Question

use DMAIC to improve a process in one or more of the organizations listed below:

a. Large bank

b. Health-care facility

c. University academic department

d. University nonacademic department

e. Large department store

f. Grade school

g. Manufacturing facility

h. Large grocery store

Answer 1

(a)

Process design of Six Sigma in improving bank customer satisfaction

Six Sigma management is customer-centric, based on data and facts, adopting improvement measures for the process, focusing on preventive control, emphasizing borderless cooperation, continuous improvement and the pursuit of quality and efficiency management mechanisms. It always revolves around customer satisfaction and loyalty. Based on the empirical analysis, we designed the bank’s service flow using the Six Sigma theory and plotted the SIPOC diagram.

Define stage (D)

The main content of the definition phase is to determine the flow chart of the banking service and the needs of the customer. We have developed a project plan based on the characteristics of the bank’s business processes: the project plan includes the setting of goals, the definition of scope, the division of labor, and the collaboration of team members. At the same time, according to the characteristics of customers’ needs, the leading indicators affecting customer satisfaction are determined.

Drawing a SIPOC diagram (Fig. 2): the elements of a SIPOC diagram are the supplier (S), input (I), process (P), output (O), and customer (C).

The main task of this phase is to determine the bank’s customer satisfaction improvement project. The goal of the project is to eliminate various factors that are not conducive to process performance and improve customer satisfaction. According to the results of the empirical analysis, in this step, the following questions should be clear: What are the customer’s needs? What is the critical quality factors (the essential elements of quality refer to the core standards required by the customer for the product or service)? What is the definition of a project’s defect (a defect is “anything that cannot meet the criteria required by a critical quality element”)?

Measurement phase (M)

This stage further describes the whole process based on the SIPOC diagram. Develop data collection and sample collection plans and measure process capabilities by identifying key quality characteristics that affect process performance. The measurement content mainly includes two aspects: the service efficiency of the banking outlets and the customer service of the banking outlets. There are four main measurement methods, including manual field measurement, counting machine statistics, viewing monitoring video and background data extraction, and measurements mainly taken by random sampling.

At this stage, after making the conditions of the project clear, the following things need to be done according to the customer’s requirements:

• Select evaluation indicators: According to the critical quality factors of the customer and the essential quality factors of the project, the impact points and specific requirements on the quality of the business process are derived, that is, the particular needs of the customer for the products and services are translated into the standards to be achieved by the bank process.

• Identify the measurement objects and develop a data collection plan: Conduct an assessment of an existing process to understand the process capability or level of a current method; at the same time, develop a data collection plan that plans a data collection plan based on the selected measurement object. The data collected during the measurement phase laid the groundwork for the analysis phase.

• Verify the measurement system: With the data collection scheme, data collection activities cannot implement immediately. Before the measurement, it is necessary to verify whether the measurement system is available because the measurement data is the primary input in the analysis stage. If the data quality is not high, it will affect all subsequent activities.

Analysis phase (A)

The main task of this phase is to identify key influencing factors and analytical work on the data. The raw data were obtained by designing customer satisfaction questionnaires and field research, and the causal relationship was established and verified through data analysis. According to the results of the empirical study, identify the critical defects and causes that affect performance indicators.

The analysis phase is the most critical part of the process improvement process, designed to identify and validate the root cause of the original problem. At this stage, the project team needs to analyze and improve the most critical objectives of the various objects (variables) that cause defects. It should note that experience and intuition cannot replace the work of the analysis phase. Because the root cause of the problem buried deep in the file heap and the old program is not intuitive and empirical, therefore, the analysis stage is to use a variety of useful tools and methods to analyze existing data and processes and identify solutions to project improvements.

The analysis phase is a process of continuously cycling the root cause, which can be represented by Fig. 3.

• Perform data or process analysis: Its purpose is to detect the data collected during the measurement phase to help the team find relevant clues about the cause of the problem to be improved.

• Establish assumptions or models of the cause of the incident: That is, based on the analysis results, all possible hypotheses that may lead to the problem are raised as much as possible, and a model for the cause of the problem is established. Brainstorming methods are often used at this stage [34].

• Perform data and process analysis again: This phase of work is similar to the first phase, but it is not a simple repetition. After listing the possible causes through the brainstorming method, the project team will use the data collected during the measurement phase and the new data collected during the analysis phase (Fig. 4) to re-analyze the development trend of the problem and other related factors, proposing new hypotheses or models.

• Revise the hypothesis or model: After another data and process analysis, the goal of this phase is to reduce or eliminate a large number of causes in brainstorming to a more manageable amount. If the result of the reduction does not achieve satisfactory results, it is necessary to start the first phase and re-make the hypothesis until the goal of confirming the root cause can be made.

• Identify and select several key reasons: That is, analyze the root cause of the problem.

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Fig. 3

Service operation SIPOC diagram [14]

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Fig. 4

Analysis phase cycle diagram [26]

Improvement stage (I)

Suggestions for improvement are proposed based on facts and data, and improvement plans are determined. A partial test run can be performed to verify the improvement. The improvement scheme can be given in the form of an improved strategy table. After the improvement plan is formed and the improvement plan specification is written, the improvement plan implementation process is entered.

That is the core process of the Six Sigma project. The work during the definition, measurement, and analysis phases are all prepared for the improvement phase. Therefore, the main task of the improvement phase is to find the optimal solution that will enable the bank to improve customer satisfaction. The steps in the improvement phase are:

• Seek creative customer satisfaction improvement programs: Similar to the analysis phase, in this step, brainstorming can help the group gain more opinions on how to solve the problem.

• Identify the solution and develop an implementation plan: In this step, all the ideas and suggestions put forward by the brainstorming activities are discussed and classified, and the repeated and excluded are not feasible, and the most likely to form a solution is selected and organized merely. The team then revisits and evaluates the selected ideas and decides the most promising and practical solutions based on cost and possible benefits. After that, develop a detailed implementation plan.

• Full implementation of the solution: If not implemented, the best solution is just a piece of paper. Therefore, the team’s next job is to overcome the obstacles and achieve improvement activities throughout the process.

Control phase (C)

Incorporate the improvement phase measures into daily management, and carry out lean and traditional control of banking business processes by establishing work performance appraisal standards and improving incentive measures.

Control activities enable the organization to continue to maintain the initial improvement activities of the project team and ensure that continuous improvement is achieved after the unit is disbanded. The long-term impact on people’s working methods and the sustainability of their needs, not only the measurement and monitoring results, but also the constant persuasion and marketing of ideas, are both necessary. Therefore, in the control phase, the work of the project team includes explicitly:

• Confirm performance improvement and compare the results with improvement goals.

• Establish a rapid response mechanism to adjust strategies, products, and services promptly based on changes in vital information.

• Build a Six Sigma management culture and establish an organization that will continue to promote Six Sigma management.