Bb06 srihari six_sigma project

Six Sigma Black Belt Project, Feb 2009 – Aug 2009

© Det Norske Veritas AS. All rights reserved Slide 111 April 2023

Reduction of Turn Around Time (TAT) in the certificate issuance process for improving customer satisfaction at DNV Dubai

Project Intern – Srihari Chodagiri, BB-06

Project Guide – S. Ramanathan

Feb’09 Mar’09 Apr’09 May’09 Jun’09 Jul’09 Aug’09

Define

Measure

Analyze

Improve

Control

Timeline of the five phases - DMAIC

DEFINE

Introduction

Project Charter

CTQ Tree

Data

Process Flow Cart

SIPOC


Det Norske Veritas (DNV) is a certifying agency accredited by UKAS and RVA to conduct Management System certification for companies. It operates in 11 countries in the Middle East region with central office in Dubai, head quarters at Rotterdam, Norway and technical support centre in Mumbai, India.

The current project aims to analyze the process of certificate issuance and bring improvements in the issuance time of a certificate after completion of audit called Turn Around Time (TAT).

Certificate Issuance only covers certification and re-certification of audits for all standards and it does not cover surveillance audits as it is not required to issue certificate after surveillance and recommendation is sufficient.

The different countries and the various certifications are as per Annexure –I.

Introduction

Project CharterProject CharterC

ritical to Bu

siness / C

ustom

er

Big Y & Small y’s

Company Goal

Cost Drivers

Functional KRA

Def

ine

Th

e Team

Met

rics

Duration

Project End

Project Start

Base line (Current) Measures of Y & y

BB06/Project ID No:

Moniterable parameters

Expected customer Benefits

Target Beneficiary

Tangible Benefits

Goal Statement

Scope

Project Title

Problem Definition

Project Champion

ISI team member

Domain Expert

Support Required

Team Members

Black Belt

Reduction of TAT from current 18 days to 8 days by Aug 2009.

DNV Dubai office issues certificates for 10 countries including UAE on various certifications such as ISO 9001, 14001, 18001, HACCP, etc.

Currently certificate issuance process is taking an average time of 18 days which is resulting in customer dissatisfaction at various locations.

To reduce Turn Around Time(TAT) in the Certificate Issuance process at DNV Middle East corporate office

Issuance process starts once the client company is recommended for certification till the certificate is issued to the client

Improved customer satisfaction, reduction in non value adding follow up from across locations

The company and it’s subsidiaries- M/s.DNV Middle East

Improved satisfaction and reduction in number of errors in the certificates

TAT, TR India time (TR India), TR Rotterdam Time (TR RD), Certificate Issuance time (CI)

Y – TAT is 18 days.

y – TR India – 9 days, TR RD – 4 days, CI – 5 days

18 – 02 - 2009

18 – 08 - 2009

Six months

To provide timely and accurate support for certifications that will result in improvement for customer organizations.

Mr. Torger Baardseth – General Manager

Mr. Srihari Chodagiri

Mr. S. Ramanathan, Ms.Maya Ghorpade, Mr. Venkadeshwaran, Mr. KC. Sajeev, Mr. Sridharan

Dr. Somnath Ray

Subsidary offices, TR India and Rotterdam offices, Auditors and support dept in Dubai office

Mr. S. Ramanathan, Master Black Belt & Operations Manager – DNV Middle East

Reduced time for issuance of certificate to the customer

Reduced number of errors in the certificates being issued

Delay in issuance will propel customer to follow up more thereby making Auditors make non value added follow up

Errors in the certificates result in return of certificates for correction and fresh issuance.

Y : TAT to be 8 days.

y : TR India – 5 days, TR RD – 2 days, CI – 1 days

CTQ Tree (in terms of days)

Data Collection

Process Map

Process Flow Chart for Certificate Issuance


Technical review

Tec

hnic

al r

evie

wer

Tea

m le

ader

Review certification

recommendation with all relevant

documents

Assessment activities/

Perform audit

Provide review feedback/

comments to each activity

Rework based on the comments

and notes

No

Review satisfactory?

