Page 95 - Lean six sigma demystified

74 Lean Six Sigma DemystifieD

The only requirement for Agile is that you know the overall architecture:
protocols, interfaces, and so on before starting on the project. Otherwise, the
modules won’t fit together.
After many decades of wrestling with trying to apply the old economies-of-
scale manufacturing techniques to software, the software world is stumbling its
way to the economies of speed and the techniques of Lean.
What about your business? Can it wait decades to evolve into a more pro-
ductive system through trial and error, or do you need to apply the simple rules
of Lean thinking to your business now?

Lean Call Centers

Have you ever noticed how some things seem to take forever and with others,
time flies by? Have you ever gotten so involved in a task that hours pass with-
out notice? Have you ever gotten in the slowest line at the supermarket or
bank? This is the essence of time distortion. Perception overrides reality.
I’ve had the opportunity to work with some call centers lately. Although
most want to handle calls more quickly, they’re overlooking two key
opportunities.
1. Reduce the number of callbacks within 48 hours (They didn’t answer the
call correctly in the first place.)
2. Reduce the number of non-profit generating calls.

Dell’s Wake-Up Call

The September 18, 2006, Fortune magazine focused on Dell Computer’s Call
Center. Here’s what Michael Dell had to say about the call center.

Last year we would say: “Hey, let’s handle the calls faster.” The problem is that if
you handle the call faster, you solve 90% of the problems instead of 100%. So the
guy calls back. And you’ve just pissed him off more and you haven’t accomplished
a damn thing.

This year we said we’re not going to measure how long we’re on the phone;
we’re going to measure how well we did solving the problem. In the second
quarter we had two million fewer calls than we had planned.
The team was managing cost instead of managing service and quality. Stop
managing [solely] for cost. Manage for a great experience.