Lean Six Sigma Group Free Project Case Study Overviews http://www.linkedin.com/groups/Lean-Six-Sigma-37987 Sponsored by the International Standard for Lean Six Sigma, e-Zsigma http://www.e-zsigma.com, IQPC, and PEX Network. Please contact Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt, Steven Bonacorsi, Owner of the Lean Six Sigma Group to have your project case studies to be added to the Lean Six Sigma Group Library. Steve Bonacorsi sbonacorsi@comcast.net

1. E-Mail Account
Optimization
Project Leader: Michael Madl, Systems Engineer
Start Date: March 2002
Master Black Belt: Steven Bonacorsi

2. Six Sigma in Action
E-Mail Account Optimization
Customer Profile – 1400 seat financial service company
Business Problem & Impact P ro ccee s sCC a pa bility Anas is is rfo r ta l taa y sa y s
P ro s s a pa bility Ana ly ly s fo To To D l D
Process Capability – Before
E-mail accounts residing on the client’s production servers
US L L
US
which their email vendor charges on a per accountS basis.sDDaThe0
U UL L
S
P roroe e s
P c cs a ta
ta
55 .00 0 0
.0 0 0 ST
LT
client was incurring charges from their e-mail vendor for 1160 ****
T aTa rgte t
rg e
LSL L
LS
unused accounts, resulting in charges of $3,480 pernmmonth.1.6 334411
Me a a n
Me
S a m p lele N
Sa p N
11 .6
1
82
82
S tDtDv (S T )
S e e v (S T) 00 .3 61 1 8
.3 6 1 1 8
Measure & Analyze S tDtDv (L(L )
S e e v T T) 66 .6 62 1 7
.6 6 2 1 7
Data Collection: After a one time cleanup of the 1160tia(S(S T)CCaappaabbility**
P o te tetia l l T )
Po n n
Cp p
C
ility
accounts, the data still showed the average time toP Ueliminate .1 2*2*
C C PU
C PL L
CP
-6 .1
-6
the e-mail account for exiting employees was 11.6 pCkp km
C
Cpm
days
Cp
-6 .1 2
-6 .1 2
*
*
-10
-1 0 00 10 1 0 20 20 30 30
Root Causes: Variation in the processes used to eliminate P ro c e s s C a p a b ility exptente dlyesP e rfofo ea nTeo taxp eDtea eLcTsPde L Trmearfo e a
A c a S is n c r c E l c xp y te rfo P n c rm
O veve ra ll (L T) C a p a bility
O ra ll (L T ) C a p a b ility O b ssee rve dPP e rfo rm n c ec e
O b rve d e rfo rm a a n E xp c e d S T P Trfo rm a rm
E E d
accounts, a web form which client managers foundP pto be too **
Pp P P M < LL S L
PPM < SL Process Capability – After
* * P PP P M < L S L
M < LS L * * P P M P P S L< L S L
< LM *
PPU U
PP -0 .3 3
-0 .3 3 P P M > U SS L
PPM > U L 9 3 9 0 2 4 .3 9 9
9 3 9 0 2 4 .3 P PP P M > L S L1 0 0 1 0 0 0 .0 0 0 .0 0
M > USU 0 00 0 P P M P P M L U S8 4 0 3 2 8 4 0 3 2
> US > L 4 .7 0
complex, vendor case processing time and reworkPPloops Dwithin
P L P ro c e s s a ta
PL *
* P P M Too ta l
P P M T ta l 9 3 9 0 2 4 .3 9 9
9 3 9 0 2 4 .3 P PP P M ta l ta l 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 .0 0 0 .0 0
M To T o 0 00 0 UP PL P Pta l T o ta l8 4 0 3 2 8 4 0 3 2
S M To M 4 .7 0
P p kp k
P -0 .3 3
-0 .3 3
HR-owned process steps were contributing to longrgcycle times
USL
Ta e t
5 .0 0 0 0 0
*
LSL *
Improve & Control - Streamlined process from 12 to 7 Me a n
S a m p le N
3 .4 2 1 0 5
19
steps. Created one centralized DB to minimize errors and S tD e v (S T )
S tD e v (L T )
0 .3 9 4 0 1 1
0 .7 7 9 2 7 6
delays in data transfers. Worked with the vendor to create a
new web interface resulting in a reduced cycle time nfor vendor
P o te tia l (S T ) C a p a b ility
Cp *
CPU 1 .3 4
steps to one day. Improved average time to 3.4 days from 11.6
CPL *
Cpk 1 .3 4
Results/Benefits - Annualized savings realized by the Cpm *
1 2 3 4 5 6
client to date are $42K, and additional savings may ra ll (L T ) C a p a b ility
O ve exist O b s e rve d P e rfo rm a n c e E xp e c te d S T P e rfo rm a n c e E xp e c te d L T P e rfo rm a n c
based on the future employee exit rate Pp
PPU 0 .6 8
* PPM < LSL
PPM > USL
*
0 .0 0
PPM < LSL
PPM > USL 3 0 .7 0
* PPM < LSL
PPM > USL 2 1 3 7 3 .6
PPL * P P M T o ta l 0 .0 0 P P M T o ta l 3 0 .7 0 P P M T o ta l 2 1 3 7 3 .6
Ppk 0 .6 8
Annual savings to the client of US$42K