Yes

Verify and update the

review details

Produce certificate

Certificate ready for issue

Output:- Certificate ready to be issued

Process input:- Recommendation for certification

Review assessment activity/provide feedback – Actual Process

Follow up

with TR India

Follow up

with Auditors

Follow up

Rotterdam

SIPOC for Certificate Issuance process

Need Driver CTQOperational definition of

measureSpecification /

targetDefect

DefinitionKANO

Reduction of Turn Around Time

TR IndiaMaximum of

5 days

Once the document is received, technical review should get completed by 5 days

5 daysAny review

exceeding Ten days

Less the better

TR RDMaximum of

2 daysDocument approval process to be complete by 2 days

2 daysAny review

exceeding five days

Less the better

CI TimeMaximum of

1 days

Certificate to be printed and approved to be ready for dispatch to customer

1 dayAny review

exceeding five days

Less the better

Printing of certificate No errors Less the better

CTQ Specification Table

MEASURE

Data Collection

Check for Normality

Sigma level determination

Data Verification

Measurement System Study

S. No

CharacteristicData Type

Measure(units)

Sampling data

Where Recorded

1TR India for the clients of respective countries

Time Days2007 ~

2008 (till Feb’09)

CONCERT software

2TR Rotterdam for the clients of respective countries

3Certificate Issuance for the clients of respective countries

4TAT overall for the clients of respective countries

Data collection plan

Data formulation

From the data, the time periods for TR India, TR RD and CI are obtained as below:

TR India = Review date – Recommended date

TR RD = Approved date – Review date

CI = Issue date – Approved date

TAT = TR India + TR RD + CI

Issue date is taken as baseline date(explanation given in measurement system page) and the data is re-tabulated with Project number and Certificate number with the above calculations, as shown below:

S. No Country Customer Name Project Number DNV Certificate Number Issue Date TR India TR RD CI TAT1 Oman, RC ALI & ABDUL KARIM TRD. CO. LLC [AATCO] PRJC-15447-2007-MSC-ARE 39077-2008-HACCP-ARE-RvA 9/22/2008 30 15 1 46

2 Bahrain, RC ARAB SHIPBUILDING & REPAIR YARD CO. [ASR Y] PRJC-25441-2007-MSC-ARE 46200-2009-AQ-ARE-RvA 1/18/2009 4 11 7 22

3 Bahrain, RC ARAB SHIPBUILDING & REPAIR YARD CO. [ASR Y] PRJC-25441-2007-MSC-ARE 15658-2007-AHSO-ARE-RvA 12/17/2007 4 0 48 524 Syria, IA HASAN & HACHEM ZAYED CO. (NOBA) PRJC-31783-2007-MSC-ARE 31377-2008-AQ-ARE-UKAS 7/16/2008 6 1 1 85 Syria, IA HASAN & HACHEM ZAYED CO. (NOBA) PRJC-31783-2007-MSC-ARE 31377-2008-AQ-ARE-UKAS 7/16/2008 6 1 1 86 Syria, IA INTERNATIONAL SHIPPING BERUE (ISB-SYRIA) PRJC-09857-2007-MSC-ARE 8703-2007-AQ-ARE-UKAS 9/16/2007 4 19 1 247 Syria, IA MASA CERAMIC INDUSTRY PRJC-13882-2007-MSC-ARE 48934-2009-AQ-ARE-RvA 3/3/2009 1 19 2 228 Pakistan, IA UNITED MARINE AGENCIES (PVT) LTD. PRJC-27599-2007-MSC-ARE 48181-2009-AQ-ARE-RvA 2/19/2009 4 3 7 149 Pakistan, IA SOFTECH WORLD WIDE PRJC-61637-2008-MSC-PAK 48901-2009-AQ-ARE-RvA 3/3/2009 7 2 7 16

10 Pakistan, IA NURICON PETROSERVICES [PTE.] LTD. PRJC-40827-2007-MSC-ARE 48490-2009-AQ-ARE-RvA 2/24/2009 1 1 7 9

18 Qatar, RC Qatar Petroleum-Oil and Gas Ventures Directorate PRJC-67268-2008-MSC-ARE 43263-2008-AQ-ARE-UKAS 11/20/2008 28 4 1 3319 Qatar, RC QATAR PETROLEUM PRJC-106709-2008-MSC-QAT 45770-2009-AQ-ARE-UKAS 1/10/2009 2 2 1 5

