Chapter 4 MS Flashcards
When a Customer Service Rep left, Hewitt incurred significant costs associated with these 4 areas
1) Separation Process 2) Hiring costs for the replacement 3) Training Costs 4) Costs related to lost productivity
Hewitt adusted the base pay of their CS reps. These adjustments cost them how much?
$600,000
Adjusting the CS reps base pay resulted in a lower [blank], which generated [blank] savings and [blank] ROI
1) Turnover Rate 2) $1.9MM 3) 217% ROI
B of A estimated that it obtained what benefits for implementing Six Sigma initiatives?
$2B in less than 3 years while increasing customer delight by 25%
Southside Hospital was receiving complains regarding what?
Turnaround times for stress tests
What was the result of Southside Hospital implementing the DMAIC technique for improving stress test turnaround times?
Reduced turnaround times for stress tests by over 50% from 68 to 32 hours
What were the financial benefits for Southside Hospital after improving stress test turnaround times?
Increased overall capacity at no cost and decreased costs by $34k due to savings in salaries
What does BPD stand for?
Business Process Design
BPD is most commonly referred to as what?
Reengineering
What are other terms used to describe BPD?
Business Process Reengineering, Business Process Engineering, Business Process Innovation and Business Process Redesign
If an activity is not [blank] to begin with, performing it faster will less human interverntion does not automatically make it [blank]
1) Effective 2) Effective
Define Dr. Michael Hammer’s term paving cow paths
Describes organizations that simply implement new technology without considering the capabilities it offers to perform work in entirely new and better ways
BPD favors making [blank] improvements in performance rather than small, [blank] improvements
1) Quantum 2) Incremental
4 keywords important to understanding the concept of BPD
1) Radical 2) Redesign 3) Process 4) Dramatic
Who developed the Six Sigma concept?
Bill Smith, senior engineer at Motorola
When we Six Sigma developed?
1986
Six Sigma was developed as a way to [blank] the way defects were [blank]
1) Standardize 2) Tallied
What is the literal translation of the term Six Sigma?
No more than 3.4 mistakes (defects) per 1 million opportunities to make a mistake (defect) 99.99966%
A comprehensive and flexible system for achieving, sustaining and maximizing business success. Is uniquely driven by close understanding of customer needs, disciplined use of facts, data and statistical analysis and diligetn attention to managing, improving and reinventing business processes.
Six Sigma
4 common themes in suggested definitions for Six Sigma
1) Rigorous (often statistical) analysis 2) Customer focus 3) Data-driven analysis 4) Improvement of overall business performance
Motorola estimated that as of 2006 it had saved in excess of [blank] as a result of Six Sigma initiatives
$17 billion
Six Sigma DMAIC Model
Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, Control
This process involved comparing an organization’s processes with the best practices to be found
Benchmarking
Benchmarking activities should not be restricted to other organizations in the [blank] industry
Same
No amount of clever advertising and no degree of production efficiency will entice customers to what?
Continue to purchase products or services that do not meet their needs
This is a powerful tool for helping translate customer requirements into process capabilities
Quality Function Deployment (QFD)
The QFD methodology utilizes tables to maintain links among requirements. Because of their shape, they are referred to as what?
Houses of Quality
In QFD Houses of Quality, customer requirements are listed in the [blank], technical requirements are listed in the [blank]
1) Rows 2) Columns
The cells in the relationship matrix of the Houses of Quality correspond to what?
The intersection of a particular customer requirements and technical requirement
In each cell in the relationship matrix of the Houses of Quality, the [blank] of the relationship between the corresponding customer requirement and technical requirement is evaluated.
Strength
According to this measure, a higher value corresponds to higher process performance
Process Sigma
4 Guidelines for Brainstorming
1) Do not criticize ideas during brainstorming 2) Express all ideas no matter how radical or impractical 3) Generate as many ideas as possible 4) Combine, extend and/or improve on one another’s ideas
Brainstorming focuses more on the [blank] of ideas generated rather than the [blank]
1) Quantity 2) Quality
Professor Leigh Thompson identified 4 threats to team creativity, name 3
1) Social Loafing 2) Conformity 3) Downward norm setting
What is Social Loafing?
When working in teams, people may feel they will not get credit for their ideas and may not work as hard in groups compared with the amount of effort they would invest if working individually
What is Conformity?
When working in teams, people may be overly conservative with what they are willing to share with the team because of concerns they may have about the reaction of tohers
What is Downward Norm Setting?
Research on teams suggests that individuals working in a team environment tend to match the productivity of the least productive team member
What does a Process Capability Index of greater than 1 indicate?
The production process is capable of consistency meeting the requirements
What does a Process Capability Index of less than 1 indicate?
The production process is not capable of consistently meeting design specifications
Taguchi indicates that most of the quality of products/services is determined at what stage?
Design Stage
Taguchi believes that without quality in the design stage, the production system can affect quality [blank]
Slightly
4 Six Sigma Roles/Titles
1) Master Black Belts 2) Black Belst 3) Green Belts 4) Champions/Sponsors
What is a Master Black Belt?
Combines an advanced knowledge of the Six Sigma toolkit with a deep understanding of the business
What are Six Sigma Champions/Sponsors?
Senior managers who support and promote Six Sigma projects
4 Alternative ways of obtaining Black Belt certification
1) Internally by current employter 2) Universities 3) Professional Societies 4) Consulting Organizations
Given the range of options for certification, it is surprising to see the extent to which these programs are [blank] in terms of duration and content
Standardized
