A Sales office vs Plant problem solved through six sigma

A Sales office vs Plant problem


I was through almost 3 days in the five day Green belt programme and I noticed in the evening a lady participant feverishly working on a xl sheet. Since it was time to close down and it is customary that I expect every one to leave before I leave, I asked her about the work she was doing. She said that this is the kind of problem she faces every month. I asked her to explain to me if it is OK. She was the planner for the manufacture of small motors working in the factory. She received the internal work orders from about ten sales offices all over the country. She had difficulties with the completeness of orders received. While some errors were trivial some really held up the shipments. There were instances where the orders did not mention the inspection by client or did not mention the paint colour. These triggered a lot of customer dissatisfaction. Every month, she calculated the average defective orders and mailed the data to management. She sometimes also wrote a strong letter that the sales offices were not acting in a responsible manner. Apparently, nothing happened except a few sales offices turned against her quoting the statistics that they were not the ones to blame.

I suggested to her to use Chi Square test instead of the usual average calculation and the comments on that.

The average defective orders could be the expected proportion. we could apply the chi square test to find out whether all sales offices were more or less equal in producing those defectives or whether a particular sales office was generating more defectives.

She tried and found that one sales office was generating defectives orders at level significantly higher than the rest of the offices. She then had to work on that office only for improvement. The improvement came very fast with the training of the concerned person. An example of the situation is given below.
      Chennai Mumbai Delhi Kokata
OK          80             90 65               50
Not OK 20             10 35               50

Contingency Table
Table analyzed

Statistic
Degrees of freedom 3
Contingency coefficient 0.3
Corrected contingency coefficient 0.4

Chi square 44.9
Chi2, critical 7.8
p value < 0.0001
Significantly different (p<0.05)? Yes
Significance level: 95%

Table with expected values

    Chennai Mumbai Delhi Kokata
OK         71.2          71.2 71.2          71.2
Not OK 28.8          28.8 28.8          28.8

One branch is significantly different and it could be Kolkata office.  *calculations done through Maxlite software

Service Quality by William Lep Cha

                     The five lessons in service Quality that William Lep Cha taught me

Before you start googling for a management consultant by name William Lep cha, I will reveal the identity of William. He is the Senior Sous Chef in Hotel Le Meridien in Chennai. I had an hour of good training in service Quality from him and of course a good dinner at Le Royal Meridien last week when I had been to Chennai. Let me take you through the wonderful experience in the next few paragraphs.

1. Let the customer know the full range of services: 

I entered and William greeted me with the warm handshake and correctly guessed my predicament -as a vegetarian- to dine or not to dine in the restaurant by name Cilantro. Quickly, he introduced me to the range of papads, rasam ,tomato bath, curd rice and what not. There was a moment of silence when he left me to decide myself after his detour but in the corner of his eye I could see his expectation and approval. Of course, I stayed on for the dinner.

 I learnt that in service Quality people try to have an idea of what we are capable of delivering and unless they have some familiarity with the type of service, their decision making gets delayed.

2.  Listen to all stakeholders:

Along with me, a south Indian family of three, father, mother and a teenaged daughter came and they occupied a table somewhat near my table. Naturally, they were not able to get a consensus on the things to be ordered. Father probably wanted a buffet and others wanted some dish which was not available in the menu card for buffet. Since the discussion took some amount of time, I watched with interest how it could end. William entered the scene with a finesse of a magician making an entry onto the stage. He offered to get the daughter that special dish though they ordered the buffet saying it is his way of saying “Happy birthday”. In ten minutes the scene changed to laughter and fun with William bringing the dish himself with a great smile.

I learnt that dissenting stakeholders in a company present opportunities to us and they are not threats. If only we could find a way out to listen to them and do some adjustments with the way the service is delivered, we may not only keep them but delight them as well.

3. Appeal to the instincts when you want to change any one:

William asked me to take Rasam.  I replied being a Tamilian, I am served rasam of delectable quality all the time at home and I would not probably find it appetising to take it in a hotel.  He persisted and said that I should take it because he wanted a genuine feedback from a Tamilian on the quality of rasam.  I took it and found to be very good almost as it is prepared at home. I told him so and he said “ Now, you can bring your wife here next time you come”.

I learnt that people do not change all at once and we should respect the stand people are taking though there may be more emotional reasons than logical. We need to persist in breaking the resistance not by arguments but by humility.

4. Work with your heart:

When I was having the rasam and was almost close to finishing the main course, William came on his round and said “Take some more, Go for one more round. There are so many items to day, Do not miss them”. I felt so happy that in a hotel someone is asking me to take more. I felt very good.

I learnt that clients like when you work with your heart and not only with your brain. People understand that you are doing something beyond the professional boundaries.

5.  All customers are equal:

I am an individual consultant not Head of a corporate or a celebrity staying in that hotel.  I may not bring any big business to Le meridian though I may be happy at the end of the day. William knows this as we got introduced in the first few minutes. Yet I found he treated me the same way as he treated the foreign guest or other guests who could be CEOs or Directors.

I learnt that in service , all customers are equal. that is the way it should be.

Thanks William, you have taught me a lot in the course of one hour.

Of course, the dinner was superb but my take away was some thing unforgettable!!  

Happy Christmas and a Happy new year to you and your family back home in Gangtok!

let us start at the very beginning

Dear students

the fact is that you are now in the Advanced statisitics class no matter whether you are going to be a HR professional or a finance person or Operations manager.

first is GET PREPARED.

1. Buy a basic and good book.

I suggest Statisitics for Management by Levin and Rubin. It should cost 150 Rs in the footpaths near Ferguson College.

2. Attend classes.

you need to work on the software and learn to analyse data like you have never done before. you have to practice and not just read and read. this means that you have to be present in the class.

3. Open up to new ways of thinking

statistics is a scince that will constantly challenge established ways of thinking. Be prepared to learn and move on without regretting your old ways of thinking.

4. work as a group.

it is always better to work out problems in groups so the learning can be improved.

so, what are we waiting for?

let us start our journey