|
Articles
|
|
|
QICID: 20864
Title: Soft Solution to a Hard Problem
Copyright: 2006, ASQ
Author: Chauncey, Dan
Organization: Grant Thornton, LLP, Alexandria, VA
Subject: Change strategies,DMAIC,Organizational culture,Process improvement,Productivity,Six Sigma;
Series: Six Sigma Forum Magazine, Vol. 6, No. 1, November 2006, pp. 24-28
This ARTICLE is available FREE
to all readers.
Abstract: A call monitoring center under contract with several Fortune 1000 companies to monitor their customer service calls initiated a Six Sigma project to improve their productivity. Since each contract is based on the call monitoring company's ability to complete a certain number of assessments in a specified time, increasing productivity would increase profit. Each program the call center monitored had a productivity target referred to as a "prod." Before the Six Sigma project, assessors were averaging only 75 percent of their prods, which negatively impacted the profit margin. The Six Sigma project's initial goal was to improve productivity to 85 percent, but in four months productivity improved to more than 90 percent, resulting in an annual savings of $260,000. In this case, the problem was not deeply embedded in the work process, but was an issue of organizational culture and an acceptance of doing the bare minimum. The Six Sigma DMAIC process served as a change management methodology that allowed employees to change the way they allocated their time and to eventually change their work ethic.
Browse QIC articles chronologically
previous next
|
|
