Phone network provider dials into £36m saving through deployment of Six Sigma.
The Problem
Our client identified that because of rapid growth in their business, processes needed to become more robust if they were to continue to achieve new customer acquisition and retain their existing customer base.
Following a tough competitive bid process, Bourton Group was appointed to design and develop a Six Sigma training programme, tailored to our client’s business.
Our client required a Six Sigma training programme that would enable staff to manage their own Green Belt and Black Belt projects and to become self-sufficient and able to train their own staff.
The Solution
A key objective of this assignment was to improve customer satisfaction.
This two-year assignment was awarded to us primarily because of our ability to customise our existing proven approach and material to suit our client’s needs. We began by creating a highly training package of Green and Black Belt modules that would relate directly to our client’s diverse business areas.
Running parallel to this, we also developed a series of executive workshops to build Directors and Executive understanding of the programme and achieve their buy-in and commitment to the improvement programme.
Process improvement and capability building
At the heart of the process improvement was a set of 10-day Green Belt modules and 20-day Black Belt modules.
Furthermore, we mentored and trained several Black Belts up to Master Black Belt level.
Within the first 12 months we had delivered:
- Six Champion courses for senior managers
- Helped design and deliver a range of company conferences
- Six Black Belt courses
- 14 Green Belt courses
During this initial 12-month period we gave our client an impressive cadre of 50 internal Black Belts and over 100 Green Belts who were able to run projects across the whole spectrum of their UK business.
We supplemented this with Train the Trainer programmes so that after 18 months the delivery of all future training could be run in-house.
The Benefits
Year 1
- The benefits tracking system used by the programme office identified £10m of auditable savings.
Year 2
- 53 Black Belt projects running, re-aligned by ‘Mega Project’ – as part of their programme management process
- 27 projects completed or closed
- Forecasted benefits standing at £35.8m – of which £23.6m agreed and £11m of that delivered growth of £3m over month
- A typical project delivered more than £550K of saving to the business whilst simultaneously improving customer satisfaction through the Retail Retention Process