Business

KPIs

KPIs show actual data of a particular outcome. The outcomes of six sigma projects are usually required to be expressed in financial terms. This leads to a direct measure of achievement which is easy to understand. The majority of the KPI literature on six sigma in services talks about financial benefits. Other KPIs include expressions in terms of customer satisfaction and efficiency. Similar to CTQs, some

KPIs are common across services. They include:

* . Efficiency. Efficiency in a service industry means the timely delivery of services at a reasonable cost.

* . Cost reduction. Cost can be reduced by eliminating waste, such as reducing errors or mistakes in a process or reducing the time taken to complete a task. A concrete example is to reduce a patient’s stay at a hospital, which can provide opportunity for more admissions.

* . Time-to-deliver. Like in manufacturing, the time-to-deliver a service determines organizational performance. Examples may be the timely delivery of information or document as per customer requirement.

* . Quality of the service. The quality of a service is a measure of the extent to which the service delivered, meets the customer’s expectation. This depends on two aspects; one is the technical aspect and other is the functional aspect. The technical aspect is the actual outcome of a service encounter. The functional aspect is the interaction between the service provider and customer, i.e. the service process.

* . Customer satisfaction. This factor is difficult to measure as it varies from service to service. For example, for a call center service, customer satisfaction is measured by the receipt of timely information. For a hospital, the comfort and assurance that patient feels may be the all-important criterion. Overall customer satisfaction can also be indicated by the retention rate of one’s customers.

* . Employee satisfaction. This is another intangible measure of organizational performance. Employee...