20Saudi Arabia, IA Fakieh Poultry Farm PRJC-112059-2008-MSC-SAU 46654-2009-HSO-ARE-DNV 1/25/2009 9 15 11 35

21Saudi Arabia, IA Fakieh Poultry Farm PRJC-112059-2008-MSC-SAU 47572-2009-AE-ARE-UKAS 2/15/2009 1 3 10 14

Data Collection (sample as generated from CONCERT)

Local Unit Country Customer Name Project NumberActivity

Type

DNV Certificate

NumberCalendar

DateRecommended

DateReview

DateAuthorized

Date

Issue Date of

CertificateMiddle East-LU

Iran (Islamic Republic of)

FARA DARYA ARSHEH CONSULTANTS

PRJC-19097-2007-MSC-ARE IA

8388-2007-Q-ARE-DNV 8/21/2007 9/9/2007 9/13/2007 9/16/2007 11/16/2008

Middle East-LU


Dr. NASIZADEH PATHOBIOLOGY LABORATORY


17381-2007-AQ-ARE-RvA 10/28/2007 12/23/2007 1/14/2008 2/14/2008 3/2/2008

Middle East-LU Jordan

UNITED TUBE PACKAGING IND.CO. LTD. (UNITUBE)

PRJC-14615-2007-MSC-ARE RC

40235-2008-AQ-ARE-RvA 10/8/2008 10/11/2008 11/18/2008 11/25/2008 12/17/2008

Middle East-LU Jordan MODERN VALLEY FARMS


44294-2008-HACCP-ARE-RvA 11/15/2008 12/13/2008 2/12/2009 2/16/2009 2/12/2009

Middle East-LU

Iran (Islamic Republic of) ATTILA ORTHOPAED Co.

PRJC-61552-2008-MSC-IRN IA

38849-2008-AQ-ARE-NA 8/11/2008 9/17/2008 11/9/2008 11/9/2008 11/12/2008

Middle East-LU


MASHHAD GEARBOX COMPANY


19453-2008-AQ-ARE-RvA 12/1/2007 1/22/2008 2/13/2008 2/25/2008 3/16/2008

Middle East-LU

Iran (Islamic Republic of) DEEP SEA KISH


28414-2008-AE-ARE-RvA 3/11/2008 4/23/2008 6/9/2008 6/16/2008 6/16/2008

Middle East-LU

United Arab Emirates

DUBAI MUNICIPALITY - General Projects


42109-2008-AQ-ARE-UKAS 11/2/2008 11/11/2008 11/13/2008 11/13/2008 1/4/2009

Middle East-LU

Iran (Islamic Republic of) ASIA AKAM INDUSTRY Co.


26130-2008-Q-ARE-DNV 4/3/2008 4/26/2008 6/17/2008 7/15/2008 6/17/2008

Middle East-LU Bahrain

ARAB SHIPBUILDING & REPAIR YARD CO. [ASR Y]


15658-2007-AHSO-ARE-RvA 11/10/2007 12/17/2007 12/21/2007 12/21/2007 2/7/2008

Middle East-LU

United Arab Emirates ProDia International


42448-2008-AQ-ARE-RvA 11/2/2008 11/17/2008 12/17/2008 12/22/2008 1/8/2009

Middle East-LU Kuwait

International Turnkey Systems-Trading as ITS and ITSoft

PRJ-02250-95-CRT-LDN RC

CERT-00293-96-AQ-LDN-DNV / Rev. 2 5/2/2008 9/16/2008 9/16/2008 11/11/2008 11/6/2008

Middle East-LU

Iran (Islamic Republic of) SAZGAN GOSTAR CO.


