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Abstract

This paper tries to connect two theoretical frameworks, namely by Parsuraman et al, generally applicable customer expectations from a service product and six sigma principles. Applying the principles of Six Sigma to the outcome of the analysis of the
service from these two perspectives helps to define the projects and related parameters more clearly. This is the starting step of any six sigma project. This defines what should be looked for (and measured) in order to achieve organizational goals. With six sigma application, measurement of the quality can be improved inspite of the perceived intangibility and variability that exists in the service delivery. Once this is done, six sigma methodologies can be applied as it is done in manufacturing.

Context

For any economy, the ultimate stage of evolution is its majority of the revenues coming from services. On a cursory observation, it can be seen that Indian economy structure is slowly moving towards the same stage. Today services sector constitutes almost 50% of the total GDP. Forces of globalization like increasing mobility of factors of production or pervasion of the communication technologies have enabled growth of the sector. However, services have its own idiosyncrasies owing to which achieving the desirable quality is totally different from manufacturing. Few of them include additional dependence on human skills & knowledge, and variation in service delivery due to the interplay of the various human variables. In such a scenario, relevance and application of six sigma principles to achieve customer delight becomes all the more high.

Scope of the Paper

This paper specifically pins the areas in services where six sigma principles can be applied to attain those elusive high improvement figures because of the increased intangibility in these areas. It also risks touching upon the issues relating directly to marketing angle of the services’ operations. Finally, it restricts to the 'define' phase for area of applicability as right initiation and definition is half the work. Rest of the six sigma process is almost mechanistic and, therefore, not discussed in detail.

The Services Sector

About the Services

Services industry is typically characterized by perishability and variability of its product, i.e., the benefit bundle. Due to the intangibility factor of the services, customer satisfaction is difficult to judge and measure. On top of this, human resources make up a large part of all service organizations, and the human element in serving the customers adds to the variability and unpredictability in the overall delivery.

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* Contributed by: -
Jinesh Kothari & Abhishek Raghuvanshi,
FPM-32,
IIM Lucknow.