PublicSector

IBM Global Business Services

Achieving operational excellence in the UK public sector – the value of Lean Sigma

The opportunity

A recent IBM study for a UK Government Department, involved in operating customer contact centres and back-office transaction processing, identified that there were major opportunities to improve productivity, reduce end-to-end processing times and increase customer service levels.

In the customer contact centres reviewed, 50% of calls received were the result of misdirected calls. In subsequent processing locations, significant time (around 70%) was spent on chasing missing or incomplete information with the result that the percentage of end-to-end customer transactions completed ‘right first time’ was less than 10%.

The study concluded there were opportunities to: • Improve productivity by 30-50% • Reduce end-to-end processing times by 30-40%• Significantly improve the quality of the end-to-end process, while also improving the customer experience.

Sounds easy… it should be, shouldn’t it?

2

The challenges facing governments delivering services

to citizens and businesses aren’t new. Demand for new

and better services always exceeds supply. Navigating

public sector organisations can be challenging and costs

are often difficult to control. IBM’s proven skills in assisting

with efficiency improvements and radical simplification

– developed over many years in the private sector and

more recently in the public sector – are very relevant

and applicable.

The UK Government has been very clear about what it

wants to achieve:

“...This is a time to push forward, faster and on all fronts: open up the system, break down its monoliths, put the parent and pupil and patient and law-abiding citizen at the centre of it. We have made great progress. Let us learn the lessons of it not so as to rest on present achievements but to take them to a new and higher level in the future...”

From the Prime Minister’s speech to National Policy Forum

on 9 July 2005.

The challenge

“Services need to be designed around citizens and businesses to ensure effectiveness of delivery to the customer, to achieve policy goals, and to release savings by reducing duplication and streamlining processes (customer satisfaction, though important, is not the only goal).”

From the Cabinet Office’s strategy, ‘Transformational

Government, enabled by technology’, published

2 November 2005.

In the UK and also globally, common themes

have emerged:

1. Publicsectororganisationsarestrivingfor–andmakinglargestridesinachieving–operationalexcellence

2. Operationalexcellencehastheclearpurposeofachievingpolicyoutcomes,andwhatcustomersneedfromgovernmentisbalancedwithwhatgovernmentneedsfromthem

3. Governmentservicesarethereforebecomingmorecustomer-focusedandjoined-up

4. Servicesarealsobeingsimplifiedandstreamlined,reducingduplicationandremovingunnecessarycost

5. Advancesintechnologyarebeingexploitedtomakeservicesaccessiblethroughup-to-datedeliverychannels.

For many years, service industries in the private sector

have been pursuing these themes. The most successful

have embraced ‘best-practice’ operational excellence

approaches across their entire operations and achieved

both customer loyalty and competitive edge.

Public sector organisations are increasingly applying some

of these approaches to the particular challenges of public

service provision. But often the benefits are proving less

than expected. Why? We believe this is because operational

excellence is not always being pursued in an holistic way.

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Implementation of public sector organisation’s strategy

Operational excellence

Service excellence Process excellence Excellent people and winning culture

Least-cost infrastructure

Information excellence

Understand customer needs

Deliver policy

High customer satisfaction

Good press/PR

Low process cost

Active process and performance

management

Flexible delivery channels

Low staff turnover

‘Can do’ attitude

One way of working

Employer of choice

Best sourced operations

Shared across government departments

Targeted strategic investments

On demand information

Information linking strategy, customers

and process

To achieve policy outcomes with citizens and businesses

IBM’s framework for operational excellence sets out five key

characteristics that are all needed:

1. What is ‘service excellence’?

A successful public sector organisation provides services

and products that meet customers’ needs while achieving

the outcomes that government policy intends. Service

excellence means continually querying and understanding

those needs and responding to them with well-designed

services that are constantly improved by incorporating

innovative ideas.

A good example of this is the work IBM is performing with

the Land Registry to implement processes that respond

to the specific needs of property buyers in England and

Wales. As part of the approach to streamline processes

this work covers the introduction of e-conveyancing, where

the vision is to deliver a world-class conveyancing service

that significantly reduces the risks and associated worry

which home buyers typically experience.

This new service enables:

• Authorisedpartiesinvolvedinahousebuyingandsellingtransactiontoexchangeinformationquickly,securelyandreliablywitheachotherviatheLandRegistry

• Theprovisionofup-to-dateandaccurateinformationontheend-to-endprogressofalllinkedconveyancingtransactions

• Theimmediateconfirmationofregistration,andthesecureandreliabletransferoffundsoncompletion.