9402-2007-AQ-ARE-NA 9/4/2007 9/29/2007 11/8/2007 11/8/2007 11/19/2007

Middle East-LU


PORTS AND SHIPPING ORGANIZATION- SHAHID RAJAEE PORT COMPLEX


26723-2008-AE-ARE-RvA 3/9/2008 4/12/2008 5/28/2008 5/29/2008 6/1/2008

Middle East-LU

Iran (Islamic Republic of) PERSIAN OFFSHORES


26321-2008-Q-ARE-DNV 3/11/2008 4/29/2008 6/17/2008 7/15/2008 6/17/2008

Middle East-LU

Iran (Islamic Republic of) AZARAKHSH COKE SEPAHAN


45039-2008-AQ-ARE-RvA 11/3/2008 12/24/2008 1/22/2009 1/26/2009 2/9/2009

Middle East-LU

Iran (Islamic Republic of) PAXAN CORPORATION

PRJ-00513-2004-CRT-THR RC

7296-2007-AQ-ARE-RvA 6/25/2007 8/15/2007 9/24/2007 10/1/2007 10/1/2007

Middle East-LU

Iran (Islamic Republic of) GANDOM DARAN


45051-2008-AQ-ARE-RvA 11/8/2008 12/24/2008 1/22/2009 1/26/2009 2/9/2009

Initial data collection (2007~2008)


Whether this data can be considered as a data from a Process?

Yes, this data can be considered as a data from a Process for the reasons as

explained below:

-The data is repetitive i.e every month there are fixed number of certificates

being issued on different certifications and the respective audit reports are

uploaded and reviewed.

-Even though, the reports are not of a same company, the details in the

report being reviewed are similar.

- This is a service process wherein different transactions take place at four

different locations, 1) Auditor upload 2) Technical Review at India 3) Approval

in Norway 4) Certificate Issue from Dubai, all these processes integrated

through software called CONCERT.

74% of data having mean of 18 days TAT

Prioritization of Variables

Data analyzed for normality, it has been found that data is not normal (p<0.05)

Distribution is not normal in any distribution

Distribution is not normal in any distribution

2-Parameter fits the distribution into normality

(p-value -0.2)

47% of items defective

Sigma Level Calculation

194 data points identified from the last 2 years data, with defect specification as exceeding 10 days for TR India, 5 days for TR RD and 5 days for CI, the defects data is obtained as below:

Defect Per Million Opportunities (DPMO) :

Number of opportunities = 3

Number of units = 194

No of defects = 155

DPMO = NO. OF DEFECTS x 10**6

NO. OF UNITS x OPP.

= 155 x 10 ** 6

194 x 3

= 266323

From Sigma and DPMO table, Sigma level is obtained as 2.13

Baseline status

CTQ Average S.D. DPMO Sigma Level

TR India 13.2 14 448,453 1.63

TR RD 5.0 8.5 278,350 2.09

CI 9.6 33.2 417,525 1.71

TAT 27.84 37.5 266,323 2.13


Data Verification

-CONCERT generated data from ANSWERS Tab has been analyzed for sufficiency with the three months data Jan ~ Mar 2009 by comparing with actual data and system generated data and found the following problems:

- Some companies were not getting captured in the data namely – IMDAAD, AMANA, RELIANCE CONTRACTING,..

-After analysis, it is found that the above companies are not attributed into Middle East Local Unit(LU) because of which, they were not getting captured.

Fresh data has been captured for the last two years after initiating correction In the software to rightly capture all data points.

Even though 194 appears to be too less a number for two years data, the data has been considered since there were lot many blanks in data entry in many of the points.

Now after correction, many data points are retrieved and have obtained 557 valid data points for the two years. It can also be noted here that, in 2009, monthly average of data points is around 50.

Measurement System Study

-Data initially is being captured for analysis is of last 10 years, but given the recent software upgrade from previous software (Smartset) to CONCERT software, it has been decided to only use projects with ‘PRJC’ (last 2 years data) which are generated by new software as old software has incomplete data.

Baseline date:Here a process is said to be complete once the certificate is issued which is represented by issue date. So, for analysis of certificates issued in a month can be more appropriately analyzed taking Issue date as baseline as against any other dates such as recommended or calendar date.

The only caution that needs to be exercised is, in case the issue date is not entered in CONCERT during that month even though a certificate is manually issued, that adjustment in TAT data in the coming months need not be misunderstood. It is recommended to integrate the system of certificate issuance to customer with mandatory entry of issue date in ConCert software immediately on issuance.

