Key excellence indicators are based on 12 years of Baldrige experience. They are the features exhibited by organisations which score highly in this criteria
- Products, services, and business processes
- Quality in design - products/services/processes
- Focus on cycle time and productivity
- Integration of prevention, correction, and improvement with daily operations
- Supplier partneringSource - NIST
6.1 Product and Service Processes (55 points) Describe how your organisation manages key product and service
design and delivery processesThis item asks how you design, introduce, produce, deliver, and improve your products and services. It also asks how your production and/or delivery processes are operated and improved. The trouble-free introduction of new products and services (your new product introduction process) has an impact on the eventual management of these processes. This requires effective coordination, starting early in the product and service design phase.
The item also examines organisational learning through a focus on how learning in one process or work unit is replicated (the issue of re-usable knowledge) and added to the knowledge base of other projects or work units.
Responses to 6.1 should address the most critical requirements for your business and should include how customers and key suppliers and partners are involved in design processes, as and where appropriate.
The results of improvements in product and service design and delivery processes should be reported in 7.5. Results of improvements in product and service performance should be reported in 7.1.Criteria for Performance Excellence 1999Key words and phrases for this item
- Design processes
- Production/delivery processes
- Evaluation and improvement
| 6.1a | Design Processes |
The design of products and services, and their production/delivery processes, might include:
1. how changing customer and market requirements and technology are incorporated into product and service designs
2. how production/delivery processes are designed to meet customer, quality, and operational performance requirements; and
3. how design and production/delivery processes are coordinated to ensure trouble-free and timely introduction and delivery of products and services.
Your design approaches will depending on the nature of your products and/or services whether they are entirely new, variants, or involve major or minor process changes. Your responses should reflect the key requirements for the products and services.
Factors that might need to be considered in design include:
Effective design must also consider cycle time and the productivity of production and delivery processes. This might involve detailed mapping of manufacturing or service processes and redesigning or reengineering the processes to achieve efficiency and to meet changing customer requirements.
Effective design must take into account all stakeholders in the value chain. If many design projects are carried out in parallel, or if your products utilize parts, equipment, and facilities used for other products, coordination may be a major concern, while offering opportunities for reduction in costs and time to market.
6.1a(1) What are your design processes for products/services and their related production/delivery processes?
Factors that affect design, production, and delivery of products and services include:
6.1a(2)
How do you incorporate changing customer/market requirements into product/service designs and production/delivery systems and processes?
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Link responses here to our customer's requirements identified in 3.1 There's a direct and rather obvious functional relationship between how well you know your customers and how successfully you design new products to meet their needs.
- Incorporate and changing (customer and market requirements) are the key words
- If you have systematic processes for capturing and prioritising your customers new product requirements this is where to explain them.
Examples that illustrate your translation of customer requirements into engineering specifications and product or service characteristics should also be included here.
Example
 |  | 3M Dental's new product introduction |
| 6.1a(3) | How do you incorporate new technology into products/services and into production/delivery systems and processes, as appropriate? |
- One of the challenges presented by the new technologies is that many successful new introductions have been products none of us thought we needed - fax machines and copiers, for example. With this in mind, a proactive approach to new product introduction will be more likely to impress examiners in this area.
- On a more mundane level, this requirement is likely to involve a discussion of your new technology capabilities. Do you have in-house expertise, do you contract it in, have you set up partnerships with new-tech specialists?
- This requirement is also likely to involve a discussion of your Internet strategy (and maybe an explanation of how or why you are ensuring that your organisation is not about to become an Internet fossil).
| 6.1a(4) | How do your design processes address design quality and cycle time, transfer of learning from past projects and other parts of the organisation, cost control, new design technology, productivity, and other efficiency/effectiveness factors? |
- Keeping in mind that this is still about your processes for designing (products and/or services), not the production processes that result, tick off the key words - design quality, cycle time, reusable knowledge, cost control, new technology and productivity - against a context of efficiency and effectiveness, for your organisation.
- The question asks - how do you deal with these issues in your design processes. A matrix or tabular response might be appropriate - see writing an application for examples - listing design processes against the relevant activities/teams/processes that account for design quality, cycle time and so on.