Operational excellence: what should it look like?

Figure 1: The five characteristics of an operationally excellent public sector organisation

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4. What is ‘least-cost infrastructure’?

An operationally excellent public sector organisation

looks to lower the cost of its delivery infrastructure while

acknowledging the potential impact on processes and

customers. It might decide, for example, to ‘best-source’

its call centre operations to achieve cost efficiencies, while

ensuring that the outsourcing provider is incentivised to offer

a high degree of excellence in the processes it manages.

There is a growing trend in taking operational excellence

methods into outsourced and shared centre operations to

provide a reliable means of ensuring that least-cost does

not lead to deteriorating service over time.

In the UK public sector, we have seen a recent focus in

ensuring that government services become more ‘joined-up’

not just in terms of simplification of service branding and

a less confused customer experience, but also exploiting

available infrastructure such as direct.gov. A good recent

example is the acclaimed Electronic Vehicle Licensing

project that was developed by DVLA in partnership

with IBM.

5. What is ‘information excellence’?

Technology should enable organisations to harness large

amounts of information very quickly. However, in itself,

information doesn’t add any value to what the business

is trying to achieve. Applying excellence to information

management means having access to accurate,

realtime information that is relevant to improving service

effectiveness and efficiency.

For example, once information about the ‘voice of the

customer’ (and voice of key stakeholders) has been

identified, it can be linked back to the processes in

the organisation that affect customer experiences and

behaviours. In our experience, decision making, which is

based on this type of ‘excellent information’, is often at odds

with traditional assumptions. It can demonstrate that simpler,

low-cost improvements give huge benefits and make

the originally assumed need for complex, all-embracing

technological solutions secondary.

2. What is ‘process excellence’?

Process excellence is achieved through a radical

reduction of process costs and the simplification of

the processes themselves. This, in turn, leads to far

lower rates of re-work and fewer customer complaints.

Operationally excellent organisations examine and

improve processes, always in the context of what

they are seeking to achieve for their customers

and stakeholders.

Once the key processes are understood, an

organisation can prioritise, implement and then sustain

the necessary changes. Continuous improvement

ensures that core processes can quickly adapt to

accommodate changes in policy and/or the range

and provision of services offered.

3. What do we mean by ‘excellent people and a

winning culture’?

People are clearly fundamental to the success of any

business transformation programme. Initially, people

look to senior management for strategic direction,

but to achieve real enduring change, they need to be

personally involved. They also need to develop their

skills, with direction and effective support.

At the core of achieving the right culture to support

operational excellence are the notions of ‘empowerment

for employees’ and ‘decision making on the basis of

hard data’. Where culture change and these ideas

have been successfully adopted through a structured

approach, junior project team members often present

their projects to board-level directors. They explain

how their project’s achievements relate directly to the

organisation’s strategic goals. Understanding the impact

of their actions on the organisation’s success enables

employees to gradually develop new behaviours

and skills.

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Lean and Six Sigma methods have a symbolic relationship.Lean Sigma provides an innovative way to integrate the power of variation reduction (Six Sigma) with aggressive waste elimination (Lean) techniques.Lean

SixSigma

Originally conceived by Motorola as a way of improving

production quality in 1985, Six Sigma has since proven

its ability to transform organisations across different

industries. In summary, Six Sigma is a data-driven method

for achieving near-perfect quality. It can be focused on both

product and service activities, and has a strong emphasis

on statistical analysis in product and service design,

manufacturing and customer-orientated activities.

Lean (or Lean thinking) was pioneered by Toyota in Japan

in order to maximise production efficiency. It focuses on

creating ‘outstanding processes’ and ‘eliminating waste’.

Whilst its origins are in manufacturing, Lean has been

proven to be successful across many industry sectors

globally over the years.

Lean Sigma combines the principles and best practices

of Lean and Six Sigma to yield lasting results.

It elevates Lean and Six Sigma, change management and

process management to a new level. These best-practice

techniques are embedded into an end-to-end approach –

‘Lean Sigma’ – which builds operational capabilities for

sustained success.

IBM has proven that if applied properly, this Lean Sigma

approach can serve as the ‘execution engine’ for an

organisation’s strategy. It is modularised, can be used

broadly for large, service-wide transformation efforts, or

can easily be customised for targeted improvement or

design efforts.

In the public sector, changing the traditional ways of

doing things can prove to be a significant challenge.