New Data Collected, 557 data points 2007~2008

Data found not

normal, P<0.05

Sigma Level Re - Calculation

557 data points identified from the last 2 years data, with defect specification as exceeding 10 days for TR India, 5 days for TR RD and 5 days for CI, the defects data is obtained as below:




No of defects = 396


NO. OF UNITS x OPP.

= 396 x 10 ** 6

557 x 3

= 236984


Baseline status

CTQ Average S.D. DPMO Sigma Level

TR India 8.82 8.22 333,932 1.93

TR RD 4.0 3.85 271,095 2.11

CI 5.15 5.02 359,055 1.86

TAT 17.98 10.56 236,984 2.22


2008 data alone, 300 data points


Analysis of TAT data for Q1 (Jan, Feb & Mar’ 09)

ANALYZE

Brainstorming Points

Cause & Effect

Development of solution / Tool

Analysis of problems

Analysis of Certificate

Review

Brainstorming: What are the problems observed in the process from data?

Process 1 : Uploading of audit reports by the respective auditor in the country

Auditor does not upload the documents on the same day in CONCERT

- Internet not available at customer location

Incomplete report

- Auditor does not fill the required details like previous certificate date, scope, name of company(as to be printed in Certificate) etc in CONCERT

Process 2 : Verification or technical review of the documents by India office,

The documents are reviewed at a later date depending on priority

Sometimes, the process happens back and forth with TR team getting clarifications from auditor

Delay in communication to Dubai office


Brainstorming points, contd.

Process 3: Verification & follow up by DNV Dubai office

Delay in processing due to difference in weekdays with India office

The documents are kept pending for a later date depending on priority

Accumulating for a set of documents to take approval from Rotterdam

Delays in following up with Rotterdam

Process 4 : Authorization from Rotterdam office

The documents are kept pending at Dubai to accumulate for a later date depending on priority

The respective person to authorize is not available.


Process 5 : Certificate printing, signature and dispatch

Manual preparation of certificates rather than generating from CONCERT

Incomplete details resulting in looking up for data causing delay

Time for filling up the details in the certificate generated in the CONCERT

- To look into different details like Project, Certificate list, etc..

Delays in obtaining signature due to non availability of signing authority

Errors in certificate resulting in certificate being returned by customer


Brainstorming points, contd.

Cause-Effect Diagram<Cause & Effect diagram for all must be CTQs>

Technical Review India

Technical Review Rotterdam

Certificate IssuanceAuditor uploading

Integrated software tool to track delays

Incomplete report

Delay in report uploading

Delay in checking the report

Not taking it as priority Delays in corrections

after review

Not followed up by Dubai office

Review person not available

Not able to identify pending reports

Errors in the certificate

Approving person not available

All the above causes pointed to having an integrated tool that would identify time taken for the different processes as TR India, TR RD and CI -> CONCERT


Analysis Icon

Answers Tab

Creation of TAT specific Filters

TAT generated data

Development of Solutions : Data tool for monitoring TAT using Answers Tab

TAT data monitoring tool

It has to be noted that the above data tool developed is different from the initial data generation, which randomly generated data for last 10 years out of which data has to be sorted for last two years.

Moreover this tool is able to generate complete data with less number of blank details and the data is matching to the manual reports as explained in the coming slides.



S. No Country Customer Name Project Number

DNV Certificate No

Reco Date

TR India

TR RD CI TAT Remarks

1

Saudi Arabia, IA Fakieh Poultry Farm

PRJC-112059-2008-MSC-SAU

46654-2009-HSO-ARE-DNV 1/25/2009 9 15 11 35

communication with client for NAME

2

Saudi Arabia, IA Fakieh Poultry Farm

PRJC-111973-2008-MSC-SAU

46682-2009-AFSMS-ARE-RvA 1/26/2009 17 7 1 25

3 Iran, IA

MAPNA TURBINE ENGINEERING AND MANUFACTURING CO. (TUGA)

