Six Sigma in Transactional and Service Environments

In 1987, Motorola developed Six Sigma out of a need for improvement in their pager manufacturing processes. Since then, Six Sigma has been implemented by a number of manufacturing companies, predominantly in the USA. In the late 1990s, however, Six Sigma gained wider and international popularity due to successful implementation at General Electric. Six Sigma has now become one of the integral aspects of manufacturing, as well as non-manufacturing businesses worldwide. In recent years, many books have been published on Six Sigma, mainly on its application in manufacturing and product development. This book, by contrast, focuses specifically on the application of Six Sigma in service and transactional environments. The book comprises two parts. Part One provides the necessary knowledge for understanding the Six Sigma methodology and its underlying concepts. Part Two consists of practical examples of Six Sigma application to transactional and service environments which have been provided in the form of real world case studies written by internationally successful companies, to complement the reader's knowledge of Six Sigma and to increase comprehension of issues surrounding Six Sigma implementations. It has been written for newcomers as well as for experienced practitioners who are interested in improving processes in everyday business operations. The focus is on the implementation of the Six Sigma methodology rather than on the statistical tools and techniques. The aim of this book is to provide the reader with some practical and useful guidelines for Six Sigma deployment and its application to transactional and service processes.