Rejects reduction in a retail bank using Lean Six Sigma

• Published in: Production planning & control Vol. 27; no. 14; pp. 1131 - 1142
• Main Author: Sunder M, Vijaya
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Taylor & Francis 25.10.2016; Taylor & Francis LLC
• Subjects: Banking; Banks; Business metrics; DMAIC; key performance indicators; Lean manufacturing; Lean Six Sigma; Management; Methodology; Production planning; rejects; Retail banking; Six Sigma; Strategy; Wastes
• ISSN: 0953-7287; 1366-5871
• DOI: 10.1080/09537287.2016.1187312

Lean Six Sigma (LSS) is a majestic process improvement methodology that has been proved to be a powerful management strategy across services. The influential synergy of Six Sigma and Lean aims at improving the processes, focusing on both rapid and robust improvements, reducing waste and variation in the process. LSS generates successful results in key performance indicators (KPIs) based environments, where process data gets measured and leveraged for making essential management decisions. The aim of this paper is to highlight the importance of LSS in banking industry through a real-time process improvement study. The article establishes the literature for the need for LSS in banks detailing on customer facing metrics and process KPIs. An action-research study conducted in a retail bank is presented in LSS DMAIC methodology which reaped a benefit of INR 1.6 million and is a classic example of how LSS can bring bottom-line impact to an organisation, alongside contributing to the process improvement mind-set in employees.