PRJC-98932-2008-MSC-IRN

46169-2009-AIS-ARE-UKAS 1/23/2009 18 1 1 20

4 Iran, IA

MARITIME AFFAIRS DIVISION OF THE PORTS &MARITIME ORGANIZATION

PRJC-08069-2007-MSC-ARE

47326-2009-AQ-ARE-UKAS 2/4/2009 7 8 10 25

Wrongly kept pending

5 Iran, IA TAKVIN SANAT CO.PRJC-20326-2007-MSC-ARE

46101-2009-AQ-ARE-RvA 1/15/2009 25 3 5 33

6 Iran, RCMapna power plants and development co.(MAPNA-MD1)


46002-2009-HSO-ARE-DNV 1/14/2009 26 1 19 46

Wrongly kept pending

7 Iran, IAISARGARAN HADID TRADING AND INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX Co.

PRJC-102522-2008-MSC-IRN

46630-2009-AQ-ARE-RvA 1/25/2009 9 9 5 23

8 UAE, IADUBAI MUNICIPALITY - Municipality Centres


48498-2009-AQ-ARE-UKAS 2/24/2009 14 2 7 23

9 UAE, IADUBAI MUNICIPALITY - Sewage Treatment Plant


48510-2009-AQ-ARE-UKAS 2/24/2009 14 2 7 23

10 UAE, IAMasri Engineering & Contracting Establishment


47710-2009-AQ-ARE-RvA 2/11/2009 12 3 11 26

11 UAE, IADUBAI MUNICIPALITY - Public Parks & Horticulture


48500-2009-AQ-ARE-UKAS 2/24/2009 21 6 3 30

12Jordan, RC

KING ABDULLAH UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL(KAUH)


46760-2009-AQ-ARE-RvA 1/27/2009 17 6 14 37

communc with client for Name & Address

13 Syria, IA MASA CERAMIC INDUSTRYPRJC-13882-2007-MSC-ARE

48934-2009-AQ-ARE-RvA 3/3/2009 1 19 2 22

Analysis of current problems:


Analysis of problems:

As observed in the previous table, the main problems that have been observed after

doing the detailed data collection:

-Majority of the problems are related to follow up and taking up as priority at the

respective location

-Other problems like correction of reports are less in number and are occurring once

in 3 months on average.

- Holiday differences is also observed as one other contributor to variation in TAT

times as Dubai has Friday and Saturday as holidays while Rotterdam and India

office are having weekend holidays as Saturday and Sunday.

-In some cases, certificates are being returned for correction of details as explained

in the next page.

Analysis of a certificate


Line No Details in a certificate Printing details

1 DNV Symbol Part of printing paper

2 DET NORSKE VERITAS Generated by CONCERT

3 MGMT SYSTEM CERT or OHSAS Generated by CONCERT

4 Certificate No. Generated by CONCERT

5 This is to Certify that Generated by CONCERT

6 "Name of the Company"

Generated by CONCERT, often requires manual correction

7 "at" Generated by CONCERT

8 "Address of company"


9has ben found to conform to the Mgmt System Std or OHSAS series Generated by CONCERT

10 "Std No.(ISO 9001, 14001, 18001, …)" Generated by CONCERT

11

This Certificate is valid for the following product or service ranges….." or "This certificate is valid concerning all activities related to………."


12 "Scope of certification" Generated by CONCERT13 Initial Cert date

Symbol

Place & Date Manual (Manual) (Manual)

Valid until (Manual)

Auditor name Torger Baardsheth

Name

Scope

Address

Three different types of certificates with accreditations of RVA, UKAS and DNV are shown in pictures.

Review of Analyze phase

Better co-ordination across the locations and follow up identified as important action for improvement in TAT.

Data monitoring tool is developed which is now being run weekly to communicate delays at respective locations.

Data correlated with monthly reports and re-calculated to reflect the actual picture.

It has been analyzed that once the reports that are uploaded by auditors are thorough, all other times are just dependent on close follow up. So, the critical area is just identified as close follow up with the respective locations.

Other actions like Certificate details, etc are also being analyzed.


IMPROVE & CONTROL

Action Strategy

Certificate printing improvement

Improvement data / trend graph

Sigma calculation

Benefits – Financial / Non Financial

Risk Management

Standardisation

-To adhere to the given target dates of TR India(5 days), TR RD (2 days) and CI (1 day)

-Improvement of Auditor uploading time :

-The same point has been raised at the annual auditors meet on 29th May 2009 and the auditors have principally agreed to uploading the reports on time in ConCert on time and with full details. Last two months, it has been observed that the reports are being uploaded promptly and with no/less corrections.

