This document summarizes the results of applying statistical process control tools to improve the response time for resolving IT issues faced by internal customers of Genesis Futuristic Technologies Limited. The summary is:
1) Pareto charts identified login issues, unawareness of change rules, and printing problems as causing most delays over 2 hours.
2) Phase 1 efforts addressed unawareness of change rules, reducing average response time to 52 minutes but some points remained uncontrolled.
3) Phase 2 focused on login issues and printing by reinstalling printers and notifying login rules, bringing the average down to 46 minutes and achieving statistical control.
1. Total Quality ManagementGenesis Futuristic Technologies LimitedSubmitted to: Submitted by: FMG 18Prof. Vivek Kumar Ashutosh Kumar Jha – 91011Prof. Neeta Gupta Mohd Faraz Khan – 91033FORE School of Management Nikhil Soni – 91038 Nishant Singh – 91039 Soumya Saxena – 91055FORE School of ManagementTable of Contents TOC quot;
1-3quot;
Genesis Futuristic Technologies Limited PAGEREF _Toc272115552 3About the company PAGEREF _Toc272115553 3Core Areas of Operation PAGEREF _Toc272115554 3Quality Management PAGEREF _Toc272115555 5Commitment PAGEREF _Toc272115556 5Quality Objectives PAGEREF _Toc272115557 5Quality Structure PAGEREF _Toc272115558 5Software Quality Team PAGEREF _Toc272115559 6Quality Policy PAGEREF _Toc272115560 7Statistical Process Control PAGEREF _Toc272115561 9Methodology PAGEREF _Toc272115562 9Expected result PAGEREF _Toc272115563 10Problem Reason Identification in Phase 1 PAGEREF _Toc272115564 11Results of Phase 1 PAGEREF _Toc272115565 12Problem Reason Identification in Phase 2 PAGEREF _Toc272115566 13Results in Phase 2 PAGEREF _Toc272115567 14Conclusions PAGEREF _Toc272115568 16Genesis Futuristic Technologies Limited<br />About the company<br />Genesis Futuristic Technologies Ltd. is a professional organization dealing in providing highly customized Software Solutions for Industries and Management organizations. <br />Genesis is a young and dynamic team dedicated to provide a comprehensive set of services, oriented towards addressing the total IT needs of an organization. Our mission is to deliver IT services with integrity, courtesy and respect, creating maximum value for our clients. <br />It is a well-bred mixture of Software professionals from leading Universities, trained in various disciplines. Our professional resource base includes specialists in the areas of:<br />Software Development<br />Industrial Training<br />Reverse Engineering<br />Hosting Services<br />IT Consultancy<br />Core Areas of Operation <br />Software Development <br />Application Software<br />GPS Solution<br />Web Technologies<br />Telecommunication Projects<br />System S/w & Network Solution<br />CAD Projects<br />IT Consulting - Genesis provides state of the art Professional Consulting to People wishing to come into IT field. <br />Research & Development Bio-Matrices<br />GPS (Global Positioning System)<br />Mobile Commerce<br />Bluetooth<br />Smart Card Based Solution<br />Industrial Training<br />Genesis can provide training on High End Key technology areas. These range from Real Time Operating System (VxWorks), Rapid Prototyping Approaches to Bluetooth and various others. Very shortly our planning will yield results to form model training centers with LiveOn TM Project based training. Hosting Services<br />Setup of High Speed and Reliable Dial UP Internet connectivity<br />VPN<br />Cyber Cafe operation<br />Web Design & Hosting, Email Setup<br />Internet Advertising<br />Local Content & Directory Service<br />24 hrs Connectivity through cable.<br />Quality Management<br />Commitment<br />Genesis is 100 % committed to Quality for all customized software solutions. Genesis's Software Quality Assurance encompasses: <br />A Quality Management Approach,<br />Effective Software Engineering Technology (methods and tools),<br />Formal Technical reviews that are applied throughout the software process,<br />A Multi-tiered Testing strategy, Control of Software documentation and the changes made to it,<br />A procedure to assure compliance with software development standards, andMeasurement and reporting mechanisms.<br />Genesis’s Quality control is a series of inspections, reviews, and tests used throughout the development cycle to ensure that each work product meets the requirement placed upon it.<br />Quality Objectives<br />Increase customer satisfaction<br />Improve quality of development process<br />Improve responsiveness from support departments<br />Increase employee satisfaction level<br />Improve relationship with suppliers<br />Strengthen brand image of Genesis<br />Increase profitability of the organization<br />Quality Structure<br />Genesis has developed a Quality Management System to ensure conformity with stipulated standards and customer requirements. Being dynamic in nature it facilitates continuous improvement and high quality deliverables. Since, the entire QMS is process-based, adding or modifying processes is relatively straightforward.Each process specifies the steps that are necessary to be followed for a particular activity. Each process has been defined and written in the form of a procedure using a standard template. The documented procedures reflect the current practices of the organization. The processes have been divided into the following three categories:<br />Management Processes<br />Technical Processes<br />Support Processes<br />Software Quality Team<br />A plan is developed by Genesis's Software Quality team and is reviewed by all interested parties. The plan identifies: <br />Evaluations to be performed<br />Audits and reviews to be performed<br />Standards that are applicable to the project (e.g., ISO 9001 etc.)