Tell me. When you go to an office, what do you notice first? Well, what often catches my attention are lots of paper or documents stacked on almost everyone’s table. They may give the impression that the person owning the table has a lot of things to do, but it can also give out the signal that he has a lot of backlog work to catch up. In any case, a pile of paperwork on the table is not a pretty sight. Besides, paper is a fire hazard.
Well, what do you say? Six Sigma methodology can actually help you keep away those important documents. A case study at isixsigma showed how a large company based in the U.S. and India converted their paper documents into electronic data.
The project is a good example to organizations that handle large amounts of data – IT enabled services, banks, insurance companies, hospitals etc. – and computer based office processes. Here are the seven steps of the project.
In a nutshell, the problem was about collecting and retrieving data.
Data (including errors) was collected for 30 days. During this exercise it was realized that different auditors were classifying the same error in two different ways, leading to measurement system discrepancies. This led to a reclassification of the errors, and training of the auditors.
From the data then collected and analyzed the problem was defined as follows:
Customer requirement: <50 ppm errors
Current process average errors: 510 ppm
Variability (sigma): 710 ppm
(Average + 3 sigma): 2640 ppm
Note: Errors were collected before rework to ensure that the root causes would be exposed.Problem definition: Reduce error density to assure 3-sigma quality under 50 ppm from the current 2640 ppm (i.e. 98%).
Details here.
The results are a true quality story.
Tangible
* Customer delight: Customer reported 100% quality in his sampling consistently over six months. He could not find errors at such a low density.
* Productivity and Cost: Inspection and rework reduced to almost zero. 99.7% first pass efficiency. Sampling sizes were reduced. These resulted in savings of US $ 50000 per annum at Indian wage levels (in US equivalent US $ 300,000 per annum).
* Volume Increase: Approximately 50% by the customer. The production went through without increased manpower.
* Turnaround of the documents was improved dramatically due to no rework and started meeting customer requirements.Intangible
* Senior management time saved
* Motivation of the operations personnel very high
* Team work between Operations, Instruction and tool development and QA personnel
* Mind-set Changes
* Producing quality saves money
* The importance of data and six sigma techniques.
* If you don’t improve, you deteriorate
The case study: Six Sigma Case Study: Converting Paper to Electronic Documents
We are again reading a good success story about Six Sigma. Looking at the things, both tangible and intagible, that are improved because of a Six Sigma makeover, I couldn’t help wondering why other companies have yet to discover its value.
I know there are downsides to project implementation. However, these can be overcome especially if top management, gives its full support to training and implementation. Unless of course, Six Sigma just doesn’t fit in an organization’s framework or isn’t aligned with company goals, then there’s no reason to implement it at all.
An example would probably be the article, titled “Lateral Growth, Strategic Planning Top Law Firm Management Tools.” Bain & Co.’s surveyed top 25 management techniques employed in law firms. Six Sigma ranked number 2 in both the Least Popular Major Law Firm Management Techniques and Least Effective Management Techniques (Frequency x Success) categories. The article concludes that law firms are greater users of strategic planning, benchmarking/best practices and core competencies than corporations. Corporations are most likely to use Business Process Engineering (BPR), TQM, and Six Sigma.
Read the rest of the survey results here.
