Implementation of Six Sigma to Service Quality Management in Auto After-sale
Xiang-pingBo1, Yi-yi Wang2, Jun-fang Zou3
1School of Business Administration, Hunan University, Chang Sha, China
2School of Business Administration, Hunan University, Chang Sha, China
3School of Business Administration, Hunan University, Chang Sha, China
(, )
Abstract-Based on the characteristics of service industry, this paper constructs an implementation model forautomobile service quality management and achieves excellent results in the service quality improvement project in after-sale maintenance center. It proves that Six Sigma can be applied in automobile service industry, and some suggestions for Six Sigma implementation in service industry are proposed : firstly, making some necessary adjustments according to the specified situation in theenterprises; secondly, gainingsupport from the executives; lastly, paying close attention to the customer demands and making decisions on the basis of data and facts.
Keywords-Six Sigma, auto after-sale service, service quality management, process improvement
I.INTRODUCTION
With the speedy improvement of domestic auto manufacturing technology and the maturity of the consumption concept of customers, auto brand competition has transferred from internal factors such as product technology and price to after-sale services. So far, auto after-sale service quality has remained to be improved, scientific management and analysis methods are desperately needed for management guidance.
Six Sigma is a good management method to improve quality management in processes intensively and effectively. SinceSix Sigma lays much on processes, people think that it is not suitable for service enterprises because its processes and products are intangible, mutable and perishable. But this research has shown that Six Sigma is suitable to the auto after-sale service processes. It has proved that Six Sigma is effective for the service industry and can be taken as a reference for other service sectors.
II.LITERATURE REVIEW
A.Six Sigma
Many researchers have studied Six Sigma programs and identified many critical decisions of these programs. Six Sigma is a management system forachieving andmaintaining success by concerning customers, process improvement as well as effective using data and facts [1]. The key ideain Six Sigma is through the process improvement to improve customer satisfaction and increases the firms profits[2],with main features including the real focusing on customers, the management and improvement based on facts and data driven, active management and no boundary cooperation.
B.Implementation Model
As discussed before, a model for effectively guiding the implementation of Six Sigma is not available. LeeMortimer(2006) considered the DMAIC methodology to be essential to six sigma programs and appropriate for delivering business improvements[3]. Bis(2007) considered DMAIC as the scientific method in Six Sigma programs. According to Franza (2009), DMADV was central to a product development experience. But there are great improvement demands and opportunities in service areas. So four steps model of Six Sigma and five steps model are put forward and they have played an effective role beside the factory scope in nonwoven field[1].
C.Critical Success Factors of Six Sigma
Snee and Hoerl (2007) think that the success factors of Six Sigma are leadership support and participation, outstanding talents, and basic support systems three elements[12]. Through the questionnaire surveys, Ho and Chuang(2008) have found out that the senior managers participation and support, the Six Sigma team, education and training and considering customers as the center etc. are the key factors to successfully implementSix Sigma[13]. Schroeder et al. (2010) conclude five important factors, namely, senior managers supportand participation, experts of Six Sigma, a Six Sigma team, according to the DMAIC system in Six Sigma implementation[14]. The other scholars argue that understanding Six Sigma and incentives, project choosing and management experience, concentrating and communicating with customers, outstanding talents, connecting with strategic and suppliers, clear standards of performance will also have the effect on the implementation of Six Sigma [4-8].
D.Suggestions to theImplementation of Six Sigma
Scholars have put forward many suggestions tothe implementation of Six Sigma. Kwak and Anbari (2008) view thatwhen the enterprises implement Six Sigma, they must regard customers as the center[9]. Satya (2009) points out that enterprises should pay more attention to the training and education of the workers to make the employees understand the Six Sigma, change the enterprise culture, and establish an effective incentive mechanism[10].But Hua Zhao(2004) emphasizes that implementing Six Sigmain China, the companies must pay attention to the Chinese cultural characteristics, and cannot copy the foreignmethods mechanically[11]. Pande(2011) argues that carrying out Six Sigma in the service industry should note the following four points: starting from the beginning, regulating the process carefully, using the facts and datawell, not over-emphasizing statistical analysis[1].
III.SIX SIGMA IMPLEMENTATION MODEL IN SERVICE QUALITY MANAGEMENT
The implementation of Six Sigma inthe service quality management can notfollow the Six Sigma system in manufacturing quality management because of the service characteristics. In this paper, the implementation model is based on Pande's five steps model by adjusting the model combined with the service process characteristics (Fig.1).
