Bharti Broadband saves with Six Sigma

Six Sigma helped the service provider improve its customer service

Bharti Broadband Networks (BBNL) is a leading integrated broadband service provider operating in the broadband, Internet and VSAT markets.
It provides customised and integrated solutions to corporate customers. The company had a goal of delivering error-free services to customers by doing the job right the first time, every time.

Six Sigma ahoy

With the quality objective having been decided, an executive committee (EC) comprising nine officials, including the CEO, was formed. The committee studied various other quality tools and processes like ISO and TQM in addition to Six Sigma. The choice for Six Sigma was made as it was closely aligned with the outlined quality objective. According to Ashok Juneja, CEO, BBNL, "We realised that the telecom industry is undergoing rapid change and so are customer requirements. Six Sigma met the requirements of this changing environment." There were already several case studies of successful Six Sigma implementations in large companies like GE, Motorola, Wipro, TCS and Satyam.

Making the customer a priority

Having decided upon IGE as the consultant, the Six Sigma initiative was formally launched in June 2003 with the tagline: 'Six Sigma-my customer, my priority'. The company has outlined that improving customer satisfaction is the business objective for first year of the initiative. The executive committee identified the processes that were in conjunction with this focus area.
In the first phase, critical business processes were aligned with business objectives. The critical objectives identified are customer satisfaction, employee satisfaction, improving revenue and free cash. First, the projects with processes mapped against these objectives were to be undertaken. And then the quality improvement projects for existing and new products were to be undertaken. Almost 85 percent of Six Sigma projects at BBNL are based on customer satisfaction.
A cross-functional team was formed to tackle each project. The team comprises a sponsor, a leader and four to five team members. The leader, also called the 'Champion' can be either a Green Belt or Black Belt. The duration for each project can range between three to four months. For the first phase the team chose 15 critical projects that offered substantial gains. Black Belts are involved full-time in the quality improvement process while Green Belts spend around 8-10 percent of time on quality improvement. A Black Belt can be engaged in two to three different projects simultaneously.
Each project follows a five-phase methodology. These include defining and quantifying the problem, measuring the defect rate, i.e. the baseline. This is followed by the analysis phase where analysis is done on when, where and how the defects occur. The fourth step is improvement, finding probable solutions and applying them. The final step is control in terms of sustaining the improvements. BBNL is applying Six Sigma to processes for timely complaint resolution, timely order implementation, timely invoice submission and NOC complaint resolution.
When the teams started measuring critical business processes they found that the baseline was not as per customer expectations. There were gaps of around 30-40 percent in some processes. The baseline having been measured, targets were set for improving the processes. After analysing defects, process improvement kicks in. Simplifying the process instead of changing the entire process brings in the improvement. The tool essentially requires fine-tuning the process and eliminating those that do not add value. "When you are simplifying the projects productivity goes up within the same resources, thereby leading to optimum utilisation of the resources," says Juneja. One of the ways of simplifying processes is to use IT for automating processes.
The executive committee continuously monitors the projects. There are monthly reviews carried out by the Champion, Sponsor and IGE. A quality dashboard has also been created, wherein every month performance is reported. The CEO and the COO monitor whether the objectives are being met.

Benefits

In six months BBNL had achieved timely complaint resolution 66 percent from the baseline, timely order implementation up 70 percent from baseline, timely invoice submission up 51 percent from baseline and NOC complaint resolution that was 49 percent from baseline. The Six Sigma process improvements have translated into productivity enhancements, improved customer satisfaction and process effectiveness. BBNL is targeting an estimated saving of around Rs 10 crore in the first year of operation.
The target was to achieve 99 percent (i.e. approximately four Sigma level) ('First Time Right') with respect to respective set norms by March 2004 on all key critical processes. Since Six Sigma is a continuous improvement initiative, the company will be undertaking another business objective for the next financial year. On the future roadmap are Six Sigma for all processes and higher E-SAT (employee satisfaction) and C-SAT (customer satisfaction) index. BBNL plans to get almost 90 percent of the employees to be Green Belts by 2005, with almost 100 percent of the employees to be involved in the Six Sigma journey by the same time.