At the heart of FTQ360 process performance management is the customer-supplier relationship. FTQ360 treats an activity as a customer to the activities before it, and supplier to the ones after it.
The first and most basic type of customer-supplier relationship occurs between each step in the production process. For example, in home building when a framer builds on a foundation; the foundation contractor is the ’supplier’ and the framer is the ‘customer’. As the framer completes the structure they become a ‘supplier’ to the following ‘customers’ such as drywall and siding. The complete production process is defined by a series of activities and their inter-related customer-supplier relationships.
Another type of customer-supplier relationship is between a work activity and control and monitoring activities: inspections, quality assurance audits, management reviews, third party inspections, and homebuyer satisfaction.
Still another type of customer-supplier relationship exists between operating departments and their customers, such as when a plans department is the supplier of engineering drawings to plumbing contractors.
FTQ360 uses a 'double entry performance accounting' method where each score transaction has a double entry; one from the customer activity that assigns the score and the second to the supplier activity that receives the score.
FTQ360's uses reported performance data to dynamically define production processes instead of the traditional approach of using pre-defined production processes. This unique approach has many advantages.
One advantage of the FTQ360 approach is the high level of control and flexibility to define production processes. Rather than depending on traditional top-down approaches that require process maps to define the entire network customer-supplier relationships, FTQ360’s method focuses on defining linkages for individual activities in the process. Each ‘customer’ in the process simply defines their array of ‘supplier’ activities. A customer can create any number and any type of customer-supplier relationships where they have a stake in the performance of its suppliers.
Once linkages are established, the FTQ360 analysis engine dynamically uses supplier performance activity reports to connect customers and suppliers. Ultimately the entire production process is defined by performance feedback from customer-supplier relationships. The process model self-adjusts to the data that is reported. The significance of this approach is that production processes themselves often change to accommodate variations in product design and features. When activities are included or excluded, no maintenance is required.
Furthermore, the flexibility of FTQ360’s dynamic process definition allows it to accommodate quality assurance sampling activities whereby feedback is provided for a randomly selected fraction of the total products produced. This is the case when third party inspectors or managers randomly select product to review. Similarly, feedback data from customer satisfaction surveys can be accommodated when the data is available.
FTQ360 asks each activity in the process to rate each of their suppliers. The score indicates the level of problems encountered on a scale of 1 to 5.
5 = Perfect, not problems, 100%
4 = Very good, 1-2 minor problems
3 = Good, 3-5 minor problems
2 = Poor, 6+ minor problems
1 = Very poor, excessive problems
FTQ360 presents users with the ability to record a single score that represents overall satisfaction or multiple types of scores related to key areas of performance. Quality, delivery, safety, administration, and budget are examples of scoring types currently in use.
