Process improvement plan: operations

Process Improvement Plan Your name OPS/571 June 14, 2010 Daryl West Process Improvement Plan The purpose of this paper is to outline the process improvement plan to include the statistical process control identified in week one.

To begin, I will explain the control limits, discuss the effect of seasonal factors and the confidence intervals and their usefulness based on the number of data points. For the past five weeks I have been monitoring and reviewing the process of posting the assignments on time as reviewed in the syllabus.

The week consists of Monday through Monday postings with four days to post up to two substantive comments, discussion questions and for this class there have been three individual assignments due on week one, week three and week five. The process improvement is to reduce the wait time in starting the required assignments. Statistical Process Control Statistical Process Control (SPC) is a technique for testing a random sample of output from a process to determine whether the process is producing items within a prescribed range (Chase, Jacobs, & Aquilano, 2005, p.

364).

Essentially, process improvement is to monitor how something is conducted and determining if it can be done better. The process I have chosen to monitor is when to start my assignments over the past five weeks. All papers and postings, I expected an “ A”; however, not having a complete understanding of the concepts, I did not. The proposed process improvement plan will satisfy the bottleneck in the process of waiting until the end of the week to start discussions and papers to ensure full understanding of the concepts; however, this delay resulted in poorly written papers because it did not give me adequate time to ask questions.

The bottleneck is for me to start my discussion questions, add substantive comments to others discussion questions, and apply concepts earlier in the week.

Control Limits The ideal measurement of the process would be to have had more than three papers due this class; however, the process of the discussion questions and providing substantive comments is another indicator or can be added to the standard deviation of 99. 7% confidence level.

Table A shows that the control limit was out of control in week one, appears better in week over week with week five being the most successful in achieving the posting milestones. The total time it takes to write a paper or answer a discussion question varies on the content. However, due to the limited number of words required and the ability to answer two of the five discussion questions rather than all five, the process will be shortened.

Process can be improved if there is an added capacity (Chase, e al, 2005).

Capacity, in the case of the posting assignments on time, is to start posting earlier in the week rather than waiting. Starting the assignments earlier can ensure enough time for understanding, tracking and better planning when a paper or answering a discussion question. Additionally, the syllabus offers tremendous insight into when a discussion question or paper is due and the rubric assists to ensure a student covers the requirements. Seasonal Factors I appreciate the ability to access the Internet 24 hours per day, 365 days per year; however, seasonal factors can come into play.

For example, in June 2010, New England had seasonal thunder and lightning and my house was hit which blew all of my electronics.

Additionally, I work 40 hours per week Boston, Massachusetts which is over 60 miles away and does not allow employees to access the Internet for anything other than what relates to work. If there are bad winter storms in the Northeast, travel times may shorten my time in front of the computer that would push deliverables out another day. Seasonal could also include holidays which again can make accessing the online student center limited due to holiday commitments.

Confidence Intervals The confidence intervals are based on past data or five weeks’ worth of information as outlined in Table A (Chase, et al, 2005). The readings suggest more data be gathered to understand the confidence intervals. The usefulness of the data will be more pointed as I gather more data on starting papers and posting times earlier throughout the week.

The information is trending to start schoolwork earlier in the week for better grades, allowing more time in answering questions, more time in starting a paper, and producing a better product.

Conclusion After extensive monitoring and reviewing of my process to complete papers on time and receiving good grades has resulted in more visibility into why items are turned in late and last-minute adjustments to papers are made. Applying the bottleneck of waiting to do schoolwork until the last minute is an adjustment I can make by starting my schoolwork earlier in the week. The control limits are not limited to just the individual papers, rather when I begin posting to the main forum at University of Phoenix online classrooms earlier in the week.