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A microchip manufacturing company found that the
slow response time to computer-related problems was
resulting in nearly three-quarters of a million dollars
annually in lost worker productivity and overtime
expenses.
For employees with computer problems, the first
line of defense is the help desk. The minimal
standard set by management for our business is
to have all help desk work requests resolved
within five hours. An analysis of historical data
revealed that 88% of work requests were defective
(taking longer than five hours).
The result of this slow turnaround time (TAT) was
approximately $715,000 of annual expenses
attributed to productivity loss and increased
overtime for IT technicians working on computerrelated
problems. This figure was calculated
using an average hourly rate of pay for employees
and was verified by the Finance department.
Strong competition and low profit
margins are the nature of microchip manufacturing. The business cannot
afford to ignore or respond slowly to any
opportunity to reduce costs. With this motivation
in mind, the Six Sigma project team was asked to tackle this
problem immediately and complete the project
within four months. By following the DMAIC
process, the team was able to accomplish the aggressive timeline and achieve a significant reduction
in defects.
In this project, the customer is internal: employees
of the manufacturing facility. Based on customer
input, the CTQ was defined as quick response to
work requests, and the goal was to reduce the
average work request TAT by 50 percent. The
outcome would be twofold: increased customer
satisfaction and reduced associated costs.
By identifying root causes and instituting
several changes in the existing process, the Black Belt
Six Sigma team succeeded in reducing the defect rate
from 88 percent to just 1.4 percent and saving the
company $586,000 annually.
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