An optimizing process is a quantitatively managed process that is changed and adapted to meet relevant current and projected business objectives. An optimizing process focuses on continually improving process performance through both incremental and innovative technological improvements. Process improvements that address common causes of process variation, root causes of defects, and other problems; and those that would measurably improve the organization’s processes are identified, evaluated, and deployed as appropriate. These improvements are selected based on a quantitative understanding of their expected contribution to achieving the organization’s process improvement objectives versus the cost and impact to the organization.

Selected incremental and innovative technological process improvements are systematically managed and deployed into the organization. The effects of the deployed process improvements are measured and evaluated against the quantitative process improvement objectives.

In a process that is optimized, common causes of process variation are addressed by changing the process in a way that will shift the mean or decrease variation when the process is restabilized. These changes are intended to improve process performance and to achieve the organization’s established process improvement objectives.

A critical distinction between a quantitatively managed process and an optimizing process is that the optimizing process is continuously improved by addressing common causes of process variation. A quantitatively managed process is concerned with addressing special causes of process variation and providing statistical predictability of the results. Although the process may produce predictable results, the results may be insufficient to achieve the organization’s process improvement objectives.