- See the exhibit Knowledge management for a discussion of transferring knowledge
Example
| | Cycle time - United Airline's Engine Maintenance Division |
| 6.1a(5) | How do you ensure that your production/delivery process design accommodates all key operational performance requirements? |
- As above, keep in mind that this is still about design processes.
- Brown (1998, p212) suggests that the best approach to this question is to present an overall description of how you design your organisation's production/distribution processes, then present examples of operational and quality requirements and how these have been translated into key features of your production and distribution processes.
| 6.1a(6) | How do you coordinate and test design and production/delivery processes to ensure capability for trouble-free and timely introduction of products/services? |
- Coordination of design and production and delivery processes involves all work units and individuals who will take part in production and delivery and whose performance affects process outcomes Ύ from research and development, marketing, design, and product or process engineering.
- A preventative approach will score better points than a reactive, inspection-based approach. New product introductions, with their changes to designs, drawings, and specifications, continuing input from manufacturing, field service, marketing, legal and other departments, are usually too late, causing numerous revisions... A preventative approach involves getting representatives from each of these functions involved early in the design phase, says Brown.
- Explain what tests are conducted during your new product design processes, when they are conducted, and why.
| 6.1b | Production/delivery processes |
This area asks for: ExampleStatistical process control at Granite Rock 6.1b(1) What are your key production/delivery processes and their key performance requirements?
- Make a list!
- If necessary, go to Writing an application for some guidance on writing and representing processes.
- The response to this question will in most cases be a table, with a list of key processes on one axis, and the relevant performance requirements on the other.
| 6.1b(2) | How does your day-to-day operation of key production/delivery processes ensure meeting key performance requirements? |
- And in this response, explain how you manage your processes to meet your performance targets.
| 6.1b(3) | What are your key performance measures and/or indicators used for the control and improvement of these processes? Include how real-time customer input is sought, as appropriate. |
And this question requires two separate but linked answers:
- - a description of your process controls. How you make sure that your key processes deliver services or products according to the performance requirements in (1) and (2), above?
- - an explanation of how controls and/or measures contribute to process (not product) improvements.
- When customer interactions are involved, refer back to earlier explanations about how you segment customers and markets. Your response should deal with identified segments when discussing process performance.
| 6.1b(4) | How do you improve your production/delivery processes to achieve better process performance and improvements to products/services, as appropriate? How are improvements shared with other organisational units and processes, as appropriate? |
Improving processes to drive better performance means better quality from the customers' perspective as well as better financial and operational performance such as productivity from the organisation's perspective.
Process improvements might include:
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(1) sharing successful strategies across the organisation
(2) process analysis and research (process mapping, optimization experiments, and error proofing for example)
(3) research and development results (4) benchmarking
(5) using alternative technology, and
(6) using information from customers of the processes within and outside the organisation.
Process improvement might also involve financial data to evaluate alternatives and set priorities.
Together, these approaches offer a wide range of possibilities, including the complete redesign, or reengineering of processes.
| 6.2 | Support Processes (15 points) |
| Describe how your organisation manages its key support processes. |
Key words and phrases for this item are:
- Support processes
- Key requirements and measures
- Evaluation and improvement
Support processes included in 6.2 are unique to each organisation and how it operates. Focus on the most important processes not addressed in 6.1 and 6.3. Results of improvements in key support processes and key support process performance results should be reported in 7.5
| 6.2a | Support Processes |
| 6.2a(1) | What are your key support processes? |
- Support processes are those that support your product manufacturing and service delivery processes, and the business activities that accompany them.
- A systematic response to this requirement might include a table that identifies key organisational processes, and matches them with their support processes
- Support processes might include: - information and knowledge management
- - finance and accounting
- - facilities management
- - research and development
- - administration
- - sales and marketing
See the knowledge management and Raytheon knowledge management exhibits for contemporary descriptions of knowledge management at work.
