7 MIN READ

SIPOC Diagrams

Making Sure Your Change Process Serves Everyone

Create an accurate roadmap to get to where you want to be.

You're ready to start improving your systems. You want to increase quality and profitability by reducing error and waste.

But where do you start? And how do you make sure that the process is comprehensive, and gives its customers what they want, right from the start?

The first step is to find out exactly where you are now. You can then create an accurate "roadmap" to get from your current position to your desired endpoint.

SIPOC Diagrams are useful tools for doing this in business. They provide a simple way of taking a "before" picture, so that you can compare this with your "after" picture, hopefully demonstrating improvement. (SIPOC, coming from Six Sigma, stands for Suppliers, Inputs, Processes, Outputs and Customers.)

SIPOC terms reproduced with permission. See http://pscholtes.com for more information.

The Six Sigma methodology provides a firm foundation for making changes in a controlled and effective way. SIPOC is part of the "Measure" phase of Six Sigma's core DMAIC sequence (Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, Control).

More than this, SIPOC Diagrams ensure that your new processes produce the right outputs for the right people, comprehensively, and right from the start. It's so much better to spend time ensuring this up front, than to charge in enthusiastically with a change process, only to find – on implementation – that suppliers and customers are screaming because you haven't fully understood their needs and requirements!