Lean Sigma incorporates key success factors – such as

benefits realisation, capabilities/knowledge transfer, and

related strategic and operational services – into the overall

method to increase the likelihood of successful change.

Since 1996, IBM has deployed Lean Sigma methods

effectively in hundreds of organisations, including over

50 of the world’s largest companies.

The examples that follow, along with other Lean Sigma

projects involving IBM, illustrate that the speed of change

and benefits delivery in organisations is accelerating as

IBM’s knowledge base and the pool of best practice

around Lean Sigma grow.

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GE: the cross-industry breakthrough

GE adopted Six Sigma in 1995 and successfully deployed the

method across all of its 14 business divisions, including flow

manufacturing, batch manufacturing, contract manufacturing,

after-sales services, broadcasting and financial services.

IBM worked with GE Capital, GE’s financial services arm,

to evaluate all the processes in its 27 businesses, including

commercial lending and insurance renewal. GE demonstrated

to the world that Six Sigma was applicable to any industry, and

could produce strong financial results and sustainable growth.

The company set itself a goal of adding US$5 billion profit over

five years by targeting growth and cost reduction opportunities

through the method. GE achieved its target effectively slashing

in half the time it had taken Motorola to deploy Six Sigma.

But the journey has not stopped there. GE has instilled

Six Sigma quality as part of its culture and continues to

look for new ways to delight its customers and exceed their

expectations, even 11 years and one CEO later.

Lean Sigma and IBM

Figure 2: Lean Sigma methodology

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ScottishPower: sustainable competitive advantage

Companies that develop operational excellence through Lean

Sigma gain sustainable and repeatable competitive advantage

in both rising and falling markets. This is illustrated by the

experience of ScottishPower, the energy group.

In 2001, ScottishPower launched a business

transformation programme, underpinned by Lean Sigma, to

drive improvements across its UK retail supply business. The

company wanted to grow its customer base organically while

its competitors made a series of costly acquisitions aimed at

building market share.

It enlisted the services of Lean Sigma experts within

IBM and launched over 100 projects to improve processes

in its customer, sales and service business unit. Projects

were selected to support the company’s key strategic goals

of customer growth, cost reduction and enhancing financial

performance.

In just 18 months, the company had achieved a 250%

return on investment (ROI). Customer numbers have risen

from 3.4 million in 2002 to 5 million in 2005 with continuous

improvements in the company’s customer satisfaction ratings.

ScottishPower continues to outperform its competitors,

gaining market share year on year in what is essentially a static

market. Lean Sigma is currently being extended to its power

generation activities and unusually to its IT division, where

ScottishPower expects to further enhance its performance.

Credit Suisse: customer service-driven growth

In 2004, following a major cost reduction programme, Credit

Suisse (CS) aimed to develop and foster a unified business

culture focused on productivity and growth. To achieve this,

CS chose IBM as a partner to develop operational excellence.

Since the start in April 2004, over 400 growth and cost-savings

projects have been undertaken to deliver this transformation.

In addition to developing over 180 skilled Lean Sigma project

managers, there has been a focus on changing the way leaders

managed and interacted. Over 50% of the financial benefits

are growth related. CS is now is viewed by the markets as a

growth company focused on customers and responsiveness.

US Department of Defense

The US Army is using Lean Sigma to streamline over 20

core processes. One of the first areas that they tackled was

the planning, programming and budget execution system.

Each year’s budget is the culmination of two years’ work by

thousands of people. Army officials calculate each budget

takes about 600,000 hours of labour, gets handed off from one

office to the next 11,402 times, and survives 5,108 approvals

before it passes muster at the highest ranks. And the first-time

approval rate by Pentagon leaders? Almost 0%. Using Lean

Sigma the US Army has identified opportunities to cut in half

the time taken to complete its budgeting process.

The US Navy is also implementing Lean Sigma, but unlike

the Army, most of its efforts remain at the command level

rather than the department level. The commander of Naval

Sea Systems Command ordered the launch of 600 Lean Sigma

projects during 2005 across its shipyards, warfare centres

and other installations – and another 1,200 projects for 2006.

In all, the command aims to save at least US$250 million,

which it hopes to redirect to other priorities for the 2007/8

budgets. At the US Navy Military Sealift Command (MSC),

IBM consultants provided Lean Sigma expertise to the senior

leadership and helped them to select prioritised projects

that were fully aligned with MSC’s strategies.

