Vishwadeep Khatri

We have been looking at various ways of trying to convince management about utility of Six Sigma and the standard response is "It won't work here". Different ways of explaining about Six Sigma are -- 1. Explaining what is six sigma as a measure (standard deviations from the mean) etc - Problems encountered - You may find that people do not have much patience to understand this theory 2. Explaining Six Sigma is 3.4 defects per million Problems encountered - You may find many people objecting to the theory saying we do not millions of transactions and tons of data to apply this. 3. Doing a sample project. Problems encountered -You may find that unless others are convinced, initiating a project is not feasible. 4. Picking up a situation and showing possible benefits through Six Sigma. Problems encountered - It is difficult to generate belief. I feel you should try a presentation of a cause-benefit approach Y = F(X). A cause benefit explanation is easy to understand (In my opinion we need not touch concepts of standard deviation or statistics in the beginning at all.) The questions that you may ask others in the company are ... What is the Big Y for our business area/ functional area/ critical process? Do we know the Xs for the Y's that matter? (Y= Key process output variable, X = Key process input variable) Are we using Y = F(X) for business benefit? (Each key output is dependent on several key inputs). Are we currently focusing on Xs? ( or do we see most people focusing on Y's? Some may be targeting first level X's that need to be drilled further) Have we drilled down sufficiently deep into X's and further small "x's" that is required for best in class results for critical processes? Are we clear which among the X's are the vital X's that need more attention. Can we reach a consensus where we agree -- Each output variable is a result of certain input variables that need to be identified, understood, analyzed, improved and controlled? (with a structured methodology like D-M-A-I-C) You could customize an example of the kind covered during Green Belt Training. In Eureka Forbes Sales division --- If Y is Revenue, First level X's include Sales person's effectiveness is one of the VITAL X's. If we consider Y as Salesperson's effectiveness, one of the VITAL X's is training effectiveness. If we consider training effectiveness as the Y, one of the VITAL X's is training methodology. Just as the above example shows, have we done Y to X drill-down for key processes in the company? Are we sure we know all vital Xs for our processes? Will change in Y not require a change in vital Xs? Is it not worthwhile to do improvement projects for VITAL X's that can be changed. To keep it simple, Six Sigma methodology is all about -building measurability in Y, assuring good measurement system (reliability of data) for Y and later for X's, identifying X's, analyzing X's and thereby identifying and validating vital X's, improving VITAL X's; verifying their impact on Y and; controlling VITAL X's to sustain the improvement. Once the concept is well received, we can explain DMAIC. Best Wishes for your Six Sigma journey, Vishwadeep Khatri

The most important group is the past participant group. It should not low on functionality. If we need to use the forum functionality, they need to be in main area.

This means no categorization (no folders). All topics spread out as on a desktop. IN fusetalk we had category and sub category before topic. Can you please check - is it possible to buy forum functionality within subgroups.

SJ, One concern - It seems add forum option does not exist in subgroups. It shows add topics but does not show add forums. VK

SJ, That was good thinking. We must put open forum on a subgroup. Probably some announcements shall remain in the main group. Is it possible to move some of the existing main group contents to a subgroup. I guess they said it is feasible. Have you figured out how to move content from one subgroup or main group to another subgroup?

One important feature that we have in Yahoo Groups is "add members". I am able to add members directly there. Lots of people never join voluntarily. We may lose all such past and future participants. Does this mean we live with both? and I keep using Yahoo Groups for bulk mailing to all. Regards, VK

Dear SJ, I think we should start our group for past participants soon and inittiate productive discussion with them with forums and categories soon. The options are 1. New Groupsite (by invitation only) 2. Subgroup within this groupsite What do you think should be done? Regards, VK

OPTION 3 - Additional pages (like summary page) If we create additional pages on the same website (possible with a paid option) which are very much like the summary page, we may manage everyone with a single address. So everyone is free to click on any page and explore what is happening there. This is possible with a paid option of additional pages. Students may get their own page while GB and BB can get their own pages. This makes it single address for all. CONCERN WITH ADDITIONAL PAGES One concern with additional pages is that students in an additional page creates an impression that the program is suitable for students as well and Senior Managers may start feeling out of place (the same reason why we do not have student's page on main website) Second concern with this approach is that competitors can see all the action when they get to know about our single address and may like to pounce back with a similar strategy.

