Page 422 - Design for Six Sigma for Service (Six SIGMA Operational Methods)

380 Chapter Ten

technologies such as the World Wide Web and Intranets may be used as the
medium for access to the process manual.
Many processes will require the hiring of new employees with certain
specific skills and the purchase of specialized tools or equipment. Following
the specifications of the process design, such employees can be hired and
the equipment purchased. Procuring long-lead-time equipment or hiring
employees with hard-to-find skills should start early so that everything can
be in place for the process to commence operation. Installation of equipment
should follow recommended procedures, and new employees should be
trained quickly so that they can be at their most effective as soon as possible.

10.6.6 Process Maintenance

Process maintenance involves ongoing monitoring of the process, as well as
periodic improvements to ensure that process performance remains high
despite changing internal and external conditions. After the process has
been implemented, it should not just be abandoned to its fate. Rather, the
process should be treated like one would treat any other valuable asset of the
organization; track its performance over time and schedule periodic
reexamination to determine if it needs any major or minor overhauls. This
maintenance will ensure that if conditions were to change or tools and
equipment were to wear out, an opportunity would be available to update
the process and cope with the new requirements. For tracking and process
monitoring, it is recommended that, at the minimum, the most important of
the performance metrics considered in the process design should be tracked.
In addition, other data providing early warnings regarding the state of the
process should be collected.

For example, for critical equipment, failure times and downtime durations
should be logged. Data collection systems or data tracking forms need to be
designed for acquiring the data of interest. All statistical process control
activities for the process are an integral part of the process maintenance.
Maintenance schedules for important equipment should be based on the
frequency recommended by the manufacturers of the equipment.

10.7 A Process Management Case Study

10.7.1 Background
This case study is from Mejabi (2003). USAA is an insurance company that
started losing market share due to price competition from competitors and