Vishwadeep Khatri

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.