-Improvement of Review time at TR India :

-First time right data will be monitored at TR India

-The pending reviews are periodically monitored on weekly basis with data tool.

-Improvement of Approval times at Rotterdam :

-The same issue has also been presented to the Management Representative (MR) of DNV Global during DNV Dubai office audit on 2nd June 2009 to firstly take to his notice delays in TR RD approvals and secondly to implement this actions in other locations (India). TR RD has shown improvement over the last two months.

Action Strategy

Action Strategy (contd)

- Improvement of time at Certificate Issuance(CI):

- The monitoring data is being run every week using Answers and the relevant personnel are being followed up using email.

- Approval on certificate is being taken as soon as authorization is received from Rotterdam.

- Draft certificate is being sent to customer before issuing the final certificate.

System improvement recommendation for future:

Dubai, India and Amsterdam are having different holidays during the weekend and the communication is affecting the Turn Around Time(TAT)

- Audit completion and report uploading starting from Auditors will be standardized with milestone points i.e all reports will be uploaded in CONCERT on two points in a week, Tuesday and Thursday noon they will be sent to India office by Tuesday evening for which India office has to send back by Friday & Tuesday evening, which will be approved by Dubai office by Sunday evening and sent to Amsterdam which will be coming back by Monday.


Improvement of Certificate printing using CONCERT

As noted before, the three lines – Name, Address and Scope are requiring correction from the automatic generated certificate.

These manual corrections are sometimes resulting in further modifications as raised by Customer.

Corrective Action : Certificates to be generated directly from CONCERT and not to be edited manually. Customers are communicated through email for confirmation of these details, sometimes Draft certificates are being sent for Customer approval.

Preventive Action : Auditors, who make a note of these details after completion of Audit and upload them, are being clearly explained with the above details and to correctly note the above promptly.

Other Actions : It is recommended to provide a dedicated Printer adjacent to computer in this process as this would reduce Certificates wastage because of errors, as also reduce time of waiting while printing a certificate as different paper is needed to be kept and wait till the printing is completed.


Certificate printing using CONCERT

Improvement data – last three months


40, 52 and 51 data points are observed in the last three months Aug, July and June respectively as can be seen partly from the table above and the average value of TAT is drastically reduced during July and August, attributable to close follow up and data monitoring.

Improve Trend graph


Turn Around Time (TAT)

Improvement data

TR India TR RD CI TAT

Jul’ 09 6 2 2 8.77

Aug’ 09 10 3 1 10.88


It has to be noted here that Average TAT is not a direct addition of averages of TR India, TR RD and CI. Only TAT for a independent point or for a company will be a direct addition.

So, as can be observed from above data, good improvement towards target have been noticed in TR RD and CI. TR India, though have shown improved performance during July did not sustain improvement in August and it was attributed with lack of follow up from Dubai office without time being summer and the staff and even the auditors were on leave.It is expected to comeback to below 6 days in the coming months


Sigma Level Calculation

143 data points identified from the last three months (Jun, Jul & Aug) data, with defect specification as exceeding 10 days for TR India, 5 days for TR RD and 5 days for CI, the defects data is obtained as below:




No of defects = 45


NO. OF UNITS x OPP.

= 45 x 10 ** 6

143 x 3

= 104895


Improved Sigma status

CTQNo. of defects

DPMO Sigma Level

TR India 24 167832 2.47

TR RD 7 48,951 3.16

CI 14 97,902 2.8

TAT 45 104895 2.75

TAT has improved from a sigma level of 2.22 to 2.75 during this project


BENEFITS ANALYSIS: FINANCIALThe process being a service related one, the main benefits are mainly intangible in terms of reduction in time and improvement in customer satisfaction – both Internal and External.Though a service operation, here a point needs to be noted that the current operation of Certificate issuance is in itself is split up to as work in different locations as can be noted by Technical Review being done at India. Otherwise this has to be done at Dubai itself as part of the process.So, improvement in terms of time at Dubai as also reduced follow up at the DNV locations of Middle East will be amounting to significant contribution in money saving in terms of time.