<br />Procedures for error reporting and tracking<br />Documents to be produced by the SQA group><br />Amount of feedback provided to Software project team<br />In addition to these activities the Software Quality team coordinates the control the management of change and helps to collect and analyze software metrics.<br />Quality Policy<br />Genesis is an ISO 9001:2000 certified company for development of Customise Software, Website Designing, G.I.S & G.P.S Development, Embedded Software Development & System Development.<br />The organization has also been assessed at Microsoft Gold certified for services related to software development.<br />Gold Certified Partners are the top level of Microsoft solutions partners and have access to the tools and support they need to help them stand out in the marketplace. At this level you have the opportunity to build the closest working relationship with Microsoft, and are guaranteed, at minimum, telephone-based account engagement from Microsoft, along with other top-level benefits such as a priority listing in the Microsoft Resource Directory. Gold Certified Partners are required to enrol in at least one Microsoft Competency. <br />Advantages of <br />Microsoft Certified Partners have demonstrated expertise. Each Microsoft Certified Partner must employ a minimum number of Microsoft Certified Professionals (MCPs) who have a demonstrated level of technical expertise and the proven ability to deliver solutions featuring Microsoft products. MCPs must pass certification exams developed by Microsoft.<br />Microsoft Certified Partners have a broad-range of experience. Microsoft Certified Partners typically offer several areas of technical expertise including infrastructure, networking, office automation, e-commerce, collaboration, business intelligence, and other leading edge disciplines. Microsoft Certified Partner services include consulting, training, implementation, maintenance/support, and hosting services.<br />Microsoft Certified Partners have direct support from Microsoft. Microsoft Certified Partners have access to 24 x 7 x 365 support for your project whenever they need additional support from Microsoft.<br />Microsoft Certified Partners offer a real world perspective to your technology strategies. Microsoft Certified Partners have been in the business, on average, for more than 5 years. They bring experience to your projects gained through conducting similar projects over many years of service.<br />Microsoft Certified Partners are local. With more than 26,000 Microsoft Certified Partner organizations worldwide, there’s a technical expert near you. They’ll help you locate one right now!<br />quot;
People, Processes and Technology are prime assets of Genesis. They enable us to provide effective service to our customers and help us turn ideas into reality by applying human ingenuity to software technologyquot;
. At Genesis, focus on Quality ensures that their products and services are targeted at achieving satisfaction of customers and other interested parties on a continual basis, in a cost effective and timely manner. Management of Genesis ensures that the quality policy is communicated and understood within Genesis and regularly reviewed for continuing suitability.<br />Statistical Process Control<br />During one of the meetings of the senior management, they had stated that they needed to improve their services to the customer. By improvement, they implied reduced downtime for their applications and higher quality products. While conducting an internal research, they had come to a conclusion that the current levels of customer service were not being able to be enhanced due to one main reason. There were significant problems in the responses and resolution they were providing to their internal customers, i.e. their own employees and suppliers. Genesis has a complete IT Support Team to respond to and resolve the issues of software and hardware faced by its employees and other internal customers. <br />We were asked to apply certain statistical process control tools and strategy and find out a problem area and solution to resolve this issue.<br />Methodology <br />While conducting our analysis we used the DMAIC approach, i.e. Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve and Control. We identified that the main problem occurs when there is a gap between the the customer’s expectation and the actual status of problem resolution.