Page 46 - Design for Six Sigma for Service (Six SIGMA Operational Methods)

28 Chapter Two

(Ramaswamy, 1996). In a study on the approaches used to develop new
services in the financial sector, de Brentani (1993) said, “. . . companies tend
to use a hit-and-miss approach when planning new services where ideas are
generated and defined in a haphazard fashion, limited customer research is
carried out prior to planning the design, service designs often lack creativity
and precision and do not incorporate the appropriate technology, testing for
possible fail points is rarely done, and market launch is often characterized
by trial and error.” Service managers compensate for the lack of sound
service design by trying to please the customers through ad hoc activities;
the process improvement is mostly hit-and-run. These are clearly expensive
methods and are not competitive in the long run.

Many service sectors, such as health care, suffer from low efficiency and
extremely high cost. In many developed countries, especially the United
States, health-care costs have become a heavy burden to the whole national
economy and global competitiveness.

Fortunately, many service sectors, especially, health care and banking, are
adopting Six Sigma approaches in their businesses. Many of them are starting
to reap the benefits from Six Sigma. Clearly, Do the right things and Do things
right are all it takes to make successful service products and service processes.
However, merely using DMAIC-based process improvements will not be suf-
ficient to raise the service quality and efficiency to the best possible level.

As we discussed in Chap. 1, there are two important aspects in service
operation: service design and service delivery. Service design refers to the
elements that are planned into service, including the features offered by
service, the nature of facilities where service is provided, and the processes
through which the service is delivered. The quality of the service design
determines the ability of the service to effectively and efficiently supply the
performance level expected by customers. The service design will determine
what is offered in the service and service performance level (Do the right
things), as well as the stability and reproductibility of the service per-
formance (Do things right).
Service delivery refers to the manner in which the service is offered during
customer encounters. It is the system operation aspect of the service process.
DMAIC-based process improvement focuses on the service delivery aspect
of the service operation. Similar to the limitations of the DMAIC-based
approach in the manufacturing industry, if the service design is basically
flawed, the DMAIC-based approach will not be able to make a fundamental
difference in guiding design or design changes.