SIPOCs are an extremely useful tool that, with a bit of imagination, can be a real workhorse in understanding a team, process, or organisation quickly and allow stakeholders
SIPOC stands for Suppliers, Inputs, Process, Outputs and Customer.
It is a tool that is typically used to aid in describing and agreeing the scope of a six sigma project.
However it can be used in many other ways.
Different uses of SIPOC
Scoping tool for six sigma projects -allows the black belt running the project to work with stakeholders in understanding the nature and context of the process they are looking to improve;
As a note- taking tool. Imagine being introduced to a team working different processes. By taking a blank SIPOC template with you for each process you observe, you can quickly note everything you see in the process and then get the operative to confirm you have the right idea about the process very quickly
When looking at a number of processes in an organisation, a series of SIPOCs can be used to see how processes hand information/ materials from one process to another, simply by aligning the output from one process to the input to another.
A precursor tool for mapping a process. this allows you to grab the key elements of a process quickly prior to developing a more in-depth process map
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