Six Sigma started with manufacturing and showed success in that industry first. When other industries such as the financial industry adopted the strategy, many others began to understand the core benefit of Six Sigma, that is to improve customer service processes to retain wireless customers, analyze customer problem resolution.
The next Six Sigma revolution is expected to happen in telecommunications. Many reasons have been cited for this expectation.
According to reports, total spending on equipment fell by about 15% in 2001 and fell another 20% in 2002. Long-haul optical networks now operate at below half of their capacity. Until sales of core wireline equipment pick up, manufacturers in the US and Europe also face the challenge of developing new products to deliver data and voice traffic from long distance networks to broadband customers in urban areas. The mobile communications segment is also changing as exhaustively hyped mobile data services and the tide of third generation wireless technology arrive.
In the late 1990s, the slogan was: “Build it and they will come.” Following passage of the telecommunications Act of 1996, the telecom sector rode the high-tech current of an economic expansion that, in retrospect, appears to have been built on blind faith. In the five years that followed passage of the 1996 legislation, the telecom industry received $1.3 trillion from investors, and has since lost more than $1 trillion in market value.
Survival therefore for telecommunications equipment and services will largely depend on operational focus, financial discipline, and opportunistic growth. Six Sigma can help with all three.
The enormous potential of Six Sigma across the numerous functions and processes on which telecommunications companies can be viewed through the following:
A successful Six Sigma in services businesses needs a relentless focus on customers and on meeting their needs as efficiently as possible. The telecommunication industry can rely on Six Sigma tools to address these issues.
Six Sigma Sharpens Services in Telecommunications
