SIPOC and the Education of Our Children

New York Times' columnist, David Brooks is one of my favorites reads. Whenever I see his column in my local paper, I grab a cup of coffee, fall into my cushioned chair, and bore into the words of wisdom he so skillfully types. The main reason for my interest is the tangent of his articles to my opinions and work practice. For example, on March 1, he wrote a article on the education system titled A Critique of Pure Reason.

Here is the lead in to the article (from the paper's website):
David Brooks' Op-Ed column says every presidential candidate will talk about education, but conventional ones will talk only about improving schools; says creative ones will talk about improving lives of students, understanding that schools filled with students coming from unstable homes will not succeed, no matter how many reforms are made; notes mountain of evidence demonstrating that early childhood attachments shape lifelong learning competence; says enlightened candidate would call for new g...

Now, I'll tie this to a very important component of the Six Sigma process: SIPOC. For quick review, Six Sigma is a tool widely used to reduce variation and continuously improve processes and systems. It is not tied to a specific industry and is commonly used in education, manufacturing, the military, health care, and finance.

When preparing to improve a process, first lay it out in terms of SIPOC:
S (Suppliers): Who are the suppliers to the process? A supplier can be internal or external to the organization.
I (Inputs): In short, a process converts inputs into outputs. The customer pays for the outputs. The essence of process improvement is knowing the inputs that most directly effect the outputs. Improve and control the inputs and you'll see positive outputs.
P (Process): The process is the mechanism that performs the conversion.
O (Outputs): The customer expects a quality output delivered on time at a competitive price.
C (Customer): What does the customer want? What are their specifications? Are they satisfied with your outputs?

Brooks makes the point that traditional attempts to improve education have focused on the process or what goes on inside the school and class rooms. The creative approach (as suggested by Brooks) would be to focus on the inputs and/or suppliers. In this case, a student's home and parental influence would service as inputs to the educational process. To drive real improvement in education, address the student before he or she enters the building. There is a crude saying in manufacturing, "Garbage in equals Garbage out". Now, I'm not calling students garbage but the point is that bad inputs are difficult to convert into good outputs. If a child comes from an environment not conducive to learning, the process becomes that much hard.

Of course, all this is easier said than done but I think it has merit and is great food for thought.