How many process steps should a SIPOC have?

Five to seven. It is a frame, not a map. If the team wants twenty steps, it is ready for a swimlane map or a value stream map, and the SIPOC has done its job.

Which column do you fill in first?

Process, then outputs and customers, then inputs and suppliers. Starting with the steps keeps the scope tight, and knowing the outputs makes the inputs easier to name.

Is SIPOC a Six Sigma tool or a lean tool?

It came from Six Sigma's Define phase and lean teams adopted it for the same reason: it settles where a process starts and ends before anyone measures or maps it.

SIPOC or value stream map: what is the difference?

A SIPOC frames the process in seven steps or fewer with no times; it takes an hour and settles the scope. A value stream map draws every step with cycle time, changeover, inventory and information flow, and takes a day or more. Do the SIPOC first.

The project lead. It is drawn once, agreed by the team and the sponsor, and then changed only if the scope changes, which should be a deliberate decision.

Does a SIPOC work for office processes?

Yes. Order entry, purchasing and hiring frame well as a SIPOC, and the customers column is often where an office process learns who it actually serves.

Lean Studio board · Process & flow

SIPOC board

In one sentence

A SIPOC is a one-page, high-level map of a process in five columns, Suppliers, Inputs, Process, Outputs and Customers, used to agree where a process starts and ends before it is measured or mapped in detail.

A SIPOC diagram frames a process at a high level before anyone maps it in detail: who supplies what into it, the five to seven main steps, what comes out, and who receives it. It is the first hour of most process improvement projects, because it gets the team to agree where the process starts and ends.

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When to use it

When to use the SIPOC board

At the start of a value stream map, a DMAIC project or a kaizen event, to set the scope.
When a process crosses departments and each one describes it differently.
To brief a new team member or a sponsor on a process in one page.
Before choosing metrics: outputs and customers say what should be measured.

What is on the board

1
Suppliers
Who or what provides the inputs, inside or outside the plant.
2
Inputs
Materials, information, people and equipment the process needs.
3
Process
Five to seven high-level steps from the trigger to the end.
4
Outputs
What the process produces: products, documents, decisions.
5
Customers
Who receives each output, internal or external.

Running it

How to run a SIPOC session

1
Invite one person from each function the process passes through, plus someone who receives its output. Six to ten people, typically an hour.
2
Name the process, its trigger and its end point on the board first: 'from schedule received to pallet in weld cell 3'. Half the value of a SIPOC is this sentence.
3
Fill the Process column with five to seven stickies, verbs first: load, set, stamp, inspect, pack. If the team wants twelve, merge until seven remain.
4
Work right: for each step, what comes out, and who receives it. Then left: what each step needs, and who provides it.
5
Read each row back as a sentence, and draw an arrow on any input whose supplier is not obvious or whose quality is a known problem.
6
Agree what the outputs should be measured on: on time, complete, right first time. Those become the project's metrics.
7
Good output: one board a new team member can read in two minutes, a scope sentence everyone signed up to, and two or three metrics to baseline next.

Worked example · sample data

Worked example

The sample SIPOC frames a stamping process in five steps: load coil, set die, stamp, inspect, pack. Its inputs are 1.2 mm coil from the steel service centre, the weekly schedule from planning, and a die set and checked by the tool room. Its outputs are brackets at 400 per pallet and an inspection record, going to weld cell 3 and to quality. Laying it out surfaced two things the team had not agreed on: whether 'set die' started when the die left the tool room or when it reached the press, and that quality was a customer of the process as well as a step in it. The team fixed the scope at coil arrival to pallet in weld cell 3, and chose pallets delivered on time to weld cell 3 as the first metric to baseline.

The board shown at the top of this page, read through. Invented data, not a customer.

Common mistakes

Too many process steps. A SIPOC with fifteen steps is a process map without the detail; keep it to seven.
Filling in Suppliers first. Start with the process so the inputs are the ones the steps use.
Leaving out internal customers. The next process is a customer, and usually the one with the complaints.
Writing outputs as activities. 'Inspection done' is a step; 'an inspection record' is something a customer receives.
Doing it alone at a desk. The point is agreement between functions.
Never using it again. The SIPOC should sit at the top of the project board as the scope everyone agreed.

How it works in Lean Studio

1
Start from the SIPOC template: five columns in order, with the process column in the middle.
2
Fill the process column first with five to seven stickies, then work outwards to outputs and customers, then inputs and suppliers.
3
Draw arrows between a supplier, its input and the step that uses it when the link is not obvious.
4
Save the finished board to My templates so the next team starts from your version.

Lean Studio boards are drawn with stickies, text, shapes (rectangle, rounded rectangle, ellipse, diamond), arrows and charts, and any board can carry the 15 data widgets, from a scorecard to a kanban. See all widgets and boards.

Also in LeanSuite

Where it goes next in LeanSuite

LeanSuite's Vision AI builds a value stream map from a process video.

A SIPOC is the Define step of a DMAIC project; in Kaizen & Projects, DMAIC is a ready-made five-phase methodology with owners and due dates per phase. Kaizen & Projects
The outputs' measures become KPIs with a target and RAG ranges on the dashboard, rolled up through KPI trees. KPI Dashboards
When the team is ready for detail, Vision AI builds a current-state value stream map from a walk of the process filmed on a phone, with process times, wait times, inventory and information flow. AI Video Analysis

See Value Stream Mapping

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