The service duration improvement in service industry through the approach of lean six SIGMA : a case study of Pattana Medical Center

Abstract

The objective of this research is to improve the service duration in service industry through the approach of Lean Six Sigma by determining the most appropriate methodology to explore the opportunities and improve process statistically. A case study has been intentionally conducted in Healthcare business, Pattana Medical Center, which is, nowadays, confronting challenges from customer demands to improve continuously. The research have firstly applied SERVQUAL instrument as the key tool to explore the opportunities for improvements by analyzing gaps between customers' expectation and perception in different dimensions of service business. Service Duration, as the Key Process Output Variables (KPOV), which is carefully considered with high priority, has been passed through the concept of Lean Six Sigma (Define-Measure-Analyze-Improve-Control), together with its various tools and techniques, to work for the most appropriate solutions in order to improve all of Key Process Input Variables (KPIVs) statistically. The contributions of this research illustrate the significant improvements in reduction of service duration from 195.13 minutes to 132.14 minutes, together with, the decrement of standard deviation from 35.38 minutes to 15.90 minutes. Moreover, the SERVQUAL score for Reliability dimension has been leveraged from -0.11 to -0.04. Hence, the approach of Lean Six Sigma could improve the service duration in service industry successfully.