General Points in favour of subgroup 1. Single web address for all. So it is easy to manage. 2. Everybody can see the same common area. 3. Standard announcements for all and single email can handle announcements for all. 4. Invitation to subgroup is easy. We need to get people in to common pool and invite the ones we want in subgroups. General Points against subgroup (in favour of separate collective site) 1. Bulk mail can be sent with a customized message suitable for members in the entire homogenous group so no one gets "annoying" messages. 2. Inviting people to separate sites is easy through periodic bulk emails sent to the main group. The standard bulk emails sent to main group can carry this message as a footer always so that they can choose to unsubscribe from current site and subscribe to a more meaningful site. 3. Each site can be advertised on each of the others so that everyone knows whether they are at the right place. Probably it makes sense to discuss the specific target segments and see the pros and cons of having one of the two options. Target - STUDENTS 1. Students probably need to be member to be in both (general and student) sections. They need to know about all general stuff plus stuff specifically for them. 2. If we are too keen to rope in students in a big way, we must have a separate groupsite for them. MY OPINION - We need to have a separate groupsite for students Target - Green Beltsor Belts 1. It should not hurt if all get all communication. There are people who are not Green Belts but know a lot about techniques or may have been practicing them. 2. There are others who are Black Belts but have never practiced a single thing. MY OPINION - We may like to have subgroups here What are your views?

Hi Maninder, Good that you asked this question. Can you let me know which aspects of HR do you handle? If you wanted to bring improvement in one HR area, what would it be? Based on your interest area, I can give you some more examples.

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Dear All, The most common question we have faced while training 15000 plus professionals over the years has been - How will Six Sigma help me in my job/profile? OR Will it be useful in such and such profile? My answer is -" If you consider yourself as an improvement oriented person, Six Sigma is for you. Interestingly, this holds true irrespective of your job profile" Let us try to understand this better. Each job profile has its challenges (more commonly called "problems"). Most of these problems or challenges can be addressed if world best techniques are used. Techniques that are timeless, universally applicable, logically sound, and conceptually very powerful. These techniques can solve small and big problems in a job profile, can address improvements in a department, and have a potential of turning around a company from brink of closure to epitome of success. I am sure you can visualize that these techniques can not be the outcome of special effort of an individual, or a department or an organization, or even an era of global development. These techniques are compiled from global wisdom across industries, across centuries, across continents. When such classic approaches come together in a single road map, no problem remains too big, no challenge is insurmountable. These improvement techniques are covered in three levels of courses conducted by Benchmark Six Sigma - Green Belt, Black Belt and Master Black Belt. As in Karate, the belts relate to levels of mastery achieved in the domain. Now coming back to the question - How will Six Sigma help me in my job/profile? Let me ask some questions to help you answer your question - 1. Do you face problems and challenges in you profile? If not, do you wish to ensure that your way of doing things is "the best practice"? 2. Do you have an opportunity of leading/ initiating/ recommending changes that would deliver results, results that are more consistent and better than ever before? 3. In your profile, do you think involving others in an improvement journey shall require a structured approach? 4. Do you want to learn techniques that you can apply yourself in the current profile to measure, analyze and improve processes? 5. Do you think you would like to be referred as a "positive change agent" or an "improvement oriented person" or may be "an improvement expert"? If the answer to all the above is yes, you can surely benefit by applying Six Sigma in your current profile.There are two types of people who can not benefit from Six Sigma - 1. Those who do not find any "problems" or "opportunities for improvement" and 2. Those who do not wish to take up the best available approaches to tackle them.

Six Sigma example projects in Software Development Reducing schedule slippagesReducing number of bugs being detected in the field during usage of the product.Reducing rework in requirements development process to incorporate customer expectationsReducing time and cost overruns in project planning phase due to inaccuracies in the estimation processIncreasing defects detection early in the process so that costs are less compared to defect dtection later in the project.Reducing or eliminating invoicing errorsReducing rework (All work done to fix an application after it has been delivered to a customer is rework. This includes corrections to features or functions that are incorrect, and also may include "missed requirements" - things the customer expected but did not receive.Reducing Customer complaintsReducing complaint resolution timeImproving defect containment effectiveness (DCE)Reducing appraisal cost per defect by phase and appraisal type (by project and in total) Reducing effort variance normalized by size.Improving the efficiency (conversions) in sales processes.Improve the forecast accuracyControl spending over time Examples of companies who have been implementing Six Sigma in Software Development- Among users in the software development, Satyam, Wipro, Patni, Accenture, TCS, Cognizant, are few of the names that have had good results. Benchmark Six Sigma has had more than 600 participants (with development or testing background) in the eight cities in recent times participating and benefiting from Green Belt and Black Belt training including those from InfosysOracleWiproSISL (Siemens Information Systems Pvt Ltd.) The key ideas from Six Sigma applicable to software development are - We should develop methods which capture defects/bugs early in the development process as cost of fixing increases if they are found in later phase.We should look for opportunities to make the requirements assessment, coding and testing to be first time right so that we can reduce the need for testing as much as possibleBetter data collection and analysis can help in scientific approaches for improvement in all areas be it software estimation, scope creep, delivered defects or rework.

