Reducing defect and targeting perfection are Six Sigma’s foremost goals and that definitely can improve information technology. The proofs are evident.
*The IT organization at Raytheon Aircraft saved $500,000 from a single project in 2002.
*The nine CIOs at Textron saved a total of $5 million in six months.
*One team of engineers at Fidelity Wide Processing expects to deliver $6 million to $8 million in cost reductions this year.
Six Sigma’s focus is on processes, and IT is a big user of processes. Because of this relation, VP and CIO at Raytheon Doug Debrecht said, “Six Sigma has given us a good toolset that we can use consistently and repeatedly to analyze how we have things set up and running.”
Six Sigma in IT cam measure and improve both internal processes, such as network speed and reliability, and line-of-business processes. IT has a big role in these processes, such as how well an online ordering system is working.
For example, a Six Sigma team at Raytheon was assigned to analyze why the division had “an ungodly number” of servers?350. The team found the root of the problem: each application got its own server, regardless of its size or bandwidth requirements?and then worked out the specifics to allow applications to share servers logically and securely. The result: a 40 percent consolidation in servers, with the attendant time and labor savings added back to the bottom line.
Another IT giant, Textron used the DMAIC process and the Voice of the Customer tool, among others, to tackle data-center sprawl. According to its executive vice president and chief innovation officer, Ken Bohlen, “We found we had over 80 data centers inside our company. We used Voice of the Customer to canvass our customer base and ask some very specific questions.” An example of this is finding out what critical information was stored where. By making customer needs the top priority, Textron has been able to consolidate or shut down 40 of the data centers, which were supporting legacy or underused applications. Bohlen also said that this long-term goal was to get down to five data centers.
With the testimonies of these two IT giant companies, there is indeed a niche for Six Sigma in their sytems.
Read more Targeting Perfection
