Organizations benefit when their quality assurance function is structurally integrated in an overall enhanced business management system. This can be accomplished with the Integrated Enterprise Excellence (IEE) business management system.
The IEE system consists of nine steps:
In the IEE system, step 2 is the organizational value chain:
The rectangular boxes in an IEE value chain link to processes, while oblong boxes provide linkage to their metrics. An IEE value chain can be clickable and provide automatic updated metrics through Enterprise Performance Reporting System (EPRS) software.
Quality Assurances processes need to be integrated within an organizational value chain and have 30,000-foot-level process-output metrics associated with these processes. Like other functions, Quality Assurance processes need to also be considered for process improvement effort opportunities (i.e., execution of step 7 in the 9-step IEE Business Management System). An example improvement opportunity in QA might be the replacement of AQL testing with 30,000-foot-level reporting.
The IEE system addresses the scorecard and improvement issues that are often encountered in organizations, as described in a 1-minute video:
Quality Assurance in an Enhanced Business Management System Webinar
Many organizations align their Lean Six Sigma efforts with the quality department, but keep the efforts completely separate. There are a number of Lean Six Sigma tools that can be applied to the Quality Assurance and Quality Control efforts of an organization to drive significant improvements. This is not in reference to running a Lean Six Sigma project, but the use of certain tools to assess the performance of the inspections, the quality of the auditing, and more.
Organizations can have a high level of faith in their Quality Assurance and Quality Control programs without understanding the power and effectiveness of these efforts. In this webinar we will show you a series of Lean Six Sigma measure, analyze, and control-phase tools that individually can assess the true Quality Assurance and Quality Control performance and lead to quick and inexpensive improvements.
Contact Us to set up a time to discuss with Forrest Breyfogle how your organization might gain much from an Integrated Enterprise Excellence (IEE) Business Process Management System and its structural integration of Quality Assurance.