DEFINE is the first step in the Six Sigma process DMAIC. As Donald Wheeler explains in his book Understanding Variation, “…before you can improve any system, you must understand how the inputs affect the system’s outputs. You must be able to change the inputs and possibly the system itself to achieve the desired results. This will require sustained effort, constancy of purpose, and an environment where continual improvement is the operating philosophy.”
In the early 2000s at Amazon, we realized that the outputs of our system, like shipments, revenue, gross profit, and active customers, resulted from the performance of each part of our complex retail website, supply chain, and network of Fulfillment Centers.
The inputs to the system included maintaining the proper inventory levels of millions of retail items, low prices, quality customer service, effective payment processing, processing speed and accuracy of software services, applications, order fulfillment, fast delivery, and more.
If you are a manager or exec, you can’t see or touch what’s happening on the Amazon website, software applications, and systems- they are in bits on servers or remote operations and logistics.
To effectively manage the Amazon business and customer experience, we needed to develop a scalable process that included standard definitions and measures for the system’s inputs.
To go deeper, read chapter six of our book Working Backwards or take our new online course on Input Metrics Mastery: https://lnkd.in/gCuWZkHZ