If you are a Risk Management Professional, Lean Six Sigma learning shall help in the following ways. Six Sigma and Risk Assessment a. Six Sigma is a robust methodology when it comes to Risk Management. Tools like FDM and FMEA covered in Green Belt Certification and the ones like QFD and DFMEA focus on this area. b. Participants get conceptual inputs, study examples and carry out an exercise with these tools. Streamlining the operations of an organization. a. Six Sigma improvement projects result in streamlining of operations. b. In addition to modelling processes, you also learn how to create new processes or change existing processes using powerful tried and tested management techniques. Relationship with Sarbanes Oxley compliance which involves documenting the risks and identifying the controls as per the SOX Act,2002 The Green Belt program provides many inputs regarding process control. The most important one is statistical process control (SPC)Mistake proofing techniques to avoid or eliminate the impact of human errors is also covered in the program.Relationship of Six Sigma with Internal Audit, Business Process Review, Basel II,etc. a. Green Belt program provides inputs how to avoid blaming people and get better results from processes. b. Quite a few techniques relate to process review and analysis and this includes graphical, quantitative and qualitative tools.

We have had participation in our training programs from 1. Glaxo Smithcline Pharma 2. Apotex 3. Jammi Pharma 4. Torrent Pharma 5. Lupin Pharma 6. Avetis Pharma 7. Sun Pharma 8. Eli Lilly 9. Jubilant Biosys 10. Astrazeneca India Pvt Ltd 11. Indus Pharma All participants have identified good improvement opportunities from the training program and have benefited. Some of them were at Director positions, others were from Production and Quality.

Six Sigma projects identification in Marketing and Sales In Marketing and Sales, the following Six Sigma projects are carried out. Improving customer feedback and response processes Improving advertisement effectiveness Creating better media mix (for advertising and sales promotion) Reducing response or shipment delays. Reducing or eliminating invoicing errors Reducing or eliminating damaged product Eliminating the possibility of wrong shipping Eliminating the possibility of incorrect loading or stacking in transport Reducing or eliminating out of stocks situations Ensuring perfect shelf arrangements Addressing warranties calls appropriately Reducing Customer complaints Reducing complaint resolution time Improving coordination and communication between sales, delivery, merchandising, and support personnel Improving Customer Satisfaction Index Improving the efficiency (conversions) in sales processes. Improve the forecast accuracy Control spending over time Improve Days Sales Outstanding (DSO) - the average time taken by a company to collect payment from its customers. Reduce electronic financial transaction costs. Improving specific aspects of client relationship management New market development Improving the pricing process Increasing branding effectiveness Improving channel effectiveness Improving lead management Enhancing service levels Examples of global leaders who have been implementing Six Sigma in Sales - General Electric uses Six Sigma to improve sales effectiveness by improving forecast reliability, pricing strategies, or pricing variation. DuPont is using Six Sigma in driving research development, product development, and applications. Bombardier has many Six Sigma projects growth projects to increase sales volume and sales margins. Professionals with business development profiles from following sectors have participated and benefited from our programs. IT Companies Construction Companies Life Insurance Banking sector Computer Hardware and Networking companies Petrol Stations Hotel industry Education Sector

Example Six Sigma projects in HR In HR, the following types of projects are commonly carried out. The list only shows examples and is by no means exhaustive. Reduce the time required to hire an employeeImprove employee on-boarding and orientation processesReduce expenditures for RecruitmentImprove timeliness and the value of employee performance reviewsReduce absenteeismImprove training efficiencyImprove employee satisfactionIdentify and correct retention issuesReduce Incentive Compensation errorsEliminate Overpayments to Terminated Salaried EmployeesImproving grievance handling process.Consolidation of employee information databasesIntegration of multiple payroll systems for remote locationsIncrease job posting hit rateDesign of job posting templates for recruitersIncrease retention using exit interview informationBenchmark Six Sigma has had participation in training programs from HR functions of leading organizations. This post has been promoted to an article