US Department of Homeland Security

IBM used a more incremental, business-unit led approach

with the US Department of Homeland Security. Within the

Office of the Principal Legal Advisor (OPLA), preparing to

go to trial relies heavily on the collection of the necessary

documentation. IBM worked with OPLA using Lean Sigma

methods to streamline case-handling processes, and

computerise their documentation and mailroom systems.

Savings to date include around US$72,000 per attorney on

the case-handling processes, and other major benefits from

system and documentation automation improvements. As a

result of the success within OPLA, IBM has been retained to

implement similar projects elsewhere within the Department.

CaterpillarGE

Dow Chemical

AIGPhilips Lighting

ScottishPowerJP Morgan

Leadership commitment Return on investment

“The Corporate

Way”

Business Unit Lead

Dep

loym

ent m

odel

Scal

e of

cha

nge

deliv

ered

Hig

hLo

w

Tentative Relentless

Speed of deliveryLeadership commitment

Spectator Player

• Caterpillar (>$800m)

• GE (>$5bn)

• Dow Chemical (>$1.5bn)

• ScottishPower (>$70m)

• JP Morgan (>$1.5bn)

• AIG (>$300m)• Philips Lighting ($200m)

Which organisations are suited to Lean Sigma?

IBM has helped global companies at various stages of

development to achieve market-leading performance

through Lean Sigma initiatives. For instance, Lean Sigma

can be used as a way of refocusing a business that is

suffering from strategic drift. It can also be used to drive

further improvements in a high-performing organisation,

such as GE. However, it is not a suitable approach for an

organisation that needs to be turned around quickly by

rapidly taking substantial costs out of the business. IBM

has other approaches for such situations, such as

Strategic Cost Advantage (SCA).

Top down or bottom up?

Implementing operational excellence works best when its

principles are well understood and widespread compliance

is encouraged by management’s visible actions. In our

experience, this is best achieved by driving change from

the ‘top down’ at the same time as enthusing and fully

engaging employees from the ‘bottom up’. The pace of

implementation should be as fast as possible, as long as

the organisation can cope.

In the public sector, this top-down approach is sometimes

adapted to include identifying and working with pilot areas,

say within a business unit, and then rolling out operational

excellence initiatives across the broader organisation. This

can work well but if tackled in the absence of an overall

framework, governance and associated culture change,

the resulting disparate approach is likely to give

disappointing results.

When should you expect to see benefits and on what scale?

Despite the long-term commitment to continuous

improvement, operational excellence using Lean Sigma

can yield benefits very quickly.

Operational excellence through Lean Sigma can

be deployed in a number of ways depending on:

• Whethertheinitiativeiscorporate-wideorledbyabusinessunit

• Theextentoftheambitionandthepaceofimprovementrequired.

For corporate-wide Lean Sigma transformations, IBM

typically develops a four-year route map with key

milestones, including our exit point.

We aim to transfer our Lean Sigma expertise to our clients

as quickly as possible so that they can run successful

programmes independently and continue to drive significant

improvements across their business.

Figure 3 summarises research that IBM conducted to show

the relationship between the way in which Lean Sigma is

implemented (the deployment model) and the resultant

size and speed of benefits realised. We mapped two basic

approaches for deployment – a corporate-wide model

and a local model – against leadership commitment levels

that ranged from total board commitment through to

delegated commitment.

So how do you do it?

Figure 3: Ways in which Lean Sigma is implemented, and the resultant size and speed of benefits realised

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Business process management

• Understanding the core and support processes

• Overcomes problems of silos and helps to prioritise improvements

Capabilities, learning and knowledge

• Leveraging the learning from each wave of improvements

• Creates a common language of change and speeds up change

Customer focus

• Base decisions on process and customer facts

• Ensures improvements are targeted at real problems and enables growth

Systematic approach to change

• Engage a framework for change with defined deliverables at each stage

• Key stakeholders and communities buy into the changes

Deployment management

• Integrate transformation activities into a cohesive plan

• Ensures change is coordinated and resources are used to best effect

Benefits realisation and tracking

• Focus on delivery of measurable benefits traceable to ledgers

• Ensures business case is delivered

Strategic alignment of projects

• Clear alignment of improvement efforts to the strategy

• To ensure that resource is not wasted on non-strategic issues

Performance management

• Agreeing performance objectives, motivating people to deliver, career planning

• Raises commitment and sustainability from the outset

Full-time resourcing and organisation

• High potential resources work on improvement priorities

• Ensures benefits realisation

Committed leadership

• Leadership must own and visibly commit to the changes

• The other employees will be led by example

* Organisational change was defined as a combination of responsiveness to customers, articulation of direction, alignment of leadership to that direction, self-belief and change in the way organisational units worked together.

