The application of Lean Six Sigma Methodology to improve the process of connecting a new electricity service in Jerusalem District Electricity Company (JDECO) رسالة ماجستير

Abstract

Lean Six Sigma (LSS) is considered an effective methodology to improve process performance, it has been applied across service sector as a management strategy to achieve process excellence. Moreover, implementing LSS leads for improving the quality of service and increasing the customer satisfaction. The importance of this study lies in improving a key process at Jerusalem District Electricity Company (JDECO) -Ramallah Branch- which is connecting a new electricity service to customers. The existing process contains non-value-added steps with a long cycle time to provide the electricity service that caused customers of JDECO to be dissatisfied. Moreover, no previous or similar studies have been conducted in Palestine which confirms that there is a gap to be covered by implementing LSS within the Palestinian electrical distribution companies. To this end, this study aims at applying LSS methodology to improve the process of connecting a new electricity service by JDECO to customers. More specifically, the well-known LSS-DMAIC (Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve and Control) methodology has been applied. Several lean tools have been employed, namely, problem context diagram (PCD), project charter, SIPOC, flow charts, eight wastes, quick wins, value stream mapping (VSM), control charts, voice of customer (VOC) and cause and effect diagrams. Relevant data and information were collected from three main source; interviews with different levels of staff at JDECO, records from the billing system which were analyzed using Minitab 19, as well as customer complaints system at JDECO which were analyzed by Microsoft Excel. The research results concluded the process current performance, the process problems, and the root causes of the problems, these results were discussed with JDECO management. Based on that, V the research resulted in providing a set of recommendations and practical solutions that should be applied by the company to improve the process. But there were challenges to apply the recommended solutions during this research which included the financial barriers, and the time limitation. The top management promised that they will conduct the recommendations once they allocate the needed budget to achieve the process improvement.