Common Lean Six Sigma Implementation in Finance and Banking are listed below. Reducing Financial RiskSimulation for financial decisionsNew product design of financial instrumentsImproving portfolio strategyOn operational level - Reducing documentation errorsImproving the reconciliation processes.Reducing response delays.Reducing or eliminating invoicing errorsEliminating the possibility of erroneous data entryReducing audit non conformities.Reducing salary issue turn around timeControl spending over timeReduce electronic financial transaction costs.Reducing complaints.Enhancing (internal or external) customer satisfactionImproving customer feedback and response processesAmong users in the financial services industry, early pioneers include GE Capital, Sun Trust Banks, Citigroup, and JPMorgan Chase & Co. JPMorgan Chase & Co. is the second largest bank in the US. With Six Sigma, it has generated wonderful results through expense reduction, revenue increase and enhanced customer satisfaction. American Express began with Six Sigma in 1998. It has benefited with billions of dollars of benefits since then. Bank of America started with Six Sigma in 2001 and has announced huge savings through increased savings, increased revenue and enhanced customer satisfaction. Among Indian companies, Benchmark Six Sigma has had participation from good number of financial sector participants in recent training programs. Few of them are - IDBI, Reffco Sify, Cholamandalam Financial Services, Metlife, Max New York Life, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, ABN AMRO Some of the leading implementers of Lean Six Sigma (LSS) globally are in the BFSI domain are Bank of America, JPF (Life Insurance), Barclays Stockbrokers (Stockbroking), Fidelity Investments (Mutual Funds), ICICI Bank, American Express, HSBC, Deutche Bank, First Data Corporation (payment processing), JPMorgan Chase, Lloyd's TSB, UBS, and Citibank. Today, Benchmark Six Sigma trained professionals operate from all these organizations.

Textile/ Fashion Houses/ Export Houses or Buying Houses have potential of applying Six Sigma in following improvement projects Improving first sample approval percentages while working with buyers Improving buyer satisfaction levels Increasing repeat business Improving supplier evaluation processes Improving AQL performance in shipments. Improving merchandiser performance Reducing non conformances in audits by buyers Reducing Business Risks Improving processes at the source (including fabric purchase and inspection, stitching, embroidery, packing and shipping) to reduce rejections at later stages. Eliminating manufacturing errors/ defects Reducing costs. Reducing delays. Reducing rejections in shipments.

Lean Six Sigma is a data driven approach: It is an easily appreciable fact that decisions should be taken based on data (to the extent possible) and should not be based on the gut feel or judgment. Lean Six Sigma provides us with information on which and what type of data should be collected, how it should be collected and how it should be analyzed. Example - In a bank, the number of employees was increased based on the gut feeling of the senior management, while the biggest competitor of this bank analyzed the trends of work flow for future projects through simulation and created flex-profiles to reach very high service levels while maintaining the same manpower count. Lean Six Sigma is a process focused methodology: Everything that you do in the workplace has a process behind it. For bringing improvements it is always good to study the underlying process along with the results, especially if we are looking for a long lasting improvement and not a temporary quick-fix solution. As Deming said - 85% of the problems are due to system and process deficiencies and not due to human errors. Behind most human errors is a weak process. Example - The chances of the wrong module being integrated into a software development can not be eliminated by just a reward or punishment mechanism. Lean Six Sigma provides a structured step by step roadmap: If a business problem is being resolved by a cross functional team over a period of time, it pays to utilize a structured methodology (like Define-Measure-Analyze-Improve-Control) with review stages. Example - If a company wants to reduce the TAT for a maintenance process, the situation is best addressed by following a structured methodology where all problem-solving team members stay focused and can see visible progress. Lean Six Sigma uses noncommon-sense approaches: If common sense approaches were sufficient, there would not have been any chronic (repetitive) business problems at all. Example - To improve customer satisfaction index by 25% in 4 months time, you would need not one but a series of non-common sense approaches which Lean Six Sigma provides. Lean Six Sigma integrates the best of tried and tested management methodologies over the years: Lean Six Sigma has weaved various time tested management techniques in one roadmap. Also, Lean Six Sigma is not rigid. It is an evolving methodology. New tools are being added to the Lean Six Sigma toolkit by innovative practitioners. Recently, in a Benchmark Lean Six Sigma Conference, speakers from Wipro, Infosys, Patni, Kanbay, Accenture, TCS, showed how Lean Six Sigma methodology is being applied innovatively in their organizations. Lean Six Sigma improvement projects are mostly validated by financial benefits or by an impact on a KPI (Key Performance Indicator): Whatever improvements we bring at the workplace must show in business results. People who make this possible are an important resource in any organization. Example - A Lean Six Sigma Green Belt who was successful in 5 out of 5 projects got excellent recognition in a company. (More and more companies are now linking employee and team growth with efficiency or cost measures). Lean Six Sigma works on improvements on a project by project basis by people trained as improvement experts (called Green Belts and Black Belts): Improvements can be brought on a project by project basis and by no other way. Unless improvement areas are converted into projects, with assigned responsibilities and authorities to correctly trained people, the problems remain what they are. Example - In one manufacturing company certified as ISO 9001, long customer wait times for repairs during warranty were identified as an improvement area during each internal audit, but no one was trained on techniques to bring improvements (and the issue was not converted into a project with accountability). When this company started practicing Lean Six Sigma, the same improvement areas could be carried out with meaningful ROI from each improvement project. In organizations of any size or complexity, Lean Six Sigma methodology poses the following questions repeatedly: Are we working at the best possible performance levels for our key processes? If the answer is yes, is it feasible to explore new processes that can set new benchmarks and give our company a bigger competitive advantage? If the answer is no, what is it that is stopping us from forming and supporting a team that can enhance the performance level in a manner that makes business sense. The age-old algebraic equation says it all: Y = f (X). If Y is the effect and the Xs are the causes, then putting all the focus on the Y or guessing which X is most significant are both bad ideas. One thing Lean Six Sigma helps with is understanding these relationships statistically so work can be directed at the cause or combination of causes (Xs) most likely to change the effect (Y). This activity helps break the endless string of firefighting brought on by never really getting to the root cause of any effect. This equation is at the heart of the Lean Six Sigma methodology and with the DMAIC and DMADV roadmaps drives a company through a logical, sequential process to efficiently find the significant Xs and act on them. This gives the highest probability of success and helps turn the tide of reactive behavior.

