• Main website
  • Case Studies Home
  • Case Studies
    • Green Belt
      • Example Green Belt Projects-Health Care
      • Example Green Belt Projects-Manufacturing
      • Example Green Belt Projects-Services
    • Black Belt
      • Example Black Belt Projects-Health Care
      • Example Black Belt Projects-Manufacturing
      • Example Black Belt Projects-Services
    • Master Black Belt
    • Lean Success Stories
  • Articles
    • LSS topics of common interest
    • Insights for Green Belts
    • Green Belt tool application examples
    • Insights for Black Belts
    • Black Belt Tool Application Examples
    • Lean Insights
    • Lean Six Sigma Leadership
    • For Master Black Belts
    • New to Lean Six Sigma
      • Lean Expert Basics
      • Six Sigma Basics
    • Leisure and Fun
  • Blog

Case Study: Improving Purchase Order Process

In the course of process enhancement for an Ohio based healthcare system, it was found that there were frequent complaints raised by the SSC (shared services center) employees and supervisory staffs about the daily production quota that was formulated to address the high volume of purchase order (PO) invoices.

A Six Sigma Project was undertaken with the objective to determine a standard time range to complete the task, which would be based on the total number of line items present on the PO invoice. The objective was also to keep a track between the employee process time and the standard time range.

Evaluation of the actual database revealed the need to pull out the necessary data to make it easily available.

Next in the Six Sigma project was the raw data analysis using the Anderson –Darling statistical tool, showed that the existing data was not following a normal distribution. Moods median Test was selected to deal with the wide variance in the processing time that ranged anywhere from 3-3,875 seconds.

Now, the 4th quarter raw data showed that 98% of the total number of PO invoices involved just the first ten invoice groups. Six Sigma helped suggest the Minitabs bootstrap macro to provide an upper and lower bound on a smaller sample size data. The same statistical tool was used on each of the 10 invoice groups, after which a standard time range for processing them was calculated.

For drawing the Time Analysis Report, the contents needed to be laid down. Additionally it was also essential that the user of the report assign a date range and then either run the report or export the raw data into Microsoft Excel. For this, after much discussion, the Command Menu Page was built using SQL and VBA. And, once the Time Analysis Report was constructed links were established between it and the Command Menu Page.

A pilot test was run, to observe the behavior of the employees. Those who met or exceeded the results were also ready to share the idea, whereas those who could not meet the expected results were apprehensive.

The statistical tools used in the Six Sigma project pilot revealed that the employees needed retraining. Also, new standard processing time ranges were set, and the employees performances were tied directly to appraisals. Thus, SSC was able to overcome the challenges using established Six Sigma methodologies for process improvement.

See full story on isixsigma.com

April 21, 2014   Benchmark Six Sigma
Case Studies, Example Green Belt Projects-Health Care, Green Belt Qualified
×

  • Is it time to transform business transformation?
  • What Motivates Blockers to Resist Change?

Categories

  • Articles
    • Black Belt Tool Application Examples
    • For Master Black Belts
    • Green Belt tool application examples
    • Insights for Black Belts
    • Insights for Green Belts
    • Lean Insights
    • Lean Six Sigma Leadership
    • Leisure and Fun
    • LSS topics of common interest
    • New to Lean Six Sigma
      • Lean Expert Basics
      • Six Sigma Basics
  • Case Studies
    • Black Belt Qualified
      • Example Black Belt Projects-Health Care
      • Example Black Belt Projects-Manufacturing
      • Example Black Belt Projects-Services
    • Green Belt Qualified
      • Example Green Belt Projects-Health Care
      • Example Green Belt Projects-Manufacturing
      • Example Green Belt Projects-Services
    • Master Black Belt
  • Featured Articles
  • Lean Qualified
    • Lean Success Stories
  • Project Management Articles
  • Uncategorized

Archives

  • April 2021
  • November 2015
  • April 2015
  • March 2015
  • February 2015
  • January 2015
  • December 2014
  • November 2014
  • October 2014
  • September 2014
  • August 2014
  • July 2014
  • June 2014
  • May 2014
  • April 2014
  • March 2014
  • February 2014
  • January 2014
  • December 2013
  • November 2013
  • October 2013
  • September 2013
  • August 2013
  • July 2013
  • June 2013
  • May 2013
  • April 2013
  • March 2013
  • February 2013
  • January 2013
  • December 2012
  • November 2012
  • February 2012
  • March 2011
Copyright © 2023 Benchmark Six Sigma