Lean Six Sigma (LSS) for shared service organizations, commonly known as shared service centres (SSCs), has gained popularity in recent years as a result of booming of the shared service industry. SSCs offer the benefits of efficiency and cost reduction through centralization and standardization and hence the adoption of LSS seems natural.
The challenge of LSS in SSCs is that the operations of SSCs are neither manufacturing nor service but a hybrid of both. On the one hand, the back office resembles that of a manufacturing operation, with high volume and high mix of invoice processing, bill generation and payment processing. On the other hand, the front office resembles that of a service operation where the SSC staff provides services to direct contact customers such as enquiries handling, customer complaints handling and customer service. Hence LSS in SSCs must address the unique and demanding requirements while maintaining quality, efficiency and cost optimization.
Relevant Industry: Shared service centre, office and administration service, front and back office of service or financial institutions.
Examples of Lean Six Sigma Application:
– improve order to cash (OTC) operations, eg reduce lead time and errors in accounts receivables and collection from customers
– improve procure to pay (PTP) operations, eg reduce lead time and errors in accounts payable, timely payment to suppliers, accurate translation of customer requests into purchase orders and transmission to suppliers.
– improve record to report operations, eg provide timely and accurate financial statement reports.
LSS has been implemented in many different industries with great success. Some of the industries are as follows:
- Lean Six Sigma in Manufacturing
- Lean Six Sigma in Service Industry
- Lean Six Sigma in Continuous Process Industry
- Lean Six Sigma for Research & Development (R&D)
- Lean Six Sigma in Government / Public Sector
There are many useful Lean Six Sigma tools within the Lean Six Sigma toolbox. However, for Lean Six Sigma implementation to be successful, do not focus only on the tools but instead strike a balance between two important components of Lean Six Sigma – technical tools as well as soft skills.
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