A rough estimate of the money saving is as presented below (at Middle East rates):No. of certificates issued per month (average) - 50 Current time of auditor’s follow up / being followed up (all auditors

combined) - 20 hours or 3 man days / month - $1500

Contribution from delay in payments from Customers - - $200Miscellaneous (Rotterdam, India office follow up , errors, etc) - $100Sub Total for a month $1800Over a period a time, along with improvement in customer satisfaction, this

project would also result in improvements to the tune of $20,000/year .


BENEFITS ANALYSIS: NON-FINANCIAL

- Reduced cycle time- Reduction in re-processing of the certificates- Reduced follow up with customer with better coordination from Auditors

- Lessons Learnt- This project opens up new areas in the usage of CONCERT data as

to how to use different filters and generate different types of analysis.- Two more projects are already initiated in the Sales and Accounting

process using the experience in this project.- Improved on-time delivery

- On time delivery of the certificates is drastically improved with weekly deliveries to the respective DNV locations

- Faster response- Response rate is enhanced with better coordination resulting in increased

customer satisfaction- Reduced effort

- Effort has also reduced with lesser piling up of certificates and periodical clearance.

Risk Management

Risk Identification

The risks in implementation are:

Increased follow up

Email not read/missed: Will result in reduced coordination and even missing of some reviews. The emails are to be kept along with read receipt and needs to call in case a email is not read.

Customer not responding to draft

Lack of acceptability or resistance to the newly defined processes by the employees(auditors, reviewers, etc) as it may increase their day to day work.

Lack of consistency or standardisation among the various sections.

Crashing / upgrade of software to new version


Risk Assessment

For this project we are only conducting a qualitative assessment using a scale of high, moderate, and low. The matrix below is our view on the distribution of risks along a priority setting of the red, yellow and green with the red being the highest priority. This matrix is considered a risk neutral with all colours (severity).

1. Increased follow up:

- probability = medium; the discussion on different sections with multiple people needs certain time to be allotted which may not be possible consider outstation trainings running for a week

- Impact = high; effects the quality of implementation

2. Email not read / missed:

- Probability = L, the audit and review dates can be pre planned such that there is availability

- Impact = H

3. Crashing of software:

- Probability = L

- Impact = M

4.Customers not responding to draft:

- Probability = M

- Impact = M

5. Standardisation

- Probability = M

- Impact = H

6. Resistance to change

- Probability = L

- Impact = M


P / I L M H

L 3, 5 2

M 4 1,6

H

Risk Response Planning

Based on the above assessment the only risks that are in the red are an opportunity (positive risk). As a response strategy we need to enhance the chance of this risk (opportunity) materializing. To accomplish this, we can work toward raising the probability of occurrence which we can achieve via the following steps:

Initially, it will be more but over a period of time, it is going to reduce and improve for good. This point has to be made realized by the CI personnel.

The importance of customer satisfaction and also increased coordination will be made understood such that employee resistance can be reduced.

Make sure to involve the personnel involved in the process while defining any new process.

By making sure that the other parties are giving cooperation, the load of additional follow up or even resistance fro change can be managed effectively.

For the other risks, they are considered acceptable and we trust that some of the responses mentioned here for the opportunity will also help minimize the probability and/or impact of the other risks. Therefore, no more response planning would be required or initiated.



StandardisationThe monitoring of TAT data is standardized or incorporated into the monthly report which is sent to head office in Rotterdam as shown below:

Standardization (Contd)

To start with, TAT data will be published to Rotterdam and slowly the details of TR India, TR RD and CI process will also be added into the report for monitoring each of the parameters.

The reasons for pending reports for major ones would also be escalated to the top management, keeping a check on audit report delays, customer communication, etc.


Appendix 1

List of Countries coming under DNV Dubai office

Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman, UAE, Jordan, Pakistan, Syria, Iran, Egypt

List of Certifications covered- ISO 9001, 14001, 18001, 22000, 27001, HACCP, SA 8000


Bb06 srihari six_sigma project

Education