Web-based portals make it possible for the customer to have their service requests handled faster than ever before.

Why Technology is Needed

The focus of Lean Six Sigma certification is on providing value added services by eliminating non-value adding activities. It focuses on Process Cycle Efficiency (PCE) as a measure in understanding, how a function works.

PCE = Value added time / Total Elapsed time.

Improving PCE is important towards achieving the goal of improvement in the process velocity. Eliminating waste by eliminating the non-value adding activities helps improve the PCE.

Technological advancements help achieve the Lean Six Sigma goal of more than 25 percent PCE.

Technologies Aiding Lean Process Improvement

Internet: The World Wide Web is enabling all entrepreneurs and businesses to conduct their customer service operations from anywhere in the world.

Web portals are designed in such a way that customers find it very easy to operate and make it convenient for the company to get information from the customer quickly and undertake any improvements.

Lean improvements can utilize the speed that the Internet allows to improve PCE by getting quick feedback from the customer and giving them improved service.

Wi-Fi Connectivity: Wireless connectivity is a boon for companies in providing quick service to customers from remote locations.

For example, in a catastrophic event, insurance companies who have online customer service systems, will find that their customers are without any connectivity.

But using wireless connectivity, they can reach them quickly; and for their part, insurance companies can respond to them and help them in the least possible time and with maximum efficiency.

Service Oriented Architecture: Nowadays, businesses and transportation companies are collaborating with each other to handle the shipping needs of the customer. They initiate processes for delivering goods which ensures that the proper data is available with both organizations.

Software systems work in the two organizations in such a way that they communicate with each other and exchange data, which reduces the time taken on exchange of paper between the two organizations.

This helps reduce the PCE to a great extent, and makes the service of the organization work much quicker and easier.

Automated Workflow Systems: A very good technological advancement that businesses would prefer to have is automated workflow systems, which help reduce wait queue time to a large extent.

Such systems helps raise alerts for items which need immediate attention, so that they can be routed to the appropriate location.

Scanning and Digitization: The latest technique of scanning and sending documents beyond geographical locations helps in reducing wasteful movement of paper.

This also helps in processing of these documents in the same workflow. This can be typically useful for settling claims for insurance companies.

Online CRMs: Many organizations have Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems, which can be very useful in getting service requests from customers and responding to them immediately.

Customers can find solutions in a very short span of time. Such systems also have FAQ system for common problems, which can also be a Lean effort in sorting out the concerns of customers on an immediate basis.

There are many other systems such as business rules systems, business process management and business process monitoring and management, which can also be used to reduce the PCE to a large extent, and ensure that Lean process improvement efforts are successful.