, focus on the process: describe three to six critical steps.
Add the outputs, and then the customers. It may help to focus on a few significant customers, ranking the characteristics – quality, timeliness and cost – they value most about the outputs they receive.
Finally, define the necessary inputs, and the suppliers. Again, identify the most important characteristics of these inputs.
Oskar Olofsson, 2009