DMAIC Project: Speeding up the Time it Takes to Resolve Problems in IT Services

Baseline (Define)

The Green Belt project was chosen to improve the turnaround time from opening to closing for IT process problem resolution, in order to better address the bottlenecks that cause long resolution times. The studies focused on internal and external customers, as well as customer teams. Problem lead times are not reported to customers, but long lead times place a strain on production and can be reflected in disruptions to customers at the same site.

Process performance at the beginning (Measure)

The average turnaround time for Minitab measurements of problem clearances over the past 12 months was 21.3 days. Customers and teams whose workload could be reliably measured by the system were selected. The measurement data was used to target interventions (team/customers), thus supporting the decision to take corrective actions, also based on the data.

Action (Analyse & Improve)

The root causes were workload, monitoring problems from the work management system, prioritisation and guidance.

The solution was to measure and balance the workload of the teams, make changes to the work management system to prioritise and instruct/monitor the process. The main challenges were to obtain the necessary measurement data to perform the analysis. The necessary data and reports were developed to an adequate level, although this took quite some time.

Lean Six Sigma tools used in the project included SIPOC, process performance analysis, control cards, WIP, bottleneck analysis and hypothesis testing. The project organised two separate brainstorming sessions with the participation of people involved in the process. The brainstorming sessions were used to open up ideas for improvements to eliminate bottlenecks in the process.

Results (Control)

After the improvements, measurements show that the problem resolution time has been reduced to 13.4 days.

The project has led to the creation of a new KPI indicator, lead time, which is regularly monitored. Based on this indicator, deviations are analysed and corrective measures are taken to address the root causes.

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This project was a training project for the Lean Six Sigma Green Belt training, which the participant did as part of the training and received a Green Belt certificate at the end of the project.
If you are interested in learning how to improve processes using Lean and Six Sigma, and get a Green Belt certificate at the same time, check out the training at the link: Green Belt training.

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