Network Provider Phones in with £36M Saving

The Problem

The main driver for this assignment was improving customer satisfaction. The company had identified that following rapid growth their processes needed to be more robust if they are to attract and retain their customer base.

Bourton Group was retained to design and develop a bespoke Six Sigma training programme that would enable their staff to manage their own Green Belt and Black Belt projects and become self-sufficient in training their own staff in Six Sigma.

The Solution

Programme Set Up and Early Benefits

The two-year assignment was awarded to us against tough competition because of our ability to bespoke our approach and material to suit their requirements.

We began by creating a highly tailored training package of Green and Black Belt modules that would relate to our client’s diverse business areas. In parallel, we developed a series of executive workshops to gain Directors and Executive understanding and commitment to the improvement programme and Six Sigma’s part in delivering robust, customer centric processes.

The biggest challenge was to convince senior managers in a very successful business of the need for change. Some early wins in improving processes that had an impact on customer satisfaction were vital to convincing the management team that there were significant benefits to customers by having reliable processes, particularly at the customer interface.

A programme office was established with a strong cadre of enthusiastic and committed staff, who were the first to be trained up in the problem solving tools and methodologies. A project ‘hopper’ was established along with a rigorous benefits tracking system.

Process Improvement and Capability Building

At the heart of the process improvement was a set of 10-day Green Belt modules and 20-day Black Belt modules. Furthermore, we mentored and trained a number of Black Belts up to Master Black Belt level. Within the first 12 months we had run 6 Champion courses for senior managers, helped design and deliver several company Conferences, 6 Black Belt and 14 Green Belt courses, giving our client an initial 50 internal Black Belts and over 100 Green Belts who were able to run projects across the whole spectrum of the UK business.

We supplemented this with Train the Trainer programmes so that after 18 months the delivery of all future training could be run in-house.

The Benefits

Year 1

The benefits tracking system used by the programme office identified £10M of auditable savings

Year 2

53 Black Belt projects running; Re-aligned by ‘Mega Project’, as part of their forecast benefits standing at £35.8M, of which £23.6M agreed and £11M of that delivered. Growth of £3M over the month
A typical project delivered in excess of £550K of saving to the business whilst simultaneously improving customer satisfaction through the Retail Retention Process

Case Study: Mobile Phone Network Provider

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