Process Improvement Opportunities Matrix

Subject: Management
Pages: 1
Words: 309
Reading time:
2 min
Study level: Undergraduate

Reduced Lead Time/Cycle Time

The lead-time is a period of time need from the beginning of the process until its conclusion. Reducing the lead or cycle time can significantly boost the overall productivity, which will be manifested in an increase in revenue. This reduction is one of the main goals of manufacturing processes (Saraswat et al., 28).

Improved Quality

The quality of a product or service is a critical factor that affects a consumer’s behavior and price. Delivering a high-quality product can always be an outstanding strategy, but practical implementation requires constant quality improvement checks. The given characteristic is highly dependent on the entire product delivery process, starting from manufacturing to warranty-based usage by a customer. It can play an essential role in the overall customer satisfaction, because high-quality product or service is one of the most desired features.

Elimination of Waste

Process improvement also requires the correct setup of waste elimination procedure, where unnecessary elements of the production and manufacturing need to be properly removed. The overall process improvement can be achieved by minimizing the waste produced during the manufacturing and supply. The main reason is that a component considered as a waste still possesses a value on its own. In addition, its elimination also requires additional expenditure, and thus, minimizing waste output is critical for the process improvement.

Reduced Total Cost

In order to further improve the process of creating and delivering a product or service, it is important to use cheapest input components, such as raw materials, without undermining the quality (Sarkar et al., 77). This will significantly reduce the total cost of the product, which can be used to establish a lower price to become more competitive or increase the profit margin. The total cost can be reduced by setting up an efficient supply chain and manufacturing processes, where unnecessary and costly steps are eliminated.

Works Cited

Saraswat, Praveen, et al. “Reduction of Work in Process Inventory and Production Lead Time in a Bearing Industry Using Value Stream Mapping Tool.” International Journal of Managing Value and Supply Chains, vol. 6, no. 2, 2015, pp. 27-35.

Sarkar, Biswajit, et al. “Manufacturing Setup Cost Reduction and Quality Improvement for the Distribution Free Continuous-Review Inventory Model with A Service Level Constraint.” Journal of Manufacturing Systems, vol. 34, 2015, pp. 74-82.