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Visit the Business Process Management Center
You'll find resources and tutorials
for
Business Process Management. Download special BPM templates and symbols
here. |
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| Users love SmartDraw! |
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| "I got A's on all of my projects at
computer school using SmartDraw, an excellent TQM software program!"
Daniel Hughes - Fresno, Ca |
| "SmartDraw is the best productivity tool
I have come across for flow charting. Zero learning curve, and instant
high-quality results! What more could I ask?" Peter
McMahon - Boston, MA |
Click
Here to see the other amazing things you can do with SmartDraw!
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| BPM |
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Stands for Business Process
Management. BPM is a business improvement strategy based on documenting,
analyzing, and redesigning processes for greater performance. Read our
tutorial:
Using SmartDraw for Business Process Management. |
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| DMAIC |
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A Six Sigma quality
improvement strategy described by five phases: Define, Measure, Analyze,
Improve, and Control. See also DMADV. |
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| DMADV |
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A Six Sigma strategy
divided into five phases: Define, Measure, Analyze, Design, and Verify. See
also DMAIC. |
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| ERP |
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Stands for Enterprise Resource Planning. ERP
refers to software packages that attempt to consolidate all the information
flowing through the company from finance to human resources. ERP allows
companies to standardize their data, streamline their analysis process, and
manage long term business planning with greater ease. |
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| IDEF |
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Stands for ICAM Definition Method or
Integration Definition Method. IDEF is a modeling methodology developed by
the U.S. Air Force to help programmers design complicated software systems.
IDEF can be divided into five separate modeling methods: IDEF0 (Function
Modeling), IDEF1X (Data Modeling), IDEF2 (Simulation Model Design), IDEF3
(Process Description Capture), and IDEF4 (Object-Oriented Design).
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| ISO |
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Series of standards and documented technical
specifications used as guidelines to ensure that products, processes, and
services are manufactured consistently. The ISO organization was established
by European countries as a way to certify the quality control systems of
companies across international boundaries. |
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| JIT |
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Stands for Just in Time. Just-in-time
is the cornerstone philosophy of Lean Manufacturing and
MRP. Using the just-in-time philosophy, raw materials
arrive no earlier than they are required to reduce costs and inefficiencies
associated with large inventory. |
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| Kaizen |
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A Japanese quality improvement philosophy
named after the phrase "continuous improvement." Kaizen aims to create a
quality oriented culture that permeates all levels of the business from
manufacturing to management and aims to improve the organization in small
increments from the ground up.
Kaizen is the father of many quality improvement procedures including:
suggestion systems, automation, small group activities, Kanban,
just-in-time, zero defects, total
productive maintenance,total quality control, and more. |
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| Lean Manufacturing |
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A quality methodology focused on eliminating
all waste from the manufacturing process. Lean Manufacturing aims to cut
down on processing times and inventory by reducing human involvement and by
streamlining the supply chain. See also Supply Chain
Management. |
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| MRP |
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Stands for Material Requirements Planning.
MRP aims to increase manufacturing efficiency by managing the production
schedule, reducing inventory, increasing cash flow, and delivering products
in a timely manner. ERP is a technical subset of MRP.
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| QFD |
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Stands for Quality Function Deployment. The
goal of QFD is to prioritize and translate customer needs into technical
requirements for engineers, and deliver a quality product or service that
aims to satisfy the customer. |
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| Six Sigma |
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A statistically driven quality management
methodology that aims to reduce defects and variation in a business process.
In fact, the goal of any Six Sigma initiative is to reduce to the number of
defects to 3.4 per one million opportunities thereby increasing customer
satisfaction and business profits. Six Sigma was first developed and
implemented by Motorola in the 1980s. In 1996 GE announced it saved $1
Billion by using the Six Sigma methodology. Now a lot of industry leaders
have adopted the Six Sigma methodology as their quality improvement method
of choice.
There are two main strategies that divide the Six Sigma initiative into five
distinct phases: DMAIC and DMADV.
Six Sigma professionals are categorized into a belt system from green to
black based on their level of expertise and responsibility within the
quality improvement initiative. |
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| Supply Chain Management |
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Managing the movement of goods from raw
materials to the finished product delivered to customers. Supply Chain
Management aims to reduce operating costs, lead times, and inventory and
increase the speed of delivery, product availability, and customer
satisfaction. |
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| TQM |
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Stands for Total Quality Management. It is a
philosophy that embodies all processes and systems that aim to improve
efficiency and quality throughout the entire organization. |
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| Zero Defects |
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A practice that aims to reduce defects as a
way to directly increase profits. The concept of zero defects lead to the
development of Six Sigma in the 1980s. |