When discussing 'process management' there is often a myriad of interchangeable references such as process map, flow chart, swim lane diagram, etc, however, these examples all have very different purposes; what about the voice of the customer and value chains?
Within our ISO implementations will explore this topic and ask if the voice of the customer can sit within a value chain...
Process approach
Plan do check act
The PDCA cycle can be briefly described as follows:
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Plan: establish the objectives of the system and its processes, and the resources needed to deliver
results in accordance with customers’ requirements and the organization’s policies, and identify
and address risks and opportunities;
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Do: implement what was planned;
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Check: monitor and (where applicable) measure processes and the resulting products and services
against policies, objectives, requirements and planned activities, and report the results;
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Act: take actions to improve performance, as necessary
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Source ISO 9001
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Voice of the customer
The “voice of the customer” is a term used in business to consider the customers perspective in the context of a value chain (see below) by doing this, you have a better chance of designing a management system that is not just fit for purpose but will facilitate a greater chance of achieving customer satisfaction.
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Value chain
A value chain is a high-level set of activities that an organisation delivers to achieve the intended results from a customer perspective. These can be specific to a market sector and or industry; then further developed to be specific to an organisation, even creating a unique selling proposition. This then allows a hierarchical management system to be developed in more detail, creating different levels of processes that perhaps the customer is not necessarily interested in but appreciates needs to happen, such as internal knowledge sharing or corporate legal matters e.g. HR or environmental obligations.
Concept - Process approach
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