Interdepartmental Process improvement plan

 

Brainstorming using the Interruption Model

 

Introduction

The Brainstorming project using the Interruption Model was initiated by Company X with the aim of improving relationships among employees in order to generate new ideas as a way to enhance performance within the company and enhance customer satisfaction with the company products and quality of services offered. The project involves the development of effective brainstorming groups in different organizational departments with the common goal of finding the best solutions for challenges that affect the quality of production as well as make processes run as efficiently as possible not only in different departments but throughout the entire company. The improvement processes involved in the plan will be implemented in different stages of the plan depending on the stage in which the plan has reached and the cycle will be continued after completion of the project to ensure sustainability of the desired outcome achieved from the process improvement plan. It will therefore lay out the steps that need to be followed when identifying challenges or opportunities to exploit; brainstorming on the most applicable approach; and implementing the appropriate course of action depending on the ideas generated.

Process Boundaries

            The Brainstorming using the Interruption Model will consist of two processes that target all departments within the organization and the entire company in general. The process improvement plan will focus on the relationships between customers within the organization and how their interactions can be improved to assist the company in improving the quality of production as well as resolving customer conflicts. In relation to employee interactions, the project will focus on improving the lines of communication as well as giving every individual a voice in determining the nature of processes engaged in by the company. In regards to resolving conflicts and taking advantage of opportunities in order to improve the quality of processes, the project will focus on engaging employees in ideal idea generation tactics so as to only implement the most suitable approach in the company processes. Since employees are the direct link between the company and its customers, their contribution will greatly enhance the processes at Company X and the boundaries for the process improvement plan are as mentioned below;

Identifying challenges and opportunities

• Start- the identification of challenges and opportunities process starts immediately customers make a complaint regarding the company product or services or when an opportunity is identified through the company’s market analysis
• Completion- The process will be considered complete once the conflict has been resolved to the customer’s satisfaction and appropriate measures have been taken to ensure that the conflict does not occur again in future. In relation to opportunities, the process will end once the company is able to benefit from the opportunities created and no more benefits can be achieved.
• Inputs- The inputs for conflict resolution will comprise of an outline of the cause of the conflict, its impact and the steps taken to resolve it. In regards to opportunities, the input will comprise of the nature of benefits to be achieved and their impact on the company.
• Outputs- the outputs for identifying challenges and opportunities will be a list of conflicts that the company is required to resolve as well as possible opportunities that could be beneficial for the company processes if implemented.
• Data required- When resolving conflicts, the data required is the nature of conflict being addressed, its cause and duration and its impact on the customer as well as the company. In regards to opportunities, the data will comprise of nature of opportunity, the likely impact it will have in improving quality if implemented and the cost of exploiting the opportunity.
• Process owner- The process owner is the overall department manager for Company X.

Brainstorming

• Start- The brainstorming process starts immediately the department manager hands in a conflict to be resolved or an opportunity that can be exploited is identified.
• Completion- The brainstorming ends once the team has reached the most appropriate solution for the conflict or the most ideal approach to exploit the opportunity has been identified.
• Inputs- the inputs will consist of ideas from different members of the teams selected for the brainstorming process
• Outputs- The outputs will consist of a possible solution or the best and final approach that will be implemented as part of the processes to assist the company in improving its overall processes.
• Data required- the data required is the nature of conflict or opportunity, the number of brainstorming sessions needed and the most acceptable possible outcome from the process.
• Process owner- The owner of the process is the overall department manager for ompany X

Process Configuration

            Since conflicts resolution and exploiting opportunities will rely on brainstorming, the metrics will be relatively similar as shown in the figure below. Company X has relied on department heads to resolve conflicts, identify opportunities and come up with ways to exploit them as part of its operational processes. While the approach has had ideal results, the introduction of brainstorming is likely to improve the processes at the company as it will bring in more ideas from different individuals within the company. Rather than relying on the ideas from department heads, the process improvement plan will bring in suggestions from other employees where brainstorming will give each member an opportunity to issue their contribution.

Metric	Acceptable Mean Value	Upper Control Limit	Lower Control Limit
Number of ideas generated per session	5	8	3
Brainstorming duration time per session	1 hour	1hour 30 minutes	45 minutes
Best idea selection	1	3	2

 

 

 

Targets for improved performance

Customer conflicts and lack of exploiting available opportunities greatly hinder the processes engaged in at Company X. This project however aims to improve the processes at the company by ensuring that conflicts are resolved as fast as possible and that opportunities are taken advantage of in a way that improves the overall processes for the organization. As shown in the chart below, the metrics will indicate the likely outcomes that could be achieved from the process improvement plan.

Metric	Current and/or Target Values	Acceptable Mean Value	Upper Control Limit	Lower Control Limit
Number of ideas generated per brainstorming  session	Current   Target	0   5	8   6	3   3
Brainstorming duration time per session	Current   Target	0   1hr	1h 30min   1hr	45mins   1hr
Best idea selection	Current   Target	1   2	1   3	1   2

 

Since decision making is reserved for top management and departments head, the concept of brainstorming will be new to Company X and will therefore rely on proper implementation if it is to be successful. If successful, the company will able to resolve customer conflicts in as little as 30 minutes thereby addressing the needs of the customer as appropriately as possible.

Sponsor acceptance

Approved by the Project Sponsor;

                                                                                                Date:                          

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