Figure 1 Six Sigma implementation model in service quality management
As shown in Fig.1, the model includesSix Sigma implementation paths and support systems. There are six implementation paths, including identifying the core service process, defining the customer critical needs, measuring the performance, analyzing the service processes, designing and implementsolutions, expanding and integratingthe system of Six Sigma. The support system includes organization support and concept support.
1. Identifyingthe Core Service Processes.Thecore processes are the most important part of the link to creating value and affecting customer satisfaction directly. Since service process is intangible, drawing the diagram of core processes can help the project members to understand the whole process better.
2. Defining the CustomerCriticalNeeds. Critical needs are the needs that can not been fully satisfied but important to customer satisfaction. They should be found outand defined firstly in the project.
3.Measuring thePerformance. Measuring performance is to measure thequality characteristics of critical demands to set up an improvement goal.
4. Analyzing the Service Processes.Analyzingthe service processes is to find out the problems in the processes, especially the poor performance processes, and the possible causes by drawing detailedservice flow chart.
5. Putting forward theSolutions. Put forward several improvement solutionsto the main problems firstly and then adjust the process or design a new process based on the most feasible solutions. A continuous assessment on the improvement effect to the implementation of the new solutions should be operated and the implementation of the new solutionsshould be controlled.
6. Expandingand Integratingthe System of Six Sigma. Expand the range of the improved processes to push over the improvement effortscontinually and implement the closedloop management.
7. Organization Support.The implementation of Six Sigma must gain the support and attendance from the senior leaders. It also depends on an effective organization team to promote the continuous improvement. The education and training of the employees are necessary to improve service consciousness and quality improvement skills and increase the possibility of success.
8. Concept Support.The implementation of Six Sigma must concentrate on customer demands, communicate with customers effectively and design products and services based on customers' demands in order to improve customer satisfaction. The decisionsare made based on thedata andfacts not on thefeelings and experience. The Six Sigma in service quality management must analyze the service processes to find outthe improvement chances and improve service quality by improving the service process ultimately.
IV.IMPLEMENTATION CASE: SERVICE QUALITYIMPROVEMENT PROJECT INAUTOAFTER-SALE
As the competition becomesintensively, TC Auto Sales and Service Co. Ltd. decide to implement the Six Sigma model in auto after-sale service center to improve service quality and increase customer satisfaction.
A.Preparatory of the Implementation
In order to promote the implementation smoothly, TC has done lots of preparatory work:
1)Setting up a six sigma team
The general manager is the advocate who is responsible for the overall project. The other members are responsible for the cooperation and communication in different departments.
2)Education and training
The training includes the service awareness training and the training of quality improvement methods and tools.
B.Implementation of the Model
1)Identifyingthe core processes
The core process of the auto after-sale is the maintenance service, which includes reception, operation and delivery processes (Shown in Fig.2).
Figure 2. Core service process of after-sale service center
2)Defining the critical needs of customers
The critical needs of customers are defined by the investigation the service quality of the after-sale service center which is the gap between the perceived quality and expected quality and the importance of customer needs. The quality questionnaire is adopted Likert 5 point scale and divided into three parts of the importance of quality factors, the expected quality and perceived quality. We regained 131 valid questionnaires and established the matrix of service quality-importance, the plot is divided into four quadrants by the average of scores ofservice quality and importance (Shown in Fig.3).
Figure 3. The matrix of service quality - importance
It can be seen that the critical needs are maintenance cost and service time consumingin Fig.3 and these two quality elements should be improved firstly. The maintenance costis uniform priced by the manufacturer. So shortening service time-consuming is the preferred improvement project.
3)Measuring performance
According to the core process in after-sale service, the time spending in the center includes the reception, operation and delivery time. The dispatching time is listed separately because of its long time. The vehicle arrival time (t0), billing time (t1), dispatching time (t2), completion time (t3) and delivery time (t4) are taken as the measurenodes.The reception time(T1),dispatching time(T2), operating time(T3) and settlement time(T4) according to Tn=tn-tn-1(n=1, 2, 3, 4) and the total time(T) can be calculated (Shown in Fig.4).
