Success oriented manufacturers are or have adopted a business philosophy, focused on delivering
quality products quickly, while increasing their profit margins. These manufacturers are
continuously looking for process improvement opportunities that give them the greatest return on
their investment. To accomplish this, process control techniques have gained wide acceptance
and are used, in some form, in most manufacturing environments. This being the case, the
assumption is that these businesses have already analyzed their manufacturing processes,
assigned measures and are collecting data about those processes. After analyzing process
measurement data, the steps taken to determine what improvements could or should be made,
and how those changes are implemented is what is known as process improvement. This is
generally where most businesses fall short of maximizing process and profit potential as process
improvement decisions are influenced by less tangible factors such as corporate culture, market
trends, resource conflicts, etc., which makes this a difficult area of business to define and
manage.