All the clients we interviewed had achieved positive results

from their programmes in the five areas of operational

excellence. However, our analysis of how fast the

organisations had deployed their programmes, plotted

against the scale of sustained organisational change*

shows a very clear curve. This indicates that the speed of

deployment is the leading indicator of large-scale, sustained

change and benefit. And that speed itself is the outcome of

leadership commitment and a corporate-wide approach.

How do you ensure that the journey is a successful one?

IBM believes that there are 10 critical success factors

needed to ensure the successful development of

operational excellence. This approach has evolved from

hundreds of operational excellence initiatives in Europe,

North America and Asia, enhanced by understanding both

the factors that drive success and those that weaken it.

These 10 critical success factors are illustrated in Figure 4.

1. Committed leadership

Whether it is active involvement from the CEO or the

head of a business unit, executive leadership is essential

to the success of operational excellence initiatives. The

leaders must own this business transformation and show

commitment throughout. Others will follow their example.

Throughout the duration of an operational excellence

deployment, IBM provides action-based training and

coaching to business leaders on how they can make

operational excellence a success. This develops the

capacity for future, as well as current, leaders.

2. Customer focus

At the very heart of operational excellence is the

identification of customer and key stakeholder needs.

If these aren’t clear from the outset, it is difficult to set

objectives and monitor improvements. Organisations

therefore need to have a robust structured approach

to ‘gathering’ the voice of the customer and other

stakeholders. This is a key principle in achieving

service excellence.

Figure 4: 10 critical success factors for sustainable success

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Lean Sigma projects employ methods that work on

the principle of no data – no action, creating a real

pull for effective and systematic gathering of customer

requirements. As a result, organisations move from vague

aspirations around customer focus, to effectively changing

the behaviour of employees and nature of customer

interaction. Measurement is critical and customer measures

become crucial to board meetings, personal objectives

and strategic planning.

Ken Lewis, CEO of the Bank of America – one of our

clients – recently stated: “The bank surveys 12,000

customers on a regular basis, asking them how satisfied

they are – a measurement named ‘customer delight’ –

to identify if they will offer more business to the bank

or recommend it to others”.

Operationally excellent businesses gather such data to

identify and drive the improvements the business needs

to make.

3. Strategic alignment of projects

While an organisation often has myriad improvement

projects of all types, it is crucial that strategic areas for

improvement are made explicit and kept to a minimum to

ensure focus. Projects to achieve operational excellence can

then be prioritised to align closely with the organisation’s

strategic priorities.

In operationally excellent organisations, a common

characteristic is their ability to express their strategic

priorities at any time in a few ‘big goals’. Typically, these are

two to four goals with specific measures and time-bounded

targets, expressed in simple ways. This allows internal

communication to be well-aligned to each goal, with

weekly updates and stories of progress.

It is also extremely important for operational excellence to

be integrated with an organisation’s other priority initiatives.

This helps staff avoid ‘initiative fatigue’. Stakeholders can

also then clearly see the operational excellence journey as

contributing to their existing goals, helping to accelerate

success and minimising duplication.

Our experience shows that clients who manage their entire

portfolio of projects in this way reduce some types of

capital expenditure, as the focus shifts from speculative

investments to data-driven, targeted improvements. For

instance, one client’s portfolio was revised to consist almost

entirely of process improvements around existing systems.

Yet this led to a 40% increase in their customer base in a

static market.

4. Business process management

Process improvement forms the very heart of operational

excellence through Lean Sigma. As discussed previously,

in order to achieve process excellence, a business – and

particularly the executive – needs to understand what its

processes are, and which are core and non-core. This

information can then be used as a framework to select

projects on the basis of how well individual processes

are, or are not, performing. Applying an end-to-end

process view to the business also helps to overcome

functional boundaries.

Measuring process performance and ensuring ownership of

measures at the senior levels is also evident in operational

excellence initiatives. Lean Sigma tools provide clear tools

and frameworks for this measurement and for ongoing

management of improvement actions. These also go a long

way towards achieving information excellence.

5. Systematic approach to change

Operational excellence introduces major change into an

organisation and affects large numbers of people in terms

of roles, behaviours, responsibilities and relationships.

