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Citibank, a Citigroup company, has set a goal to be the premier international financial company in the next millennium. The goal is clearly an ambitious one. To achieve it, this global financial giant had to implement quality initiatives that satisfied customers quickly and flawlessly at the point of every interaction, anywhere around the world.
Up until this point, Six Sigma(R) quality had always been in the domain of the manufacturing arena. People questioned whether it could work in the service industry, or for a worldwide financial organization.
Citibank undertook the challenge of improving total customer satisfaction by investigating well-known manufacturing management theories and applying them to their own non-manufacturing environment. Methodologies such as Cycle Time Reduction (CTR), coupled with the detection of defects using Six Sigma-and implemented globally through use of empowered teams-have resulted in significant savings in process timelines, improvements in cash management, and increased customer loyalty and satisfaction.
Outsourcing for the best assistance
In 1997, Citibank contracted with Motorola University Consulting and Training Services to have them teach Six Sigma defect reduction and CTR, which was found to be extremely useful in financial areas such as consumer banking and emerging markets.
Motorola University (MU) developed the Cross Functional Process Mapping (CFPM) methodology to implement CTR CFPM involves developing "maps" of process flows by describing the functions involved in each step of a particular process. Maps are developed for both the way things are being done (as is map) and the ways things should be handled (should be map).
In the beginning, with the help of Motorola facilitators, Citibank established the Citibank Cross Functional Performance Challenge within its banking divisions using the Six Sigma methodology to identify defects; CFPM to map steps for improvement; and empowered teams to correct defects. At its core, CFPM involves eliminating wasteful steps (all activities that do not contribute to meeting customers' needs). With non-manufacturing companies, typically 90 percent of activity does not add any value.
The three R's-relocating, retraining, and regaining
While one of Citibank's financing divisions was relocating from one market to another, a number of challenges were uncovered. With some of the trained employees objecting to the new location, how does a company, already witnessing a diminishing level of quality, successfully train a new crop of...