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In the Fall 2003 issue
of In Our Hands, Six Sigma expert George Eckes talked about an
important transformation companies need to make on their road to making
Six Sigma a part of their culture.
"In the early years, it's very tempting to try to justify the investment
in Six Sigma by working solely on efficiency projects that take out costs.
But for Six Sigma to last, you have to transition to effectiveness projects
which impact the customer," he said.
At ITT Industries, that transition is clearly taking place, as evidenced
by two recent Value-Based Six Sigma projects, which are very similar in
the issues being addressed - speeding international shipments - and in the
fact that their solutions focus more on customer satisfaction than costs:
Night Vision: Expediting Export Licenses
In the last five years, Night Vision has seen international sales grow by
leaps and bounds - from 20 percent of the business in 1997 to 50 percent
of the business today. As exports increased, additional time-consuming export
compliance administrative issues arose and these issues, at times, affected
on-time delivery.
At one point, more than half of all shipments on hold were being delayed
by export paperwork issues. The Export Administration department recognized
the need to develop a system that leveraged existing internal databases.
The main culprit was the cumbersome licensing application process, required
by the U.S. State Department as a way to document all Significant Military
Equipment being sold to foreign governments.
To expedite the export process, a VBSS team, requested by Export Administration
and led by black belt Lisa Highberger, mapped out the licensing process
and discovered that licensing information was being keyboarded from paper
documents to paper documents. The solution was to create an electronic connection
between an existing Order Management (OMPI) system and a newly designed
Export Licensing Input & Process Tracking (ELIPT) system.
The OMPI data automatically populates the ELIPT system, eliminating the
need for manual typing and the accompanying errors. In addition, ELIPT utilizes
a "Poke Yoke" (fail safe) system that prevents users from moving forward
until all requirements have been met, thus reducing time-consuming omissions,
and features color-coded fields that let users quickly see what actions
still need to be addressed.
Licenses are now submitted in less than four days, rather than seven. When
there are unexpected problems, the ELIPT system enables Night Vision to
get back on track quickly - with an average of one-day delays, rather than
nine-day delays. Most importantly, customers are getting their products
faster.
Bell & Gossett: Speeding International Shipments
Bell & Gossett customers outside the U.S. are getting their pumps faster
than they were just one year ago. Instead of four days between order release
and shipment, international products are out the door in just two days.
"Customers are noticing - we're getting positive feedback, especially from
customers who placed expedited orders and need their pumps in a hurry,"
says Vince Walsh, the black belt who led a VBSS team through the "export
distribution project."
The team compressed the shipping time by speeding the paperwork process.
Each international shipment requires a variety of export documentation,
including a bill of lading, delivery instructions and the shipper's export
declaration. Previously, Bell & Gossett was keying in the data on Word and
Excel spreadsheets. To eliminate this step, the team merged the warehouse
management, global documentation and order entry systems, so that much of
the export information is automatically populated in the export documents.
In addition, the team found other ways to shave hours or days off the shipping
process. Shipping requirements from the customer - including the desired
port for delivery - were captured earlier in the order entry process, eliminating
last-minute delays caused by waiting for final forwarding instructions.
In addition to reducing the average distribution time by 53 percent, the
team achieved a 70 percent reduction in throughput variation times, meaning
customers now have a much better idea of exactly when they will see their
shipment.
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Top: The Night Vision VBSS team includes (l. to r.) Charles
Dudley, Lisa Highberger, Kili Mesner, Dave Burkle, Robin Wright, Bo Lucas
and Phil Motley.
Bottom: The Bell & Gossett VBSS team includes (l. to r.)
Roberta Mariano, Dennis Gribbens, Vince Walsh, Mike Venchus and Bhavana
Trivedi.
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