SIPOC in plain language
- Suppliers: who or what provides the input?
- Inputs: what record, request, file or signal starts the work?
- Process: what repeatable steps turn that input into an outcome?
- Outputs: what is produced, recorded or promised?
- Customers: who receives the outcome or depends on it next?
Northstar SIPOC starter
Suppliers: prospect, existing customer, website, phone system Inputs: request text, product list, customer identity Process: capture -> qualify -> check stock -> draft quote -> review -> send -> follow up Outputs: quote, decline, clarification request, CRM record Customers: buyer, sales manager, fulfilment team
Add elapsed time and failure points
A value-stream map adds time: how long work waits, how long a person actually works, and where it returns for correction. Write measured time separately from guesses. The difference between the two often becomes your first assessment deliverable.
Practical mission
Create Northstar's SIPOC. Then add three columns: evidence source, current elapsed time, and failure if the step is wrong. Do not estimate revenue impact yet; that is the next module.
Evidence to save
Save the map with unknowns visible. It becomes the shared reference for the process owner, the technical reviewer and the client sponsor.