Relationship Overview Example

Relationship Overview Example

Problem Statement

The design department and the production department at an industrial company were at loggerheads since the designs developed by the design department were not producible and the production department keeps making changes that don't consider end user requirements since the designs are not producible .

How to perform analysis

Step 1: Open Sigma Magic
  1. Click on the Sigma Magic button on the Excel toolbar.
  2. Click on the New button to create a new project.
Step 2: Add the analysis template
  1. Click on the Tool Wizard to add the analysis template.
  2. Click on Project and then Relationship Overview.


Step 3: Specify analysis options
A new worksheet will be added to your workbook. Analysis Setup will be automatically opened, in the setup tab specify the following details.


Step 4: Enter the Worksheet data
Click on Create button to save all changes in the analysis.On the worksheet, enter the following details.You can click on any of the symbols on the task menu bar to add that symbol to the worksheet. After you click on the symbol, move your cursor to where you want the symbol to be placed, and then click on the left mouse key to place the symbol on the worksheet. Pick the appropriate type of cause or effect to add to the worksheet. A sample worksheet is given below:



Step 5: Generate analysis results
Finally, click on Verify tab to ensure all the inputs are okay and shown in a green checkmark.



Click OK to close the dialog box.

Interpretating Results

  1. The above diagram indicates that departments rarely meet and are far apart. As a result, design and production teams become out of touch.
  2. "Design has no appreciation for production" and "Production has no appreciation for design" signify that the teams do not appreciate each other's constraints. Hence, the designs become impractical and the results of production turn out to be bad.
  3. The implication of "No Training Strategy" means employees do not know what to do to mitigate the design-to-production cycle gap. This leads to inefficiency.
  4. The "Production does not understand user needs" and "Production does not meet customers" are implications that the final products may not be meeting market expectations and, therefore will neither satisfy nor compete well for expected markets.
  5. "Production makes bad design" and "Designs don't understand production limits" mean that there is communication breakdown, which leads to a flawed product that may have an undesirable product life cycle.
  6. "No product life cycle" suggests that long-term sustainability and improvements in product design and production are not considered, leading to inefficiency and even loss.
  7. The relationship diagram provides an effective tool to depict and illustrate the relevant issues arising through poor communication, lack of adequate training, or departmental discontinuity, among others, hence leading to irrational designs, improper production, or failure to realize customer expectations.
  8. Improved collaboration combined with training schemes and lifecycle planning can help curb these inefficiencies

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