Figure 4. The diagram of time measurement program
140 maintenance vehicles are selected to be recorded for the service time-consumption and 131 effective samples are collected finally. The resultsare shown in TableI.
TABLEI . TIME -CONSUMING STATISTICAL ANALYSIS TABLE
Before Improvement / After ImprovementMean (m) / Percent / Mean (m) / Percent
Reception Time / 6.26 / 4.47% / 11.05 / 10.14%
Dispatching Time / 19.95 / 14.58% / 12.33 / 11.31%
Operating Time / 83.68 / 61.11% / 69.73 / 63.96%
Settlement Time / 27.01 / 19.74% / 15.91 / 14.59%
Total Time / 136.90 / 100% / 109.02 / 100%
According to TableI, the operating time is about 84 minutes, more than 60% of the total time. Therefore, it is the key to shortening customers' waiting time to improve the operational efficiency and eliminate unnecessary operation process. The sum of dispatching and settlement time ismore than 47 minutes and accountsfor 35% of the total time which is very short. It shows that the problem is very prominent and the processes need to be improved urgently.
4)Analyzingthe service process
The detailedservice flow chart is drawnout based on the actual situation in the after-sale service centers. The problems are found out by identifying the coherent processes, bottlenecks, redundancy, rework links etc. They are the fault diagnosis, valuation, dispatching, parts supply, operation, settlement etc.. The fault diagnosis, careless checking may cause incomplete fault diagnosis.And some new faults in the operation processmay be found by the maintenance technicians.All these would waste lot of maintenance time and lengthen the operation time.
5)Putting forward the solutions
The improvement solutions are put forward according to the problems which are found out by process diagnosis individually. For example, the feasible improvement solution for fault diagnosis process is to divide the fault diagnosis process into reception station diagnosis and diagnostic station diagnosis. The sixposition checking is implemented strictly to confirm the fault and the cause of the malfunctionon the reception diagnosis station. A further diagnosis is needed on the diagnosis station for those can’t be determined the malfunction cause on the first diagnosis station.
To verify the effectiveness of the process improvement, 66 repaired vehicles for the service timeconsumption are selectedto do the independent samples Ttest atsignificant level before and after the improvement. The result is shown in Table I and Table II.
TABLE II. INDEPENDENT SAMPLES TEST
Levene's Test for Equality of Variances / t-test for Equality of MeansF / Sig. / t / df / Sig.
T / Equal variances assumed / 15.276 / 0.000 / 2.019 / 195 / 0.045
Equal variances not assumed / 2.462 / 194.98 / 0.015
From the Table Iand TableII, it is seen that the P value is 0.0150.05, which certifies that the total time before and after the improvementare different significantly and the vehicle maintenance total time consumption is 109.09 minutes. It has been shortened 17.88 minutes. And the dispatching,operating and settlement time are shortened 7.62, 11.1 and 13.95minutes separately. It shows thatthe process improvement makes successful result in the after-sale service center.
6)Expanding and integratingthe six sigma system
Expand the range of improved process to push over the improvement effortscontinually. Firstly, publicizing the improvement achievement to the managers and employees in order to reduce the resistance. Secondly, developing solutions in advance to the potential problems. Thirdly, assigning process manager and clarifying the responsibility. Finally, implementing the closed-loop management in the other field.
V.CONCLUSIONS
Considering the specific characteristics of service industry, this paper constructs a Six Sigma implementation model in service quality management and is appliedin service quality improvement project in anauto after-sale service center.Conclusions and suggestions are as follows:
1. Six Sigma can be applied to service industry. Six Sigma is not only the methodology concentrated on processes but also a strategic way of improvement to all processes and products. Six Sigma management method is also suitable for service enterprises because the service is made up of processes. This article has shown the successful result.
2. It needs necessary adjustment according to the present situations of the enterprise before applying Six Sigma to service industry. Service processes and products are intangible and perishable, which are not easy to measure. The priority ofthe implementation of Six Sigma is how to visualize the service processes and quantify the service products. Six Sigma model of service industry must start with the service processes, analyze processes and improve service processes.
3. The service enterprises should note in the implementation of Six Sigma. Firstly, support and participation from senior leaders can help remove obstacles of implementing Six Sigma but also guarantee the cooperation among different departments.Secondly, pay more attention to customer demands. Thirdly, make decisions on the basis of the data andfacts instead of feeling and experience.
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