Before you improve a process, or hand it to a bot, you need to know where it starts, where it ends and what it needs. These two one-page tools do that.
What they are
SIPOC comes from Six Sigma. It's five columns:
| Suppliers | Inputs | Process | Outputs | Customers |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Who provides | What comes in | 4-7 high-level steps | What goes out | Who receives it |
It sets the edges of a process before anyone dives into detail.
The turtle diagram is a favorite of quality auditors, especially in automotive. It's drawn like a turtle: the process is the shell, and six legs, head and tail around it:
| Part | Question |
|---|---|
| Head (input) | What comes in? |
| Tail (output) | What goes out? |
| With what? | Equipment, tools, materials |
| With whom? | People, skills, competence |
| How? | Procedures, methods, work instructions |
| How measured? | KPIs, checks |
| Risks | What could go wrong (often added) |
The turtle is a bot job description
Look at the turtle again with a bot in mind:
| Turtle part | For a bot |
|---|---|
| Input | The files and messages it receives |
| Output | What it produces, in what shape |
| With what? | Its tools and connectors |
| With whom? | Its model, and the person who approves |
| How? | Its skills and playbook |
| How measured? | Its checks, tests and KPIs |
| Risks | Its FMEA rows |
If you can't fill in every leg, the bot isn't ready to run. That's the same test an auditor applies to a process.
Why people skipped it
Filling these in properly means talking to people and reading procedures. It's usually done the week before an audit.
How a bot does it
- Give the bot what exists. Procedures, skill files, process maps, KPI reports, org charts.
- Have it draft the SIPOC to set the edges.
- Have it draft the turtle, citing where each leg came from.
- Have it mark empty legs. A process with no "how measured" is a finding.
- A person confirms with the people who do the work.
The bot brief
Draft a SIPOC and a turtle diagram for [process or bot].
Inputs: [procedures, skill files, process maps, KPI files, tool lists].
SIPOC: 4-7 process steps; list suppliers, inputs, outputs, customers.
Turtle: input, output, with what (tools/equipment), with whom (people/model/
competence), how (procedures/skills), how measured (checks/KPIs), risks.
Cite the source document for every entry.
Mark any leg with no documented source as GAP.
End with a list of gaps, ordered by how much they'd concern an auditor.Starting point only. Test it on your own data and model, and adjust as needed before you rely on it.
An example: the quote bot
| Turtle part | Entry | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Input | Customer RFQ email, drawing | Quote playbook |
| Output | Draft quote in the quotes folder | Quote skill, rev 4 |
| With what? | Email (read only), price list file, ERP export | Tool list |
| With whom? | Model A; estimator approves | Ownership grid |
| How? | Quote skill, rev 4 | Skill file |
| How measured? | — | GAP |
| Risks | Old price, wrong freight | FMEA, rows 1-2 |
One gap, found in five minutes: nobody measures quote accuracy. That's the next thing to add. See Measure what matters.
Where bots differ
An auditor drawing a turtle also watches the process run and talks to the operator. A bot reading documents only sees what's written. Gaps between the documents and real practice won't show up. A person still walks the process.
What this means for you
- Draw a SIPOC before you map details.
- Draw a turtle for every process, and every bot.
- Treat empty legs as findings.
- Use the turtle as the bot's one-page job description.