Resolving Operation service in telecom by six sigma
First Understanding six sigma again
Definition of Six Sigma
Six Sigma stands for Six Standard Deviations from mean. Six Sigma methodology provides the techniques and tools to improve the capability and reduce the defects in any process.
It was started in Motorola, in its manufacturing division, where millions of parts are made using the same process repeatedly. Eventually Six Sigma evolved and applied to other non manufacturing processes. Today you can apply Six Sigma to many fields such as Services, Medical and Insurance Procedures, Call Centers.
Six Sigma experts evaluate a business process and determine ways to improve upon the existing process.
Six Sigma incorporates the basic principles and techniques used in Business, Statistics, and Engineering. These three form the core elements of Six Sigma. Six Sigma improves the process performance, decreases variation and maintains consistent quality of the process output. This leads to defect reduction and improvement in profits,
Six-step Model for a successful implementation of a Six Sigma process
Despite the frequency of Six Sigma program implementations, there is increasing concern about implementation failures. One reason many Six Sigma programs fail is because an implementation model on how to effectively guide the implementation of these programs is lacking.
Using a successful Six Sigma program in a Network Technology company, the purpose of this research is to develop an effective implementation model which consists of six steps. The first step is to perform strategic analysis driven by the market and the customer. The second step is to establish a high-level, cross-functional team to drive the improvement initiative. The third step is to identify overall improvement tools. The fourth step is to perform high-level process mapping and to prioritize improvement opportunities. The fifth step is to develop a detailed plan for low-level improvement teams, and...
Applying on telecom operations
At first glance, telecom industries and Six Sigma appear to be mutually exclusive. However, these two approaches are highly complementary and can be highly used in combination effectively to continually improve business processes. Process optimization, continuous improvement,measuring quality of service and process improvement, and maximizing the payback of telecom organizations with finding the best services are the most important point for combining the Six Sigma and telecom industries in this paper .
One of the most important limiting factors in this field is the difficulty in quantifying and gathering data from service processes and telecom industries, because these organizations don’t mention to quality data and quality program. Quality of the service must define and measured by defining quality factors and standards. Also quality programs which are focused on particular opportunities must be established strongly. Customer has a main factor in telecom industries. So for proper implementing of Six Sigma in telecom industries, the operational strategies and customer (needs and satisfaction) must be considered.
Definition of Six Sigma
Six Sigma stands for Six Standard Deviations from mean. Six Sigma methodology provides the techniques and tools to improve the capability and reduce the defects in any process.
It was started in Motorola, in its manufacturing division, where millions of parts are made using the same process repeatedly. Eventually Six Sigma evolved and applied to other non manufacturing processes. Today you can apply Six Sigma to many fields such as Services, Medical and Insurance Procedures, Call Centers.
Six Sigma experts evaluate a business process and determine ways to improve upon the existing process.
Six Sigma incorporates the basic principles and techniques used in Business, Statistics, and Engineering. These three form the core elements of Six Sigma. Six Sigma improves the process performance, decreases variation and maintains consistent quality of the process output. This leads to defect reduction and improvement in profits,
Six-step Model for a successful implementation of a Six Sigma process
Despite the frequency of Six Sigma program implementations, there is increasing concern about implementation failures. One reason many Six Sigma programs fail is because an implementation model on how to effectively guide the implementation of these programs is lacking.
Using a successful Six Sigma program in a Network Technology company, the purpose of this research is to develop an effective implementation model which consists of six steps. The first step is to perform strategic analysis driven by the market and the customer. The second step is to establish a high-level, cross-functional team to drive the improvement initiative. The third step is to identify overall improvement tools. The fourth step is to perform high-level process mapping and to prioritize improvement opportunities. The fifth step is to develop a detailed plan for low-level improvement teams, and...
Applying on telecom operations
At first glance, telecom industries and Six Sigma appear to be mutually exclusive. However, these two approaches are highly complementary and can be highly used in combination effectively to continually improve business processes. Process optimization, continuous improvement,measuring quality of service and process improvement, and maximizing the payback of telecom organizations with finding the best services are the most important point for combining the Six Sigma and telecom industries in this paper .
One of the most important limiting factors in this field is the difficulty in quantifying and gathering data from service processes and telecom industries, because these organizations don’t mention to quality data and quality program. Quality of the service must define and measured by defining quality factors and standards. Also quality programs which are focused on particular opportunities must be established strongly. Customer has a main factor in telecom industries. So for proper implementing of Six Sigma in telecom industries, the operational strategies and customer (needs and satisfaction) must be considered.
This is one of the differences is the application of DMAIC (Define, Measure, Analyze, improve and Control) to a telecom project.