Lean Six Sigma projects identification in BPO In a BPO, the following types of projects are commonly carried out. Reducing the number of errors for XYZ team to 0.5% Reduction of FTEs by 30 by process reengineering in XYZ team Transitioning support staff into billable slots after 3 months of stabilizing Ensure that 90% of the jobs do not require reworking for XYZ team Reduce sloppy errors to 1 per week day Reduction of IRR across XYZ, ABC Improvement of average productivity of XYZ Improve skill index of production staff across the company Achieve a utilization of 75% across production lines in XYZ Achieve an overall internal quality target 98% for the client in ABC Enhanced revenue generating opportunities by proper capacity management Improve the updating process of the client's databaseAchieve 80% capability among production staff to function at priority level Increase through-put by removing unitization QC processReducing the timeline of roll-out of new process Examples of companies who have been implementing Lean Six Sigma in BPO- Among Banking BPO's, ICICI OneSource, AMEX, BoA, HDFC have been benefiting from Six Sigma. WNS Global Services, Office Tiger, GE Capital are others who have benefited. Among users in the Call Centers GENPACT, Wipro, Accenture, HCL, EXL, Patni BPO have been utilizing Six Sigma methodology. Benchmark Six Sigma has been conducting in-house training and has tie up with several leading BPO's.

Six Sigma in Asset Management Hardware asset management entails the management of the physical components of computers and computer networks, from acquisition through disposal. Common business practices include request and approval process, procurement management, life cycle management, redeployment and disposal management. Good Six Sigma projects can be carried out with following objectives Reducing time taken in approval process. HARD BENEFITS. Improving procurement processes in times of timeliness and accuracy. HARD BENEFITS Decreasing hardware downtime. HARD BENEFITS Improving re-deployment accuracy and timeliness. HARD BENEFITS Enhancing efficiency of disposal process. SOFT BENEFITS Reducing errors in requisition capturing process. SOFT BENEFITS Hard benefit projects are those that have verifiable impact in cash. Soft benefit projects have indirect benefits that cannot be easily converted into cash.

Companies in telecom sector like Bharti Telecom, Siemens, France Telecom have been reaping benefits from Six Sigma concepts for quite some time now. Bharti has been using Six Sigma DFSS and DMAIC roadmaps. We have been training people from all these three companies and also some from Vodafone. HR, Finance, BPO and IT divisions/ departments of telecom companies use Six Sigma in very much similar fashion as in other industries. Telecom specific applications include. 1. Development of new features, processes for new services 2. Improving accuracy, timeliness and completeness of customer communication. 3. Improving accuracy, timeliness and completeness of new connections. 4. Improving up-time and quality of services. 5. Reducing response times for complaints, improving customer experience.