| 6.2a(2) | How do you determine key support process requirements, incorporating input from internal and/or external customers, as appropriate? What are the key operational requirements (such as productivity and cycle time) for the processes? |
| 6.2a(3) | How do you design these processes to meet all the key requirements? |
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This Item addresses how the organisation designs, implements, operates, and improves its support processes
- While these processes support the organisation's product and/or service delivery, they are not usually co-designed with the products and services themselves, because they're not directly related
- Support process design requirements usually depend significantly upon internal requirements, and they must be coordinated and integrated to ensure efficient and effective linkage and performance. Support processes might include finance and accounting, software services, sales, marketing, public relations, information services, personnel, legal services, plant and facilities management, research and development, and secretarial and other administrative services
Examples
| | Legal services at Solar Turbines |
| 6.2a(4) | How does your day-to-day operation of key support processes ensure meeting key performance requirements? How do you determine and use in-process measures and/or customer feedback in your support processes? |
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The item calls for information on how the organisation maintains the performance of the key support processes. This information includes a description of the key processes and their principal requirements, and a description of key in-process measurements and customer interactions. These principal requirements are similar to those described previously in Area 6.1b.
| 6.2a(5) | How do you improve your support processes to achieve better performance and to keep them current with business needs and directions, as appropriate? How are improvements shared with other organisational units and processes, as appropriate? |
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Four approaches to evaluating and improving the performance of key support processes are:
- process analysis and research
- benchmarking
- use of alternative technology; and
- use of information from customers of the processes within and outside the organisation.
Together, these approaches offer a wide range of possibilities, including complete redesign ('reengineering') of processes
See the exhibit keeping current
| 6.3 | Supplier and Partnering Processes (15 points) |
| Describe how your organisation manages its key supplier and/or partnering interactions and processes. |
Key words and phrases for this item Example
Supplier and partnering processes might include processes for supply chain improvement and optimization, beyond direct suppliers and partners.
If your organisation selects preferred suppliers or partners based upon volume of business, or the criticality of their supplied products or services, include your selection criteria in the response.
Results of improvements in supplier and partnering processes and supplier/partner performance results should be reported in 7.4.
This item addresses how the organisation designs, implements, operates, and improves its supplier and partnering processes and relationships. It also addresses supplier and partner performance management and improvement. Supplier refers to other organisations and units of the parent organisation that provide goods and services.
Suppliers' and partners' goods and services may be used at any stage in the production, design, delivery, and use of the organisation's products and services. Thus, suppliers include businesses such as distributors, dealers, warranty repair services, transportation, contractors, and franchises, as well as those that provide materials and components. Suppliers also include service suppliers, such as health care, training, and education providers.
Item 6.3 places particular emphasis on the relationships that organisations building with key and preferred suppliers, including partnerships. For many organisations, these relationships are an increasingly important for achieving performance, cost and strategic objectives. For example, they might provide unique design, integration, and marketing capabilities.
6.3a Supplier and partnering processes
6.3a(1) What are your key support processes?
Make a list!
6.3a(2) How do you incorporate performance requirements into supplier and/or partner process management? What key performance requirements must your suppliers and/or partners meet to fulfill your overall requirements?
Key performance requirements for suppliers and partners are the principal factors involved in the organisation's purchases - quality, delivery, and price for example.
Processes for determining whether or not requirements are met might include audits, process reviews, receiving inspections, certification, testing, and rating systems.
IBM Rochester
6.3a(3) How do you ensure that your performance requirements are met? How do you provide timely and actionable feedback to suppliers and/or partners? Include the key performance measures and/or indicators and any targets you use for supplier and/or partner assessment.
6.3a(4) How do you minimize overall costs associated with inspections, tests, and process and/or performance audits?
Cost minimization in this context implies the sort of approaches reported by organisations who establish track records in reliability and standards reproducibility that allow them to negotiate, for example, minimal compliance regimes that depend on self-inspection. Minimal variability, an approach based on prevention rather than post-production inspection, and management by information, will make low-cost inspection, testing and auditing more likely.
6.2a(5) How do you provide business assistance and/or incentives to suppliers and/or partners to help them improve their overall performance and to improve their abilities to contribute to your current and longer-term performance?
Actions and plans to improve the contribution that suppliers and partners might make to better performance in your organisation might include:6.2a(6) How do you improve your supplier and/or partner processes, including your role as supportive customer/ partner, to keep current with your business needs and directions? How are improvements shared throughout your organisation, as appropriate?