As mentioned most of service industries don’t have a proper attitude about customer and related qualified data. This is a new approach to six sigma
Phase 1 - Define opportunities: The Define phase is to make clear understanding of scope and objective to publish project charter and problems; All relevance stakeholders have been understood. Also, the organization’s purpose and scope will be defined during the phase. One of the key major success factors of Six Sigma is that it starts with an understanding of what service processes are critical to telecom industries in achieving these objectives. These are also called the critical to quality (CTQ).This have a structured approach and with clarity as far as the phase goals, tasks, deliverables, and techniques are concerned Understanding the cost of service delivery process is an important index and tool that makes us to evaluate the process based on and scoring the mentioned process. Also, identifying the problems and defining the measurable objectives and results are the most important objectives of this phase. The most desired result is to set a definitive vision, scope, and strategic approach for quality improvement operations.
Six deliverables has been produced in the Define phase:
1) Project charter and planning;
2) Data collection;
3) Stakeholder analysis and evaluation;
4) Critical to Quality (CTQ) outline in telecom industries;
5) Cost of poor quality and improvement;
6) Overall overview of the process to be improved.
Phase 2 - Measure performance: Measure performance phase focused on the distribution, anthology, and refinement of telecom industries. Planning for collection of the different measurements has been done in the Measure phase. It defines the imperfections of quality measurements, evaluate the "as is" process, and create a current-state assessment of the current service delivery. This phase will help the organization rank the potential causes of quality improvement, which would be useful in investigation through
benchmarking the current process performance.
This phase creates four deliverables as follows:
1) Process capability and performance;
2) Critical input and proves variables that can affect output quality;
3) Service delivery defects;
4) Critical Success Factors (CTQ) summary chart.
Phase 3 -Analyze factors impacting performance: The Measure phase produces the baseline performance of the service delivery processes. Indeed, in this phase the collected data in the Measure phase have been examined to generate a high ranking list of the sources of variation in telecom industry and identify the root cause of problems.
Eight deliverables has been formed in the Analyze phase:
1) Cause and Effect Diagram of problems
2) Frequency plots and graphs
3) data and information flow diagram
4) Affinity diagram
5) Critical Success Factors (CTQs) benchmarked to identify opportunities for improvement;
6) Regression analysis of data.
7) Scatter plots and diagrams
8) Threats and opportunities.
Phase 4 - Improve performance: The aim of improve performance phase is to identify some options for solutions which can be useful for the identified problems during analysis phase. So, the alternative policies could be rank and select for future improvement. Recommendation and implementation of the solutions are the most important objectives of this phase.
In this phase mainly five deliverables has been produced:
1) Data and information flow diagram;
2) Risk Assessment;
3) Design of different experiments
4) Ranking different solutions;
5) Improvement planning for quality improvements.
Phase 5 – Control performance: The problem has been assessed and an improvement process put in place, putting a solution in place can fix problems for the moment, but the work in phase 5 is designed to ensure the problem stays fixed and secure. Also, the obtained knowledge in the improvement project can be consulted in other areas to help accelerate improvements of service delivery. Six deliverables would be
obtained in this phase:
1) Control charts for quality improvement
2) Quality control process charts
3) Standardization charts for quality
4) Process metrics defined and implemented in telecom sector
5) Control Plan implemented
6) Risk mitigation actions complete and implemented
6. Results and Discussion
Six-sigma has been a powerful and most effective tool in manufacturing industries reduce rate of rejects and to enhance productivity. The telecom sector is diversified and the features are different from manufacturing industries. Thus, the use of Six Sigma in telecom industries and its benefits are limited.
From the analyses of the service models, telecom industries structures and also by comparing between the features of service and manufacturing industries, the main challenges in application of Six Sigma in telecom industries can be identified. Further analyses of these challenges showed that the proper implementation of Six Sigma in telecom industries requires not only the effective operational strategies, but also customers needs and satisfaction must be considered and designed into the implementation phase.
7. Conclusion
Six Sigma is such a process that brings additional benefits to telecom industries and help organizations to adopt best practices for service delivery by a quality process which ensure its success. In particular, its business orientation will ensure that service improvement activities are focused on dealing those services that impact the customer. As a result, the impact that it help in increasing the quality in telecom industries has on the business overall will be greater.
7. Conclusion
Six Sigma is such a process that brings additional benefits to telecom industries and help organizations to adopt best practices for service delivery by a quality process which ensure its success. In particular, its business orientation will ensure that service improvement activities are focused on dealing those services that impact the customer. As a result, the impact that it help in increasing the quality in telecom industries has on the business overall will be greater.