People will have a range of responses, the impacts of

which need to be managed if the change is to be effective

and sustainable. Their ‘buy-in’ to the change is needed.

Excellent people and a winning culture in this context is

achieved through adopting a structured framework for

change with defined deliverables at each stage. For many

organisations, using such a framework also improves the

delivery of other initiatives across the business.

6. Benefits realisation and tracking

A key measure of success is the delivery of tangible

benefits, including least-cost infrastructure. The finance

function has a key role to play both in the early stages

of operational excellence and throughout the full

implementation. The delivery of benefits needs to be

integrated throughout the project lifecycle, from the

business case through to the adjustment of product

and service delivery costs, and budgets or targets.

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Typically, organisations embarking on an operational

excellence journey build three to four-year route maps

that show in detail how they expect each of the 10 critical

success factors to develop, and what measures will be

used to track progress and take corrective action. Such

plans enable them to develop their capabilities in all 10

factors simultaneously, within an integrating and mutually

supporting framework. This creates remarkable focus and

alignment in delivering the organisation’s goals.

10. Full-time resourcing and organisation

Successful operational excellence initiatives require full-time

commitment of selected high calibre people. Having a

full-time project manager to lead an operational excellence

programme maximises the chances of success. Only with

dedicated resources to work on individual projects and

overall programme management can the organisation

ensure that operational excellence benefits are realised.

Typically within 12-18 months, 20% of staff have become

actively involved in operational excellence projects and

changes, including the top 5% of the organisation. This

actively aligns and mobilises large numbers of people to

deliver operational excellence and helps achieve the overall

aim of having excellent people and a winning culture.

Tracking and reporting benefits in detail will help keep

the project focused, celebrate success and incentivise

stakeholders. This includes ensuring that cost reductions

go through to the bottom line.

Operationally excellent companies have significant

experience in statistically linking internal causes to

customer behaviour. Such rigour has given confidence

to many of our clients when communicating their results

of their operational excellence initiatives.

7. Performance management

Key roles within operational excellence need to be fulfilled

to the utmost ability of those involved. Role design, review,

appraisal, recognition and reward should all be used to

achieve this. Agreeing performance objectives will motivate

people to deliver and raise commitment levels from the

outset. With one client, 50% of the bonus awards were

directly tied to success within the operational excellence

programme, not just for executives but cascaded down

to individual operational excellence project managers.

8. Capabilities, learning and knowledge

Introducing operational excellence needs systematic

capability building. Extensive training and coaching

establishes a common language, method and operationally

excellent culture across the organisation. Ultimately, this

becomes ‘the way we work’ and speeds up the pace of

learning and change. Operationally excellent companies

support learning and manage knowledge in a structured

way, including it as an integral part of each improvement

project. The best portfolio management systems, used to

track financial benefits, are used to carry rigour through

to learning and knowledge capture/sharing.

9. Deployment management

To deploy the operational excellence approach effectively,

all transformation activities need to be integrated into a

cohesive plan. A well managed deployment coordinates

change, uses resources to the best effect, and includes

key areas such as benefits realisation, stakeholder

management, risk management, team leadership and work

scheduling. As operational excellence produces such far-

reaching changes, deployment plans also focus substantial

effort on enabling and energising the organisation.

Conclusions

An operationally excellent public sector organisation

develops and delivers services that are recognised by

customers and by government stakeholders as valuable

in achieving outcomes for them. To do this, it continually

improves its processes, aiming at simplicity and efficiency,

and uses information smartly. Its employees feel empowered

by their contribution to helping the organisation meet its

strategic goals.

IBM’s operational excellence work, using Lean Sigma in

all sectors worldwide, has led to substantial and sustainable

service and efficiency improvements. The UK public sector

is at an early stage in harnessing Lean Sigma and delivering

the benefits. We would be delighted to discuss the particular

challenges your organisation faces and how we might be

of help.

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This publication is for general guidance only.

© Copyright IBM Corporation 2006 All Rights Reserved.

FPEE01563-0

For more information please contact:

Ian Bradbury

IBM Public Sector Business and

Operations Strategy

Tel: 07736 599676

E-mail: ian.c.bradbury@uk.ibm.com

Tony Nikiel

Public Sector Lead for Lean Sigma

Tel: 07802 794499

E-mail: tony.nikiel@uk.ibm.com

Bill Kane

UK Partner for Lean Sigma (all sectors)

Tel: 01315 584450

E-mail: bill.kane@uk.ibm.com

ibm.com/easyaccess/publicsector