<br />Problem = Customer desire - actual status<br />We needed certain data regarding the time of receipt of each call from the customer and the time of call closure. We broke the total data down into different categories according to the time of resolution<br />Call Closure Time < 30 Mins. < 60 Mins. < 2 Hours > 2 Hours < 24 Hours < 48 Hours > 48 Hour<br />Another issue that we had discovered was that they had been recording this data themselves also but they had not been using it for any testing or control purposes.<br />A month of data was analyzed by subtracting the service standard time expected to be delivered and the actual time taken to resolve each call. The gaps between the actual closure time and the standard time were a measure of the problem. It was clear that the data needed to be prioritized in order to proceed. A Pareto diagram was drawn as follows to find out which of the windows had the most customer issues to be resolved. Then we will focus on those areas.<br />Call Closure Time < 30 min < 60 min < 120 min > 120 minOthers 42642371522<br />Now it is clear from the above paretto chart that more than 80% of the customer enquiries, complaints and issues come in the slots of time duration of less than 30 minutes and more than 120 minutes. So we shortlisted our analysis to problems in these two slots.<br />Expected result<br />Now as soon as we told the management that these two slots were areas where most problems came, we were asked to minimize the average response time to as low as possible for complaints taking more than 2 hours. Since the targets were strong, we broke it down to two phases during which all the further steps were carried out. <br />Problem Reason Identification in Phase 1<br />To find out the reasons for all the problems occurring we took the problems we had shortlisted and after randomly selecting 65 of such problems we classified them on basis of reasons like Log In issues, ID Deletion, Printing and other such reasons. The following data represents our findings and the histogram that follows tell us what the main reasons are for most of the problems being caused.<br />Reasons for ProblemsCountTotalLog in2626Not aware of change rule1238Printing1149Await user confirmation655Others661Deletion of ID465<br />After our analysis it was clear that “Log In”, “Not aware of change rule” and “Printing” are issues which the major reasons for problems where the time being taken is more than 2 hours. We informed the personnel there about our findings and through their internal findings on these areas they identified certain problems and resolved them. Now we needed to check on the improvement and see whether there was any reduction in response time of the problems.<br />Results of Phase 1<br />Based on another set of findings we checked up the response time on eight operators, checking three calls each on a random basis. The following data and Control Charts show the results.<br />OperatorCall 1Call 2Call 3Op 001454351Op 002555752Op 003394345Op 004525447Op 005575961Op 006724553Op 007617158Op 008474543<br />Based on the X-Bar and R charts drawn we found out that the average had come down to 52.29minutes and this signified improvement. However some points were not in statistical control and we needed to identify the reason and try and further reduce the average response time if possible.<br />Problem Reason Identification in Phase 2<br />Going by the same procedure as we had done in phase 1, we collected new data and classified it on the basis of the same reasons identified earlier. This is the data collected and the related histogram.<br />Reasons for ProblemsCountTotalLog in3939Printing1655Await user confirmation459Not Aware of change rule362Others365Deletion of ID267<br />Now it was clear that this time “Not aware of change rule” issue had been tackled successfully while “Log In” and “Printing” were two issues that were still causing certain points to go beyond statistical control and having higher response time. This time the below actions were taken:<br />All printers throughout the organization were reinstalled and setup on each PC by the support team personnel<br />Log In issues were handled before allotting new Ids and certain set of rules and do’s and don’ts were notified to every employee and supplier of the organization.<br />According to the management these were strong measures and results should improve.<br />Results in Phase 2<br />The data collected in the same way as in Phase 1 was then analyzed using X-Bar and R Control Charts and the analysis is as follows:<br />OperatorCall 1Call 2Call 3Op 001384340Op 002494452Op 003394345Op 004525447Op 005475951Op 006394355Op 007424339Op 008544151<br />As is clear from the charts the average now came down to 46.25 minutes and the entire process is well under statistical control.<br />Conclusions<br />For Genesis Futuristic Technologies Limited, introduction of Statistical Process Control tools like Paretto Charts, Histograms and Control Charts were something new and using these tools we were able to identify certain problem areas as to why their response time to IT problems faced by internal customers was so high. With the help of Paretto Charts we were able to identify root causes and with control charts we were able to track the improvements in the processes and show good results in the end with a great reduction in the response time to the IT problems faced by the internal customers.<br />