Operational Procedures and Quality Control
This domain tests how service is made repeatable without becoming rigid: standard operating procedures, PDCA, 5S, visual management, inventory flow, and bottleneck control.
Core rules and concepts
- A standard defines the best current method, not a frozen rule. Write steps, owners, timing, and acceptance criteria; review after incidents or changes.
- PDCA turns experience into improvement: plan a change, do it on a small scale, check results against a measure, and act by standardising or adjusting.
- 5S and 見える化 reduce search time and errors. Label shelves, mark minimum stock, and use checklists for opening, closing, and handover.
- Use FIFO for perishables and rotate stock. Track QCD-quality, cost, and delivery-rather than one metric alone.
- Identify the bottleneck: improving a non-bottleneck step does not raise throughput.
Worked example
A checkout queue is growing. Reasoning: observe the process, not just the queue. If the bottleneck is payment authorisation, pre-print forms, open a second till, and tell waiting guests the expected time. After the peak, check waiting time and error rate, then update the staffing plan.
Traps that cost marks
Following the manual when the situation has changed; improving a step that is not the bottleneck; measuring only speed and not errors; blaming an individual when the process caused the failure; no handover record.