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Transferring Best Practices between the Manufacturing and Service Sectors - Part 2
Edited by M. Leseure and M. Hudson-Smith
1 Introduction
Organizations have been facing an increasingly competitive and global environment, which calls for enhanced firm capability in identifying new opportunities and sustaining superior performance.
Strategies used by companies to avoid competitive disadvantages include the elimination of operational inefficiencies (which are large in the financial sector, on the order of 20 percent or more of total banking industry costs) ([7] de Koning et al. , 2008b) and improvement of revenue by increasing the number of customers and their satisfaction, through innovation and improvement ([6] de Koning et al. , 2008a).
Lean Six Sigma (LSS) is a method that can help financial institutions to improve operational efficiency and effectiveness ([11] George, 2003; [18] Snee and Hoerl, 2003), by combining the strengths of lean thinking and Six Sigma. Since lean does not possess the tools to reduce variation and provide statistical control and Six Sigma does not attempt to develop a link between quality and speed ([19] Su et al. , 2006), the application of the combined tool LSS offers useful solutions that can lead to greater efficiency and better quality in the financial services industry ([6] de Koning et al. , 2008a).
The paper presents results of a case study from a company that has initiated the implementation of LSS methodologies, in the pursuit of service excellence. The study analyses the implementation process of LSS in GE Money Portugal, which is part of the general electric (GE) group. GE Money Portugal is a financial services organization, providing services such as mortgages, real estate and homeowner services.
Content analysis of semi-structured interviews to the agents involved in the implementation of LSS is used to understand the characteristics of the implementation process, illustrate the benefits that can be accomplished, the main difficulties felt, and the key lessons learned. In addition, the differences relating to the implementation processes in several companies of the GE Money group implemented in European countries, as perceived by the quality director for Europe, are analyzed.
Section 2 presents the literature review on LSS, lean management and Six Sigma implementation and its critical success factors (CSF). In Section 3, the methodological framework is presented. Next,...