By trade · Services, IT and engineering
Lean Six Sigma in services and IT
These trades have neither parts nor visible stock, which makes their queues invisible — but an open topic, a ticket being handled or a file that has been started fill exactly the role of shop-floor work in process, and produce the same effects on lead time.
The most effective lever there is also the most counter-intuitive: limiting the number of topics run at the same time increases the number of topics finished each week, without anyone working faster. The resistance comes from confusing work started with work delivered.
The tools illustrated by a case from this sector
6 entries reviewed in English — 6 entries in all on the French page.
Business process management
Managing by processes means organising steering around what crosses the company to produce a service for the customer, rather than around the departments that make it up.
Method · case: Business services
Lead time
Lead time is the time between the customer’s request and its fulfilment, waits included. It is the delay the customer feels, and it almost never bears any relation to the sum of the working times.
Measurement and indicators · case: Telecoms customer service
Critical to quality (CTQ)
A CTQ is the translation of a customer expectation into a measurable characteristic, with a target and limits beyond which the customer declares themselves dissatisfied.
Measurement and indicators · case: IT services
Value added
A value-added activity is one the customer would agree to pay for if it were described to them. Everything else splits between what is necessary without being wanted, and what can disappear.
Lean tools · case: Engineering office
Work in progress (WIP)
Work in progress is everything that has entered a process without yet having left it: started parts, open files, unclosed tickets. It is the quantity that is easiest to count and most rarely steered.
Lean tools · case: Software development
Five Lean principles
The five Lean principles form the framework of a transformation: they say where to take hold of it and in what order to proceed, each step making the next one achievable.
Method · case: Software publishing
Practise
The training corpus is not split by sector: the questions are about the tools, which are the same everywhere, and the certifications do not split their exams by sector either. To find your level, the shortest way is a fifteen-question quiz, no account needed:
The other trades: Lean Six Sigma by sector.